Fiddling

When I am fiddling around with grades in Webcourses, you might see points etc. disappear momentarily then reappear a few times during the day. It is normal. So do not panic when you see this.

Some clicker bonus points are up.

I have been messing with the grade book this morning, lots of cleanup and putting things together.

1. Early clicker bonus points: for the three lectures A11, A12 and A13, you get one point for being registered. All but ten of you got at least one bonus point. Good.
2. Semester bonus subtotal: right now it just counts up the clicker bonus points, but we have other bonus points coming in, so stay tuned. NOTE: bonus points on exam questions are up in the total for the exam. This means Exam 2.
3. ..Exam 2 SMA: I have computed your bonus for question 46.
   1. one point for clicking, even if you had an incorrect answer.
   2. two points if you clicked in a basic, true answer.
   3. three points if you clicked in a complicated, true answer.
4. Exam 2: this now adds up the "..Exam 2 scantron" and "..Exam 2 SMA" scores. It is your complete Exam 2 score.
5. Total semester points is now activated. It adds up regular points right now, from HW, clicker and two exams, but not the bonus points yet. Still to come: one big chunk of points from the final.

Plus I re-arranged some of the rows to make it all look simpler.

Add up semester total (regular points) and semester bonus points subtotal, divide by 136, and look that up in the percentage column of the syllabus grades table. That will give you an idea where you are grade-wise right now, if I were to calculate semester grades today.

Clickers pointage is activated; estimate current position.

Students, I just activated the "Clickers pointage" row and a little further down, the "Clickers answered subtotal" row on your My Grades page in Webcourses. The pointage is explained on the syllabus.

The pointage row reflects the points you would earn out of 25 possible on clickers for your semester grade. Remember, I will round this UP to the nearest whole number when I actually do the semester grades on Friday or so.

You can estimate your current grade state by adding up

1. the two exam scores,
2. HW pointage and
3. clickers pointage,

then dividing by 136. Look up this percentage on the syllabus.

There are some odds and ends to fix up, like question 46 from Exam 2 (still not finished!), bonus points etc., but the three figures above will give you a percentage pretty close to what your grade would be if I were to award semester grades today, instead of after the final exam. I estimate that 48 out of 57 students on the roster have at least a C- or higher right now, going into the final exam.

Remember, though: we still have HW and clickers this week, plus the final, so the percentages today can still change, especially due to the final exam.

Section 0003, I just got your scores up.

Now everybody has their scantron score up. Go take a look at your My Grades page in Webcourses.

Grades

I have been looking at exam grades this morning. There are about 30 people on the roster with one exam score missing, either exam 1 or exam 2 -- due to absence, scantron messup or some other reason. That leaves more than 400 others with both exams on the books, and their scores are up in Webcourses.

For this large group, here are some specs:

1. Exam 1 avg. was 72%.
2. Exam 2 avg. was 71%.
3. Both averages are in the normal range I look for. I never give letter grades on individual exams, but if I did, 71% and 72% would be C grades, or C+ if you count + and - letter grades.
4. Looks like maybe eight people have qualified for SSG leader invitations, exam avg. 90% or more... though I have to check a few section 0003 scantrons manually, so it might be that one or two more students qualify in section 0003.
5. About 9 students who took both exams have not gotten up to a passing average (50%). Usually this number is about the same as students at 90% or higher, so this is normal for exam grades.
6. Don't forget, though, that in addition to exams, your CPS and homework scores will combine for a nice chunk of points, 40 points possible, by the end of the semester, which will balance out some low score effects from exams.
7. So stay with it and keep doing your HW and CPS faithfully, and keep that at a high level so that you can get 38 or 39 or 40 of that CPS/HW chunk of points. Those points will come in like the cavalry at the end of the semester. Nice.

Some new data in your My Grades page

There is a new set of data in your My Grades page, related to homework and CPS activity. Individual HW scores you might have already noticed. But now there are two rows to each CPS session: answered and correct. I.e., how many CPS questions you answered, how many you answered correctly.

Your semester grade converts your performance on HW and CPS answered into 16 and 24 points, respectively. I have set up running subtotals for those performance numbers, as well, each with its own row in the My Grade spage, right below the blue part. This will help you figure out what your HW and CPS percentages are at any point.



P.S. The first official CPS session was L5, last Wednesday.

Slowness on the my.ucf.edu channel

There appears to be a teeny bit of slowness on the my.ucf.edu channel, for the updating of grades. I can see all your semester grades, but apparently you guys cannot.

The registrar's office says the updating of grade rosters for students is still cruising along, and will finish up soon, so we will be polite and not get too fussy about it. :)