Grading, Feedback and Policies

22 Aug 2016

tl;dr: Do interesting work and you'll be fine. Make sure it's submitted on time. Grading and feedback is focused on creative projects. There will be some opportunities for extra credit.

The course is focused on exploring media synthesis and analysis by making interesting creative work. To get a good grade you’ll need to:

• Show up to class (on time)
• Regularly participate in conversations and crits
• Turn in your work on time for each module
• Support your classmates by giving them feedback on their work,
• Taking part in the course Slack by sharing content and helping out peers
• Provide thoughful contributions to reading discussions
• Offer well researched and interesting examples and cases
• Create interesting, well-crafted and well documented projects
• Be open to new perspectives on media and generally positive and engaged.
• Ask questions.

The most important element: the work you do. Make an effort, try new approaches, experiment with new forms, and explore provocative concepts. They key to getting a stellar grade will mean finding an authentic and interesting creative voice, and making sure it comes through loud and clear in your work.

A note on assignment briefs

The written descriptions for projects are a starting point for your exploration. They aren’t designed to, nor will they, provide a template for things you need to do to get 100%. Please don’t treat them like this. Instead, they are prompts meant to get you thinking.

You should interpret them and approach them creatively. Each brief has a tonne of creative latitute. It’s meant to be explored, reinterpreted and pushed. You are strongly encouraged to bend the rules and think beyond that’s written.

Finally, make your work, not work for us. Don’t try and satisfy a brief by making work you think we want to see. Work on ideas or concepts that interest you. Figure out what you care about and make that i.e. the project should be on your own terms.

Grading

Breakdown of grades

Final grades for the course will be broken down as follows:

• Attendance & Participation - 10%

• Per module (15%), as follows:

  • Reading Summaries - 3%

  • Research Exercise - 3%

  • Warm up Exercise - 3%

  • End of Module Creative Project - 6%

• Final Project - 20%

• Final Report - 10%

Creative Projects

These projects are a way for you to showcase:

• Your engagement and understanding of the material of the module
• Your creative capacity
• Your own interests

Take note: The most important thing for this project is to come up with a compelling concept - something interesting, informed, aware or critical. The breakdown of the grades favors your ability to come up with an idea like this i.e. your concept and intent is more important than your ability to execute it. Focus on the idea before implementation!

As such, each creative project will be graded as follows:

• Creativity (40%) - How interesting is the concept / outcome? Does it represent an a unique approach or an original perspective on the assignment? Does it depart from known or standard approachs?
• Execution (30%) - How beautiful is the outcome? How well composed is it? How compelling is the visual/sonic aesthetic? Does it show technical skill and mastry of the medium/tools?
• Context (20%) - How informed is the work? Does it show connections to theory, ideas, research, artists, frameworks or other elements of the domain? Does it build on or advance over past work?
• Documentation (10%) - How well authored, curated, illustrated is the documentation? Does it communicate the project and it’s goals effectively?

Note: This includes the grading scheme for the final project.

Warm Up

The warm up will be graded similarly. However, the focus here is much less on execution and skill. Instead the warm up encourages you to experiment with concepts and play with ideas.

Take note: The focus here is to practice skills and experiment/play with concepts. Additionally, as they are also rapid fire explorations, execution is much lower weighted.

• Creativity (50%) - How interesting is the concept / outcome? Does it represent an a unique approach or an original perspective on the assignment? Does it depart from known or standard approachs?
• Execution (10%) - How beautiful is the outcome? How well composed is it? How compelling is the visual/sonic aesthetic? Does it show technical skill and mastry of the medium/tools?
• Context (20%) - How informed is the work? Does it show connections to theory, ideas, research, artists, frameworks or other elements of the domain? Does it build on or advance over past work?
• Documentation (20%) - How well authored, curated, illustrated is the documentation? Does it communicate the project and it’s goals effectively?

Feedback on Creative Projects and Warm up

You will get written feedback from instructors and TAs on both your creative projects and warm ups.

If you present in class, you will get in-person (spoken) feedback on your project too.

You will also get written feedback from 1-2 peers for each of your projects. This feedback will follow the format above and give you a rating (from 1-10) for each dimension (creativity, execution, context, documentation).

We’ll use the same criteria for instructor and peer feedback so that the peer reviews:

1. offer you the opportunity to use these criteria and practice using them;
2. give you multiple perspectives on your work that is structured and comparable; and
3. help you improve your self-evaluation of your own work and develop your skills in feedback.

