Unlike most courses, there are no exams or essays at the end of the course to evaluate your overall performance in AP50. Instead, we will assess the work you do throughout the term and your grade is based on an innovative approach, called specifications grading.

Specifications grading — a pointless system

Put simply, all work you complete in AP50 is evaluated on whether or not it meets stated specifications and in many cases meeting specifications involves putting in demonstrable effort as learning and effort are strongly correlated. There are no points or partial credit. Your grade at the end of the semester depends on the number of units of work for which you have met the stated specifications. If something you submit does not meet specifications, you will have one or more additional opportunities to show that you can meet them. Most importantly, you will always receive timely feedback that will permit you to improve your learning.

This means that your grade will reflect what you accomplish by the end of the semester, not simply what you accomplish during a specific assignment or exam. The advantage of this approach is that it relieves you from the pressure of high-stakes, cumulative exams and permits you to focus on your learning. You can learn from mistakes and build upon them without having those mistakes affect your grade.

Failures — the unavoidable price of success

Throughout your education, you likely have been led to view mistakes and failures as something that is unfavorable and that negatively affects you — something to be ashamed of. However, success is not possible without taking calculated risks, which inevitably means failing sometimes. The road to creativity and innovation, in particular, is littered with failures. “If you haven’t failed, you’re not trying hard enough,” goes a well-known saying. Failure is a problem only if it is your end point. On the way to finding a solution, failure can be very productive as it can teach you a lot (what doesn’t work, what might work, and what you might want to explore in greater detail) and lead you to success.

In AP50, we want to create a culture that encourages creativity and calculated risk taking — one that takes the stigma out of failure. Failure should really be a learning tool — it's ok to fail first and succeed thereafter! We design all of the activities in AP50 so that they leave ample room for errors for anyone (including the teaching team itself!) without compromising your eventual success or your grade. Only then can we guarantee that everyone’s learning will be maximized and that you will learn to feel comfortable with the (productive) failures that go hand-in-hand with creativity.

So, see failures and mistakes — big and small — as learning opportunities, not negatives, as stepping-stones to success, not end points. Be bold and take risks, both as an individual and as a team. Failure, even repeated failure, is a healthy and necessary part of becoming successful. You can rest assured that the assessment in AP50 does not penalize you for any failures you may encounter on the way to success!

Units

Over the course of the semester, you will complete the following short assignment "units" in nine types of activities arranged into six activity categories:

13 reading assignments
13 readiness assurances
11 tutorials
13 weekly assignments
6 project units:
- 3 project presentations and
- 3 project reports
12 teamwork and professionalism units:
- 3 individual expectations
- 3 team contracts, and
- 3 peer and self evaluations (which have 2 parts — your contribution to the team activities and your professionalism)

Each of these 68 units is evaluated on the EMRN scale shown below; an E or an M means you have met the specified expectations for that unit. The grade you earn for the course is determined by the number of units for which you meet specifications (see bottom of this page).

EMRN Scale.png

Note: The Canvas grade book uses a numerical scoring system and therefore we will map the EMRN scale onto a 3–0 numerical scale (E = 3, M = 2, R = 1, N = 0). Keep in mind that E's (3's) are rarely given.

What specifications do I need to meet and how can I revise/resubmit work?

The table below presents an overview of what you need to do to demonstrate meeting specifications — that is, what is required to obtain an M on the EMRN scale, and how you can revise your work or submit new work to meet the specifications. The feedback you receive will tell you where you need to improve to meet specifications; if the feedback you receive is unclear, please consult the teaching team.

