Evaluation and Grading
September 14, 2005
Grading
and Integrity Policies
Students will be evaluated on their work over the two terms. The grade of "IP" (In Progress) will be assigned to each student at the end of the first term of the sequence. Grades for both terms will be assigned at the end of the second term. In most cases, the same grade will be given for both terms though there can be unique instances where they can differ. If, for some reason, you drop the course prior to completing CS 488, you will receive a failing grade for CS 487. It cannot be stressed enough that students are expected to contribute to their project and meet their obligations in a timely manner. Academic integrity is a critical success factor for the course. Academic or intellectual dishonesty will NOT be tolerated.
Each project will be assessed with respect to whether it succeeded or failed in meeting requirements and expectations as well as the quality of the process that was carried out to develop the project. A project that fails due to a dysfunctional team or consistent failure to meet milestones will be penalized. A project that succeeds in spite of a dysfunctional team or consistent failure to meet milestones will also be penalized. “Death March” projects are not successes.
The grading process also evaluates the team and individual processes followed. This will be evidenced by technical and management documents to be submitted and the individual engineering notebooks to be maintained by each team member.
The Capstone evaluation process balances group performance with individual performance. You will see that there is a 60:40 bias towards team grades. However, the individual grade is not insignificant. Past Capstone experience supports the thesis that superior individual performance will lead to excellent team grades if everyone leverages their strengths for the common good of the team.
Grades will be based on the following factors and distributed as follows:
|
Team Grades Teamwork Project Processes Project Ou |
20% 20% 20% |
|
Individual Grades Participation Engineering Notebook |
20% 20% |
It is the entire
team’s responsibility to ensure the team works! The Teamwork grade is the joint ability of the
team to meet obligations including meeting with the sponsor, the instructor,
and with each other. Teams should start
internal, instructor and sponsor meetings with a brief but useful agenda, and
both efficiently and effectively proceed through the agenda to resolve issues
and assign follow-on actions. Team
presentations should have responsibilities clearly allocated, and smoothly
coordinated during the session.
Differences of opinion among members should be rationally and
professionally discussed and resolved with minimum conflict. Failure to show at scheduled meetings will invite
significant grading deductions. If
meeting times need to be changed, appropriate reasons and lead-time to
re-schedule are in order. Project
sponsors will be surveyed as to team interactions and attendance at monthly
sponsor meetings. All members of a team will receive the same team grade.
The effectiveness of the team is highly dependent on the processes it creates and follows (as well as the capabilities of the team members of course). Evidence of the quality of the team’s processes will be derived from the documentation of the requirements, the quality of the team’s project management plan, the agendas for each meeting, and the follow-up action items flowing from each meeting. You will be provided templates and guidelines you are expected to adapt as required and follow. Your requirements document and project plan will be due at the end of the 1st term. Once team meeting begin half-way through the 1st term, you will be expected to produce and post agendas and minutes, in the form of follow-up action items, for each sponsor, instructor and internal team meeting. Guidelines for posting agendas and action items will also be provided.
Project ou
The Participation grade will be mainly derived from attendance and participation at weekly progress meetings and presentations and assessed in terms of individual reporting of issues, progress and problem resolutions. All team members are encouraged to get involved and communicate about the project during meeting and during presentations. Demonstrated unfamiliarity with lecture materials during a status meeting will be reflected in the student's Participation grade. Likewise, consistent failure to attend status meetings or the inability to coherently answer questions about the status of their deliverables will impact on this grade. Note that Participation and Teamwork account for a significant portion of a student's grade, so students that blow off the project can expect a failing grade.
Maintaining an Engineering Notebook (ENB) is considered an
engineering best practice. Engineers
continuously annotate their daily activities, decisions, key facts, references,
actions, e
Engineering
Notebooks must meet a minimum standard of credibility. Every Capstone student is expected to
carefully review and follow the ENB guidelines for this course. The instructor will randomly collect
Engineering Notebooks at the weekly status meetings, briefly review them, and
add the date and time of the review and possibly some comments. Additionally, at the end of the project, each
student's ENB will be collected and evaluated by the Instructor - Notebooks
will be returned after grades are assigned.