Assignments

Major Projects (70% of your course grade)

You will complete five major projects in this course, along with related drafts and other artifacts. You must complete all five projects to pass the course.

• Short Video Recording
• Audio Recording
• Long Video Recording
• HTML/CSS Page
• HTML/CSS Site

All these projects will focus on a topic that you choose to explore for the term. Choose something you like and want to investigate or talk about in more detail.

How Grading Works

Learning how to use images, audio, video, words, space, and design to communicate a message is the most important goal for this course. To accomplish this goal, you will need to work on new things, take risks, and be willing to fail.

A traditional grading system doesn’t work when you focus on these goals. If you are worried about getting an A, you don’t want to try things that could result in failure. Instead, you take safe, easy paths. The grading for this class is meant to eliminate this counterproductive system.

Instead of grading your work for being perfect, I will grade your work for what it shows me about your engagement with the strategies and tools we are using. When you turn your work in, you will tell me about the work you have done, new things you tried, risks you took, and times when you failed (and tried again).

You will either earn a Pass or a Fail grade on the projects you submit. If you receive a Pass, you’re done. That’s it. If you receive a Fail and the grace period is not over, you can revise and resubmit your work. Naturally, if I notice that you are not doing passing work in class, I will let you know (in private, of course). There are no rewrites or revisions after the grace period is over.

Participation (15% of your course grade)

The Work You Need to Do

Finally, you will participate (15% of your overall course grade) in discussions, peer review, and other informal activities like in-class writing and homework. You will have many opportunities to contribute. The following areas contribute to your participation:

• Attendance: You need to be here to participate. If you decide to skip sessions because we are “just working on the projects in class,” your participation grade will suffer.

• Timeliness: Don’t show up late, leave early, disappear for 15 minutes, and so forth. I want to see you in the classroom and working on the project.

• Readiness: Be in the classroom and ready to go. Do your homework (including readings), have what you need with you to work, and be prepared to collaborate with classmates.

• Contributions (In class & online): Ask thoughtful questions, offer specific suggestions, and graciously accept feedback. If it’s hard for you to talk in class, make a point of contributing online.

• Effort: Participating isn’t simply about talking, but also about working on the activities we do each day. Be focused on the tasks you have been asked to complete.

• Collegiality: Be supportive of everyone in the classroom and uphold the Principles of Community. In general, be kind and helpful to one another. Help create the kind of community in the classroom that makes you happy to be in class.

How Grading Works

You will log your participation, noting where and how you contribute to the on-going conversations in the course, how you support your classmates, and so forth.

For your final exam, you will write a short completion report that explains what you have done and provides a self-evaluation of your participation. You will propose the grade you should receive and then use your log to provide data to support your recommendation.

Participation is calculated on the default Virginia Tech A/F grade scale with +/-.