Grading

Grading

Breakdown

* 10% – In-class work & class participation
* 15% – Ad hoc assignments
* 15% – Your individual CLASS blog/site
* 20% – Mid-term audio-visual team project
* 40% – Final individual website project

Marks are adjusted on a curve. This is required by the university’s grading policy.

Assignments and projects will be graded according to the following criteria (depending upon context)

* Journalism (Journalistic merit, compelling headline(s), comprehensibility to non-HK viewers), sourcing, accuracy
* Attention to detail (avoidance of spelling and grammatical mistakes, choppy editing, attractive and logical navigation and lay-out)
* Coherence of storytelling
* Quality of photos and photo editing (given limits on equipment)
* Quality of audio recording and editing (given existing equipment)
* How well elements (text, pictures, audio etc) fit together
* Meaningful, appropriate, and accurate use of captions, hyperlinks, alt tags and other metadata

Note: assignments that contain plagiarism and/or copyright infringements will earn a failing grade (0)

Note: attention you to the avoiding common pitfalls page

Grading Scales:

* IN-CLASS WORK & CLASS PARTICIPATION: there are two components:
1) you will be required to complete assigned tasks in class. These tasks cannot be completed or made up outside of class.
2) you are expected to offer your ideas in class and demonstrate that you have done and understood the readings and assignments.

* AD HOC ASSIGNMENTS: you will be asked to complete short assignments to reinforce skills you are learning in class. Details and deadlines will be specified here in course assignments

Grading scale:

* 0 – not done/plagiarism/copyright infringement;
* 0.5-1.0 – incomplete/didn’t follow instructions/late/ showed minimal effort or lack of understanding;
* 2.0 – 2.5 – good to very good
* 3.0 – excellent

* MID-TERM TEAMWORK PROJECT: you will work in teams to produce a text plus audio-visual slideshow package on a topic related to this semester’s theme: the Work Life Balance in Hong Kong. See course assignments for details Grading scale: Students will receive a score between 0-30 determined by the following factors: teamwork, journalistic merit, quality of audio-visuals, application of skills, principles and ideas taught in class, attention to detail

* FINAL INDIVIDUAL PROJECT: you will produce a multiple-media online package about different aspects of Hong Kong’s Work-Life Balance. See course assignments for details Grading scale: Students will receive a score between 0-40 determined by the following factors: journalistic merit, application of skills, principles, and ideas taught in class, ease of navigation & aesthetics, attention to detail
* YOUR CLASS BLOG: your various assignments will be uploaded initially to your class blog at wordpress.com – or at any other blog site/website you nominate. It must be RSS-enabled. You are expected to maintain this blog/site – and build on it during the semester. You be assessed by your efforts to maintain an informative blog/site and to have demonstrated use of the various techniques and tools discussed during the course.

Please note that you are graded on a curve. This is university policy.