All About Projects
Table of Contents
- Projects and your overall grade
- What are the possible deliverables?
- Group vs. Individual Projects
- Signing up for a group
- Receiving the prompt and rubric
- Submitting the project
- Grading and feedback
- Signing up for a group
- Group Project Agreement
- Group Project Best Practices
- Resolving issues with groups
- Requesting an Extension on a Project
- Disputing a Project Grade
What are projects?
Projects and your overall grade
Projects and presentations are among the program requirements for obtaining your degree. Projects and presentations make up 30% of your final grade—satisfactorily completing your Quantic projects and presentations is mandatory. Projects are graded on a scale of one to five. A score of at least a 3 is required to pass your written Capstone project, while all other projects and presentations require at least a 2. If you receive a passing score on a project, a score of 100 is averaged into your final project score. For failures or unsubmitted projects, a score of 0 is averaged into your final score. For more about how projects and presentations in particular are graded, visit either this support article (EMBA) or this one (MBA).
What are the possible deliverables?
Each project will have a specified deliverable. Some projects are written projects, meaning that your submission will include a written response to a question or prompt, as well as any charts, diagrams, spreadsheets, or calculations relevant to the subject.
Other projects are presentations, which require you to prepare and record an oral response to a prompt and use a deck of slides to support your presentation. The expected length of the presentation will be specified by the project prompt and rubric. You will be responsible for recording a video in which you are both visible and audible, while your slide deck is also simultaneously visible. You must then submit that video for grading in the manner specified by the prompt and rubric. For more information about recording a presentation project, please see this article.
A project prompt and rubric may provide suggestions of tools or platforms to use when completing a project. You are encouraged to consider using the recommended tools, but you are welcome to use the tools you find most suitable for your project, as long as it meets the project requirements. If a project prompt specifies the file type or format that a project must be submitted in, make sure that you submit your project in the corresponding file type or format.
Group vs. Individual Projects
Some projects will be individual, meaning that you are expected to complete and submit the project on your own. You may discuss individual projects with your classmates, but the product that you ultimately submit must be entirely your own work.
Group projects, by contrast, will be specified as group projects. Our records indicate that students who complete a project in a group not only receive a higher score but are also more likely to finish the program and graduate. You are highly encouraged to complete group projects in a group, but you may complete group projects individually if your schedule does not allow for group work.
Project Timeline
Signing up for a group [Group projects only!]
If the project is a group project, you will receive the group sign-up sheet about a week and a half before the first day of the listed project week on your course schedule. For more details, check out the Signing up for a group section below.
Receiving the prompt and rubric
Project weeks are indicated on your course schedule. To accommodate those who wish to begin a project early, project prompts and rubrics are sent via email the Friday before the exam week for concentrations with an associated project. Project prompts and rubrics are also posted in Slack and go live on your Quantic dashboard on the Monday of the designated project week. Sometimes a project prompt will contain a template for the submission, which you are expected to copy and then fill out for your deliverable. Take note of and use any templates that are shared with you in the project prompt and rubric.
Submitting the project
The due date for a project is listed on your course schedule. Visit the Homepage of your Quantic Dashboard and click "View Full Schedule'' to find those due dates. Note that there is also a time zone indicated on that schedule. It’s important to note that projects are due at the time and in the time zone indicated by the schedule. This means that the time at which projects are due in your local time zone may be different. You can use a time zone converter like this one to see what time the listed time zone corresponds to in your local time zone. You may submit a project any time before the due date.
Projects can be submitted through the project submission portal linked on your dashboard. You can access the portal by clicking the "Submit Project" button that will appear in your weekly assignment box on your dashboard during project periods. You will also be able to submit late projects by clicking the "Submit Project" button that appears below your outstanding projects in the "Not on Track" box. Project prompts and rubrics will contain specific instructions about file type and format of your submission. Read and follow those instructions carefully. Know that the team will reach out to you if there are any issues with your submission.
Grading and feedback
You will automatically receive a response with a copy of your submission once you submit through the portal—this is confirmation that our team has received your project. Project feedback, on average, takes three to four weeks to be returned. Depending on the project and the number of submissions, feedback may take longer to distribute. The team works hard to provide feedback as efficiently as possible. Feedback will be emailed to the address that is on file with Quantic (the one that you use to log into your Quantic account) as soon as it’s ready. It is the team’s practice to include any group members listed on the submission on feedback emails. A sample project is often included in the feedback email. If you are looking for a project feedback email, please check your Spam, Promotions, and Trash folders for emails from projects@quantic.edu. To reduce the likelihood that messages from the team are filtered away from your inbox, you are advised to add projects@quantic.edu to your email contacts and/or safe sender lists.
Working Effectively in Groups
Signing up for a group
About a week and a half before the first day of the listed project week on your course schedule, a group sign-up sheet, along with instructions, will be posted on Slack and sent via email. The sign-up sheet is typically a Google spreadsheet, with rows and columns to divide groups. One of the columns on the sign-up sheet is also designated for the time zone. Signing up to work with classmates in similar time zones is highly recommended, but not officially required. The number of rows allotted to a group on the sign-up sheet will match the maximum number of group members allowed for that project. Do not add rows to a group to make room for more members over the limit. Do not edit or remove other people’s names on the spreadsheet, especially without their permission. There are no exceptions to the group member maximum allowed for a particular project.
Your assigned cohort Slack workspace is a great place to contact your classmates. Upon signing up on the sign-up sheet, try sending a direct message to the person or people you want to reach. If their name doesn't come up right away, try searching just their first name or just their last name.
If you don’t find your group mate in your assigned workspace, you can also find anyone in your cohort via the Network tab of your Quantic Dashboard and filtering by "My Class". Use the Keyword Search field, and try your search with first name or last name. Use the "Contact" button on any profile to compose and send a message that will appear for the recipient as email.
You are welcome to work with anyone in your cohort on a group project, regardless of Slack workspace assignment. In that case, you can use the Network tab of your Quantic Dashboard to filter by "My Class". Browse the list, or use the Advanced Search > Keyword Search field to search by first or last name. Use the "Contact" button on any profile to compose and send a message that will appear for the recipient as email.
Group Project Agreement
The Group Project Agreement is shared along with the group sign-up sheet via Slack. This document covers group communication, norms and expectations, advice for mediating group conflicts, and the crafting of a group agreement. This agreement must be filled out, signed by all group members, and submitted along with your project. Doing so is a requirement in order to receive a grade for your project. Best practice is to fill out this document with your group mates as you embark on the project, but it does not have to be submitted until you turn in your project.
Group Project Best Practices
The Group Project Best Practices document is linked in the Group Project Agreement and accessible here. Consulting this document is highly recommended as you embark on any group project. The document covers group formation, collaboration, and submission, and it provides excellent recommendations for further reading and resources!
Resolving issues with groups
The Group Project Agreement outlines the appropriate manner to confront issues with groups. If conflict should arise, there should be at least two attempts to message group members and at least one attempt to meet virtually (or face-to-face) to discuss any issues. Note that Quantic does not assign groups, and Quantic cannot mediate group conflicts unless the group has taken appropriate measures as outlined in the Group Project Agreement.
Requesting an Extension on a Project
To discuss the potential for an extension on a project, please email projects@quantic.edu with your request. Extension requests must be submitted via email. Quantic staff cannot evaluate or grant extension requests over Slack.
Disputing a Project Grade
If you are not satisfied with the feedback you received on a project, we do have a process for appealing project grades, which you can read more about in either this article (EMBA) or this one (MBA). Read and follow the instructions in that article for appealing your project grade. The committee will review your case and related materials and respond to you by email with the outcome.