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New Jersey Institute of
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--> Please read the accompanying Final Exam Format & Grading Guidelines, posted on the course Web site...
As an experiment, we have been developing a new kind of final exam that takes advantage of distance technology. We have revised the format over the past few semesters, and believe we have a very fair and well-designed process for Spring 2002.
(1) Grading - multi-level procedure and time delay:
The exam will take place over a period of 3.5 weeks. It has three stages of grading. The two in-between grades are not the final grade. The final grade will be assigned by me. I will look at the in-between grades, but I will make my own decision. In the past people have been worried by the two in-between grades if one or both were low. Do not worry if you do not agree with one of the two in-between grades. I will assign the final grade. And if you disagree with the final grade, you can dispute it.
Let me repeat: Don't worry if you disagree with your in-between grades. Don't email me or post a rebuttal on-line. Please wait for my final grade.
Please wait for the 3.5-week process to work!
It sometimes is difficult to wait for the process to proceed, but please do. It has always worked out in previous semesters.
(2) Grading - exact guidelines
The accompanying Web page "Final Exam Format & Grading Guidelines" describes the grading criteria. Note that if you end up with a "good" in each category, your grade will be an 81, which may seem lower than you might expect. Don't worry about this. The grading scale is a bit tough. We'll end up curving the final grades.
(3) Time and Effort
Note that because we are devoting two weeks of class time to this exam (4/25 - 5/7), the workload for these weeks will be the tasks involved with the exam process.
(4) Questionnaire
Because we are conducting this exam as a formal experiment, we need (and want) to evaluate it. Please take the time to complete the questionnaire, and fax or mail it back to us. You will receive 3 points extra credit for returning the questionnaire. Note that I will not see the questionnaire, and that your name, which is on the cover page, will be detached from your answers, so that all answers will remain anonymous. (When you take CIS675, you will learn more about questionnaires and other forms of evaluation.)
Thanks!
The questions on the exam will test your ability to do synthesis - i.e., to apply the concepts from one week's class to the materials of other weeks' classes. When answering questions:
If you believe you have a good understanding of the course's materials (considering that many of you have no research background and have no prior IS experience), then you should have no reason to worry.
The final will be take place over a 3.5 week period. Note that all items are due by 9 a.m. on the day after that shown below. So, for example, although it says you must post your questions by Monday 4/22, you can really post them up to 9 a.m. on Tuesday 4/23 (U.S. East Coast Time).
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Class members obtain IDs for anonymity |
Friday 4/19 |
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Class members confirm receiving IDs and reading instructions |
Sunday 4/21 |
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Class members post questions |
Friday 4/19 - Monday 4/22 |
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Professor reviews and revises questions |
Tuesday 4/23 |
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Professor assigns questions |
Wednesday 4/24 |
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Class continues normal discussion on Electronic Commerce |
through Thursday 4/25 |
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Class members answer questions assigned |
by Sunday 4/28 |
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Class members double check their own answers |
by Sunday 4/28 |
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Class members post their answers to turnitin.com |
by Sunday 4/28 |
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Class members grade answers (*) |
Monday 4/29 - Wednesday 5/1 |
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Ph.D. students do level 2 evaluation (or starting as answers are posted) |
Wednesday 5/1 - Thursday 5/9 |
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Professor posts final grades |
Friday 5/10 |
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Class members may contest final grades |
Sunday 5/12 |
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Contested grades resolved |
Monday 5/13 |
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Class members complete questionnaire |
Sunday 5/12 - Wednesday 5/15 |
* Note: this step will take much longer than you anticipate. See note in the grading section below
Professor Bieber will email these IDs to each distance section student by Friday morning. If you did not receive a set of IDs by Friday afternoon, please email me. I may have your wrong email address.
Note that the question IDs are entirely independent from the answer IDs. Your answer IDs will not be the same as your question IDs.
By Sunday 4/21, please confirm that you have received your question IDs and that you have read both this procedures document and the Final Exam Format and Grading Guidelines.
On WebBoard there will a new "Final Exam Confirmation and Questions" conference. Reply to the main comment in this conference.
Thanks!
By Monday 4/22 you should post two insightful questions that require some synthesis of the class materials.
We encourage you to base at least one question on a real-life experience with IT, either at work or somewhere else, possibly as a user. (But a question should not address, for example, a particular situation at work without giving enough information for any class member to analyze the situation adequately.) While we encourage this, you of course do not have to and your grade will not depend on this.
Each of your two questions should address a different aspect of the course materials. Do not write, for example, two DSS or two electronic commerce or two ethical questions. (The answers you anticipate for your two questions can overlap to a limited degree, but write questions where you expect the answers will primarily cover different materials.)
Also, please make sure your question is different from the other ones posted already.
*** You only have to post two questions; you do not have to answer any questions or post any other answers or anything else at this point***
Synthesis means analyzing a particular topic by comparing and contrasting it with, and thinking about it from the viewpoint of, the class materials from across the semester. These materials include the articles, models, frameworks and other concepts we've covered. (Of course only certain materials will be relevant for any given topic.)
Good exam questions range from being rather broad to quite specific. We have posted several prior final questions on WebBoard.
Do not make up questions that require knowledge beyond the course materials, such as asking about detailed systems development strategies (CIS673), or evaluation (CIS675), unless we explicitly covered your question's topics in the class readings. All class members should be able to relate to your questions. Again, we encourage you to provide an example or scenario from a company or just being a member of society and ask people to evaluate it, as long as that example or scenario is understandable to everyone in the class.
