MATH 60: Elementary Algebra - Assessment - Instructor: Ilva Mariani

Communication: Keeping the lines of communication open throughout the semester, both between the student and the instructor and among students, is crucial to each student’s success. Thus, you will earn credit for participating in both class discussions and discussions within your 3 to 4 person group. The class discussions start Day 1 with your introductions. Group discussions will start the second week of class, after everyone is registered with CourseCompass and groups can be formed.

Class Discussions 25 points – 5 points each for the first 5 discussion topics
Every student must post at least two messages per topic. Thus, for example, in the Introductions topic, you must introduce yourself and respond to another student’s introduction.
In addition, you have an opportunity to earn extra credit with further constructive participation

Group Discussions: 25 points – 3 points per chapter for Chapters 2-9 +1 point for joining your group discussion by August 31!

Group Discussions will consist of your questions and/or explanations of concepts from each of the chapters. Each student must post at least twice per chapter:

§  You may write one thing you learned from the chapter – with an explanation of the mathematics in proper written English. Every participant must write something different. OR

§  You may post a specific question that another member of the group then may answer. You earn credit for either posting or answering a question. If a question is posted, another member of the group MUST answer the question.

Homework: Homework is submitted online and each assignment is worth 1 point. A student earns credit for the homework if (s)he completes at least 80% correctly.

Practicing the understanding and application of the concepts through both skill and application problems is crucial to a student’s success in a mathematics course. Intuitive understanding is not enough to be able to apply that understanding in a problem-situation. Thus, it is important to complete all homework assignments in a timely manner. And yes, it is a time-consuming task!

Notebook: Every student must keep a notebook for this course, which will earn up to 50 points. You must keep notes and work just as you would in a traditional class. Its format I will leave up to you. The content must include:

¨        at least one page of notes for each section,
with the number and title of the section at the top of the page and
examples and concepts written out.

¨        Only after your notes, written solutions to the homework problems
Solutions should be worked out neatly.

You must bring your notebook with you to every exam and any time you come to my office. If you take an exam at the Academic Support Center, it is your responsibility to bring it to the instructor’s office to earn credit for your work.

In addition to learning the mathematics content, you are also learning to write the mathematics properly. It is as important to do that in a mathematics class, as it is in an English composition class.

Quizzes: Each online quiz (one per chapter) is worth 10 points. You have “sample tests” accessible from the same page as your quizzes, that you can use as practice quizzes. Quizzes must be completed by the deadline. You have two chances to do the quiz, except for Chapter 1 (no limit) and Chapter 2 (four attempts). You do not have access to the quiz after its deadline has passed. However, you can always go back and review your quiz through the Gradebook.

You can treat the first attempt at each quiz as an initial test of your knowledge, after completing the work in the chapter. It should let you know whether you need to do more work before moving on. The second attempt is one to hold in reserve, if you did not do well the first time.

I strongly encourage you to respect the proper test and quiz taking procedure when taking these quizzes. You should take them without looking at any of your previous work or examples of similar problems. You will only be hurting your chances of doing well on the on-campus exam if you do not. It is important to practice test-taking, in a test-taking environment, before the actual exam. Otherwise, you will not have a successful exam, when the points are crucial to your success in class.

Exams: There will be four 150-point exams and a 200-point comprehensive final. These will be in-class exams. The final exam is the last Thursday of the semester at 6 PM in PS-20. The final exam is required to pass the course.

Why four proctored exams? Over the years, I have increased the number of exams. This is because many students waited until the exam date was near before they started working on the course content. Of course, they did not have a successful experience. Because you can take the exam at our Academic Support Center, scheduling has not been a problem.

THERE WILL BE NO MAKE-UP EXAMS AFTER THE EXAM DATE! If there is a compelling reason why you cannot come to a scheduled exam time, you must notify me WELL AHEAD OF TIME so that we can make arrangements to have the exam proctored.

Additional Activities: Though Course Compass and MyMathLab provide good learning opportunities for you, it is important that you apply that knowledge on assignments on which I can then give you individual feedback. Thus, in addition to the paper Are you ready for this online mathematics course?, we will have 2-4 activities that you will turn in to the instructor and have an opportunity to revise and turn it in a second time. You may turn these assignments in via email (by scanning the content of each page), in person to my office or mailbox, or via standard mail. The first two assignments will be: Problem Solving and Linear Functions in Context. There may be more. Each is worth 20 points.

The final grade will be based on the percentage of total points earned as follows: