14:332:452 Software Engineering

In-class Quizzes

At the start of each class (except the first two), we will conduct short quizzes to gauge student understanding of the class material. These are standard paper and pencil quizzes where students are given a simple software engineering problem to solve using the knowledge from the preceding lecture. Unlike team projects, the quizzes promote individual preparation and indicate what every student must know in order to engage in class assignments.
Also see: Five reasons to embrace the class quiz, according to cognitive science.

1.1 Quiz Policies

Important policies:

All quizzes are open book, meaning that students can have access to the textbook or any other paper-based materials. No phones, laptops, or other networked devices are allowed during quizzes.

The quiz will start at 10:20 AM and end at 10:40 AM, lasting exactly 20 minutes. Having quiz at the start (rather than the end) of lecture increases the likelihood that students will attend the lecture.

At 10:40 AM, the TA will collect all the solution worksheets and the lecture will begin. Your solution worksheets should correctly show your name and your Rutgers ID number to avoid problems with the grading process.

No makeup quizzes will be arranged.
Instead, students who missed a quiz with a valid excuse will receive the average of all of their own attended quizzes for the missed-but-excused quiz. (Note: this average cannot be assigned before the semester ends and all quiz grades are known.)

Repeated absences will be considered on a per-case basis. Up to four absences can be excused as long as the student does not miss any more classes. We cannot accept the absence notifications that are older than seven days after the quiz was given.
Any absences beyond the first four excused ones that are not “authenticated absences” will carry progressively greater negative points.

If you know in advance that you will not be able to attend the class, notify the instructor and the TA by email. If you are prevented by an unanticipated reason, you need to provide a valid excuse, e.g., doctor’s note.

Special needs students that need accommodation of extra quiz time must in advance provide a letter from the Office of Disability Services for Students.

1.2 Quiz Preparation Materials

Class lecture notes:
http://www.ece.rutgers.edu/~marsic/books/SE/

Lecture slides:
http://www.ece.rutgers.edu/~marsic/books/SE/instructor/slides/

1.3 Grading the Quizzes

The graders are provided with the instructor’s solutions as the starting point for grading each quiz. Because design problems are inherently open-ended and allow alternative valid solutions, the instructor’s solutions may not be complete or cover all possible alternative solutions. The graders are asked to use their knowledge, judgment and experience to judge the student answers. If a student’s solution makes sense it should be assigned a partial or full score, although it may be different than the instructor’s.

The quiz solutions will be graded using a star rating scale. We will count the number of valid arguments identified by each student and the “quality” of those arguments. The more valid arguments suggested, the higher the grade.
We will start the grading by creating several different bins where to pile the student solution worksheets as we review them. We will use the scale of up to three or five “stars”. Assuming that we decided to have three (3) bins total, then in this three-star scale:

“3” is for a “correct or almost correct solution”
“2” is for an “average solution”
“1” is for a “poor solution”
“0” is assigned for no submission or absence from the quiz

A highly rated solution will meet these criteria:

use valid arguments to justify the answers or design choices
these arguments will be state clearly and unambiguously
greater number of valid arguments or design details will indicate deeper understanding of the problem and the solution
the class concepts and symbols will be correctly applied

Initially, we will not assign any numeric points to the solutions, but will keep track of how well each solution meets the above criteria. At the same time, we will try to arrange the order of the solution worksheets within each bin, so that the best solution on a bin is at the top and the worst is at the bottom of this bin. When all solutions are reviewed, one more time we will review each bin separately and see if any final rearranging of the bin order is needed. Finally, we will assign numeric points to each solution on the star-rating scale.

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Ivan Marsic
Sat Feb 4 16:44:00 EST 2017