Assessment

Composition

The majority of a student’s grade is composed of homework assignments. Assignments most closely reflect reality because students can use the web as a resource. The final is also fairly important, and is much like a long homework assignment. Grades are lastly composed of multiple-choice quizzes whose questions ask general course material.

Quantity Percentage
Assignments 13 65%
Quizzes 3 15%
Final project 1 20%

Assignments

Students almost always receive at least one hour of homework each night. Students should vigilantly check the class schedule for specific homework assignment details. The assignment before the last day is omitted for the purpose of working solely on the final project. Students should hand in assignments before 8:30 a.m. of the next class day.

Students should create an HTML CSS Honors folder on their laptops that contains all of their assignments. The homework process is as follows:

  1. Inside the HTML CSS Honors folder, students should create a new folder for the assignment in the format firstname_lastname-assignment_X, where:

    • firstname is the student’s first name
    • lastname is the student’s last name
    • X is the number of the assignment

    For example, Richard Cornish’s first assignment would be in a folder called richard_cornish-assignment_1.

  2. The new folder should contain the following files:

    • index.html
    • style.css

    The index.html file should link to the style.css file with the proper <link> tag.

  3. The student should create a .zip archive of the assignment from the folder.

    • On Macs, control + click on the folder and click Compress.
    • On Windows, right click on the folder, click Send to, and click Compressed (zipped folder).

    Further help on creating .zip files are at Apple’s website and Microsoft’s website.

  4. E-mail the firstname_lastname-assignment_X.zip as a file attachment to the instructor at rich@richardcornish.com before 8:30 a.m. of the next class day.

Quizzes

Students take a total of four quizzes, usually at the end of each week, to test what they learned during that particular week. Students are not allowed to consult any reference material while taking quizzes.

Quiz 0 (pre-assessment)

Students take a pre-assessment “quiz” on the first day of class that that will determine how much existing knowledge they have about the course topics. Students are required to take the pre-assessment quiz, but the quiz is not graded.

Quiz 3 (post-assessment)

Students take a post-assessment quiz identical to the pre-assessment quiz to determine how much they learned from the course. The post-assessment quiz is graded.

Final project

Students should create a portfolio website of their homework assignments and classroom experience.

Overall

  • Website must have a homepage, about page, and contact page
  • All webpages must be linked with a consistent navigation
  • All webpages must have unique <title> and <h1> tags
  • All pages must use HTML5 elements <header>, <section>, <article>, and <footer>
  • Website must have at least one Google font used
  • Must be responsive with different appearances and optimizations for mobile, tablet, and desktop devices
  • All pages must have a fair amount of style! (headers, paragraphs, tables, forms, etc.) I won’t (and necessarily can’t) tell you exactly how to style it, but I expect a fair amount of unique customization while also creating a usable, readable layout
  • All style must be in an external stylesheet
  • CSS does not need to be minified

Homepage

  • Homepage must have an <h1> of “HTML & CSS Honors”
  • Homepage must describe in paragraphs (in a general, overall sense):
    1. What you made in class
    2. What you learned in class
    3. What you enjoyed in class
    4. How you might use these skills in the future
  • Homepage must also have a table of assignments and hyperlink to each individual assignment
  • Table of assignments must have a description of what you did in the assignment in your own words and not the assignment text (especially if you didn’t get the assignment right)
  • Table must include screenshots of at least five of the assignments
  • Old assignments must be revised with minor and helpful improvements based on my notes
  • Assignment 11 must link to the in-class exercise (if you attended) on Transforms instead of the Dropbox account assignment

About

  • About page must have an <h1> of “About”
  • About page must have a multi-paragraph bio of yourself
  • About page must have a recent photo (from past year) of yourself
  • Photo must be floated
  • About page must have an <iframe> of the location of Northwestern University

Contact

  • Contact page must have an <h1> of “Contact”
  • Contact page must have your email address and hyperlinked
  • Contact page must also have a contact form with name, email, URL, phone, and message fields
  • Contact page button must go to another page saying the form doesn’t work yet but that you are available by your email address and is hyperlinked

Students should test their code—in particular, none of a project’s URLs should have file:/// in them, which will cause them to fail elsewhere.

Parent-teacher conferences

The parent(s)/guardian(s) of students will meet with the instructor for 10 minutes on the last day of the session after class is dismissed early. The instructor will review the student’s performance and behavior in qualitative language. The student’s assignments and final project can be shared, and the instructor can provide recommendations for future coursework in CTD, but not in specific educational institutions. Grades are not discussed.

Student evaluations

In addition to receiving grades, the parent(s)/guardian(s) of students also receive an evaluation at the end of the session. Student evaluations qualitatively describe a student’s level of participation, engagement, interest, and overall behavior during the session at a level more in-depth than in the parent-teacher conference. It also contains recommendations for future coursework in CTD and elsewhere online.

Additionally, the parent(s)/guardian(s) of students whose grades are below 70% at the midpoint of the session will receive a mid-term evaluation warning about the struggles of the student.

Course evaluations

Students complete a brief survey on the last day of the session asking them for their thoughts and opinions of the course, instructors, and CTD in general.

Grading scale

Grading follows discrete evaluation that is a standard in U.S. education.

A final grade between an A+ and a C− is a passing grade, and will earn the student one high school credit.

Grade Percentage
A+ 97–100%
A 93–96%
A− 90–92%
B+ 87–89%
B 83–86%
B− 80–82%
C+ 77–79%
C 73–76%
C− 70–72%
D+ 67–69%
D 63–66%
D− 60–62%
F < 60%