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EE353 |
In a typical class,
one or more class members will be asked to start the session by addressing a
specific question. Anyone who has
prepared the case should be able to handle such a lead-off assignment. After a few minutes of initial analysis and
recommendations, we will open the discussion to the rest of the class. As a group, we will try to build a complete
analysis of the situation and address the problems and the issues which it
presents. Occasionally a portion of the
class will be a lecture/discussion of concepts and techniques arising in the
case which may be useful in a much broader range of situations. The final portion of the class will sometimes
be a lecture/discussion as a basis for the next case.
You are expected to
be an active participant throughout the entire class and to contribute to the
quality of the discussion. Please note
that the frequency with which you speak in class is not a key criterion for effective
class participation. The classroom
should be considered a laboratory in which you can test your ability to
convince your peers that you have approached complex problems correctly and
that your proposed solution will achieve the desired results. Criteria that we
use to measure effective class participation include:
1) Is the comment clear and relevant to the current
discussion?
2) Does the student support the comment well using case
facts and tools developed in the class?
3) Does the student explore all the implications and the
importance of the comment?
4) Is the comment insightful? Does it broaden the discussion and clarify
the issues?
5) Are comments complete and concise (does the comment
cover the point as well as possible in a few words as possible)?
Average comment
satisfies 1 and part of 2.
Good comment satisfies 1-3.
Excellent comment satisfies 1-5.
After every class
the professors meet and use the above criteria to assign each comment a 0, 1,
or 2 (with an approximate distribution of 10%, 75%, and 15%). Each student receives credit for only his or
her best comment from that class.
During each class,
the professor will attempt to call on all students before calling on previous
participants. Students are expected to
be well prepared for and to participate in every class. Unfortunately this is not always
possible. Because we want the quality of
comments to be more important than the quantity of comment, at the end of the
quarter each student's lowest 9 participation grades (out of the roughly 18
class sessions, although participation is not possible in a few of the
lectures) are dropped. The remaining
grades are summed for each student and then normalized ((student's grade -
class mean)/standard deviation). All grades
(participation, and both written cases) are normalized to ensure that they can
be properly weighted to determine overall grades.
Class participation
represents a major component (33%) of your grade in this course. You will receive a quartile ranking of your
class participation just before the half way point in the quarter.