6 Our Schedule, Assignments, Grades

Schedule

Our most current course schedule is on Canvas.  We have 12 weekly modules or lessons that correspond to the 12 weeks of the quarter.  These will typically run Sunday-Saturday.  (Exceptions are Week 1 which goes Wed-Sat.) Most weeks will have Active Learning Exercises due while all weeks have various Learning Activities and small group activities.  The main assignments, Capital Project Presentations and the Learning Plan Portfolio are due towards the end of the quarter.

2022 Fall

Assignments: categories and weights

Your grade in this class is the result of your development and effort across different kinds of assessments.  As mentioned on the Home page of this syllabus, there are common assignments in COLL101, and in this COLL101 class, the common COLL101 assignments (that every COLL101 student completes) are spread among 4 assignment categories, in our class.  Each category is weighted differently towards a final grade.

Each assignment category has a particular weight on your final course grade, as depicted in the table below.

1. ALEs (Active Learning Exercises) ALE’s occur weekly and may be in the form of a comprehension quiz, an interactive exploration, a screenshot upload, a discussion forum, or reflection. There are 12 ALES, and each is worth 10 points. The top 10 ALE scores contribute to the final grade in this category (totaling 100), and the remaining lowest scored ALEs are dropped.
2. Pod Capital Project We practice small group learning at Cascadia, and we will do this in this class through some Learning activities done in small groups, or pods. You will be assigned to a pod and work online in the same pod for all of the activities and then more substantially on a larger project based on the book we are reading togther. This is the Pod Capital Project, for which you will work together with your pod to create a presentation.

• • Pod Capital Project tasks 100 pts
    • Charter: Is your name on your pod’s charter, reflecting your ownership of different tasks and responsibilities, and did you signal agreement to the charter in a timely fashion? (if yes, 20 pts)
    • Check ins: Did you chime in on all 3 of your pod’s Check ins in a timely fashion? (if yes, 20 pts)
    • Gallery: Did your pod get its project posted in the gallery (and dropbox) on time? (If yes, 5 pts here)  Have you viewed and commented on each of the other projects? (If yes, 35 pts here)  (Total 40 pts)
    • Pod and Self evaluation: Did you complete the Pod and Self Evaluation, in a timely fashion? (if yes, 20 pts)
  • Pod Capital Project assessment (100 pts)
    • Your grade for the actual project is based on how the project rates against a rubric which will be made after it has been submitted. That score will be shared with the pod, but the individual grade that each person receives will depend on that rubric score and how your individual contributions were assessed on the Pod and Self Evaluation. Most students who participate fully will likely earn 100% of the rubric score.

3. Learning Plan Portfolio (or LPP) This capstone assignment is common to all COLL101 courses and consists of the creation of 5 artifacts about you and your career and education plans that you’ll complete over the whole quarter. Related activities will be introduced or explored throughout the course. The assignment artifacts require significant work and the entire portfolio is worth 100 pts. We will discuss the LPP Learning Plan Portfolio handout in the Getting Started folder on Canvas.

4. Learning activities and Self checks Activities labeled as Learning activities and Self checks are designed to enhance your learning and performance on the assignments that are graded and directly apply to your course grade. The due dates for these are suggestions, usually occurring earlier in a week because completing these will help you be successful on items that do count for your final grade.  I highly recommend that you complete all Learning activities and Self checks, and will mark these even though they do not directly contribute to your final grade.

Assignments: Due dates, late work, and submission formats

Due dates

Most course assignments must be turned in online, by the due date and time noted on Canvas, if you’d like to receive credit and a grade for them. Most due dates will be on Saturdays by midnight, but plan each Sunday to review the week’s deadlines.  Some may be on Tuesdays or Thursdays, by midnight. Midnight (also known as 12 am) is Pacific Time, with a 10 min. grace period.  Check Canvas Modules and Canvas calendar for the specific due dates in a given week.

Late work and exceptions

You will want to practice good time management and check in to Canvas daily so that you remember what is due when, in a given week. I will offer reminders in the first few weeks. Late work is generally not accepted, but not because the work isn’t good enough. Late work makes it hard for you to progress in your skills and learning in a timely way, and for me to comment and offer constructive feedback to you for your subsequent learning.

Exceptions to due dates will be made in the case of extenuating circumstances, including those caused by weather, and when required by law. See the campus policies in the section called Cascadia College Syllabus Learning Agreement.  Communicate with me so I can understand if extenuating circumstances arise for you.

During times of bad weather, check both our course website on Canvas, and your Canvas and Cascadia emails, for updates on how to get lectures or assignments completed in alternative forms should an emergency require closure of the campus or create difficulty with online access.  At all times, it is your responsibility to contact me, your instructor, promptly, and to follow up, should a situation arise that may affect your course performance.

Submission formats

To submit files in Canvas, you must save in acceptable formats: file submissions should be as doc, docx, rtf, or pdf.  (Do not use .pages.) Check that your submission can be opened.  Files submitted in other formats may not be graded, if they cannot be opened by the instructor.

Grades

Each of your assignments will be graded on percentages/points, out of 10 or 100.  For final course grades, we use a 4.0 grade point scale at Cascadia that has an equivalent to the final percentage score you have earned in this course.  (You can find that final percentage score on Canvas in your Grades tab.)

Because COLL101 is a common course at Cascadia, COLL101 courses use a common grade scale which is identical to the grade scale in English/First Year Composition courses, see below.  (You should know that COLL101 courses may vary from each other in terms of their attendance, late work, and homework submission policies, how feedback is provided, the availability of extra credit, assignment grading practices, and other.)

COLL101 Grade Scale