Reading Reflections

Reading Reflections will be graded as pass/fail:

• 0 - Unsatisfactory - Incomplete or failing work that does not show understanding/familiarity of the text or address the reflection questions posed.
• 1 - Satisfactory or better - Meets or exceeds the minimum requirements for a reading reflection; shows familiarity with the text and addresses the reflection questions posed.

This will be applied to EACH reflection i.e. if two reflections are due for a module, each will be graded separately.

To guarantee you pass the assignment, make sure you have:

• Posted your reflection to your Google Doc by the deadline ^*
• Appropriately titled and referenced the reading at the start of your reflection ^*
• Written at least 200 words for your reflection (not just copy-paste quotes!) ^*
• Highlighted the major points/themes of the text
• Responded to the prompts/framing questions provided
• Thoughfully responded to the ideas in the text and/or made connections to other ideas in the module or course.

• Written clearly, effectively and critically about the reading.

• Incidates that if you do not meet these criteria you will immediately fail the assignment.

Research Exercises

Research exercises will be graded as pass/fail:

• 0 - Unsatisfactory - Incomplete or failing work. The example does not fit within the constraints of the project or does not demonstrate any comprehension, reflection or analysis on it.

• 1 - Satisfactory or better - Meets or exceeds the minimum requirements for the exercise; Highlights a good example within the scope of the exercise AND shows adequate research and reflection.

This will be applied to EACH looking out i.e. if two research exercises are due for a module, each will be graded separately.

To guarantee you pass the assignment, make sure you have:

• Used the correct format and hashtag for your post on Slack ^*
• Added each project as a separate post on Slack ^*
• Posted your example by the deadline ^*
• Appropriately titled and given credit to the creators of the project/work ^*
• Included an image or video of the work ^*
• Written between 150-200 words on the project (not copy-paste descriptions!) ^*
• Made an effort to reflect on the project and/or critique it

• Written clearly, effectively and critically about the project

• Incidates that if you do not meet these criteria you will immediately fail the assignment.

Grading of Final Report

The final report will be examined on the:

Content: 40%

• Topic - 10%
• Quality of Arugmentation, Ideas and Thinking - 10%
• Relationship to course material (relevance, connections made) - 10%
• Understanding of course material - 10%

Writing Quality: 30%

• Clarity of writing - 10%
• Quality of writing (grammar, mechanics, etc.) - 10%
• Organization of writing (structure of paper) - 10%

Research: 20%

• Quality of independent research (goes beyond the course material and uncovers interesting theories, methods and works) - 10%
• Sources of supporting information (cites and evidences ideas, includes appropriate quotes, sources integrated) - 10%

Illustration: 10%

• Includes appropriate illustrations (diagrams, artworks references, etc.)

Extra Credit

Opportunities for extra credit will at one or more times throughout the semester. These will be discussed in class.

Late work

As the course is designed for in-class review and discussion of almost every assignment (readings, research, creative projects), late work is not accepted. Without delivering your work on time, you will not get the benefit of in-class feedback, discussion and critique that it brings. More importantly, it can hold up the progress of the class as a whole. If work is delivered late for research projects the class has less resources to draw on in creative assignments. If you fail to give review a peer’s project on time, they receive less feedback than others in the class and their future work may suffer.

The only exceptions will be in the case of medical or family emergencies or other pre-arranged university-approved absences.

Grading, Assignments and Your Wellbeing

Besides all of the above, your health and wellbeing is first priority. Particularly as the semester comes to a close and there are many competing deadlines, assignments and priorities, first and foremost, take care of yourself. Do your best to maintain a healthy lifestyle this semester by eating well, exercising, avoiding drugs and alcohol, getting enough sleep and taking some time to relax. This will help you achieve your goals and cope with stress.

All of us benefit from support during times of struggle. You are not alone. There are many helpful resources available on campus and an important part of the college experience is learning how to ask for help. Asking for support sooner rather than later is often helpful.

If you or anyone you know experiences any academic stress, difficult life events, or feelings like anxiety or depression, we strongly encourage you to seek support. Counseling and Psychological Services (CaPS) is here to help: call 412-268-2922 and visit their website at http://www.cmu.edu/counseling/. Consider reaching out to a friend, faculty or family member you trust for help getting connected to the support that can help.

If you have questions about this or your coursework, please let me know.