Orientation Week: Assignments and Grading

Please read this important information about deadlines and the points-based grading system used in this class. If you want to know more about why the class is set up this way, you can take a look at my philosophy of grading; if you find it help to look at a list of learning objectives, you can do that here: Myth-Folklore Learning Objectives and Indian Epics Learning Objectives.

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 and WHERE 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. All the tools and materials for class are browser-based, so you can work on any computer at all; there is no assignment for this class that you cannot do using a shared computer in a computer lab on campus, for example.

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, you can use the extra credit options to make up the missing work. If you know you are going to be out of town or have some major event coming up, you can do extra credit in advance. 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, or you can use those extra points to finish up the class early.

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, 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 these previous students:

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

You can read the other students' comments online here.

Grace Period. In the weekly schedule of assignments, you will have assignments that are DUE on a given day, such as Tuesday. 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. You can read more about the Grace Period here.

Friday/Weekend assignments. In addition to the assignments due during the week, there are assignments due on Friday OR over the weekend, based on what is most convenient for you. If you like to keep your weekends free for other things, then make sure you finish the Friday assignments on Friday. If you like to celebrate on Friday and not do schoolwork, then make sure you complete the assignments over the weekend. The choice is yours. The emergency grace period for these Friday/Weekend assignments is on Monday morning, until noon.

Reading Quizzes

Each week, the reading quizzes are there to help you make sure you got the main ideas from the assigned reading. To make sure you do well on the quiz, I would strongly encourage you to take notes while you read, jotting down the basic information about the plots and characters in the stories you are reading. When you take the reading quiz, your goal should be to get a score of 80% on the quiz. If you get an 80% or better, that's great - it is a strong indicator that you did a good job with the reading. You definitely should not retake the quiz if you get a score of 80% or better; you are ready to move on to the next assignment, writing in your blog about what you have read.

If you get a score of less than 80% on the quiz, that is a sign that you probably did the reading too quickly and need to do the reading again. So, if you get a score of less than 80%, please do the reading again and take the quiz again, aiming to get 80% or better on that next attempt. Try to read more slowly and take notes while you read. If you take the time to do the reading and retake the quiz, you should be able to get a score of 80% or better on your next attempt.

If you consistently get poor scores on the reading quizzes, I will contact you about that; to continue to receive credit for the reading quizzes, you will need to work harder on the reading and improve your quiz results. Doing a good job with the reading is an important part of this class, and doing well on the reading quizzes is how you can be sure, and how I can also be sure, that you are giving the reading assignments the time and attention they deserve.

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, i.e. 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. You can find out more about points and grading in this Grading Chart.

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 if you want.

I hope the information here has answered any questions you have about grading in this class. If not, please ask! Meanwhile, here is the Gradebook Declaration to complete when you are done reading the information on this page: