Grading Contract Template

This repository is a template for generating a personalized grading contract using R Markdown. Students and instructors can use it to create a semester-long schedule of assignments and deliverables based on a chosen grade contract.

What Is a Grading Contract?

A grading contract is an agreement between a student and instructor that specifies the work a student will complete in order to earn a particular grade (A, B, or Pass). This template auto-generates a dated schedule of lab assignments and portfolio pieces based on the parameters you provide.

Prerequisites

• R and RStudio
• The tidyverse R package (install.packages("tidyverse"))
• The rmarkdown R package (install.packages("rmarkdown"))

How to Use This Template

1. Use this template

Click the green "Use this template" button at the top of this GitHub page to create your own copy of this repository, or fork/clone it directly.

2. Open the project

Open grade_contract.Rproj in RStudio to load the project.

3. Edit the parameters in contract.Rmd

At the top of contract.Rmd, update the params section in the YAML front matter to match your course details:

params:
  semester: Spring 2026          # Semester name shown in the contract
  semester_half:
    label: Half Semester Contract
    value: TRUE                  # TRUE = 8-week contract; FALSE = full 15-week contract
  weekonemonday: "2026-01-13"    # Date of the Monday of the first week (YYYY-MM-DD)
  thesisdeadline: "2023-01-10"   # (if applicable) thesis deadline date
  springbreak: "2023-01-10"      # (if applicable) spring break Monday date
  name: Tukey Cat                # Student's full name
  labs: 11                       # Number of lab assignments required
  portfolios: 10                 # Number of portfolio pieces required
  grade:
    value: A                     # Contracted grade: A, B, or Pass
  startweek:
    value: Friday                # Day of the week assignments are due

Parameter descriptions:

Parameter	Description
semester	The semester label displayed in the contract (e.g., Spring 2026)
semester_half	Set to TRUE for a half-semester (8-week) contract; FALSE for a full-semester contract
weekonemonday	The Monday of Week 1 in YYYY-MM-DD format
name	The student's name as it will appear in the contract
labs	Total number of lab assignments the student agrees to complete
portfolios	Total number of portfolio pieces the student agrees to complete
grade	The grade the student is contracting for (A, B, or Pass)
startweek	The day of the week on which weekly deliverables are due (e.g., Friday means all that week's work is due by Friday)

4. Knit the document

Click Knit in RStudio (or press Ctrl+Shift+K / Cmd+Shift+K) to render contract.Rmd into contract.md. The output is a GitHub-flavored Markdown document with a full dated schedule.

You can also render from the R console:

rmarkdown::render("contract.Rmd")

5. Review and adjust the schedule

The generated schedule in contract.md is a suggested schedule. Students are encouraged to rearrange labs and portfolio pieces to fit their own needs—just keep the overall deadlines in mind.

6. Submit your contract

Once the contract looks correct, share contract.md (or a rendered copy) with your instructor for approval.

Repository Structure

File	Description
contract.Rmd	Source R Markdown file — edit this to customize the contract
contract.md	Rendered output — the final grading contract document
grade_contract.Rproj	RStudio project file

Credits

This contract template is adapted from Annie Somerville's contract.