REPORT

From Biolecture.org

 

Why the Grade of the

Bioinformatics Course should be B+

  • Based on calculation of accomplishment -

 

Byeongeun Lee

 

 

 

Summary

 As the spring semester comes to an end, the grade must be given. To grade this bioinformatics course, the accomplishment was converted into figure to make objective criteria. And also this accomplishment was evaluated by absolute evaluation format. In conclusion, the result of calculation was 82.5%, which apply to B+.

 

Introduction

 To evaluate the accomplishment of this course reasonably, the goal of this course must be confirmed first. And to set proper goal, the level of knowledge must be checked. Largely, the goal of this course is composed of four parts; lecture content, Perl programming, homework, and sincerity. According to background knowledge level of each part, the goal was established. And there were no other data of other students’ accomplishment, so absolute evaluation format is used for grading. The grading scale for absolute evaluation was made by average from other courses’ scales. First, in this paper, the established goal is given for clear understanding and then the scale for absolute evaluation and explain about how accomplishment is converted into figure is given. And then the procedure of accomplishment calculation will be shown and the conclusion will be made.

 

 

Procedure


Goal establishment

First in case of lecture contents, the background about basic understanding of terms for bioinformatics was unclear. So clear understanding about bioinformatics terms is the goal for lecture part. Second in case of programming, according to the score of quiz of previous class and score of Engineer programming course which main contents of course is programming, the background knowledge about programming can be estimated as zero. So considering about this background, the goal of this course in case of programming was that understanding the basic term of Perl and obtaining the ability to understand simple Perl coding. Third, in case of homework, doing all the homework was the goal and lastly for sincerity, attending all classes was the goal of this course.

Converting into figure

 To calculate accomplishment as grade, accomplishment should be converted into figure. So according to status whether did or not, the score was marked as percentage. Before that, four parts of accomplishment have different percentage depending on importance. Setting whole grade as 100%, the percentage was given to lecture content 30%, Perl programming 30%, Homework 30% and last sincerity 10% (Figure 1). And then each percentage was marked depending on the status of whether did or not. The status is divided into three; did, partially did, or did not. In case of did, the full percentage was given. And in case of partially did, half percentage was given. And last, in case of did not, no percentage was given (Figure 2). By this, we could convert the degree of accomplishment into percentage. Also in case of unclear status which positions in the middle of status, the half of percentage between two statuses was deduced from total.

Percentage of each part

LECTURE CONTENTS        30%

PERL PROGRAMMING       30%

HOMEWORK               30%

SINCERITY                 10%

 
 

Figure 1 Percentage of parts

 

 

 

Grading according to status

Did                 full %

Partially did         half %

Did not             0 %

 
 

Figure 2 Grading according to status

 

 

 

Setting scale for Absolute evaluation

For absolute evaluation, the grading scale is needed. To make scale, the scales from other courses which use absolute evaluation format   were gathered and made average and distributed them. The scale used for grading this course is shown in Figure 3. For example, to get A+, the percentage should be in range of from 95 to 100.

 

Scale(%)

A+ : 95~100     C+ : 65~70

A0 : 90~95      C0 : 60~65

A- : 85~90      C-  : 55~60

B+ : 80~85      D+ : 50~55

B0 : 75~80     D0  : 45~50

B- : 70~75      D: 40~45

Figure  3 Scale

 
   

  
 

Result

By those procedures, the accomplishment of each part can be converted into percentage. And with the percentage, the grade is calculated according to scale..

Score of lecture content

According to Figure 4~11, the lecture contents of each week is ordered and categorized with detail explanations. Because there were no omission and all explanation is arranged, it is easy to understand. With these contents, the understanding of each field terms related to bioinformatics is possible. So “understanding of bioinformatics terms”, the goal of lecture content part was fully accomplished. For this part, 30%, the full scores, is eligible.

Score of Perl programming

In case of Perl programming, according to Figure 12~15, the basic concepts needed for understand the Perl is listed and explained. And to test the ability of understanding simple coding, the sample brought from Website is analyzed. Because this analysis was done by oneself, the ability of understanding of coding is accomplished. But the sample coding was only one case done, so it’s not enough to get full percentage. So with deduction of 7.5%, total 22.5% is eligible for this part.

Score of homework

In case of homework, as the Figure 16 and 17 shows, all homework which professor especially mentioned was done. So full percentage, indeed 30% of score is eligible for homework.

Score of sincerity

In case of sincerity, measurement of accomplishment is done by attendance to class. Because of full attendance without lateness, except the day which was no class, full 10% score is eligible for this part (Figure 18).

 

Figure 4 Lecture content (Bioinformatics)

 

Figure 5 Lecture content (Genomics)

 

Figure 6 Lecture content (Transcriptomics)

 

Figure 7 Lecture content (Epigenomics1)

 

Figure 8 Lecture content (Epigenomics2)

 

Figure 9 Lecture content (Epigenomics3)

 

Figure 10 Lecture content (Proteomics1)

 

Figure 11 Lecture content (Proteomics2)

 

Figure 12 Perl (Variables)

 

Figure 13 Perl (Function)

 

Figure 14 Perl (Analysis1)

 

Figure 15 Perl (Analysis2)

 

Figure 16 Homework (Define 20 words)

 

Figure 17 Homework (Essay)

 

Figure 18 Attendance

 

( Figure 4~18 : added at original report )

 

Conclusion and Discussion

In conclusion, calculating total percentage, total score,

Total percentage

= Lecture content 30% + Perl programming 22.5% + Homework 30% + Sincerity 10%

= 82.5%

The total percentage becomes 82.5%. According to scale decided before, eventually the grade for this bioinformatics course becomes B+. To improve this grade, more effort on Perl programming should have been done. Challenging to analyze more complicated coding must have been needed for improving not only score but also ability for Perl using. And also even if the other parts got full credit, more qualified studies could have been done by not just investigating information, arranging and understanding them, but by having more deep consideration about bioinformatics and related fields. And considering about possible connection or usage for other research could have made more qualified learning for this course and research.