Difference between revisions of "Eval Sessions"

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Our in-class evaluations will test your completion of the assignments and allow you to catch up with important concepts. They consist of five integrated parts:
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Our in-class evaluations will test your completion of the assignments and allow you to catch up with important concepts.  
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There may also be questions on the concepts and methods, especially their computational aspects. You may be asked to give your opinion on possible improvements or generalizations and to think through some "problem solving" questions, and apply solution strategies. It may be useful to discuss your understanding with your classmates in person or on the mailing list.
  
# Prior to the evaluation session, we will '''collect interesting questions''' on the Student Wiki. More detailed instructions are there, but in principle you should try to identify checkpoints in the material that allow us to assess the degree of understanding and whether students are able to put the material into practice. Pure memorization questions will probably not make it to the actual Quiz, good questions should stimulate you to think. Authoring and editing these questions will contribute to your participation mark. I will compile the Quiz largely from these questions, so if you know how to answer them, you will be well prepared.
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These evaluations (normally) consist of five integrated parts: collecting questions, review, quiz, take-up, and final assessment.
# We start off each class session with an open ended '''Question and Answer period''' to address and discuss any remaining questions. If you are able to guess what will be '''on''' the quiz, good on you: I'll pretend I don't know what will be on the Quiz and answer every question to the best of my ability.
 
# '''Write the actual "Quiz"''', it will be 20 to 30 minutes long. You write it with a black or blue pen.
 
# Immediately afterwards you will '''propose the marks for your own Quiz''' while we discuss the answers. You will mark with a red pen and you will make sure the correct answers are recorded on your Quiz. This is crucial: you have to document that you are aware of a (the?) correct answer for each question, either at the outset, or while marking. You are responsible for marking your answers honestly, for prorating partially correct answers correctly, and for recording your final proposed "mark" without error. Please refer to further clarification below. '''Please understand that this is a trust-based process that requires a high level of academic integrity. If you fail to apply such integrity to your marking, you may be committing an Academic Offence.''' You should record your "mark" for your records and this will usually be identical to the final mark that I will assign for the quiz.
 
# I will '''confirm your proposed "marks"''' while reviewing your work and spot-checking some quizzes in detail. If I find errors including but not limited to: that the correct answer is missing, that a wrong answer has been marked as correct, that an inappropriately high partial mark has been proposed, that errors have been made while adding the marks, I will revise the Quiz mark. This may include further deduction of partial marks, full marks for a question, or for the entire quiz. Be ver clear: if you mark incorrectly, you may receive zero marks for the quiz. However, in addition, if I have the feeling that there is a pattern of incorrect marking or that the error indicates intent, I will consider whether an Academic Offence may have been committed.  
 
  
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Prior to the evaluation session, we will '''collect interesting questions''' on the [http://steipe.biochemistry.utoronto.ca/abc/students/index.php/CurrentQuizzes Student Wiki]. A more detailed discussion on Quiz questions is [http://steipe.biochemistry.utoronto.ca/abc/students/index.php/CurrentQuizzes '''there'''], we strive to identify checkpoints in the material that assess the degree of understanding and ability to put the material into practice. Pure memorization questions will probably not make it to the actual Quiz, good questions should stimulate you to think. Designing, writing, <u>editing, and improving</u> these questions will contribute to your participation mark. I will compile the actual Quiz largely from these questions, so if you know how to answer them, you will be well prepared.
  
Typical questions will ask about your experiences while going through the assignments, and your basic understanding of concepts -  what you where doing and why you were doing it. I try to make these questions reasonably easy for anyone who has completed the assignments with an active mind. It should be possible to get a perfect score on all of them. However careful, structured thinking will be required.
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I really need you to think along with the course, and designing your own quiz questions is an excellent way to do this.  remember: '''a part of your participation marks will depend on your contributions to these pages.''' On these pages I have provided a sample question for every week from previous quizzes so you can get an idea of what you may encounter.
  
;The goal of the quiz is to test whether the readings and assignments have been completed with understanding and active mental participation.
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There may also be questions on the concepts and methods, especially their computational aspects. You may be asked to give your opinion on possible improvements or generalizations and to think through some "problem solving" questions. It may be useful to discuss your understanding with your classmates in person or on the mailing list.
 
  
I really need you to think along with the course, and designing your own quiz questions is an excellent way to do this. On the Student Wiki you will find '''[http://steipe.biochemistry.utoronto.ca/abc/students/index.php/BCH441_Quiz_questions a page]''' that collects quiz questions for every week, on which you can submit proposed questions/answers and critique question proposals. '''Four of your participation marks will depend on your contributions to these pages.''' On these pages I have provided a sample question for every week from previous quizzes so you can get an idea of what you may encounter.
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We start off each class session with an open ended '''Question and Answer period''' to address and discuss any remaining questions. If you are able to guess what will be on the quiz, good on you: I'll answer every question in class to the best of my ability.
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We will pick up the quiz right after writing and mark it in class.
 
  
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'''Write the actual "Quiz"''', it will be about 20 minutes long. You write it with a black or blue pen. The rules are the same as for other academic evaluations: don't cheat. This is actually slightly more responsibility than you might think: it's not the intent that counts, but the action and this means that "not knowing you are committing an Academic Offence" does not mean none has been committed. If there are any questions about what that means for the practice of writing or marking the quiz, ask me for clarification<ref>This includes but is not limited to: Don't write after time is up. Don't look at your neighbour's work. Don't look at the work of the guy next to your neighbour either. Don't use unauthorized aids. Don't communicate with others while the quiz is being written.</ref>. 
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==Marking==
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*You will mark your own quiz.
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*You must bring a black or blue pen to write the quiz.  
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*You must bring a <span style="color:#DD0000;">'''red'''</span> pen for marking.  
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*You should write down and explain the right answer to yourself. Write legibly: if I like your explanation I might count the question as correct even if you made a mistake.  
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*You must not make mistakes in your marking. If I find errors in my spot-checks I will mark the quiz as a zero.
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*Write down your quiz marks for immediate feedback on your course performance. I will email you in case marks change, so you can maintain a good idea of where you stand.
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Immediately afterwards you will '''mark your own Quiz''' while we discuss the answers. You will mark with a <span style="color:#DD0000;">'''red'''</span> pen and you will make sure the correct answers are recorded on your Quiz. This is crucial: at some point you need to have a (the?) correct answer written down, either at the outset, or while marking. If the answer still isn't clear to you, ask, ask again, until you understand.
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You are responsible for marking your answers honestly, for prorating partially correct answers correctly, and for recording your final proposed "mark" without error. Please refer to further clarification below. '''Please understand that this is a trust-based process that requires a high level of academic integrity. If you fail to apply such integrity to your marking, you may be committing an Academic Offence.''' You should record your "mark" for your records and if done correctly this will be identical to the final mark that I will assign for the quiz. This will also give you some indication of where you stand, before the course drop date.
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I won't return the quizzes since I need them for reference when I assign final term grades. I also don't want to foster the misconception that you could prepare for the final exam by memorizing answers to quiz questions. Rather we should collaborate on the Quiz Questions section of the Student Wiki and make that a useful resource for intelligent questions and annotated solution strategies. But if you must have them as a record, you may of course take a picture of your quiz.
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I will '''confirm your proposed marks''' while reviewing your work and spot-checking some quizzes in detail. If I find errors including but not limited to: that the correct answer is missing, that a wrong answer has been marked as correct, that an inappropriately high partial mark has been recorded, that errors have been made while adding the marks, I will revise the Quiz mark. This may include further deduction of partial marks, full marks for a question, or for the entire quiz. To be very clear: '''if you mark incorrectly, you may receive zero marks for the quiz'''. However, in addition, if it appears that there is a pattern of incorrect marking or that the error indicates intent, I will consider whether an Academic Offence may have been committed. If I need to change a mark for a quiz, I will e mail you, but in general that won't be until shortly before grades are due.
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==Missed quizzes==
 
==Missed quizzes==
You may miss as many quizzes as you want, I will initially score these as zero. For your final grade, I will record the marks of the (lower) {{WP|quartile}} of all your quizzes to replace the zeros. This value is easily calculated with the '''R''' <code>summary()</code> function. Since we are writing eleven quizzes, this means you will get partial marks for up to three missed quizzes. Conversely, if all your quizzes have perfect marks but you miss two, these two will be counted as perfect scores.
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You may miss as many quizzes as you want, I will initially score these as zero. For your final grade, I will record the marks of the (lower) {{WP|quartile}} of all your quizzes to replace the zeros. This value is easily calculated with the '''R''' <code>summary()</code> function. If all your quizzes have perfect marks and you miss less than the quartile break, the missed quizzes will get perfect marks too.
  
  
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==Notes==
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<references/>
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[[Category: Bioinformatics]]
 
[[Category: Bioinformatics]]
 
</div>
 
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Revision as of 14:28, 5 February 2016

Self-Evaluation and Feedback


 

Our in-class evaluations will test your completion of the assignments and allow you to catch up with important concepts. There may also be questions on the concepts and methods, especially their computational aspects. You may be asked to give your opinion on possible improvements or generalizations and to think through some "problem solving" questions, and apply solution strategies. It may be useful to discuss your understanding with your classmates in person or on the mailing list.

These evaluations (normally) consist of five integrated parts: collecting questions, review, quiz, take-up, and final assessment.

Missed quizzes

You may miss as many quizzes as you want, I will initially score these as zero. For your final grade, I will record the marks of the (lower) quartile of all your quizzes to replace the zeros. This value is easily calculated with the R summary() function. If all your quizzes have perfect marks and you miss less than the quartile break, the missed quizzes will get perfect marks too.


