ISM 3011 TEST INSTRUCTIONS
(last updated 2/17/2002)
Tests are to be Individual Work
Students are encouraged to study and do assignments together. Tests are “open book” (and open internet, videotape, notes, etc.), but they must be the work of the individual student. See the UCF Golden Rule Handbook for rules of academic conduct: http://reach.ucf.edu/~coursdev/cdrom/tutorials/info/directories/rule/rule02.htm
All answers which appear to be substantially identical to or highly derivative of those of other students (or of the textbook or other sources) will receive zero points. Since it is impossible to tell whose answer is the original one, all of the identical or derivative answers will get zero points. Repeated submission of identical or derivative answers will constitute reason for a failing grade in the course.
Beginning at noon, or before, on the Tuesday scheduled (see the course calendar), the test will be available online, linked from the ISM 3011 Home Page, until 9:00 am the following Tuesday. (Except the final exam which is available for a shorter period of time due to the university final exam period.)
Be aware that there are multiple versions of each test. Test versions may be changed and site maintenance may be done any day between 10:00 and 11:00 am. Do not be taking a test at this time as you may lose your work. After a test version is changed, submissions of previous versions will not be accepted. You must refresh you copies of the test and any data files associated with test each day at 11:00 am to get the latest copies. (Data files linked from the module study guides will not change, however.) Answers submitted to old versions will receive no credit.
Preliminary Grades
Preliminary test grades will be available on the web site for tests submitted within the first 48 hours of scheduled availability (that is, by noon Thursday), and final test grades will be available on the web site within a few days of the end of the test availability period. Only the objective questions will be graded for the preliminary grading. The final grading involves a more thorough reading of the essay questions and the resulting grade may differ (be lower) from the preliminary grade.
Class ID Number Entry
The instructor will NOT correct errors in the entry of the class ID. If you enter an incorrect class ID in an online test form submission, then your test submission is effectively LOST, and if you have no other submissions of that test then your grade on the test will be zero.
Grade Recording Errors
It is the class member's responsibility to ensure that test grades are properly posted to the grades web page and to summary grade workbook. Reports of grade posting errors (or any other complaints about that test) for the first 10 tests will not be accepted beyond 2 weeks after the test is initially available or after the final exam is first available, whichever comes first. Errors in the posting of the final exam grades must be reported within 24 hours of the posting of the final exam grades.
The instructor will NOT correct errors in the entry of the class ID. If you enter an incorrect class ID, then your test submission is effectively LOST. The instructor will not accept test submissions by any other method than entry through the online form. If you wait until the last minute to enter your test submission, then you may experience system problems (at your end or at the college end or somewhere in the middle) and not be able to submit your test. Then you will receive a grade of zero for that test.
Multiple Test Submissions
Your final grade for a test and for the final exam will be computed as the average grade on your first submissions for that test or final exam, up to a maximum of 3 submissions. Submissions after the first 3 will be disregarded.
Excel questions pertain to the Excel workbooks in the study guides as originally downloaded. Unless you receive other instructions, assume that the data in the downloaded workbooks is correct and complete. For example, if no sales are listed for a certain stock for a certain date, then assume that the sales for that stock for that date were zero.
Built-In Curve
Note that on some of the tests, if you sum the point values of all of the questions on the test, you will arrive at a total that is greater than the maximum point value for the test specified in the syllabus. So, you can answer only enough questions to sum to the maximum point value in the syllabus, or you can answer more questions to better ensure a maximum grade, but the maximum score on the test is still the maximum points listed in the syllabus. This amounts to a built-in curve on some tests.
Many tests require you to download a data file and use it to derive answers to test questions. If the data file is specially prepared for the test, then it may change daily when the test version is changed. In fact, a version change may constitute only a change in the contents of that special data file. So, remember to download again the special data files associated with the tests after the test version change each morning during test availability. (Data files downloaded from the study guides will not be changed.)
Multiple Choice Questions
For the multiple choice questions, choose the best answer. Where multiple correct answers are possible, the selection associated with the most correct answer is the best; for example, "All of the above", if true, is better than any other answer.
Fill-in-the-Blank Questions
Correct money answers may be within one dollar, plus or minus, of the correct values. Do not enter dollar signs or commas. Enter negative numbers with a leading negative (-) sign. For example, Enter $2,123.45 as 2123.45 and enter -$2,123.45 as -2123.45. Enter percentages so: %10.3 as 10.3
Note Well: For tests subsequent to test
4:
If any essay or discrete-points question answer is not formatted as specified in
the test instructions, or if the answer is flippant, disrespectful, or not a
result of serious and sincere effort, then 10 points will be deducted for that
question. Note that negative test scores are possible.
Essay Questions
If you do not answer one of the essay questions, you will have to pad the answer space with characters (whatever you want) out to the minimum length specified for the answer to get past the validation checking on the form.
Your answer must be grammatical and well-punctuated. You must have at least two well-formed paragraphs. The answer must be of at least 100 words (500 characters). The answer must be in your own words, except for quotations from other sources. Quotations do not count in the 500 character minimum length. There must be a blank line between paragraphs.
Failure to follow these instructions may result in a grading penalty of at least half of the points of the question, up to the complete point value of the question, at instructor discretion.
Discrete-Points Questions
For "discrete-points" questions, a proposition is supplied and you are to provide non-redundant, discrete arguing points which tend to support or refute this proposition. The discrete arguing points must be grounded in fact as represented by the Haag textbook and/or the Powerweb materials and/or other established, authoritative sources.
For each proposition, unless you receive other instructions, you are to supply 3 discrete points which tend to support the proposition and 3 discrete points which tend to refute the proposition (unless the question specifically asks for more or less than 3 pros or cons.) Just saying "It will cost more", without supplying a reason, is not an adequate discrete point. You are to state each of your discrete points in your own words as a single sentence and to format and number the sentences in the way illustrated in the following example.
A "discrete-points" question will appear in the form you see in the following box:
Proposition: "All elections in the US should be administered using computerized voting machines which communicate to a central computer over the internet for vote tallying."
Your answer must be formatted as follows:
Discrete points which tend to support this proposition--
Pro1) After the initial outlay for the computer and communications equipment, elections would be cheaper to administer than by the present system because of significant manpower savings.
Pro2) Election results would be available more quickly than by the present system.
Pro3) Elections could be more transparent, that is, voters could have greater assurances that their votes were counted correctly and could be furnished with detailed audit trails of voting by precinct and state.
Discrete points which tend to refute this proposition--
Con1) Election fraud will be easier than it is in the present system, because with a centralized system fewer individuals must be compromised to "steal" an election.
Con2) It will be impossible to ensure protection of the individual voting machine computers and the central tallying computer from hacking and virus attacks.
Con3) The system will cost much more than the present system because of the needed investment in computer hardware and software and because the only manpower saved is cheap and volunteer labor, while much more expensive, skilled labor will be required.
Failure to follow these formatting instructions will cost at least half of the points for the question, up to the whole point value of the question, at instructor discretion.
All Prose Answers (includes essay and discrete-points questions)
Tests may contain questions which pertain to any of the course materials, including the messages on the email group and the weblog. Some questions may require you to search the internet at large for content for your answers.
Answers must be articulate, well-informed, analytical, complete, well-organized, based on verifiable facts or the opinions of authentic experts. If the answer does not possess sufficient face validity (that is, in the eyes of the grader the point is obviously true), then you must have cited acceptable sources of information. Except in the case of direct quotes, you do not need to cite your sources (unless the question explicitly instructs you to cite your source) if you use material that the grader accepts and is familiar with, such as the textbook and messages that are supplied by Dr. Leigh on the email group, but if you find outside material or you make things up, you had better be sure you are on solid ground and prove it with you citations.
Direct quotations must have accompanying citation information including author, article name, and source. When a question directs you to supply a quote, it means to include direct quotation of at least one complete sentence in length.
Independent, critical, and analytical thinking and writing are encouraged, but that thinking and writing must not be based on unreasonable assertions or unverifiable assumptions.
Realize that the acceptance of multiple submissions for answers to the same or similar essay and discrete-points questions means that the same answers will be graded multiple times, perhaps by different people. This entails that there will be some variation in the grades for the same or very similar answers, as the grading of these sorts of questions requires an element of subjectivity which is not always exactly repeatable. The grades as originally assigned will stand, unless the class member can demonstrate that some error beyond the possibility of reasonable subjectivity has occurred.
Word-To-Wise
Do not enter your ID number in the form until you have completely answered all of the questions. This way, if you accidentally submit the form, you will not submit a partially answered test. But do not forget to go back and enter your ID number before you do your submission.
Test Make-up Policy
See syllabus for your term.
For Summer 2002 the policy will be:
"If the instructor does not find a submission in the file for a test at the end of the availability period for that test, you will receive a zero grade for that test. The almost one week of availability for each test (final exam somewhat shorter) allows everyone time to take every test. I advise you to submit during the preliminary grading period so that you can check your preliminary grade to make sure that your test was submitted and received, as there will be no test make-up possibility."