Grading PEIS 101, Fall 2007

The current plan is to have three kinds of exercises will be graded: web assignments--an experiment to see if we can use modern technologies to create a worthwhile virtual discussion--two short papers; and a police-the-reading final.

Plans may change if things are not working: you are guinea pigs, and should expect to be treated like guinea pigs.

We are going to have fifteen web assignments,--requirement that you contribute to an online virtual discussion--roughly one a week. Each of them is worth three points, graded on the following scale:

• Didn't complete the assignment on time: 0
• Completed the assignment on time, but didn't really contribute to the virtual discussion: 1
• A solid contribution to the ongoing discussion: 2
• A contribution that taught the teaching staff something new: 3

We are going to have two short papers, each of them worth ten points if handed in on time, five points if handed in up to a week late, and zero point thereafter:

• First paper, due 5 PM October 19: Pick a thinker whom you studied in PE 100 (or would have studied if you had taken PE 100 yet). Write a paper of 1000 words or so about what things that happened in the first half of the twentieth century would have struck them as most surprising and what things would have struck them as most in accord with their intellectual positions. How do you think they would have changed their minds had they seen
• Second paper, due 5 PM December 4: Pick an issue in contemporary political economy connected with your four-course Political Economy concentration-to-be. Briefly!--in 1000 words--use what you have learned in your historical context courses and in Political Economy 100 and 101 to set out a framework for analyzing that issue.

You can do well on the web assignments and the short papers without actually doing (much of) the reading. So there will also be a police-the-reading final exam, worth twenty-five points, on the evening of December 15.

This is a smart class of well-prepared people who work hard, so expect the curve for the class to be accordingly high.

Comments

[Elisabeth Miller]

I really don't think that it is fair that the web assignments are over half of the entire grade, especially since they were an experiment. I don't have a computer and it is very hard for me to have to do every web assignment every week. I come to discussion every week and I worked hard on my paper, which I got 8.2/10 points on, but with the current policy I will have a D+ in the class right now. so I think that discussion attendence should be a factor in the grade, and the papers should be worth 15 points. We shouldn't be punished for not doing well every single week as long as we are still participating in discussion and putting a lot of effort into our papers.