GRADING CRITERIA
COURSE REQUIREMENTS, EVALUATION METHODS AND GRADING CRITERIA
Each student’s semester grade will be determined by the following:
Assignments (Homework & LearnSmart): 15% Quizzes: 15% Exams: 70% Total: 100%
Assignments: There will be 13 LearnSmart assignments and 16 homework assignments of which your lowest 5 scores will be dropped.
The 13 LearnSmart assignments are directly over textbook content and will be completed in Connect via the “McGraw-Hill Campus” link on the Modules Tab in our Canvas course. LearnSmart uses adaptive technology to tailor the assignment and learning experience to each individual student’s needs. LearnSmart starts by identifying the topics a student knows and does not know. As the student progresses, LearnSmart adapts and adjusts the content and questions on the assignment based on the individual student’s strengths, weaknesses, and confidence. Each LearnSmart assignment is set to take 30 minutes to complete on average. However, it may take some students more than 30 minutes to complete and some students less than 30 minutes to complete.
! **How quickly a student completes the assignment depends on (1) how many questions the student answers correctly and (2) how confident the student is that their answer is correct, prior to viewing the correct answer and their score for each question. So, if you are confident that the answer you have chosen is correct, make sure to click “I know it” when you are asked “Do you know the answer?” after having answered the question. If you are confident that your answer is correct , but instead you click on “Think so,” “Unsure,” or “No idea,” then LearnSmart will keep on giving you additional questions covering those same concepts until you (1) do answer all of the questions correctly and (2) are confident that you answered all of the questions correctly. Therefore, as there is no limit on the number of times that a student can attempt and work through each LearnSmart assignment, if a student continues answering all of the questions that LearnSmart presents him/her with in the assignment, the student will eventually achieve a perfect score and earn a “100” on the assignment.
Please be aware of the opening and closing dates for the LearnSmart assignments, as no assignment will be re-opened once it has closed and no late assignments will be accepted. Again, you have no limit on the number of attempts on the LearnSmart questions to get the correct answer and state that you are confident the answer is correct, and there is no time limit. Think of this as practice!
The 14 Homework assignments are directly over textbook content, excluding the first “Graphing Tool Introduction” assignment, and will consist of 4 to 8 multi-part questions and will be completed in Connect via the “McGraw-Hill Campus” link on the Modules Tab in our Canvas course. Please be aware of the opening and closing dates for the Homework assignments, as no assignment will be re-opened once it has closed and no late assignments will be accepted. You have 3 attempts on HW questions to get the correct answer and there is no time limit. Think of this as practice!
Quizzes: There will be 15 Quizzes of which your lowest 3 (three) scores will be dropped. The quizzes are directly over textbook content, excluding the first “Course Introduction & Syllabus” quiz, and will consist of 30 multiple-choice questions and will be completed in Connect via the “McGraw-Hill Campus” link on the Modules Tab in our Canvas course. Please be aware of the opening and closing dates for the quizzes, as no quiz will be re-opened once it has closed and no late assignments will be accepted. For the quizzes, you have 2 attempts to get the correct answer, and each quiz attempt is timed for a maximum of 40 minutes.
EXAMS: There will be 5 Exams of which your lowest 1 (one) score will be dropped. These are assessments directly over textbook content and will be completed in Connect via the “McGraw-Hill Campus” link on the Modules Tab in our Canvas course. Exams 1, 2, 3 & 4 will each cover 1/4 of the material and consist of 50 multiple-choice questions to be completed in a maximum of 65 minutes. The Final (Exam 5) is cumulative and will cover all of the course material from the start of the semester to the end, and consist of 80 multiple-choice questions to be completed in a maximum of 100 minutes. As the lowest exam grade is dropped, the 4 individual remaining exam grades will each be worth 17.5% of the student’s overall course grade. Therefore, Exams count for 70% of the student’s overall course grade.
You will have only 1 attempt to complete and submit exams. Please be aware of the opening and closing dates for the exams, as no exam will be re-opened once it has closed and No makeup exams will be given or permitted.
**Details on when Assignments (Homework & LearnSmart), Quizzes & Exams are open and due will be given in Connect and/or on Canvas. It is the student’s responsibility to be aware of what is due and when it is due. Failure to regularly sign into Canvas and/or Connect could be the difference between passing and failing.