Grade Breakdown and descriptions below, or click on each assessment to be brought to its description. For more detailed guidelines on each assignment… gotta decide where I’m putting the detailed guidelines and resources…….
| Assessment | Percentage | Due date or Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Participation | 15% | Weekly |
| Weekly Assignments | 15% | Weekly |
| Quizzes | 20% | Week 6 & Week 10 |
| Grant Proposal | 50% (cumulative of below %) | |
| 1. Topic & 1-On-1 Meeting | 5% | Due XXX (week 4ish) |
| 2. Literature Review Draft | 10% | Due XXX (week 8ish) |
| 3. Project Narrative Draft | 10% | Due XXX (week 12ish) |
| 4. Budget Draft | 5% | Due XXX (week 13ish) |
| 5. Final Grant Proposal | 20% | Due XXX (Last day of semester) |
Participation (15%): Active participation in this course is essential. As this is a synchronous course, you should be logging into our live class sessions regularly, ready to discuss the topics of the week. Participation is earned through collaborating on each week’s Google Doc during class.
Weekly “Doings” (15%): Most weeks, you have a “Doing” assignment on the Course Materials page along with other assignments for class preparation. These assignments are designed to help you pick apart complex readings and learn effectively from the audio/visual media assigned. These assignments are mandatory and are due by 5pm on the day of class. The weekly “doing” assignments may be worksheets to go along with podcasts or videos, a discussion board post, a short reflection, or social annotations.
For social annotations assignments, we will be using Hypothes.is to collaboratively annotate our texts online. Annotating a text in detail is a step towards developing larger analyses. By annotating collaboratively, you will be able to work with other students to understand the meaning of the texts. When you are assigned social annotations, you’ll need to make at least 3 annotations of the text using the web annotation tool Hypothesis. Please consult this Hypothesis Annotations Guide for further instructions on how to use Hypothesis, join our class group, and add effective annotations. TO DO: create a guide based on several instructions… One nice one is here: http://acdigitalpedagogy.org/mpelzel/hypothesis_instructions.pdf. Another that I like esp at the end https://web.hypothes.is/scholarly-article-annotation/
Quizzes (20%): There will be 2 quizzes during the semester, each worth 10% of the final grade. Both of the quizzes are short answer quizzes. In each quiz, you will be asked 3-4 questions in which you should explain the key concepts and ideas from the those weeks of class, and apply them to the situations provided in the questions. The quizzes will each be “open” for about a week, and you can start and pause the quiz at any point. You may use notes and go back into your reading, and you may discuss the questions with other students, but your answer must be your own. The Key Concepts Quiz covers weeks 1 through 5. It will be released on DATE (Week 5), and must be completed by midnight on DATE (Week 6). The Critical Perspectives Quiz covers weeks 6 through 9. It will be released on DATE (Week 9), and must be completed by midnight on DATE (Week 10).
Grant Proposal (50%): Most of the course grade is built on a grant proposal. Grant writing is an integral skill for researchers because much of our funding must come from outside sources. Grant writing is also a very desirable skill for non-profit organizations, who need to look for outside funding to do their integral work. To write a grant, you need to be able to identify an issue and explain clearly why someone who doesn’t know you should give you money to address that issue.
For this class, you will write an 6-8 page grant proposal. You can write the grant proposal for any issue or question related to our course content. Imagine that you are competing for up to $50,000 to fund either research OR a social justice project. The proposal will be written in stages to spread out the work and allow opportunities to revise your work. The stages are as follows:
- Proposal Topic & 1-on-1 Meeting (5%): You will submit a topic on Blackboard by XXX. I will make some suggestions for broad topics, but I encourage you to choose topics outside of my suggestions. During weeks 7 and 8, each student will set up a meeting with myself for 10-20 minutes to talk about the topic of their grant proposal. We will go over the topic to ensure that it is feasible, and I will provide individual guidance on how to tackle the project.
- Literature Review (10%): You will write a 2-3 page literature review using at least 5 reputable sources that are directly relevant to your topic. The literature review should attempt to address the following questions: How has the topic or problem been addressed in the past? What are the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches? How do the sources relate to one another? I will distribute a worksheet that you can use to help you along with synthesizing your sources. Due XXX
- Project Narrative Draft (10%): You will write a 2-3 page project narrative, which will look different depending on whether your proposal is for a research project or a social justice project. For a research project, this is the section where you write out your research question, the research methods that you will use to answer the question, your hypotheses, and a timeline of when the research activities will be carried out. A social justice project narrative includes the goals of your social justice project, the activities and methods you will use to address your problem, and a timeline of when the activities will be carried out. In each, you will want to address why the methods and activities you chose are the best ones to answer the research questions or address the problem. Due XXX
- Budget Draft (5%): The maximum amount the granter will give you is $50,000. How will you use this money to carry out the project? Your budget should be about a page long, and include a breakdown of each thing you need to pay for and justifying why you need this money. You can budget for less than the $50,000, but you cannot submit a budget for more. Due XXX
- Final Grant Proposal (20%): The final grant proposal will include revised versions of the literature review, project narrative, and budget, but will also include an introduction and conclusion that tie these all together. It will also include a works cited page using all of the references cited in any section. The final proposal is due on XXX.
* I am happy to work with students to set up alternative final projects that interest them and that build skills compatible with their career aspirations. If you have another idea for a final project, I encourage you to run it by me.
