Coursework

Daily assignments

There will be assignments given for most class meetings. Daily assignments serve two primary purposes. First, they provide you with resources and practice opportunities that are designed to help you reach course objectives. Second, they provide me with information about your understanding so I can prepare class activities that best help you progress in your understanding.

In light of these two purposes, assignments will typically be due 8am the day after the class meeting in which they were assigned. This will mean that you will work on the assignment in the same day as the material was discussed in class, increasing the chances that the assignment will help you assimilate those concepts. It will also mean that you will get feedback on that assignment before moving on to the next topic or building on it. Lastly, it means that I can use information from those assignments to plan class activities that will best serve you as you build on that work towards the objectives for the unit of study.

As stated in the course policies, I do not grade effort or compliance when it comes to assignment completion. The results at the end of a unit of study are what counts towards the final grade. However, late or missing assignments will break the cycle I outline above: you will not have the requisite experience that will allow you to take full advantage of the next meeting’s activities, and I will not have the requisite information to plan class activities in the ways that will best help you to learn. It will lead to less opportunities to increase your understanding along the way, lesser quality results at the end of each unit (meaning a lower grade for relevant assessment criteria), and a lower professionalism grade.

Unit projects

Because your grade will be determined by self-evaluations, there is a good bit of flexibility for how you demonstrate your understanding. However, to show deep understanding of the material, some sort of project beyond in-class work and quizzes will likely be necessary. In some cases, specific project requirements or guidelines will be provided. In other cases, you will be free to choose a project that will demonstrate what you need to demonstrate. Expectations will be communicated at the beginning of each unit. If you have any doubt about your project, clear it with me well before the deadline.

Deadlines

Unit deadlines will be announced well in advance, usually in the middle of a unit of study. These deadlines are firm. Only work completed before a unit deadline will be accepted as evidence in favor of the grade you propose in your self-evaluations. (See course policies document for exceptions.)

Preliminary deadline schedule (subject to change):