A goal of the participation credit is to reward and incentivize contributions that help to build a constructive learning community for the course. Another justification is that learning to communicate in a variety of ways about the material (and about statistics and data science in general) is itself a goal of the course.
The piazza site is the main venue for participation in class discussions. If this site does not currently contain the discussion topics you need, then start them. Anonymous contributions generally build community less well than signed ones, so more credit will be given to non-anonymous contributions unless for some reason the topic requires anonymity.
All questions and comments in class are also appreciated forms of participation. If I donโt call you by name, please start your question by giving your name, and be patient with my attempts to learn your names!
Questions in office hours, or by email, or after class, are appreciated but usually do less to help build community compared to questions asked publicly. You are encouraged to follow up on your question with a post to piazza saying what you learned.
Participation will be reported as part of homework. There will be no homework during the midterm and final projects, so a separate participation report will be requested. At least one contribution is expected over each reporting interval (approximately every two weeks). Students making multiple contributions are assessed on their best one.
[5 points] Participation that makes an on-target substantive contribution to a course discussion (in class or on Piazza). Anonymous contributions will only count for full points if there is some evident reason why the topic demands anonymity.
[4 points] Participation that builds class community without satisfying (5). For example, asking or answering an administrative question.
[3 points] A contribution which does not quite meet expectations. For example, a small comment which turns out not to be helpful for starting or answering a class discussion. Probably in the least-well-constructed 25% of all class contributions.
[0 points] No contribution.