Evaluation

flickr photo by mikefisher821 http://flickr.com/photos/grade6kms/5146468921 shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC) licenseAbolishGrades

We really want to focus on learning as part of #Tec21 and this is how we are approaching grades in this class. We focus first on learning as an individual student with the instructor (and your fellow students) to help you on your learning path.

But we still need Partial and Final Grades!

Correct, each student will submit to the instructor (Ken) a portfolio of work with a requested grade (between 1 and 100). We will guide each other in that process with the knowledge that 70% (and above) is a “passing” grade allowing the student to continue to the next course in the series. In our first two semesters (Jan-May and Aug-Dec 2016) on this #AbolishGrading journey, we developed a rubric to help guide the students in this process and I will ask everyone for input on how to improve that rubric. Note that the danger of rubrics is that it can turn progress in “checkboxes” and we want to avoid that here.

What do I need to do to pass this course?

You learn the list of concepts in the course. The official course outline shows that and is reflected in the list of mastery topics for this course. In order to justify your grade (requested by student, authorized by instructor), you should track the following information on your blog, in your code base (GitHub), in other digital or paper format:

  • Knowledge acquisition (technical and experience).
  • Reflection through blog, what did you learn each day and each week? What are your questions?
  • Helping others, track who you work with and on what. You can learn and teach each other.
  • Meetings with Ken (in class or out). You should track these and talk in person with the instructor (one-on-one and/or small group) at least once per week. Don’t wait for me to track you down, you should be finding me for this task. I would suggest at *least* one visit outside class with me per partial.
  • Participation with students at Grant MacEwan University in Canada for a project Ken is working on with Doctor Cam Macdonell.
  • (optional but great idea to do anyhow) Project throughout the semester (formal or informal, define a project to work on with a small team).
  • List of mastery items (coding and transversal). The “topics” for the course.
  • All of the programming assignments. You can judge (too easy, don’t need to do) but in reality they are small and aimed at those with no experience programming. You best plan of attack is to do them all.
  • Stay ON PACE. I am very flexible but that flexibility is usually something students are not accustomed to. You will need to learn to control your own schedule and learn discipline in that.

CC BY-SA 4.0 Evaluation by Bauer Ken is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.