Course Grading Page
CSE 118: Applications in Ubiquitous Computing

This course is graded on two elements: discussion prepration and participation (50%), project (50%).

Discussion: Preparation and Participation (50%)

This class cannot "run" unless you come to class thoroughly prepared. You will be doing the discussing, not me. Your preparation for class, and your active engagement during class are essential to the success of the course, your learning, and your grade.

I will be judging your participation based on what happens in class during the discussion (25%). Class participation records will be created during class by your peers (and me and the TA) marking up the participation rubric. I will also be collecting your annotated readings in order to assess your preparation skills and give you feedback (25%). Your annotated readings will be graded based on the note taking rubric I will allow for 3 class absences (or non-preparations) over the quarter (e.g., for sickness, job interviews). In other words, I will drop the three lowest participation grades. Showing up ready to participate counts for a lot, even if you don't say much. I cannot accept the turn-in of a marked-up paper in lieu of coming to class; they are a package. Finally, participation in the class mailing list counts as participation. The topics allowed here are broad, such as: continuing class discussion, forwarding relevant news items, and reporting your own ubicomp experiences.

The assessments will take into consideration how much you are learning over the course. The fact that you do not know how to read a technical paper or discuss it with peers at the beginning of the course will not impact your final grade. Thus, at the beginning I will be primarily grading effort, but by the end I will also be looking at the results.

Project (50%)

The project will be graded on the following elements: proposal (15%) and final presentation (35%). We will assess the proposal based on the draft milestones, the audio-visual presentation, and the finished written proposal. We will assess the final presentation based on the project itself and its results, as well as the audio-visual presentation. The project presentations provide an opportunity to present supplementary material (e.g., a demo, field video, or interviews with subjects).

Finally, we will be using peer evaluations to help with project grading. For each project team member and yourself, you will be asked to assign a few grades in a small number of categories (e.g., effort and team player). These grades may affect your project grade up to 1 letter grade in either direction, up or down.