Need for assessment in the class??--feedback requested (can be on the blog)

Folks

Now that I have an idea of what semester projects are being attempted
by the various students, I am beginning to wonder
what the grade should be based on in the event that the semester
project doesn't end up all that well.

Now, in real world, if your project doesn't work, your paper will just
be rejected and that is that. However, since this is a course
and you need a letter grade, we need some basis for that. [There is
the option of just giving everybody the same high grade--but I am
afraid that might adversely affect my popularity...]

As of now, we had one homework, and one mini-project. I definitely
plan to release a second homework to cover everything since the
first homework.

In addition to that, I am thinking that there should be some sort of
"breadth of understanding" assessment. We can do this assessment
either around now (specifically, there is a good chance I will miss
the class of April 7th-- and that is always a goodtime to have an
exam), or
at the end of the semester during the finals week.

My assumption is that if someone does a great semester project, that
trumps over everything else. However, if the semester project doesn't
work out all that well--these other assessment mechanisms can help in
giving a grade.

I solicit your opinion(s) on this (either on the blog or by anonymous
email to http://rakaposhi.eas.asu.edu/cgi-bin/mail?rao )

thanks
Rao