Assignment #0: Participation

Overview

Participation in this class and in the group work in this class is extremely important. You'll be graded on that throughout the year.

Due date

No due date; this is a throughout-the-semester assignment.

Points possible

100

How does this work?

There are three ways you're graded on class participation in J4502/7502. These are explained further below.

1. Class attendance

2. Participation in class discussions

3. Participation in group work

Attendance

• Roll call: Elizabeth and Rob will take attendance every class period, sometimes with a sign-in sheet and sometimes by taking roll, depending on whether it's a presentation day. If your name is not on the sign-in sheet, you're counted as absent.

• Unexcused absences: You get two "free" absences per semester (it's a journalism school and news happens), but other absences will count against your participation grade.

• Excused absences: If you need to miss class for another class trip, a student group trip (including ROTC), an illness, an athletics commitment, a religious holiday or some other reason, Elizabeth or Rob will need written proof of the absence. This could include a doctor's note, a note from the athletics department, a note from your professor, etc. If you have questions about this, ask us.

Class discussions

Learning how to critique work from others in a constructive way is a major part of learning how to be a designer. We will critique multimedia projects, both built by other people in the class and by people outside the class, regularly. You will need to be an active participant in the discussions and also take feedback from classmates in good faith.

Group work

You will be evaluated on your group work in several ways:

• Github: We will keep track of who's pushing commitments to Github and who's not. We realize that pair work exists, and so if you work on a page with another student and the other student does all the commits (or vice versa), add that information in the commit notes.

• Self evaluations: You will turn in a self evaluation at the end of the course, with your contributions listed.

• Peer evaluations: You will also turn in a peer evaluation at the end of the course, to evaluate your group members.

Extra credit

We will have two small extra credit assignments throughout the semester. They will each count for 20 points, 2 percent of your grade, and will be added to your participation grade.