Asynchronous Course Policies
Assignment Policies
Assignments in asynchronous courses are posted and available for the entire year with due dates applied to help pace the student through the course in order. While the due dates are flexible in nature, students must work through the course in order.
Gradebook Categories and Assignment Types
Major Assignments (MA) – Major Assignments include tests, exams, papers, labs, or other major projects and are required to be submitted to receive the Asynchronous Course designation (A) on the student’s transcript.
Check for Understanding (CFU) - Check for Understanding assignments are designed to assess the student's mastery of the material and are required to be submitted to receive the Asynchronous Course designation (A) on the student’s transcript. These assignments most often include weekly checks, recitations, as well as a few others depending on the course.
Practice Assignment (PA) - Practice Assignments are designed to give practice opportunities to students as they move throughout the course and are generally graded on completion. Once a student has moved onto subsequent material, PAs skipped by the student will be exempted by the teacher and not factored into the grade. Some practice work assignments come with answer keys for students to self-grade. Those that come with answer keys must be self-graded to receive a completion grade from the teacher.
Order and Timing of Weekly Coursework
It has already been emphasized how important it is to complete work in the order it is laid out in the course. It can be tempting for students to rush ahead to the “required” work of the week, but the practice assignments will be especially important for preparing the student for any CFUs present in the course.
Moving Ahead to Future Weeks
Often students are excited to see what’s next, or the student may feel compelled to move through the material too quickly simply because it’s available. Parents are asked to have some oversight of students pacing in the course until a good pattern has been established and you know that they are ready to move onto the next week.
Weekly Check Assignments
The Weekly Check assignments are open-book and open-note, and students are encouraged to use their text when they come across a question they are unsure of. This will help them learn the material. Pay close attention to student scores on the weekly checks. If you see a low score, consider assessing how much time was spent on it and whether the student completed all preparatory work before attempting it. Students have one attempt on each weekly check.
Recitation Assignments
Recitation assignments ask students to submit an audio or video response reciting something they’ve written, learned, or memorized. Recitations may ask the student to submit a thesis statement, describe or demonstrate a process, or to just respond with a few sentences. Most of the recitations will require preparation in the form of writing ahead of time. Students may choose to re-record as needed. A rubric is provided to help guide students on how each will be evaluated.
Due Date Policies
Assignments have due dates applied to help pace the student through the course in order. Due dates are only there for pacing, and there is no grade penalty for turning assignment in after the due date. To encourage students to proceed through the course in the order it was meant to be, the following gradebook flags will be used during the course:
Major Assignments (MA) and Check for Understanding (CFU) will be marked with the “Missing” flag when subsequent assignments have been turned in occurring later in the course. The “Missing” flag automatically assigns a grade of zero to the assignment to ensure it is brought to the attention of both the student and parent. This flag also leaves it in the “Overdue” feed in Schoology so that a student doesn’t miss it. A student can still submit the assignment with no grade penalty up through the end of the semester.
Practice Assignments will be marked with the “Exempt” flag once subsequent assignments have been turned in later in the course. The “Exempt” flag takes the assignment out as factor in the gradebook, and it will no longer appear on the “Overdue” feed in Schoology. Students may not submit PAs once the assignment has been exempted.
If you don’t plan to use the due dates, it’s a good idea to let your teacher know so that they are aware.
Semester Exams (Grades 6-12)
Every asynchronous course has an end of semester exam. Some are cumulative while others may just be the final test for the semester, depending on the course. Taking the semester exam communicates to the teacher that the student has completed all work that he or she would like credit for during the semester. Any incomplete work will be given a zero or excused, depending on the grading category for that assignment (zero for Major and CFU Assignments, excused for Practice Assignments). The student’s final semester grade will then be reported by the teacher once it is graded.
Semester Grades
Once a student takes the end-of-semester exam, the semester grade will be finalized by the teacher. Students should not begin their final exam for the semester unless he or she has completed all of the semester's Check for Understanding (CFU) and Major Assignments (MA), which are required for credit. Any incomplete CFU or MA assignments will be factored into the grade as a zero if they have not been completed prior to taking this semester exam.