Orientation Week: Assignments and Grading

Please read this important information about assignment deadlines and about the points-based grading system used in this class.

Assignment Deadlines

Time management is critical. Many students enroll in online courses because they have a lot of other time commitments already. In this course, you will have a solid 6-8 hours of work per week, every week - but you also have the freedom to choose just WHEN you will do that work. You can do all the work over the weekend, in the middle of the night, in-between your other classes: it's up to you.

Every assignment in this course has a deadline. In order to make sure you stay on track during the semester, there are deadlines for every assignment in this course. Once a deadline has passed, you cannot go back and do the work: you must complete every assignment by the deadline. If you miss some assignments, for whatever reason, you can use the extra credit options to make up the missing work.

WORK AHEAD - don't wait for the deadline. You should try to work at least one or two days ahead of the deadlines in this class. Even better: you can work an entire week or even more in advance! If you work ahead, you will remove the time pressure of the deadlines (doing work at the last minute is always very stressful!), plus you can finish up the course early. If you work ahead AND do the extra credit, you can finish the course as much as three or four weeks early.

If you don't believe me, please believe the previous students:

Their #1 piece of advice is to WORK AHEAD IN THIS CLASS!

You can read the other students' comments online here.

Tuesday is the first day of the week. In this class, Tuesday is always the "first" day of the week. This schedule is designed to accommodate students who do the majority of their work for this class over the weekend. Each week starts on a Tuesday, and ends on the next Monday, giving you the weekend to wrap up the week's assignments. The best strategy, however, is to work at least one week ahead - and that way you can create your own weekly schedule, based on whatever works best for you.

Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday due dates and Grace Period. In the weekly schedule of assignments, you will have assignments that are DUE on Tuesday or on Wednesday or on Thursday. That means exactly what it says: an assignment that is DUE on Tuesday should be completed on Tuesday. There is, however, a Grace Period that extends until the next morning at noon. The Grace Period is to help you in case of UNEXPECTED emergencies. So, for example, if your computer breaks late on Tuesday night, you still have time on Wednesday morning to go to a campus computer lab and finish an assignment. Please be clear about this: the Grace Period is ONLY for emergencies and unexpected life problems. If you start treating the Grace Period as if it were the actual due date of an assignment, you will get yourself into serious trouble, because you will have no room to maneuver if something does come up unexpectedly at the last minute!

Weekend assignments and Monday Grace Period. Each week, you have some important assignments that are due over the weekend - that is, on Friday OR on Saturday OR on Sunday, depending on what is most convenient for you. There is also a grace period on Monday morning, until noon, in case you did not finish all your weekend assignments. Again, please be absolutely clear about this: you need to do the weekend assignments over the weekend, and do NOT put them off until Monday morning! The weekend assignments are due on Friday OR Saturday OR Sunday - they are not "due" on Monday. You will find yourself having a lot of trouble with the course if you put the weekend assignments off until Monday morning.

Extensions for medical reasons only. If you face an unexpected medical emergency, or some other serious medical situation (childbirth, surgery, etc.), please contact me in advance to arrange for a medical extension or for make-up work. In all other situations, please take advantage of the option to do your work early (for example, if you know you will be out of town), or else do extra credit to make up any assignments you miss for any reason.

Points and Grading

There are 450 points of REQUIRED work over the semester (30 points per week, every week, for 15 weeks). In addition, there are various extra credit assignments, as indicated in each week's assignment list. Your final grade is determined by the total number of points you have at the end of the semester (that is, the total points of required work PLUS the total points of extra credit you have earned).

Your final grade is determined by your total points at the end of the semester. If you end up with 410 or more points at the end of the semester, you will receive an A. If you have 360-409 points, you will receive a B. If you have 320-359 points, you will receive a C. A minimum of 301 points is required to pass the class with a grade of D. If you have only 300 points or less, you will not pass the course.

Desire2Learn Gradebook. In the Desire2Learn Gradebook, you can see your total points at any given time. Do NOT pay attention to the "points out of" number in Desire2Learn - just keep track of your total points. You should be earning 30 points per week - or more, if you are doing the extra credit, too. To get an estimate of your letter grade at any point in the semester, look at the Grading Chart at the BOTTOM of this page which shows how your points should be adding up, week by week, so that you will reach your desired total at the end of the semester.

Finishing early. As soon as you reach the required number of points for the grade you want to receive, you are finished with the class. By working ahead and/or completing the extra credit assignments, you can finish the class several weeks early. 

Extra credit.  There are several reasons why I offer extra credit assignments:

• So you can make up missing assignments. It's always possible that you will miss a required assignment either because you are busy, have other commitments, or just plain forget to do an assignment. The extra credit allows you to make the points for the assignment you missed. You don't have to ask for permission or explain why you missed the required assignment. Just do the extra credit to make up the points you missed, and you are back on track!

• So you can "plan" to miss some assignments. If you know you are going to be out of town or have some major event during the semester, you can do extra credit in advance to allow you to miss some of the required assignments later in the semester. By doing a few points of extra credit every week, you can give yourself the cushion you need to miss some days of class during midterms, for example.

• So you can finish the class early. You will probably have finals and final projects in your other classes, and so the end of the semester may be a very busy time for you! If you do the extra credit every week for this class, in addition to doing the required work, you can finish the class several weeks early, allowing you to concentrate on your other classes in the last weeks of the semester.

As you can see, it's a good idea to do as much of the extra credit as you can, starting right at the beginning of the semester. A couple of points per week may not look like much, but it adds up fast: if you can do just 2 points of extra credit per week, you can finish the semester an entire week early!

Grammar Quiz extra credit. The Grammar Quizzes are different from the other kinds of extra credit, because you can complete them at any time during the semester. For more information about the Grammar Quizzes and how they are different from other assignments in the class, see this page: Extra Credit Grammar Quizzes. Many college students struggle with some of the basics of writing (spelling, punctation, etc.), so I hope that these quizzes can help you to improve your writing skills, in addition to providing an extra credit opportunity.

Here is the Gradebook Declaration to complete when you are done reading the information on this page:

REFERENCE: Grading Chart

As you complete each week's assignments, you can predict your final grade by consulting this table. It shows you what kind of grade you can expect if you continue at your present level of participation. If you want to improve your final grade, you will have to improve your level of participation in the class! Early in the semester, it is easy to change the trend - but as you get nearer the end of the semester, you have less and less room to maneuver, and you will find it harder to change the grade you are headed for.