The final grade in this course will reflect my assessment of your performance in the course. This includes your participation; your mastery of the key learning objectives; your demonstration this both in written form and in code (if applicable); your application of what you’ve learned to working on a team; building an interesting product; and communicating what you achieved at the end of the semester.
Individual assignments are scored and weighted (see below), and used to determine class rank which in turn is used to determnine your grade. Note that you will not get a numeric “final score”, just a final grade. I will follow the guidelines from the University Bulletin:
- A -> High Distinction
- B -> Distinction
- C -> Satistfactory
- D -> Passing, but Unsatisfactory
Marks for assignments
Throughout the semester, there will be homeworks, assigments, presentations, quizes etc., small and large. Those assignments are all given a 0-100 mark in Latte.
NOTE: You have a maximum 3 weeks after a mark has been posted to call our attention to a possible error, oversight or misunderstanding. That is your responsibility. After that, the mark as recorded in Latte will not be changed.
NOTE: All written assignments should be in pdf format, with your name and assignment number at the top. This is to maintain the sanity of your instructors as we sort through the submissions. 20 points are deducted for non-pdf submissions, and another 20 for submissions without your name at the top.
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Class Participation: ~10%: Do you show up on time (or let the teachers know ahead of time if you cannot?) Do you ask good questions, and contribute to the discussion? Do you keep up with homework? Do you make a good faith effort at responding to all “Participation Only” work? Many times there is a warmup exercise for a reading. Those are only graded based on participation never for correctness.
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Team Contribution (based on peer and self assessments) ~10%: Do you contribute personally to your team? Are you a positive influence on productivity? Are you a reliable team member? Do your team mates like working with you? Are you at the center of problems or of solutions?
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Individual Assignments: ~25%: I will pay attention to whether you are just regurgitating the reading or really engaging with it. So, give a personal perspective or insight, make connections with other readings, your other classes, your own reading and research. Pay attention to writing good, professional English. Use the tools. Many students find that they benefit from using the Brandeis Writing Center to review first drafts.
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Team Deliverables: ~20%: How well are the Lean Startup principles understood, documented and applied? Is the result based truly on hypotheses that are tested, getting out of the building, iterating, and getting true and challenging validations? How much did team members engage in the project?
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Final Term Project: ~35%: How compelling is the final case? Is it based on real evidence? Does the team explain and persuade in their presentation? Am I convinced that this is a real business that will make money and grow? How interesting is the product? What is the quality of writing, organization, clarity, fit and finish of a the final deliverables?
IMPORTANT The deadline for requesting approval for a extra credit assignment is 2 weeks before the last day of class. For example, if you ask to do an extra credit assignment 1 week before the end of the term, I will not approve. If you do an extra credit assignment without approval, it will not be graded and will not count. Note: it's easier to push your grade up by doing well on the core assignments. An excellent job here will bump your grade at most one step (e.g. B+ -> A-)
- Create a Kickstarter or HubRocket (or other) crowdsource campaign for your term project. It is up to you whether you submit it or not. If you do this, be serious about it and do a great job. A video is required.
- Think about an activity that you are seriously passionate about… It might be a cause, a performing art, some scientific endeavor, a hobby. Consider how exactly you would apply the Lean Startup methodology to increasing your impact and success in that arena.
- Investigate by reading scholarly papers, or books, or other online resources about entrepreneurship. Some might support others might contradict the philosophies to the Lean Startup. Write an analysis of the conflict and give your own views of whether the conflict is real and serious, and where you come out on it yourself.
- These assignments are marked by this icon:
- They allow you to show that you are participating in class, by reading and thinking about the work.
- Your submissions are not marked for correctness but for participation. We require that you show a sincere good faith effort to respond to the question or prompt to receive a mark of 100.
- Otherwise you receive a mark of 0. (Non-pdf submissions lose 20 points, and not putting your name and assignment number will lose another 20 points, late submussions lose another 20 points.)
- These are marked by this icon:
- Some Participation assignments are further marked as warmups indicated by the above icon.
- They are due at 10am of the day of class with no extension.
- The reason is that we review your responses before class in order to structure some of the class content based on what we see in the responses.