The final third of your grade in this course will be assessed based on your homework and class participation. This is everything you contribute to the course other than the exams, and may include a number of assignments to be developed as the semester progresses.
Formative Assessment:
An important part of your learning should be assessing how you are doing in the course. This type of assessment works best under two conditions: first, it is done on a regular basis and second, the stakes are low. Note that the exams for this course, which only occur three times during the semester, and which account for two thirds of your final grade do not satisfy these conditions.
For each chapter we study, you should do the Graded Problem sets on the course Aplia site www.aplia.com).
If you make a genuine effort to complete a problem set, I will give you full credit regardless of how well you do on it. Hopefully, if you do poorly that will be a signal for you to review the material.
Class Participation:
If you receive:
- An A in class participation à Your homework grade will be raised one letter grade
- A B in class participation à Your homework grade will be raised one half a letter grade
- A C in class participation à Your homework grade will stay the same
- A D in class participation à Your homework grade will be lowered one half a letter grade
- An F in class participation à Your homework grade will be lowered one letter grade
The grading criteria for class participation are explained here.
