Letter Grades
There are a total of 2800 points to you can earn from a series of learning activities throughout the semester. Your final letter grade depends on how many points you have earned out of this total, determined by the table below.
| Letter | Min. Points | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| A+ | 2700 | 96.43% |
| A | 2600 | 92.85% |
| A- | 2500 | 89.29% |
| B+ | 2400 | 85.71% |
| B | 2300 | 82.14% |
| B- | 2200 | 78.57% |
| C+ | 2100 | 75.00% |
| C | 2000 | 71.43% |
| C- | 1900 | 67.86% |
| D | 1700 | 60.71% |
| F | 0 | 0% |
Distribution
| Activity | N | Each | Total | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Learning Challenges | 14 | 100 points | 1400 points | 50% |
| In-Class Hackathons | 14 | 50 points | 700 points | 25% |
| Project Milestones | 14 | 50 points | 700 points | 25% |
The three main types of learning activities are (1) learning challenges, (2) in-class hackathons, and (3) project milestones. Each week, you will take on one learning challenge, participate in one in-class hackathon, and deliver one project milestone. Throughout the 14-week semester, you will do each activity 14 times. Each in-class hackathon is worth 50 points. Each learning challenge is worth 100 points. Each project milestone is worth 50 points.
Dependencies
What?
Each week, the points you can receive from a hackathon is weighted by the points you have earned from the learning challenge prior to the hackathon.
How?
The weighting formula is specified below.
| Learning Challenge | Weight |
|---|---|
| >= 80 points | 100% |
| >= 60 points | 75% |
| >= 40 points | 50% |
| < 40 points | 0% |
Suppose you’ve earned 90 points from the learning challenges prior to the week’s hackathon. Then, you and your team have earned the full 50 points from the week’s hackathon. Your weighting factor is 100%. You will earn the full 50 points.
Suppose you’ve earned only 45 points from the learning challenges, perhaps due to an unusually busy schedule. You still come to participate in the hackathon to contribute to your team’s efforts. And your team has managed to earned the full 50 points. According to the table above, your weighting factor is 50%. You will earn 50 points x 50% = 25 points from the hackathon, which is still significant.
Suppose you are too busy to do any learning challenge. Then you will not be eligible to participate in the hackathon. The consequence is rather server because you not only can not earn any point from the learning challenge but also lose the opportunity to earn any additional points from the hackathon.
Why?
Each week’s hackathon is designed to give you an opportunity to apply the knowledge, concepts, and skills you’ve acquired from the learning challenges to an interesting problem. Each person is supposed to bring his/her best to the team. If you have made the effort and done all or a majority of the required learning challenges, then you deserve to receive the full credit when you come to the hackathon and contribute. But if someone on your team has not done so, he/she won’t be able to fully contribute to the team and will need to rely on you. It is only fair that this person should earn fewer points than you do.
Posting
Your grades will be posted on the website and updated periodically. You can monitor your progress so far, make sure all your efforts are correctly graded, and have an idea how well you perform in relation to your classmates. Only the last four digits of your student ID will be visible to the public.
Correction
What?
If you believe there is a mistake in a quantitative assessment (e.g., you have submitted two but only one was scored), you can request for a correction.
When?
Within one week of receiving your grade. After one week, no correction request will be accepted.
How?
You must email the teaching staff an explanation of the mistake.
Regrading
What?
If you believe you have been unfairly graded on a qualitative assessment (e.g., how well something is written? how well something is presented? how good is your solution?, it is possible for you to formally request regrading.
When?
Within 48 hours of receiving your grade. After 48 hours, no regrading request on qualitative value assignment/questions will be accepted.
How?
You must write a rebuttal and email it to the teaching staff. The rebuttal must be grammatically correct, spell checked, and fewer than 250 words. In the rebuttal, you should explain how your assignment/question was incorrectly graded and how your answer is correct. Simply saying, “I believe I deserve a B because my question is good enough” or “I need a B to be a doctor” will not be accepted.