This course will use a contract grading system. Instead of me assigning you a grade of A, B, C etc. on assignments, you will commit to completing a certain number of assignments at a level I consider satisfactory for undergraduate work.
While I may accept your assignment on first submission, it’s also possible I will ask you to “revise and resubmit” a skill-building mini assignment or interim piece of your final project until I’m satisfied with your work. In other words, don’t freak out if I ask you to fix something and send it back to me – this is a normal part of a contract grading course and will ultimately help you learn better than traditional points-based grading.
But wait! What does that do to course deadlines??? The listed deadlines for the assignments are the dates you have to complete the first draft of your assignment. You should then revise and resubmit as soon as possible after receiving a revision request from me. While some internal class deadlines are flexible, all assignments must be satisfactorily completed by the last day of classes (Saturday December 2, 11:59pm) which is a hard deadline set by the university. If you miss this deadline but are generally passing the course, you will be given a choice of taking a grade penalty or an incomplete for the semester.
In the first 2 weeks of the class, you will fill out a Google Form with 1) your desired grade for the semester 2) your commitment to fulfilling the requirements to receive that grade and 3) your proposed remedies if you fail to complete one or more of the requirements for the course. You must contract with me for one of the three grades below. If you do not submit a contract I will assume you are contracting for a C.
There will be one point in the middle of the semester when you’ll have a chance to revise your contracted grade, once you’ve gotten far enough into the course (and your other courses) to know how things are going and how you want to handle the rest of the semester.
Contract for an A
To receive an A, you must contract to
- actively participate in the course each week
- complete all assigned readings on time
- complete the “how are things going?” assignment on at least 12 Mondays
- complete at least 7 mini assignments (including 3 required) and post to GitHub with clear commit messages
- complete all elements of the final project
- submit a final analysis of your performance in the course
Contract for a B
To receive a B, you must contract to
- actively participate in the course most weeks and demonstrate presence in other weeks
- complete most assigned readings on time, and all assigned readings by the end of the semester
- complete the “how are things going?” assignment on at least 10 Mondays
- complete at least 5 mini assignments (including 3 required) and post to GitHub with clear commit messages
- complete all elements of the final project
- submit a final analysis of your performance in the course
Contract for a C
To receive a C, you must contract to
- actively participate in the course some weeks and demonstrate presence in other weeks
- complete all assigned readings by the end of the semester
- complete the “how are things going?” assignment on at least 8 Mondays
- complete 3 required mini assignments and post to GitHub with clear commit messages
- complete all elements of the final project
- submit a final analysis of your performance in the course
Other Grades
For students who go “above and beyond” in their coursework, I will award an extra 1/3 of a letter grade from their base contract (e.g. taking a B to a B+). For students who complete the technical parts of their contracts, but don’t actively participate in the course community, I will subtract 1/3 of a letter grade from their base contract (e.g. taking a B to a B-).
I will not contract with students for D and F grades, which I reserve for students who fail to complete the minimum requirements for this course and do not discuss the situation with me in order to find another path forward.
