Hi Class. It is WEEK 3 of the semester already. This is a good time to go over some basic bookkeeping for class — especially as some students join courses late (though going into detail can’t hurt any of us). I will list a few main issues below, and try to address them.

ISSUES: OpenLab Course membership; Student Folders and use of GoogleDocs; Weekly Assignment Folders (checking them regularly); Grading basics

OpenLab Course membership: If you already JOINED this course site as a MEMBER, then you automatically get an email whenever anybody creates a post, and you also get my announcements. Still having trouble with your CityTech email? Or can’t figure out how to navigate and join OpenLab? One good location on campus is the Student Success Center (located in the bottom floor of the Library building ). If they don’t know the answer to a question, they can direct you to someone who does, I will post their hours and info, below. And of course, there is OpenLab Help, link here.

What do I expect of you this week? You need to join OpenLab and join this course site no later than Feb 15. “I didn’t see the assignment” won’t be an acceptable answer after this date. Also, you will soon be creating posts on our course site as part of your assignments, and you can’t do this unless you join.

Once again, for anyone joining late, we don’t work on BlackBoard in this class — we use OpenLab.

Student Folders/GoogleDrive: The large portion of your written assignments in this class are submitted by you, in your STUDENT FOLDER. This means that you must have a working g-mail account, and be familiar with how to create a GoogleDoc. If you need help with this, I can show you during Office Hours, or, you can reach out to the Student Success Center, above. P.S.: I also would like you to share your g-mail address with me (the one you will be using in GoogleDrive). Here is a spreadsheet (link here). Please add your gmail address. If you prefer it to remain private, then email me directly.

WEEKLY Assignment Folders: If you don’t check the weekly assignment folder, you won’t be in the loop of what is due and when. I create an OpenLab post whenever I update the weekly folder. I also strongly suggest that you check the weekly folder once or twice a week. I generally post all our assignments by noon, the day after class. Starting Feb 15, I will expect you to make a habit of paying attention to OpenLab posts and to check the weekly folder.

Grading Basics:

“Low-stakes” assignments get graded with a check system:

✔-

✔

✔+

These are short, weekly assignments and readings, and are generally worth anywhere from 1 to 3 points.

“High-stakes/Capstone” assignments get a letter grade (A, B, C, D, F). They are worth anywhere from 10 to 20 points.

Letter-graded, Capstone assignments can be revised for the Final Portfolio; so, the grade you get when you first hand in your assignment will change if you work on that assignment and appreciably improve it. Your grade on capstone assignments is not set until the Final Portfolio. 

For a further breakdown of the weights of the grades in this class, and to see more of my grading policies, you can look in the Syllabus. I will also go over the rubrics I will be using for your letter-graded assignments more in depth in class, when I give you these assignments.

Okay, I think that is enough bookkeeping for now. I apologize if the above is redundant for many of you, but before the long week-end, and before I have to do a lot of bookkeeping of my own (for the English department, administration, etc.), I wanted to go over the above. Please reach out to me if you need me for anything. -Prof. S.