While all assignments will be graded on a point scale (ie. 15/20) and the running tally of the semester grade on D2L will be displayed as percent, final grades will be given on a 4.0 scale. The final grade will be calculated using the following scale:
- 90 – 100 = 4.0
- 85 – 89.99 = 3.5
- 80 – 84.99 = 3.0
- 75 – 79.99 = 2.5
- 70 – 74.99 – 2.0
- 65 – 69.99 = 1.5
- 60 – 64.99 = 1.0
- <60 = 0
Your final grade will be based on the following criteria:
Class Citizenship (25%) – Students are expected to be active participants in all aspects of the class, contributing to the overall health of the teaching/learning experience. This includes attendance, participation in conversations and discussion, keeping up with their readings, quality/effort/preparation of discussions and any presentations, and how thoughtful and engaged a collaborator you are in group work. This includes your participation in the lab sessions, technical tutorials, and open lab sessions. Please note, the Class Citizenship grade is not impacted by the course Religious Observance Policy (located on the About page)
Discussion Posts (15%) – Throughout the semester, students will be required to post 4 entries (each worth 3.75% of the overall grade) to the course website. The subject of each post is a response to a specific prompt (see the class Schedule for the prompts). The entry must be at least 500 words in length (though students are welcome to write more than that if they want). If students meet all of the requirements for the assignment (due date, length requirement, prompt, etc), they will receive full credit. If students don’t meet all of the requirements, they will not receive credit at all. There is no partial credit for the discussion posts.
Lab Projects (30%) – Throughout the semester, students will complete 4 lab projects (worth 7.75% each). While each students will have to submit their lab assignments individually, some of the labs will be done collaboratively with a small team. The idea behind the lab team is to work together, provide support and help, and generally create en environment in which student’s don’t feel isolated. The lab assignments are intended to be both creative and challenging (but not so challenging that they can’t be accomplished). Some lab projects will require work out of class, some can be completely done in class, and some will require preparation before class (but will be able to be finished during class) Refer to the Schedule for all of the labs and lab assignments.
Final Experimental Digital Heritage Project (30%) – The final assignment for the course is an experimental digital heritage experience that each student will build. The final project, while relatively small and uncomplicated, should be real (and by real, I mean that it should be guided by a specific focus and theme, make a real intervention, have a real audience, and actually be functional) While the content/focus/platform of the project is entirely up to students, it should fall under one of the course’s “big ideas” – preservation & access, public engagement, or heritage futures. In order to help students decide upon the type of project they want to build, I’ve prepared a collection of prospective final projects. While many of these will require students to make a decision on content, focus, narrative, audience, they are intended to provide a place to start. Pick one and implement it as described or use it as inspiration to go in a different direction – completely up to you. Students who feel a little more ambitious are welcome to propose something that isn’t on the list.
There are three parts to the final project:
- The Final Project Proposal (5%) – The project proposal should be no less than 2 complete pages (double spaced) and must include the following: (1) description of the project, (2) what content you will be using (be detailed), (3) how you are going to build it, and (4) a general description of how the user is supposed to interact with it.
- The Final Project (20%) – The Final Project should follow the Final Project Proposal you submitted. How you submit the final project will be negotiated individually as it will depend on the form your final project takes. The Final Project will be graded upon the following criteria – (1) the project meets the deliverables outlined in the Final Project Proposal (basically, you made what you said you’d make); (2) the project is functional (as originally proposed) and exhibits a level of quality that demonstrated the necessary investment of time and effort for its production (ie. you put the work in and didn’t half ass it at the last minute); and (3) the final project doesn’t have bugs or technical issues that were within your ability to fix.
- The Project Discussion Post (5%) – Post on course website (minimum 500 words) that provides a description of your project (what it is, how you built it, what intervention it was intended to make). Include links if your project is accessible online or screenshots and photos to illustrate your discussion.