Assessment

Each week, there are tasks for you to attempt. Sometimes there is a choice of which tasks to do; in those cases, I’m not looking for the number of these that you complete, but that you push yourself out of your comfort level. What’s more, it’s OK if something doesn’t work ‘perfectly.’ The reflection on the process, both your fails and your successes, is the important thing.

Weekly work should be completed and logged by the end of the relevant week. I will provide ungraded feedback on this work in order to help you grow. There are three ‘consolidation’ weeks in the schedule, where you’ll prepare a ‘consolidation document’ that will be graded. Late work can be accepted only through arrangement with Dr. Graham.

If you miss a week, or something comes up let Dr. Graham know as soon as possible so that arrangements can be made. I want you to be successful; if something comes up we can adapt accordingly. If you do not let me know, then I cannot help you.

Evidence for Your Weekly Logs (ungraded work)

I am looking for the following kinds of evidence, which may include depending on the week:

  • logs/lab notebook entries that keep track of what you actually did
  • reflections on that process
  • engagement with the materials and your classmates (which might be demonstrated many different ways)
  • evidence for your growth as a scholar over this course

These will be kept in a private Github repository to which you’ll give me access

At the end of each week by Friday evening, you will give me the links to your evidence for me to consider. The act of giving me the link(s) will signal to me that you are ready for me to look at the materials. If you do not give me the links, I will consider that week to be not completed. I will not chase you for missing work.

I will return feedback to you within two or three business days (most of the time). I will write you a short note giving you my perspective on what you’ve done (using the lens of the learning outcomes), and offering advice. This weekly work is to help you grow. It is not formally assigned a grade, but it does provide evidence of your growth against the learning outcomes, and your engagement with it does play into your eventual final grade.

Important
It might not be formally ‘graded’ weekly work. But it makes a difference towards your grade, especially when you need to point to the evidence supporting your consolidation work or your exit ticket. How do you demonstrate change over time, right? So it matters that you do this conscientiously.

Consolidation Weeks (graded work)

Every fourth week (that is, at the end of each module) you will submit a ‘consolidation document’. Consolidation weeks give you the space to try something again, or finish doing something that you had to put aside earlier. This document is where you can show me that you’ve taken my feedback and considered it and adapted/adopted accordingly. (Seriously: show me how you’ve changed over time.) These are short documents; they can reuse materials (suitably edited) from your journal and note entries. Show me your evidence by linking from your document to your repository materials. I would like you to suggest an overall grade for the module for you, based on how your work matches up against the learning outcomes for the course (see ‘grading’ below). If I agree, that’s the grade; if I don’t, I’ll explain why and show you.

  • Module 1 consolidation document: due by the end of day FRIDAY of week four.
  • Module 2 consolidation document: due by the end of day FRIDAY of week eight.
  • Module 3 consolidation document: due by the end of day FRIDAY of week twelve.
Speedrunning is a bad idea
Do not attempt to speedrun this course. By ‘speedrun’ I mean, you leave it until the end and try to do all of the work in one intense session. Work done in that fashion cannot, by virtue of it all being dumped in my lap at the end, take into account feedback, peer collaboration, or have any meaningful engagement with the materials. Thus, work done in this fashion cannot meet the learning goals of the course, with negative implications for your grade. Do not do this.

The Exit Ticket

At the end of the course you will write an ’exit ticket’ reflecting on where you started and where you’ve gotten to, and you will indicate how you feel you’ve done against the learning outcomes. You will be required to explicitly tie your exit ticket to evidence collected in your weekly work. You will use the Exit Ticket to pull all the different strings together into a strong cord describing how your thinking has evolved and changed. Everyone’s journey is different. Digital methods are more a matter of practice and time than they are of aptitude.

If you’ve never done digital work before, it might be that you never quite manage to get as many of the tech things working as you might’ve wanted: but you now know what you didn’t know before. That’s a win. You tell me about that. You might be a computer science minor and the tech materials don’t present you with much challenge: but figuring out how to tell the compelling story was very difficult for you but you’re better at it now. Your ’exit ticket’ will explain to me your particular context, and it will point to the evidence that demonstrates how you’ve moved along from where you were at the beginning to where you are now. In both cases, you will reflect on the explicit learning outcomes of this course and use those to both structure your thoughts and suggest to me an overall grade for the course.

If I agree with your assessment, then that is the grade you will receive (thus, you have the opportunity to override the percentage breakdowns below).

When I have disagreed in previous courses this has been, 9.5 times out of 10, to raise the grade: y’all are too hard on yourselves. If I have disagreed and felt that you’ve overstated things - if you were the 0.5 out of 10 - I would explain this to you and grade accordingly.

Course Assessment Rubric

The rubric maps directly onto the learning outcomes for the course. Meet the learning outcomes on any given piece of assessed work, you’ll achieve accordingly. Remember it’s all about process.

For example:
In the example below, based on my consideration of Jo Q Student’s evidence and the feedback I’d written her over the six weeks, it seemed to me that she did what she needed to do (satisfactorily) for 3 out of the 5 outcomes and so earned a C. However, her exit ticket might bring her up.
Learning Outcome A B C D eg. Jo Q Student
1. analytical ability - - - - X
2. methodology - - - - -
3. collaboration - - - - X
4. argumentation - - - - X
5. professionalization - - - - -

…5/5 would be an A, 4/5 would be a B, 3/5 would be a C, 2/5 a D.

Percentage Breakdown

I am required by the University to provide a percentage breakdown.

  • Consolidation documents = 75%
  • Final Exit ticket = 25%

I reserve the right to adjust those percentages to take into account the particular circumstances of the student.

Again, About AI

…look. If you do a good faith effort, and you tell me about what worked and what didn’t, and you try to learn from my feedback and materials, then you’ll have a good learning experience here. There’s no reason whatsoever for you to generate strings of bullshit text together in some hope of gaming the system. It’s a shitty system, I agree. So let’s agree not to do that, ok?

If something didn’t work right: just tell me. Reflect on that. I’m not judging you. There’s no need to pretend. I’m letting you tell me how you’ve done because I am trusting that:

  • you’re here to learn;
  • you’re interested in the material;
  • you actually know for yourself how things are going and you are willing to be open about that with me.

Ok?