Workload
All DigIn certificate courses meet or exceed ABOR (Arizona Board of Regents) guidelines for workload. Because these guidelines were formulated for undergraduates, workload for graduate students often exceeds these minimum guidelines. ABOR requires a minimum of 135 hours of work for a 3-credit course. As a rule of thumb, students should expect to spend a minimum of 10 hours per week for a 14 week course.
Grading
This course will use the eCollege Learning Management System as the primary means of instruction.. Modules will be posted to the system each week consisting of special lectures, discussion boards, assignments, quizzes, and links to resources and readings. You are also expected to maintain a blog and contribute to a course WIKI.
This is not a self-paced course. You are expected to keep up and progress as a group. This is important because you and your fellow students will be an important resource for troubleshooting and problem solving. You should count on checking into the eCollege course management system at least five days each week to keep up with announcements, discussions and assignments. The course is, however, conducted asynchronously, so you do not need to check in at any specific time. During the course, opportunities for optional participation in webcasts or other kinds of synchronous learning that occur at specific dates or times may be announced as they become available.
Grading is based on the following elements:
· Class participation, 10%, 100 points
· Weekly assignments, 25%, 250 points
· Individual Blog and Group Wiki, 20%, 200 points
· LAMP Project / ePortfolio Presentation, 30%, 300 points
· Final Exam, 15%, 150 points
· Course Total 1000 points
Class Participation Grade – 100 Points
Your class participation grade is a measure of your participation in class discussions and weekly quizzes. Each week, one or more topics for online discussion will be posted, usually based on assigned readings. You are expected to contribute substantively to the discussions and to be helpful to your fellow students. As a rule of thumb, a good post is at least 100 words and addresses issues raised by the topic.
Good responses to posts are at least 25 words and consist of more than simple acknowledgement of agreement or disagreement. You should expect to provide at least one post and two responses to the posts of your fellow students each week that meet these guidelines. You may also provide shorter posts, nods of agreement and those other things that make discussions interesting, but your grade will reflect the content your substantive posts and responses. Good writing practices are expected.
It is perfectly acceptable to disagree with opinions expressed in the posts of your instructor or fellow students, but you are expected to demonstrate professionalism and respect at all times. Personal attacks, flames, and lack of respect will not be tolerated in the discussion boards.
There will also be a short true-false multiple choice quiz posted each week covering terms and concepts introduced in the lecture or reading. Their primary purpose is to help reinforce key words, acronyms and important ideas The quizzes themselves will not be graded and you may take them as many times as you like. However, you must take them. If you don’t take the weekly quiz each week, it will adversely impact your class participation grade.
Class Participation Grading Scale:
90%-100% - A – Weekly posts and responses are frequent, well articulated, timely and responsive; all quizzes completed on time each week.
80%-89% - B – Weekly posts are less frequent, substantive posts are not provided each and every week or are provided late, some quizzes not completed or completed late.
70%-79% - C – Few posts made; weekly quizzes sporadic, late or not taken at all.
Weekly Assignments – 250 Points
Each week, one or more assignments will be posted for completion. The assignments will consist primarily of specific tasks relating to the hands-on activities you are expected to perform on your LAMP server or in the virtual machine environment (installation, configuration, etc.). You may also be assigned to research topics on the Web and elsewhere and provide short summaries of your findings. Evidence of completion of the tasks will take the form of system logs or answers to specific questions relating to expected outcomes of the assignment. The documentation or required summaries must be submitted to the eCollege drop box by the time and date indicated
Weekly Assignment Grading Scale:
90%-100% - A – All assignments completed on time. Where applicable, the writing is clear, concise and relatively free of grammatical and spelling errors. Evidence is provided that the hands-on portions of the assignment were completed and documented.
80%-89% - B – Some assignments are posted late, or are incomplete, or demonstrate flaws in writing such as poor grammar or spelling. Some hands-on activities are not completed.
70%-79% - C – Few assignments are completed in a timely fashion, or are of overall poor quality or are incomplete.
Individual Blog and Group Wiki – 200 points
Each of you will make weekly entries in a blog. Access to a blog will be provided or you may select the blog host of choice. The blog is intended to be a weekly diary of your activities. You may include documentation of installation or configuration details, outside resources reviewed or evaluated, interesting articles or web sites, comments on relevant blogs, or other progress on your ePortfolio. Entries should be made every week. A good rule of thumb for length is 250-450 words weekly, or about ½ to 1 standard page. You are encouraged to read the blogs of your fellow students and comment if and as appropriate.
Each of you will also contribute to a Wiki that will be set up to document best practices, configuration details, and other aspects of the LAMP installation process along with links to resources and support options.
Blog and Wiki Grading Scale:
90%-100% - A – The blog is updated at least weekly. Postings are responsive, articulate and topical. Postings or edits to the Wiki are frequent and responsive.
80%-89% - B – The blog is not always updated weekly, or some posts are lacking in clarity, topicality or relevance. Posting or edits to the Wiki are less frequent or less substantive.
70%-79% - C – The blog is rarely updated, or entries demonstrate poor writing, lack of clarity, or are largely irrelevant. There are few postings or edits to the Wiki.
LAMP Project / EPortfolio Presentation – 300 points
Each of you will be responsible for a short presentation due one week before the end of class describing your LAMP project and environment. The resulting presentation will be the first artifact comprising the ePortfolio you will develop as you work through the certificate program. The presentation may be in the form of an annotated PowerPoint, voice over PowerPoint, or standard term paper. You should describe your overall progress in building the LAMP server, the major hurdles you faced, lessons learned and current status of the system. The presentation should be developed so that if presented live, it would last approximately 10 minutes. Note that your LAMP system does not need to be entirely complete or 100% functional as long as you have adequately documented problems and the efforts you have made to resolve problems or technical barriers. During the last week of class, you will review your fellow students’ presentations and discuss them in an eCollege discussion board.
LAMP Presentation Grading Scale:
90%-100% - A –.The presentation adequately describes the current status of your LAMP server project and addresses the issues raised in the assignment in the time frame suggested. Composition and grammar meet graduate level writing expectations.
80%-89% - B – The presentation is lacking detail, or does not included all the suggested elements, or is somewhat shorter than the suggested length, or demonstrates flaws in composition or grammar.
70%-79% - C – The presentation is fundamentally non-responsive, or demonstrates lack of understanding of the LAMP architecture, or completely fails to address many of the suggested elements.
Final Exam – 150 points
The final exam will consist of true-false and multiple choice questions drawn from the quiz bank (75 points) and a short essay reflecting your vision of technology and its role in the digital information environment (75 points). Additional details on the essay question will be provided prior the exam.
Course Grade
90% - 100%, 900-1000 points, A
80% - 89%, 800-899 points, B
70% - 79%, 700-799 points, C
