Grading

Posting and commenting on this blog is a graded assignment. Usually I do this for 1 class per semester, and not every semester. Typically this is an MBA level Managerial Economics class — often an online one.

This is a communications exercise. Grading is based almost entirely on spelling and grammar. Dr. Tufte steers and corrects the economics of the students through the comments.

The goal of this exercise is for students to play with the economics ideas that interest them. But they must do their playing in a form that presents themselves well. The classroom analog is an open-ended discussion. The business analog is talking shop over lunch.

The semester is divided into 6 half-month blocks. Students are randomly assigned to post in 2 blocks, to comment in 2 blocks, and to be off for 2 blocks. I'm doing this a little differently this semester. It will be 4 shorter blocks, going all posts, all comments, all posts, all comments.

When assigned to post, students must produce 1 post that must link to some primary source. This is graded out of 100 points.

When assigned to comment, students must produce 2 comments (links to primary sources are nice but not required). Each of these is worth 50 points.

Over the course of the semester, all of a student's blogging constitutes 1/3 of their grade. Since they participate in 4 blocks, each block is worth 1/12 of their grade. So they write 2 posts, each worth 1/12 of their grade, and 4 comments each worth 1/24 of their grade. 1/2 of their grade. Since they participate in 4 blocks, each block is worth 1/8 of their grade. So they write 2 posts, each worth 1/8 of their grade, and 4 comments each worth 1/16 of their grade.

This blog is public and anonymous. Dr. Tufte occasionally has difficulty differentiating comments that should be graded from those that shouldn't be. I apologize in advance for attaching a grade to something I shouldn't have scored.