Methods of Evaluation

Course Grade

Progress Reports One and Two: Conferences with Coordinator 40%

Midterm and Final Examinations 40%

Grammar and SCOLA Exercises 10%

Blog Participation 10%


Grades will not be discussed in e-mail. If you have questions about your grade, please see your language coordinator.


Progress Reports One and Two: Conferences with Coordinator

These conferences are held with the primary goal of examining your electronic portfolio. Because the due dates for the electronic portfolio are set in an attempt to help you view learning language as a process, it is essential that each component be completed on time. If any component of the ePortfolio is not completed by the due date, you will receive no credit for that component. Please see the separate document “ePortfolio Guidelines” available in the course Moodle for information.


Midterm and Final Examinations

Your midterm exam will be given during Week 7 by an independent examiner, a professor from another university. Your final exam will be given during Week 16 (before the normal university final exam period). Because our examiners are from other universities and often travel to Des Moines especially for the exams, no make-up exams are possible. If you either fail to sign up for an examination or do so and fail to show up, you will receive a no credit for the exam.


Grammar and SCOLA Exercises

You will be completing at least 10 online grammar exercises during the course of the semester. You can find them on the Moodle site for your course. They will be posted in the week in which they are due.


Additionally, you will be using video, audio, and tape scripts from SCOLA (Satellite Communication for Learning Advancement). The video clips from SCOLA generally consist of news from a country in which your language is spoken. The clips provide you with exposure to authentic material, i.e., that intended for native speakers. They will help you in learning about the culture and language you are studying. Be sure to pay special attention to non-linguistic cues as well as linguistic ones because the non-linguistic cues provide you with a lot of information about the culture. Due dates are clearly indicated on the Daily Course Schedule.


Blog Participation

Approximately each week a different topic will be placed on the class blog ( http://dulap2.drake.edu/weblog/ ) and you are expected to respond to the questions or topics proposed. I will keep track of which students participate, how often they participate, and the quality of contributions made. Participation in the blog will be evaluated according to the table in the document “Cultural Posts Guidelines.”


Attendance, Participation, and Preparation

Your attendance and active participation are required at every practice session. It is critical that you come to each session and practice your communication skills using the structures and vocabulary you have been studying on your own. If you do not attend a session, it is your opportunity lost; your classmates will have practiced using the vocabulary and structures on the schedule for that date without you. It does not do any good to contact classmates to find out what you missed; the purpose of the session and the related assignments are in the course calendar. You cannot make up for what you missed by not attending the sessions. The sessions are “live” and interactive, and you cannot just “get the notes from somebody.”


If you find it necessary to miss a practice session, it is your responsibility to let your language partner and classmates know in advance. Students who miss more than five practice sessions during the semester will not receive a passing grade.


Students, language partners, and coordinators of several languages (e.g., Arabic, French, German, Spanish) meet weekly for “language tables” at which anyone wishing to speak a given language gets together for one or two hours. Speakers at all levels are welcome. While attendance at the language tables is not required, students with borderline grades may be given the benefit of the doubt if they have attended the tables with some frequency. Please see your language partner or language coordinator for more information.