To illustrate:

# some vector of quiz results. Three quizzes have been missed.
x <- c(3.3, 0, 3.2, 3.6, 0, 2.8, 2.5, 4.0, 0, 2.9, 3.7)
 
summary(x)
#   Min. 1st Qu.  Median    Mean 3rd Qu.    Max. 
#  0.000   1.250   2.900   2.364   3.450   4.000 
 
# Replace all zero values with 1st. quantile
x[x==0] <- quantile(x, probs=c(0.25))
 
x
 [1] 3.30 1.25 3.20 3.60 1.25 2.80 2.50 4.00 1.25 2.90 3.70

sum(x)
# [1] 29.75
 

# Almost the same vector. But four quizzes have been missed.
# I am removing the lowest mark: 2.5.
x <- c(3.3, 0, 3.2, 3.6, 0, 2.8, 0, 4.0, 0, 2.9, 3.7) 

summary(x)
#   Min. 1st Qu.  Median    Mean 3rd Qu.    Max. 
#  0.000   0.000   2.900   2.136   3.450   4.000 
 
x[x==0] <- quantile(x, probs=c(0.25))
x
# [1] 3.3 0.0 3.2 3.6 0.0 2.8 0.0 4.0 0.0 2.9 3.7
 
# Note that in this case all zeros remain, since the lower quartile is zero.
# You will probably want to avoid this situation and thus miss as few 
# quizzes as possible to have a buffer for unexpected situations.

sum(x)
[1] 23.5  # Missing an additional quiz has dropped the total marks by 6.25 points.


Notes

  1. This includes but is not limited to: Don't write after time is up. Don't look at your neighbour's work. Don't look at the work of the guy next to your neighbour either. Don't use unauthorized aids. Don't communicate with others while the quiz is being written.

1:

Prior to the evaluation session, we will collect interesting questions on the Student Wiki. A more detailed discussion on Quiz questions is there, we strive to identify checkpoints in the material that assess the degree of understanding and ability to put the material into practice. Pure memorization questions will probably not make it to the actual Quiz, good questions should stimulate you to think. Designing, writing, editing, and improving these questions will contribute to your participation mark. I will compile the actual Quiz largely from these questions, so if you know how to answer them, you will be well prepared.

I really need you to think along with the course, and designing your own quiz questions is an excellent way to do this. remember: a part of your participation marks will depend on your contributions to these pages. On these pages I have provided a sample question for every week from previous quizzes so you can get an idea of what you may encounter.

2:

We start off each class session with an open ended Question and Answer period to address and discuss any remaining questions. If you are able to guess what will be on the quiz, good on you: I'll answer every question in class to the best of my ability.

3:

Write the actual "Quiz", it will be about 20 minutes long. You write it with a black or blue pen. The rules are the same as for other academic evaluations: don't cheat. This is actually slightly more responsibility than you might think: it's not the intent that counts, but the action and this means that "not knowing you are committing an Academic Offence" does not mean none has been committed. If there are any questions about what that means for the practice of writing or marking the quiz, ask me for clarification[1].

4:

Immediately afterwards you will mark your own Quiz while we discuss the answers. You will mark with a red pen and you will make sure the correct answers are recorded on your Quiz. This is crucial: at some point you need to have a (the?) correct answer written down, either at the outset, or while marking. If the answer still isn't clear to you, ask, ask again, until you understand.

You are responsible for marking your answers honestly, for prorating partially correct answers correctly, and for recording your final proposed "mark" without error. Please refer to further clarification below. Please understand that this is a trust-based process that requires a high level of academic integrity. If you fail to apply such integrity to your marking, you may be committing an Academic Offence. You should record your "mark" for your records and if done correctly this will be identical to the final mark that I will assign for the quiz. This will also give you some indication of where you stand, before the course drop date.

I won't return the quizzes since I need them for reference when I assign final term grades. I also don't want to foster the misconception that you could prepare for the final exam by memorizing answers to quiz questions. Rather we should collaborate on the Quiz Questions section of the Student Wiki and make that a useful resource for intelligent questions and annotated solution strategies. But if you must have them as a record, you may of course take a picture of your quiz.

5:

I will confirm your proposed marks while reviewing your work and spot-checking some quizzes in detail. If I find errors including but not limited to: that the correct answer is missing, that a wrong answer has been marked as correct, that an inappropriately high partial mark has been recorded, that errors have been made while adding the marks, I will revise the Quiz mark. This may include further deduction of partial marks, full marks for a question, or for the entire quiz. To be very clear: if you mark incorrectly, you may receive zero marks for the quiz. However, in addition, if it appears that there is a pattern of incorrect marking or that the error indicates intent, I will consider whether an Academic Offence may have been committed. If I need to change a mark for a quiz, I will e mail you, but in general that won't be until shortly before grades are due.