We will assign you two question IDs. Post each question separately under a different one of these two IDs, as follows.
Post each question in the Final conference as a reply to the head entry for that question ID number. Use plain text - do not use attachments.
Post your question anonymously! (Click on the "anonymous" check box below the topic line.)
As an example, use the following topic (subject) assuming we assigned you question ID Q325:
If you make a mistake in the topic or by not making it anonymous, use WebBoard's "edit" command to fix it.
By Thursday 4/25, the professors will look over each question to ensure it is of sufficient quality, and post a list of who will answer each question. The list will be using your answer id in the following format
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Your Answer ID |
Which Question You will Answer |
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A527 |
Q325 |
Because you will be assigned two answer IDs, you will have two entries in this table, one for each of the two questions you will answer.
I will also email you this information.
You must answer the two questions assigned to you by Sunday 4/28. Post your replies on-line using the format below.
CAREFULLY STUDY THE Final Exam Format and Grading Guidelines POSTED ON THE COURSE WEB SITE BEFORE ANSWERING!
Length restriction: Your answer should not exceed 1,250 words (including tables but not including figures or a your bibliography section). Microsoft Word has a word count tool, as do other word processing packages.
Bibliography: Be sure to include a bibliography section in your answer. Every time you reference any class materials, put a citation marker such as [1] and then put the full bibliographic citation including page number in the bibliography, such as:
You can find full bibliographic references at the bottom of the class schedule. Again, these do not count towards your word length restriction.
Synthesis: You may find it helpful to look over the list of class materials posted on the course Web Site and on the index page for lecture materials. Also, feel free to look over the "Article Critique" conferences on WebBoard.
Few Attachments: Please do *not* use attachments unless you need to post a figure as part of your answer. Use plain text or HTML instead.
Do not plagiarize! See the notes at the start of this document.
Post your answer as a reply to the question you are answering. Post your reply anonymously!
As an example, use the following topic assuming the question ID of the question you reserved were Q325 and your answer ID, with which you reserved it were A527:
If you make a mistake in the topic or by not making it anonymous, use WebBoard's "edit" command to fix it.
Double check your answer *after you post it*. Make sure that WebBoard posted it exactly what you expected. You may not change your answer after 4/28 for any reason.
Submit each of your two answers that you posted to WebBoard, also to turnitin.com under the categories "Final Exam Answer1" and "Final Exam Answer2". It doesn't matter which answer you submit to which.
**** Note: this step will take much longer than you anticipate. Consider starting on Sunday if an answer is posted for either of your questions, and just confirm that the answer has not changed on Monday before assigning your grade.
You must grade the answers to the questions you posted by Wednesday 5/1. As part of grading your own questions, you *must* provide a full written explanation (justification) of your grading. Write at least 2 full sentences explanation for each of the 8 grading categories, and give each category a grade.
Follow the grading criteria in the Final Exam Format and Grading Guidelines.
Post your grade as a detailed reply to the answer you are grading. Post your reply anonymously!
As an example, use the following topic assuming your question ID were Q325 and the person who answered it used answer ID A527:
If you make a mistake in the topic or by not making it anonymous, use WebBoard's "edit" command to fix it.
Each of the Ph.D. students and potential Ph.D. students in the class will be responsible for an second pass evaluating the answers and grade justifications. We shall assign each "level 2 evaluator" a set of questions to review.
The level 2 evaluator will assign a second grade for each answer. That grade may be the same, higher or lower than the original grade.
They will then post an evaluation following the same format as the original grader. If they basically agree with the original grader for any category, they can just say so. Otherwise, they should post a full 2-sentence justification for that category's grade.
Post the intermediate grading comment as a reply to the grade you are evaluating. Post your reply anonymously!
As an example, use the following topic for question ID Q325 and answer ID A527:
If you make a mistake in the topic or by not making it anonymous, use WebBoard's "edit" command to fix it.
Your professor will then evaluate the questions, answers, grades, grade justifications and intermediate evaluation, and assign a final grade for each question using the topic: "Q325 - A527 - final." All final exam grades for each class member will be posted on the course Web site. The final exam grade will be the average of your two question grades.
If you disagree with a final question grade from your professor, then you can dispute it by Sunday 5/12 as follows:
Do *not* dispute your grade until your professor has posted the final question grade.
Post your dispute entry as a reply to the final question grade you are contesting. Post your reply anonymously!
As an example, use the following topic assuming the question ID of the question you answered were Q325 and your answer ID, with which you reserved it were A527:
If you make a mistake in the topic or by not making it anonymous, use WebBoard's "edit" command to fix it.
Because we are conducting this exam as a formal experiment, we need (and want) to evaluate it. You will receive 3 points extra credit for returning the anonymous questionnaire.
We shall post a questionnaire in the "DL administrative" conference on WebBoard on Sunday 5/12. Please take the time to complete it and either fax it to the number provided or mail it. If you mail it, please do this quickly, so we receive it by Wednesday 5/15. (Any questionnaires received after this will cause the extra credit not to appear in your original grade, so we may have to do a grade change after the semester is over.)
Note that I will not see the questionnaire, and that your name, which is on the cover page, will be detached from your answers, so that all answers will remain anonymous.
In the syllabus the final exam counts 20% with 5% extra procedural points. This has changed slightly to the following grade calculation:
And some minus points:
