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From: mazlack@ernie.berkeley.edu (Lawrence J. Mazlack)
Newsgroups: net.cse
Subject: Re: working programs
Message-ID: <12394@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Fri, 14-Mar-86 20:46:45 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.12394
Posted: Fri Mar 14 20:46:45 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 15-Mar-86 22:39:41 EST
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Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: mazlack@ernie.berkeley.edu.UUCP (Lawrence J. Mazlack)
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>>This article has to do with working programs in CS courses.  In my past 
>>experience with CS courses it seems that alot of u-grads do not get their
>>programs done correctly.  This, of course is very common, but when the
>>the grades came back, i have been quite suprised.
>>
>I'm new at teaching, but I knew a lot of students would be turning in
>programs that didn't work perfectly.  What I didn't know was that only
>four programs out of 29 would pass my tests.  Obviously, the programs
>
>				Beth Katz

Giving partial credit for non-working programs is a curse that comes from other
disciplines.  I maintain they are almost impossible to evaluate as to the
closeness of completion - how many times have you said "just one more run"
about 20 or a 1000 runs before success. I usually try to relate the 
issue to whether or not they would want to buy a non-working program with
their own money. I also ask the question as to whether they would like
to have a surgeon who almost has living patients. 

What I do, is to establish a rule that the MAXIMUM value of a non-working
program is worth 5-10% of a working program.  Then, the program is graded
according the other standards (internal documentation, coding standards,
presentation of results, etc) and that grade is multplied either by 1 or
0.1 (for non-working programs).  Needless to say, non-working programs
usually fail to meet some of the other standards.

The only reason that I even give the 0.1 or 0.05 multiplier is because of
the whining.

Larry Mazlack
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