Activity	How to meet specifications	Revisions/Resubmissions*
Reading Assignments	Demonstrate thoughtful engagement with the text and others in the class by: contributing questions or comments that start a discussion; providing answers that are helpful to others; starting well before the deadline and returning frequently before the deadline to give yourself time to process the information and react to others. Additional details.	After the deadline for a particular reading assignment, you can continue to work toward meeting specifications by annotating the text and interacting with class mates for one week. The "credit" for the work you submit over the post-deadline week linearly decreases to zero, so the longer you wait, the harder it gets to accumulate the credit you need to meet specifications.
Readiness Assurances	Give the individual round your best effort and answer at least 50% of the questions correctly in the team round. Additional details.	Request a new Readiness Assurance on the same subject.
Tutorials	Complete the tutorial individually in a thoughtful manner and answer all questions correctly after the review with your team during class section. Additional details.	Meet with a member of the teaching team responsible for the tutorials to go over the tutorial.
Weekly assignments	For the individual part, solve each problem, implementing the four-step procedure. For the reflection with your team, correctly identify your mistakes and assess your knowledge. Identify what you need to review to improve your understanding. Additional details.	Contact the members of the teaching team responsible for the weekly assignments to request a new assignment on the same subject.
Project Presentations	An audience invited to attend the project fairs evaluates the project presentations on how engaging and how educational they are. See the project brief for the relevant project for additional details.	None (but you can use one of your virtual tokens, see below)
Project Reports	See the report content and length specifications for the relevant project.	After initial submission, you will receive feedback and an opportunity to resubmit a revised report (single resubmission).
Individual Expectations	Clearly articulate why and how you arrived at your individual expectations for team work. Additional details.	Use the feedback you received to resubmit a revised individual expectation.
Team Contracts	Provide thoughtful responses to prompts and use previous team-work experiences to grow as a collaborator. Additional details.	Use the feedback you received to resubmit a revised or contract.
Peer and Self Evaluations	Contribute your fair share to the project, be fully engaged and respectful while working with others, and evaluate yourself and others fairly and accurately (that is, your evaluations agree with that of your team members). Additional details.	None (but you can use one of your virtual tokens, see below). We will also automatically delete the lowest of your four Peer and Self Evaluations (one from the initial team formation and three from the project teams)

*You can also use a virtual token or an E in the same category to make up for a single R in each category (see virtual tokens below)

Virtual tokens

For a number of activities, such as project presentations and peer evaluations, it is not possible to submit new or revised work. For that reason you will have three virtual tokens which you can use in several different ways (details below):

To upgrade a single R score in a category to an M.
To extend the deadline for an assignment or revision by one week.
To increase your letter grade at the end of the term

There will be one or two opportunities to earn additional virtual tokens during the course of the semester.

Upgrading scores

You can upgrade an R to an M score in three ways:

Resubmit new work, as indicated in the Revision/Resubmission column in the table above
Use an E within in the same activity category to offset a single R (so EMR is equivalent to MMM). Note that you can do this only once in a given category and you cannot use that E for another purpose (e.g., to increase your letter grade at the end of the term).
Use a virtual tokens to upgrade a single R score to an M in a given activity category. Once you have upgraded an R to an M in a given category (say Peer Evaluation), you cannot upgrade another score in that activity category.

If you obtain an N score, you can upgrade your score only by (re)submitting new work.

Timing

You must submit a revision or let us know that you wish to apply a token to upgrade an R score within one week from issuance of that score. You can use a virtual token to extend that week by another week. We will provide feedback on your resubmission as soon as our workflow allows. If your resubmission still does not meet specifications, you have one week from receiving feedback to resubmit new work.

Missed deadlines

If you miss a deadline for an activity, your score for that activity will automatically be N. You must submit work as indicated in the Revision/Resubmission column in the table above within a week of the original deadline. You can use a virtual token to extend that week by another week.

Course grade

The table below shows how many units must meet specifications (M or E) at the end of the semester to earn a given letter grade in a activity category and how well you are doing toward the learning goals. Determine the number of M's or E's you scored in a given category to determine the corresponding letter grade for that category. The base course grade is the lowest grade in all categories. This worksheet permits you to keep track of where you stand during the course of the term.

Activity Category	Course Goal	D	C	B	A
Reading Assignments	Self-directed learning	7	9	11	13
Readiness Assurances	Self-directed learning	7	9	11	13
Tutorials	Content Mastery	8	9	10	11
Weekly Assignments	Content Mastery	10	11	12	13
Projects	Content Mastery	3	4	5	6
Team work and professionalism	Teamwork & Professionalism	9	10	11	12

Plusses and minuses

The base score grade obtained from the table above is adjusted as follows:

If you have earned a total of six E across at least two course goal categories (for example 4 E's for reading assignments and 2 E's for readiness assurances), a plus is added to your letter grade (e.g., A to A+). Note that any E that has been used to offset an R does not count.
If, in addition to the above, you have still have three virtual tokens at the end of the semester, your grade is bumped to the next letter grade with a minus (e.g, B to A-)