LIBR202 Information Retrieval - dr. twining
Welcome  / Greensheet / Class Schedule & Assignments / Grading / Blackboard

Grading

"If you don't know when it's appropriate to break the rules, don't break the rules." 
 -- Richard Thieme

About class participation:

Since this class has no face-to-face component, it is not possible for us to read each other's body language nor to connect on a physical level or with anothers' elegant subtleties apparent only in the physical world.  This is but one challenge of an entirely online course.  So, we are relying on each other to make ourselves "visible" in the class through the quality of our posts, and by distinguishing ourselves using our virtual identity. Our connection with each other will come through the quality of our words, and the depth of our focus, rather than through names, faces, subtle gestures, flirtations, etc.  In other words, in this class, at least, you have NO PHYSICAL presence....just like as it was once depicted in a famous New Yorker cartoon:

[© New Yorker Magazine, March 1993]

Evaluating participation:  The professor's interface to our Blackboard provides student use statistics, by student and by use area. I will monitor these statistics throughout the course, and use them, for the most part, to alert me to students who are having difficulty showing up, or moving beyond lurking.  These statistics also play a PART in my determination of participation points.  However, students should not assume that meeting the minimum logon and frequency requirements and expectations of this class will earn full participation points!  There is NO EXACT FORMULA (for example, the number of posts you make, and how often) that determines participation score.  Participation is a quantitative AND qualitative measure: it is a combination of the objective evidence you create, and my subjective interpretation of it.   

Blackboard Participation:  Every student is minimally expected to log onto the blackboard at least twice a week and to participate actively and regularly in the class-wide and group discussion areas. Double that if you are taking this class in the shortened summer semester. Most students who are successful in this class, log on more frequently and spend more time than this minimum.

This entails more than logging in and reading what everyone else has posted.  This includes reading or monitoring posts and, where appropriate, adding relevant and meaningful contributions to the discussions. It also includes helping fellow students.  If you do not have something meaningful and relevant to add to a particular discussion,  PLEASE DO NOT POST  "me too!"-type MESSAGES ...they waste everyone's precious reading, thinking, and online time, they contain no real information (we will learn more about what that means as the semester progresses ), and will not contribute to your participation points. I have posted a discussion thread "how to read for the class" in the Blackboard's Professor's Forum. That message will explain more about how you are encouraged to read for this class. The expected participation time is IN ADDITION to normal reading and study time.

WHILE THE NUMBER OF POSTS IS CONSIDERED, NUMBER OR FREQUENCY ALONE IS NOT THE DOMINANT CRITERIA FOR EVALUATING STUDENT PARTICIPATION....THE QUALITY, CONSISTENCY, AND CONTRIBUTION OF YOUR POSTS, IS.  Active participation involves helping create course content, which includes making relevant and meaningful reference to the assigned readings and bringing new, scholarly resources to the table. 

For more about what is EXPECTED regarding quality of posts, see the "discussion evaluation matrix" in the blackboard's "materials" section.

No worries....

LIBR202 Information Retrieval - dr. twining
Welcome  / Greensheet / Class Schedule & Assignments / Grading / Blackboard