Page Synopsis:

There are no high-stakes assessments in AP50, but the course requires continuous effort
To earn an A, you need to meet specifications on every single one of the 60 assignment units
Be sure to keep track of where you stand and periodically review your scores in the Canvas Grades page.
You can request a make-up for any work that does not meet specifications within a week from obtaining your score
There are firm deadlines for all assignment units
Virtual tokens provide additional flexibility in meeting specifications and extending deadlines

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 each semester and your grade at the end of each semester is based on an innovative approach, called specifications grading. Say goodbye to stress and anxiety! We want you to focus on your learning and if you don't do as well as you had hoped on any of the activities, you can always improve your learning and your work.

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 simply 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 each 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 specific assignments. The advantage of this approach is that it relieves you from the pressure of high-stakes, cumulative examinations (there are none in AP50!) 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 each semester in AP50, you will complete the following short assignment "units" in nine types of activities arranged into six activity categories:

Each of these 60 units is evaluated on the EMRN scale shown below; an M or an E means you have met the specified expectations for that unit. The letter grade you obtain is determined by the number of units for which you meet specifications at the end of each semester (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.

A note about M and E

Note that both M and E mean you have met specifications. Because an E means "exemplary," E's are rarely given, so don't set as goal for yourself to obtain an E for every unit — you can obtain an A in the course by earning M's only!

However, E scores do offer the opportunity to offset R scores without resubmitting new work or to upgrade your letter grade at the end of the semester (see Grade Adjustments below). To increase your chance of obtaining an E, you may submit a note documenting why you believe your work deserves an E rather than an M. In your note, you must provide evidence that substantiates why your work on a given unit is truly exemplary. You must submit this note to Eric before the work in question is evaluated — that is, before scores are released on Canvas. Note that submitting a note is not required to earn an E — if your work is exemplary, you will earn an E.

Virtual tokens

To provide some flexibility, you can use virtual tokens to:

upgrade a single R score in a given activity category to an M (to be requested within one week from issuance of R score)
extend a deadline by one week (request extension using this form)
increase your letter grade at the end of the term (see Grade Adjustments below)

You will receive six virtual tokens at the beginning of the semester, three of which are conditional on completing four questionnaires over the course of the semester (two at the beginning and two at the end of the semester).

To earn these last three virtual tokens, you must

complete all four questionnaires,
submit them all before their deadlines, and
put in an honest effort to answer all questions (answering randomly or without much thought does not count).

If you use more than three virtual tokens over the course of the semester and you do not complete all four questionnaires, the applied virtual-token upgrades will be undone and any work for which a virtual-token-based extension was granted will be excluded from the final grade calculation.

Improving R and N scores

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

Request a make-up using this form and submit new work that meets specifications. Your request must be submitted within one week from receiving your score. If your new submission still does not meet specifications, you have one week from receiving feedback to resubmit new work.
Use an E within in the same activity category to offset a single R, turning both the E and the R into an M (so EMR is equivalent to MMM). This offset is made automatically — you do not need to request it. Note that this offset is applied only once in a given activity category (so EERR in a given category, say tutorials, is equivalent to EMMR, not MMMM).
Use a virtual token to upgrade a single R score to an M in a given activity category. You can only do this once in a given activity category and you cannot use that virtual token to increase your letter grade at the end of the semester. You must complete a request to do so within one week of issuance of the R score.

To improve an N, you must request a make-up and (re)submit new work. If your new submission still does not meet specifications, you have one week from receiving feedback to resubmit new work.

Deadlines and extensions

To prevent accumulation of work at the end of the semester, it is important that you adhere to all posted due dates and deadlines. Likewise, if you wish to improve an R or N by (re)submitting work, you must do so within one week from receiving your score. If you anticipate not being able to make a posted deadline/due date, you can request an extension. Extensions are granted upon providing documentation (official note from the University, Resident Dean, etc.) of any mitigating circumstances. Alternatively, you can submit a virtual token to extend a deadline by one week.

Missed deadlines

If you miss a deadline for an activity, your score for that activity will automatically be N. To improve your score, request a make-up as indicated in the Revision/Resubmission column in the table above within a week of the original deadline.

Course letter grade

To earn an A, you must meet specifications on all 60 units. This may seem like a high bar to pass, but:

there are no exams in this course
you can make up any units for which you have not met specifications (details below)
you can upgrade scores with virtual tokens (details below)

If you do not meet specifications on all units at the end of the semester, your letter grade is determined by first determining your base course grade and then applying adjustments, as explained below.

Base course grade

To determine your base course grade, look up the lowest grade across all categories in the table below. Each row shows how many units must meet specifications to earn a given grade in that activity category and how well you are doing toward the learning goals. In accordance with Harvard's policy on letter grades, A's represent work whose excellent quality indicates a full mastery of the subject; B's indicate a good comprehension of the course material, a good command of the skills needed to work with the course material, and full engagement with the course requirements and activities; C's represent work that reflects adequate and satisfactory comprehension of the course material and the skills needed to work with the course material and completion of the basic requirements of assigned work and class participation; D's indicate minimal command of the course materials and minimal participation in class activities which, while unsatisfactory, is still worthy of course credit toward the degree.

Activity Category	Course Goal	D	C	B	A
Reading Assignments	Self-directed learning	6	8	10	12
Readiness Assurances	Self-directed learning	6	8	10	12
Tutorials	Content Mastery	6	8	10	12
Weekly Assignments	Content Mastery	9	8	11	12
Projects	Content Mastery	1	2	3	4
Team work and professionalism	Teamwork & Professionalism	5	6	7	8

Example: If you meet specifications on 10/12 Readiness Assurances, your grade for that activity category is a B. If you meet specifications on all other units, your base course grade is a B.

Grade adjustments

The base score grade obtained 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., B to B+). Note that any E that has been used to offset an R does not count.
If, in addition to the above, you have three or more unused virtual tokens (see bottom of this page) at the end of the semester, your grade is bumped to the next letter grade with a minus (e.g, B to A-)

This worksheet permits you to keep track of where you stand during the course of the term. To avoid surprises, be sure to periodically review your scores in the Canvas Grades page.

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. Please. note that any make-up requests must be submitted within one week from the date that the score for that unit is posted on Canvas.

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. There is no need to request an extensions or makeup for this additional post-deadline week.
Readiness Assurances	Give the individual round your best effort and obtain a score of at least 50% 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.	If your individual work doesn't meet expectations, review the feedback in Canvas and improve your work. Next, request a make-up to arrange to meet with a member of the teaching team responsible for the tutorials to go over your improved work.
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.	Review the feedback you received in Gradescope and then request a make-up assignments on the same subject.
Project Presentations	An audience invited to attend the project fairs evaluates how original, how engaging, and how educational your team's project presentations are. See the project brief for the relevant project for additional details.	None (but you can offset it with an E in another Project Presentation or use one of your virtual tokens)
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.
Individual Expectations	Clearly articulate why and how you arrived at your individual expectations for team work. Additional details.	Request a make-up and use the feedback you received to submit a revised individual expectation.
Team Contracts	Provide thoughtful responses to prompts and use previous team-work experiences to grow as a collaborator. Additional details.	Request a make-up and use the feedback you received to submit a revised individual expectation.
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 offset it with an E in another Peer and Self evaluation or use one of your virtual tokens, see below).

*You can also use a virtual token or an E in the same category to upgrade a single R in each category (see Improving R and N scores above)