June 22, 2006

Effect of Extra Points on Grades:  Historical View--

In Fall 2003, 19 students were enrolled in NURS 320.  Eight students (42%) improved their letter grade in the course by virtue of extra-credit points, including two students who would otherwise have failed.  Three students improved their score from a B to an A and three improved from a C to a B for the semester. 

In Fall 2004, 25 students were enrolled in NURS 320.  Fifteen students (60%) improved their letter grade with extra-credit points, including four who would otherwise have failed.  Seven students improved their score from a B to an A and four improved from a C to a B for the semester.

In Fall 2005, 37 students were enrolled in NURS 320.  Thirteen students (35%) improved their letter grade with extra-credit points.  Nine students improved their score from a B to an A, three improved from a C to a B, and one student improved to a C and would otherwise have failed. 

You can see that it pays to complete the exercises and participate with a substantive entry in the discussion modules!  The deadline for the module discussion groups is always midnight on the Sunday just before the next exam.  I'll try to keep you updated about your extra-credit points in Angel, so that you know where you stand on those grades. 

Aug. 2006:  Hi, everyone!  Exam  grades will be posted on Angel at https://elearning.kumc.edu/angel/frames.aspx, so be sure to check your progress there. 

In past years, some students have asked how best to study for the exams.  I always suggest that the study questions toward the end of each on-line module are a good place to start.  If I have listed terms in the "terminology" sections in the middle of the modules, that indicates that I think those are important concepts.  The written syllabus gives an outline that may well be the very best guide to what will be tested.  For example, the material on infectious agents in the first module is not covered well in the text at all, so you'll need to depend on the syllabus for that.  Use the textbook just as you would for any class, as a resource and reference for the material that you need to review.  You're certainly not expected to memorize the text and in many cases, you may only need to scan it for the sake of review.

Also, a word of warning about the discussion board. The webboard is set to automatically delete a user's profile/account if the user has not logged into a board in 60 days.  (This used to be 90 days).  So if you intend to use the discussion group anytime during the semester, be sure that you don't let two months lapse between uses!   

The university asks that we use the KUMC e-mail address for each of you, so that's where the e-mails are sent.  You can access that with the URL http://webmail.kumc.edu.  Since some of you may prefer another e-mail access, please call the Help Desk at 913-588-7995 and they can help you forward your KUMC e-mail account to your personal e-mail account.   To help you decide about this, you may want to read the e-mail policy page at: http://www2.kumc.edu/ir/operationalprotocols/email.asp.