HST209 - End of Term - Last Announcement

Hello students,

Please read this entire email carefully before Moodle messaging me with grade questions.

BATTLE CRY QA FORUM

You may click on the forum to see what score each of your questions or answers received. (You can only see your own scores.)

Recall that you could have earned from 1 to 3 points per question and answer.  This would amount to a 36 point grand total.  Moodle forum grading works like this.  It simply "adds up" all of the points from your posts and replies.  Therefore, please do not be confused when the forum shows you getting 3/36 for your question or answer.  (Of course, 3 out of 36 is a terrible score by itself.)  Instead, PAY ATTENTION TO THE TOP SCORE ONLY. The top number is your score for that question or answer, from 1 to 3. 

Also, you will notice that I gave all students a "break" for this assignment by making the points possible 33, instead of 36.  In essence, this is a 3 point "allowance" for a question or reply that did not rise the highest possible score of 3 points.  The Moodle gradebook shows your total score and percentage for this assignment.

FINAL EXAMS

The class final exam score average was MUCH higher than the midterm, as I expected it would be. Congratulations everyone. Only a 2% upward adjustment was necessary, compared to the 10% after the midterm exam.  

My item analysis also revealed some mistakes on my part (mismarked answer key, two questions with two correct answers, etc.)  As a result of my mistakes, all students benefitted with an additional 5% increase to your final exam scores.

FINAL COURSE GRADES

Final course grades have been calculated and are now available on the class Moodle site. Look at the last line which reads:
FINAL GRADE IN CLASS HST209 "Letter Grade" & "Percentage"
This is ALMOST your final grade in this class.

NOTE: If you completed BOTH extra credit opportunities (the movie review and the course evaluation), you will see two lines in the Moodle gradebook that read:
Extra Credit Movie Review Extra Credit … 1 100 %
Student Evaluation of Instruction and Course Extra Credit …. 1 100 %

If you did not complete these, then both "grades" show as dashes (- -), and the last line in the Moodle gradebook IS your final class grade. But if you completed either one, or both, then your FINAL GRADE IN CLASS percentage is actually one (or two) percentage points higher than what you see in the Moodle gradebook. 

So, for example, if Moodle shows FINAL GRADE IN CLASS C+ 78%, and you have 1's next to both extra credit assignments, then add 2% to your FINAL GRADE IN CLASS percentage. In this example, even though Moodle says C+ 78%, you will actually be getting a B- 80%. Moodle can't automatically add one extra credit point to a class that uses weighted grades as ours does. I will enter the correct, adjusted grade into the ExpressLane system.

Therefore, IT IS VERY IMPORTANT that you check your official LCC transcript grades, available early this coming week. The Moodle and ExpressLane systems are NOT "connected" for grading, so it is possible that data entry mistakes could occur, although I believe I've been very careful.

I thank those of you who took the time to complete the evaluation and give me your thoughtful and constructive feedback. I plan to read them over the break and put your good ideas to work for students who take my courses in future terms. 

Enjoy your Spring Break.