Class Requirements and Grading

I know that all of you are wondering how each of you will be graded in our class. Grading will be a mixture of individual and group grades. In general, your grade will be comprised of:

Major Examination (40%)
Tasks and others (30%)
Class Blog (30%)

There will be two major examinations: a midterm and finals. However, I am considering having a culminating activity instead of a final examination. Perhaps a two-day exhibit about Asia to show our class output and activities. I am hoping that the school administration will permit this (cross your fingers) and that (if ever they do) you are up to the task of putting up a two-day “Asian extravaganza” for the school.

The task part of your grade includes the activities (and output) that we will have in class. This will also cover everything else not covered by the other two criteria. Quizzes, writing assignments, class presentations, etc. will be included here as well with each item having equal weight as the others.

For the class blog you will be graded using a rubric that I will make available in our “sharebox” (the one below the “archives” section). Your class blog will be graded in four areas: content, interest, navigation, layout. There are a couple of websites and blogs that make it their business to rate blogs; I’m considering asking them to rate your blogs and base your grades on their rating and comments. Note that I’m just considering the idea and am not yet fully sold to it.

I hope this sufficiently clarifies the grade requirements for the class.
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About plagiarism and making myself clear

Maybe a some of you don't have the time to go through all the comments made in all of the class blogs so I'll repeat what i said in one of my comments in this post:

PLEASE ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR SOURCES WHEN YOU COPY SOMETHING AND POST IT IN YOUR BLOG! If its from hard-copy reference material say so. If its from another website, provide a link to that website and then write your input.

GO THROUGH THE RUBRIC FOR THE CLASS BLOG PROJECT! It's found (and downloadable) in the share box below the archive section. It would also be good for you to note the other criteria in the rubric so that you can review your class blog and align it with the rubric.

JUST TO EMPHASIZE MY OPINION ABOUT PLAGIARISM - IF I FIND THAT YOU HAVE POSTED SOMETHING IN YOUR CLASS BLOG THAT IS SOMEONE ELSE'S WORK BUT YOU CLAIM IT AS YOUR OWN ... YOUR ENTIRE CLASS WILL GET A FAILING GRADE FOR THE CLASS BLOG PROJECT.

I HOPE THIS IS UNDERSTOOD BY EVERYONE.

Why am i being particular about plagiarism in your blogs? There are many "netizens" who make a living looking for copied/plagiarized content in websites and reporting them to the authors of the copied/plagiarized content. What happens is that your blog might be shut down or attacked!

On the issue of posting versus commenting: note that long comments make it difficult for others to navigate your site. Non-sense comments also clutter up the comments section of your posts. A blog is not a forum so (at least) try to keep comments concise and relevant to the purpose or topic of the post.
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