Janet,
Upon reflecting on our phone conversation yesterday, re-reading the grading information for the Semantic Web class, and looking at my grade book in blackboard I realize I made a foolish mistake. It seems I misunderstood the statement “I will deduct...4 points for each assignment not submitted” as being I would have gotten a zero for the assignment and that I would not get any points for the assignment. I did not think I would have gotten a score of -4 for the assignment as I have never in my academic career had an instructor give negative points for not doing an assignment.
I understand it is expected that each student do their assignments, but my original thinking was if I did well on the last discussion I would have enough points to pass the class at that time. I figured I would take a zero for the last assignment and still pass. Unfortunately, I made a tragic mistake and will not pass the class.
I realize every instructor has their own grading policy, but overall this class’s grading policy has been not been very clear. I feel that the grading policy for class should have been clearer on ramifications of missing an assignment. Perhaps a clearer definition of what the instructor means by “deduct” would have been helpful. As I said before I have never encountered this type of grading policy for missed assignments. I’m sure I’m not the only one. By giving a negative score for an assignment it causes the student to lose double the points, which I find quite troubling. Especially in a class that has so few total points. It also didn’t help that the grading policy was had the incorrect information in it until four days before the term ended.
I accept the responsibility of not doing the assignment and it was a bad decision on my part. I am still willing to accept the grade for missing the assignment; I just wish the grading policy had been clearer regarding missed assignments. I hope in the future you could encourage your instructors to make sure their grading policies are clear regarding how missed assignments are handled and that the policy is consistent with their grade book at the beginning of the term. It would make a students life much easier.