General Grading Methodology

The use of the “hypothesis” annotation tool fits our course aims extremely well. Not only is at vehicle for asynchronous discussion (particularly needed during our strange remote interaction semester), but the tool itself inspired the pioneers of the Internet and thinkers who imagined the possibilities of networked discussions that could escape the confines of print.

Thus, the successful use of this tool by the entire class would mean a vibrant networked back and forth discussion by all members of the class.

Ideally, this success would not be measured by quantities of annotations or word counts, but by the quality, sincerity, and enthusiasm of interaction. The discussion will become most vibrant, when participants “lean into” the activity, get excited by the way we can network discussions together, and begin to take the initiative to connect conversations and pull in content from across the web.

The challenge of course is that “ideal participation” can be realized in lots of way and I want students to be creative and inventive about the ways that they participate.

Nevertheless, I know that people will want some ground rules and metrics so that they can measure their participation and make sure they are living up to class expectations.

Meeting expectations (85/100 or B) means that a students will respond to at least one discussion block per course lesson and one will reply to at least one peer response. Your response/annotation should be “substantive, interesting, and relevant”. (150-200 words is a good rule of thumb for what might count as a “substantive” response.) Meeting expectations includes the ability and willingness to discuss your annotations during our class session.

Exceeding expectations score of 90 (A-) or 95 (A)

Going beyond expectations could mean lots of things. It might mean responding to multiple questions and/or responding thoughtfully to several peer responses. It could mean adding several quick small annotations, marking places that would benefit from class discussion or raising new questions for the class. It could also mean adding new information to the discussion: creating links between related annotations or creating (and explaining) links to other related internet resources or readings.

In general it means “leaning in” to the spirit of exercise and helping to elevate the quality of the class discussion.

A participation grade will be marked at the end of each of our 3 units. Each mark will represent the average over the classes within the unity. Because I know everyone has busy weeks, I’ll drop the lowest mark within each grading period. Effectively this means, if I’m giving you three “annotation participation passes” to use (one per unit) when things get busy or you need to turn your attention elsewhere.