Assessment Overview

A summary of the three mechanisms that will be used to assess your performance in the course is below. Please note the course grading policy, which describes how these three assignments will be used to determine your final course grade.

Participation

This class is a research seminar, and it is the most fun and rewarding when everyone comes to each class meeting prepared to discuss the assigned paper. I ask that you demonstrate your preparation by being ready to engage in discussion. You need not have complete mastery of the paper that we are discussing — but having a comment to offer or question to ask is always appreciated. If you do not feel comfortable participating in class, please reach out to me — I would like to create an environment that is welcoming for discussion, and would not like to inadvertently penalize a student who struggled to find a moment to speak up in class. As an alternative, you may also (or instead) e-mail me a brief (3-5 sentence) reaction to the paper that we will be discussing in class.

I will provide you with weekly feedback on your participation in class, at the level of “check”, “check -“ and “check +.” If you receive a “check -“, you may replace that week’s grade with a check by coming to my office hours (or scheduling a time outside of office hours) to have a brief discussion about your thoughts on that week’s papers. Your final participation grade will be calculated as follows:

• Receive a Check on participation if at least 10/12 Check’s or Check+’s throughout the semester.
• Receive a Check - on participation if at least 10/12 Check-‘s, Check’s or Check+’s throughout the semester.

Note that this policy allows you to entirely miss up to two weeks of participation, with no penalty on your final grade.

Reflection Paper

In addition to discussing papers in class, you will be asked to summarize your reaction to the papers in the first half of class in the form of a reflection paper. The reflection paper provides you to an opportunity to apply critical reasoning skills in the context of the research papers that we discuss in class. In the reflection paper, you will summarize and respond to at least six of the papers that we will discuss in the first six weeks of class. The expected length of the reflection paper is roughly 2,500 words.

Reflection Paper Details and Rubric

Implementation Project

The project will involve a hands-on application of the techniques and tools that we discuss in class, and can be completed either individually or in a group of at most two. Topics for the project will be discussed in the first six weeks of class, and your specific project topic will be finalized soon after. Both research-oriented projects (which implement and evaluate some new idea) and engineering-oriented projects (which make contributions to tools that developers may already use) are welcomed.

Implementation Project Details and Rubric