Methods of Evaluation
There will be no exams or graded quizzes. This course is designed as a low-stakes environment. You are invited to participate in new to you and difficult things including data analysis with computational tools, data visualization, and communications. I expect that students have a wide range of different experiences and backgrounds as it comes to these. However, this means that I am expecting you to take ownership of your own learning and to critically examine what you learn and how. I expect you to actively engage with all coursework and to keep a journal of your own learning and questions.
Learning Notes
- Why: Because you will experience and deal with many new concepts, it is important to keep timely and regular notes on the concepts you learned. These notes are designed to help you engage with the material and to create structure in your learning. They also serve as regular practice for the developed workflows.
- How: You are expected to keep regular and timely notes on your own learning and the questions that you encounter, while you engage with the materials. In addition to regular notes, I will supply you with guiding questions about specific topics. The journal will serve as a basis for class discussions and feedback to me.
- Grading: These reflections will be reviewed periodically and will be graded for completion and adherence to submission requirements.
Here is a guide for crafting learning notes.
Learning Reflections
- Why: There will be guided learning reflections throughout the semester. In addition to granular and weekly notes, learning reflections are designed to engage with material from several weeks in a more integrated way and to keep track of your overall learning and experience in this class. They also serve as a check-in for me to assess whether you and the class as a whole is making progress towards the learning outcomes.
- How: Because I am expecting diverse backgrounds and experiences at the beginning of class you will not be evaluated based on the content you learned/ mastered but rather on whether you are actively working towards making progress on your own learning and what steps you are taking to be as successful as possible in this course.
- Grading: These reflections will be graded using a rubric that assesses depth of engagement with the course material, depth of personal reflections, and evidence for making progress towards course objectives.
Details about individual learning reflections will be added here.
Class Participation
- Why: Because this is a small class and most activities will be team-based, active class participation is expected and will be part of your grade.
- How: The assigned grade will include instructor-, peer-, and self-assessment of your participation as well as completion of activities.
- Grading: In most cases grades will be assigned based on evidence for active participation with an appropriate depth of engagement. This does not mean that you have to do everything right but show effort and take ownership of your learning. Frequently, assignments will have a content component (e.g. specific things you are supposed to learn) and a practice component for using the tools that we introduced. Therefore, it is important that you follow the instructions carefully regarding submission, tools to use, etc. Remember that learning is a process and that the final product (e.g. the submitted assignment) is less important than what you learned in the process.
Class Project and Presentation
- Why: The course project provides an opportunity to apply your skills as a team to tackle a data analysis project of your choice. This allows you to integrate and practice what you learned.
- How: You will complete a multi-week team project on an environmental problem/ question of your choice that will involve the entire environmental data analysis process, including defining a problem, finding data, analyzing and visualizing environmental datasets and communicating your findings with a specific audience in mind. In addition to a written report, you will complete a visual presentation that highlights your key findings.
- Grading: Your project will be graded based on completion of intermediate milestones, quality of final report and presentation, and evidence for critical engagement with the research topic.
The below resources are from the last time I taught this course and will be updated soon.
Your deliverables are:
- A Semester Project Report
- An In-class Presentation
The semester project grade will be equally weighted between your group’s Report and Presentation. Additionally, 10% of the semester project grade will be assigned individually for semester project contributions using peer and self-assessment (see assignment on Canvas).