LAST ASSIGNMENT

Last Assignment: Your last assignment is to produce the following two separate printed (hardcopy) documents.

In the first document, do the following.

• Make up and answer three questions for the final exam (definition, short answer, numerical, compare and contrast, etc.).

You are to provide complete answers to the final exam questions you make up. Your questions will be graded on the basis of originality, creativity, and being comprehensive, i.e., drawing together, relating, and testing different concepts. And your answers will be graded for correctness. A question can be composed of subquestions, e.g., a 30 point question can be two questions worth 15 points each. You can also specify that the question be for a closed book or open book situation.

You should try to cover or include all the major topics of the course. Please do not just copy verbatim quiz problems or problems from the chapter ends, even ones we did not do. It is okay to get ideas from those sources, though.

1. List some of the important things you have learned in this course this semester.
2. Did you learn anything that you think will be useful and help you in courses you take later? How about after graduation in your career?
3. Take a look at the syllabus. Does what you learned match up with the objectives and goals for this course as stated in the syllabus? Why or why not?
4. Has your own thinking about the major concepts of this course changed since the beginning of the course?
5. Have you taken this course before? If not, skip this question. If you took this course before, do you think you did better, about the same, or worse than your first time around? Compare what you learned, your grade, the workload, and course difficulty this time compared to before.
6. What does the word ``learn'' mean to you? How do you interpret that word? When you say you have learned something, what do you mean? Describe your favorite method or technique to learn things. What works for you and what is most effective to help you learn? Individual or group? Audio (listening), video (watching), tactile (hands on), textual (reading), solving problems, abstraction (generalization), concrete examples?
7. Did this course and professor provide you with the opportunity to learn the subject matter? Why or why not?
8. To what extent do you think you have mastered the content of this course? List some of the things we discussed this semester that are at this point still fuzzy in your mind.
9. State several things that you liked the most in the class and why, in other words, what ``worked'' for you and why. Possibilities are specific course topics and the way the class was set up and run.
10. State several things that you liked the least in this class and why, in other words, what didn't ``work'' for you and why. Possibilities are specific course topics and the way the class was set up and run.
11. If we had had more time during the semester, what additional topics would you have liked to cover?
12. What topics did we cover in class that you thought we should not have bothered with?
13. What do you think of the textbook? Did you buy it? Did you read it? Be honest! Did the textbook help you learn?
14. Estimate about how much time on the average you spent each week on this course outside of the classroom doing things like reading the textbook, studying for quizzes, catching up on lab work, etc.
15. About how often did you read the announcements Web page? Daily, several times a week, weekly, monthly, once at the beginning of the semester, never? Did you find it useful or a pain in the neck to remember to check it?
16. In how many of your classes this semester did the professor learn your name? If the professor did learn your name, about how far into the semester did this happen? Is it important to you for your professor to learn your name? Why or why not?
17. What is your favorite classroom (and lab, if applicable) on campus? Why? How did our classroom (and lab, if applicable) compare? What did you like about our classroom (and lab, if applicable)? Dislike?
18. Do you have any specific, concrete suggestions for how this course and the way it was run can be improved?
19. What will you always remember about this class/course?
20. Think back to all the classes you have taken at Rowan or other colleges and universities (include high-school if you haven't been in college that long). Describe the qualities and characteristics of what you consider to be the most effective teachers in those classes. How were those classes organized, taught, and run that made the teachers the most effective in your mind? Factors to consider are course organization and planning, lectures and class discussion, student-faculty interaction, assignments and grading, what you learned, course workload and difficulty, student effort and involvement, and the overall quality of instruction as it contributed to your learning. Please do not identify any teachers by name.
21. State and justify what final letter grade you think you have earned in this course. Use the weights given in the syllabus for the different course activities (exams, quizzes, assignments, etc.). Make reasonable estimates for things not yet done or graded, such as this assignment and the final exam. Then use the 10-point scale given in the syllabus for final letter grades. Next, compare your computation with what final letter grade you think you deserve in this course. Comment on any discrepancies.
22. Would you rather have done this ``last assignment'' anonymously if there were some way to ensure to the professor that you did it and that you put reasonable effort into it? Why or why not?

This last assignment is due the last regular class period of the term (not the day of the final exam but the last day of lecture/lab).

Please use a word processor and turn in the assignment in printed form. Remember to turn in two separate documents!

Grading

This covers most situations. ``Printed on time'' means coming to class with the document already printed and not using the classoom/lab printer. ``Printed late'' means using the classoom/lab printer on the due day or delivering it after class on the due day.

• Those not printed by beginning of class when due receive at most 30/100 when printed.
• Those printed on time without final exam questions-with-answers receive at most 50/100.
• Those printed on time without part 2 receive at most 50/100.
• Those printed late without final exam questions-with-answers receive at most 15/100.
• Those printed late without part 2 receive at most 15/100.
• Those printed on time without answers to final exam questions receive at most 75/100.
• Final exam questions-with-answers or part 2 printed late but other part printed on time receive at most 15 points added, such as 50 raised to 65.
• Final exam answers to questions printed late but questions printed on time receive at most 10 points added, such as 75 raised to 85.

home page: http://elvis.rowan.edu/~hartley/index.html
e-mail: hartley@elvis.rowan.edu