Assignments and Grading Criteria

Participation………………………………………………………………………...40%
 
Given that this is an experiential course, a major part of the learning process occurs during class sessions and exercises. You are expected to attend all class sessions. There are three elements to participation in this course: Attendance, preparation, and engagement.
Attendance: You cannot participate if you don’t attend. You will not accrue participation marks for each of the classes you fail to attend. During classes where exercises are conducted, an absence may not only impact you, but your negotiation partners as well. In order to ensure that this does not occur, students MUST SIGN IN for EACH NEGOTIATION EXERCISE at least ONE HOUR before class (via a google form that will emailed to you). Once you sign in for a negotiation and are assigned a partner, if you do not make it to class you will automatically lose one letter grade. Additionally, it is important to be on time to every class, as information related to exercises is often given at the beginning of class. Any students who arrive to class after the negotiation begins have put themselves and their partner at a disadvantage for that week. Being late to class (you are late as soon as the negotiation begins) will result in a one-half letter grade reduction. Participation: We will debrief every negotiation exercise as a group. Learning occurs as you experience negotiations for yourself, but also as you hear about others’ experiences, making debriefing sessions an important element of this class. During debriefing sessions, it is expected that you make meaningful and insightful contributions. You may be asked to summarize your role in the exercise, reflect on your own performance or strategies in the negotiation, or apply your actions to a concept in the readings for the day. The strategies of successful negotiations are often not intuitive; you will all make mistakes that you are encouraged to share with the class so that you and others can learn and improve. During this time in class, there is a no laptop policy that will be strictly enforced. Engagement: The negotiation exercises used in this course are meant to help you experience a variety of negotiation situations in a low-risk environment. In each exercise you are asked to adopt interests, priorities, and perspectives that may not necessarily be consistent with your own. The better you understand and adopt the role you are playing in each negotiation, the more you and your counterpart will learn from the experience. You are expected to come to class fully prepared to negotiate the role you have been assigned. During the negotiation, you are expected to express the interests and preferences that are consistent with your role. You may disagree with the interests of your role during debriefing, but such disagreement is not appropriate during your negotiation. A lack of preparation or refusal to engage in the role assigned will result in a 5% reduction to your participation grade that day.   
 
Participation Grades:
            Exercises…………………………………15%
            Participation evaluation………………….15%
            Peer evaluation…………………………..10%
 
 
Reading quizzes………...………………………………………………………….. 20%
 
A large portion of your comprehension in class will occur through the reading assignments you complete outside of class. Each group of readings are assigned to help you develop a new negotiating skill and will aid you in the exercise, case study, or discussion we have that day. You are expected to read the materials for each assigned day prior to class. Because the readings play such a large role in your learning experience, we will have periodic reading quizzes. These quizzes will consist of several multiple choice questions based on the readings for that day.
 
 
Personal negotiation analysis ……………………………………………………….10%
 
Every negotiation you encounter will be unique. To improve your negotiation skills beyond this course, you must learn how to assess your own negotiations and recognize ways you can improve your abilities. You will have one opportunity to practice such an assessment in this course by watching your second negotiation, watching the same way others approached this negotiation, and writing a summary of your strengths, weaknesses, and goals for improvement.
Video: You and your negotiation partner will be expected to record your negotiation and upload it to Google drive. You will use this video to assess yourself in your paper. Failure to upload the video by the next class will result in a 25% reduction of your final grade on the paper. Paper: In five pages, you will be asked to summarize what occurred in your negotiation, what your strengths and weaknesses were during this negotiation, and your goals for improvement. In assessing your strengths and weaknesses in the negotiation, you are expected to use course concepts supported by specific examples from your negotiation. Additionally, I expect your writing to be clear and concise. You will be graded on the quality of your analysis, not your actual performance in the negotiation.  
Midterm Graded Negotiation (individual)……………………………………….20%
 
Final Graded Negotiation (group)……….……………………………………….10%
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Graded Negotiations - 15% each
Grading Scale
Your final grade in this course will be a combination of your numerical score and the U of A 4-point scale as given below:
>90% A+
85-90% A
80-85% A-
75-80% B+
70-75% B
65-70% B-
60-64% C+
55-59% C
50-55% D
<50% F