Grading by the hour...

So here is an early, quick draft of what grading based on hours might look like in Collo. I welcome and encourage comments and suggestions. None of it is set in stone and it might ultimately end up on my scrap heap of bad ideas.

The benefits I see of something like this are that
(1) it provides an easy way to encourage you to do Collo related things throughout the semester
(2) it allows for a lot of flexibility
(3) it rewards doing something instead of just some finished product
(4) it allows for the same activity to be weighted differently for different individuals based on how much time and effort went into it (e.g., a program of study for someone who just changed majors and picked up a new minor vs. a program of study for someone who hasn't changed anything since the last program of study.)
(5) it makes grading as transparent as it can be and almost entirely up to you.

One concern some have had is that filling this out would itself become tedious, especially if we try to make it as hard as possible to BS your way through it. I think that's a real worry. I'm inclined to err on the side of making it easy and pain-free and just take my chances with folks trying to cheat the system. Perhaps frequent, gentle reminders that filling these out falsely is cheating would help, along with some random audits of the reports. I'm open to other ideas.

Collo grading for non-freshmen (draft)

Total hours:

A: 30 hours

A-: 27 hours

B+: 24 hours

B: 21 hours

B-: 18 hours

C: 15 hours

F: < 15 hours

 Distribution of hours:

Time: You will record your time spent on Collo related activities (what exactly these are still needs to be spelled out in some detail) and submit them every three weeks. You must have a minimum of three hours on each submission.  Any three week period in which you have fewer than three hours will result in a reduction in your final grade by 1/3 (from A to A-, A- to B+, etc.). You can have a maximum of ten hours per three week period. No hours over ten will count towards the total. 

Activity: In total, you need at least five hours in class, five hours on personal/professional/academic development and/or enrichment (some of this can be double counted with class time), three hours of service and two hours of being collegial. Failure to meet the minimum hours in any category will result in a reduction in your final grade by 1/3 for each category that is short of the minimum.

Keeping track of hours:

You’ll keep track of what you’re doing for Collo on a simple spreadsheet with columns for activity, date and hours. For activities in which there is something that can be handed in, that will be required in order to count the hours. For things that don’t have something that can be handed in, you are on your honor to report honestly. Also, I will audit some number of these each time they are due. For those audited, we will set up a meeting and briefly discuss what you’re doing for Collo.