Questions Answered

There have been a few questions about grades, so to keep from typing the same answer over and over here it is:

• There is no means by which you may look at your grades within this site.
• I cannot email grades to you.
• Why? FERPA Yes, your government is looking out for you . . . .

So, you have the method by which grades are determined within the syllabus and it is just straight and simple math. Then, if you look within the projects, you will see the specific point values for each component. As I grade each project, you will be sent a Private Message from within this site that will show you the point values for each component of the project--just keep track (Excel works really well for this). For postings, as long as you meet the word count, the due date, and are on topic, all is well and you will get full points. The only way to lose points on posts is to: not do them, be off-topic, miss the due date, or miss the word count.

You have 1,000 points total, so:

• 900 = A
• 800 = B
• 700 = C

 That's it, folks. Simple and well within the skill set of anyone taking a senior level course at Purdue. If you have any questions, let me know.

 A couple of questions have come up, so I thought they warranted a general post to everyone:

• Due date times: We operate on Purdue time and not on your local time. So, 11:59 PM means 11:59 PM in West Lafayette, Indiana.
• 5 posts: You have 5 replies to make each week. From the syllabus:

You are required to submit five (5) comments and replies (e.g., follow-up responses) each week to the blog posts (reading and other responses posted by others) appearing on our course's front page. Your comments and replies should be spaced out over at least three days. Each should be, at minimum, 100 words each.

All comments and replies to another's blog post should follow effective rhetorical strategies for networking with others on the Web. (Readings from the course text provide guidelines to follow.)

• Keep threads alive and relevant.
• Follow-up comments with further discussion.
• Think of your comments and replies as part of a lively class discussion in which everyone participates.

Our activity online substitutes for in-person discussion in interesting (and sometimes deeper) ways. Of course, you are always welcome, and encouraged, to post beyond thsese minimum requirements. The course calendar includes reminders about meeting this ongoing obligation for participating in class discussion.

The format and focus of your weblog comments and replies is described fully in these Guidelines for Posting Comments and Replies. Please bear in mind that your online interaction is the glue that holds the course together, makes collobaration possible, and helps you achieve the course goals. For these reasons--and because we are not meeting F2F--your engagement in these online discussions will require serious and consistent attention throughout the course. It won't be possible to make up missed postings later since the discussion will have already moved on.

What this means: Make 5 replies to other people's writing each week. This week 3 were assigned to you: Your intro, and a reply to each of my first two blogs. That leaves you needing to make 2 more replies to other people's posts this week to meet that requirement. Remember going forward, that you don't count all posts you make, but just those replies you are making to other people's posts. In other words, you cannot count reading responses, but you can count any assigned replies and any replies you make to other's posts. Questions? Let me know.