Artie, do they not include rubrics for the class? I guess yours is normally taught in person, but I edit online college courses for one of my gigs, and they nearly always include rubrics that have what each assignment is worth and the breakdown of components of each assignment and how many points they're worth (and specifics of how to get full or partial points for each component--yes, they're lots of fun to edit! /s). Or there should at least be some more basic grading breakdown in the Syllabus that says how much each assignment, discussion, etc. is worth.