Your forum posts count in the participation portion of your final grade (worth 16%). The portion of your course grade is based on three parts: participation, daily work, and the posts themselves (their quantity and quality).

The details on how this portion of your grade works are explained below. At the end of the term, you will reflect on your forum posts and participation and provide your assessment of your work in Project 5: Course Progress and Completion Report. You may want to keep track of posts that you think you did especially well on during the term in order to make the process of finding them during the last week of classes a little easier for yourself.

Participation

The participation portion of your grade is based on your self-evaluation of your work and on my observations of your work in the forums and on Google Drive. In particular, I will look for evidence that you do the following during the term:

• Work consistently toward your goals during the term (that is, don’t wait until the last minute to reach 45 posts).
• Contribute positively in the forum discussions.
• Comment helpfully on your classmates’ drafts on Google Drive.
• Put forth your best effort by working hard on the tasks of the course.
• Follow the general guidelines in your forum posts:
  1. Your writing should be clear and understandable, but it can be informal. I don’t encourage you to make grammar and spelling errors, but I’m not going to mark off for them either as long as I can understand what you mean.
  2. Try to avoid “me too” kinds of posts. Say something more please!
  3. Be polite and kind to each other. Don’t attack anyone personally. Follow Wheaton’s Law.
  4. If you come to the forums in the morning, stop by again in the evening to see what everyone else has said (and reply if you like). If you don’t get to the forums until the evening, read through the comments others have posted during the day and then join the conversation.

Daily Work

This portion of your grade is based on whether you complete every daily forum post that is assigned. I regularly go through the forums and determine whether you have responded to the work for each day of the course. You will receive full credit if you have posted complete and thoughtful responses (as explained in each day’s blog post). If your responses seem incomplete or demonstrate little effort, you will receive half credit.

I will let you know if you need to put more effort into your posts, and you can ask me to review your posts specifically if you are worried about your status.

Grading for the Number of Posts

As the syllabus states, you need a minimum of 45 posts, but you can aim for a higher grade if you like. I am tentatively estimating the following numbers for each grade level:

• C-level forum participation: 45 posts
• B-level forum participation: 55 posts
• A-level forum participation: 65 posts

The count includes fully developed posts only. If I notice you have posted a number of short posts of only a few words (like “me too” posts), those posts will not count toward the requirement.

Use these steps to find out how many posts you have written:

1. Click on your name in the forums to go to your profile.
2. Look at the site statistics on the right side of the profile page. The number of posts you have written is listed (marked with the red arrow in the screenshot below):
   

 

Grading for the Quality of Posts

Your best posts will also figure into your grade. I will ask you to find posts such as the following:

• The forum post(s) you think are your best.
• The forum post that led to the most replies.
• The forum post you put the most effort into.
• The forum post that gives the best feedback on a classmate’s draft.
• The forum post that is most active.

You can easily find all the posts you have written by following these steps:

1. Click on your name in the forums to go to your profile.
2. Click the Search user’s posts link in the site statistics on the right side of the profile page (marked with the red arrow in the screenshot below):
   
3. Review the summary of each of your post on the pagethat appears (like the example shown below).
   
   Note that only the first few lines of each post are included in the search results, but there should be enough to help you find your work without having to look through every topic in the forums.