General | Email | Academic Dishonesty | Group Work | Grading

General

Reading assignments: Reading assignments for the following week will be announced on the Home page before lab each week. It is best to give the assigned material a first reading before the first class of the following week, but don't be concerned if you don't understand some of it until it is explained in class.

Attendance is expected in class and laboratory. When you have completed the in-lab portion of an assignment, you may leave the lab, though it is highly recommended you start work on the rest of the assignment in lab where you can get help easily if you need it. If a conflict arises and you must miss one of your regular lab sessions, then you can usually make-up the in-lab exercise during one of the other lab sessions. In such circumstances, you should contact your lab instructor and the instructor in charge of the other lab session in advance to arrange the make-up.

Bring your text (the one with reading assignments that week) to lab. You do not need to bring your text to class.

Assignment submission is via Oncourse only.

Incomplete (I) final grades are given only in exceptional circumstances conforming to departmental policy in which the bulk of course work has been completed in passing fashion. Generally an incomplete is applicable only in the event of unforeseen hardship occurring after the deadline for withdrawal with a Dean's permission. It is not a way to avoid an unsatisfactory grade if you have gotten behind in the course. If you feel you are getting behind, please see me right away.

The last day for dropping from the course with an automatic grade of W is W Oct 24 (by 4pm). Dean's permission to withdraw after this date is given only in well-documented and exceptional situations. Since the knowledge and skills learned in this course are highly cumulative, if you are not doing well at midterm you may well do worse in the remainder of the course even if you try harder. So if you are not very confident that you will catch up, seriously consider dropping while you can. If in any doubt about whether to drop, please speak to me.

Participating auditors must be registered as auditors. As long as everyone who has registered for the course has a seat, I do not object to anyone else being seated in the classroom. However, if you are not registered for the course you are not allowed to participate in any way. This includes attending labs, participating in group assignment work, turning in assignments, taking tests or exams, going to office hours with course-related questions, or asking questions in class.

Religious Observation: In accordance with the Office of the Dean of Faculties, any student who wishes to receive an excused absence from class must submit a separate request form for each absent day. Present this form to me by the end of the second week of the semester. Further information and forms are available from the Office of Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculties religious observances web.

Disabilities: If you require assistance or academic accommodations for a disability, please contact me (after class, during my office hours or by appointment) after you have established your eligibility for disability support services through the Office of Disabled Student Services in 096 Franklin Hall, 855-7578.

Email

• Course announcements are emailed via the Oncourse site, and archived on the course web home page. If you do not wish to receive these emails, or wish to get them in a daily summary of all Oncourse email, go to Oncourse > My Workspace > Preferences. If you elect not to receive course email, you are responsible for checking the course web daily.
• To report things, such as problems with web material, Oncourse, assignments, or your feelings about the course, please do not hesitate to email me: chaynes@indiana.edu.
• Please do not use email to ask questions that are not very simple, with very simple answers. I want to be as accessible as possible, but email is just not suitable for many programming questions. If you have a personal question, it is usually better to see me or call me. I'm available in office hours, by appointment, briefly after class, and even by phone at home if I'm there during business hours. General technical questions are best asked in class, where everyone can benefit from the answer. Assignment questions usually need to be answered in person: please come to any of the instructors office hours or make an appointment to see one of us.

Academic Dishonesty

Academic dishonesty will be prosecuted, so to be sure you understand the rules, read this carefully!

• If someone is caught using another student's "clicker," both the user and the owner of the clicker will be charged with flagrant academic dishonesty and fail the course.
• Submitting a laboratory assignment via Oncourse other than while attending lab is academic dishonesty.
• Providing or receiving help during exams or tests, or submitting the work of another as your own without conspicuous acknowledgment, or allowing (knowingly or carelessly) your work to be used by others, all constitute academic dishonesty. There are no "small" offenses.
• You were provided with a copy of the Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct when you enrolled at this university. Read especially the Academic Responsibilities & Misconduct section. The Computer Science Department Statement on Academic Integrity provides further information. If you are not sure about the rules, ask right away.
• Do not assume an academic dishonesty charge can be avoided by renaming variables, changing comments, and other minor program modification.
• Consistent with university policy, substantiated academic dishonesty will result in a penalty including at least no credit for the work involved and a report to the Dean of Students.
• You may freely discuss with other students in-lab exercises (those that must be submitted before the end of your lab period), receiving and providing as much help as is needed for you to complete that exercise. However, programming assignments (including parts started in lab) must be done independently, or in groups permitted by the assignment. If you need help with assignments, see the course instructors in office hours or by appointment, or if the question is of a general nature you can post a note to the newsgroup.
• Do not ask your friends for assignment help (other than clarifying the meaning of the assignment and background knowledge from class and texts), and do not provide help to others that they are not allowed to receive.

You are strongly encouraged to work with others on exercises from the course text or other books and learning materials.

Prosecution of academic dishonesty is necessary for the protection of honest students; otherwise grades may reflect social connections rather than ability. And students who do not do assignments will not develop sufficient skill to pass tests and the final exam.

Group Work

Group work is allowed in some assignments, but only as indicated in the assignment. If an assignment indicates group work, it applies to both the in-lab and out-of-lab portions of the assignment, with the same group. Group work allows you to learn from others and assist them in learning (which always teaches you something), but in a controlled manner that still makes grades meaningful. Along with this benefit, there are some important responsibilities. If you ignore these responsibilities, it will hurt your learning, your grade, or both.

• All members of an assignment group receive the same grade, unless there is clear evidence of unequal contribution. In the event of very unequal contribution, group members are encouraged to report the situation to me.
• Only one member of each group may make a submission for each assignment (so that there is not confusion about which is to be graded and effort is not wasted grading more than one). If multiple group members make an assignment submission, the most recent will be graded and the group grade will be reduced by a letter grade.
• All group members are responsible for the group submission being made properly, so group members should be together and all watching and confirming the submission procedure. You may be tempted to allow someone else to make the submission in your absence, but if they mess up, your grade will suffer, including the possibility of not receiving any credit for the submission.
• All group members are responsible for understanding all of the group's work. Ideally, all work should be done collaboratively. If you let others do much of the thinking, you're loosing out on valuable experience and are likely to do less well on tests.
• The names and user names of all group members must appear on the first-line comment of submitted source files, along with your lab section day-of-week and starting time. Failure to follow this instruction will result in loss of one letter grade on the assignment and no credit for lab exercises (because it requires only a small amount of your effort to include this information, but a significant effort for an instructor to confirm a mistake and correct the grade roster).

Grading

• Grades are computed via a weighted average, using approximately the following percentages:
  • 34%: Tests
    • During class there will be several short tests of about 30 minutes each, generally unannounced.
    • In lab there will be one Alice and one Python practical test using the computers. The Alice practical is takes half the lab period and counts the same as an in-class test, and the Python practical takes all of the last lab period and counts twice as much as an in-class test (half of which is dropped if it is the lowest test grade).
    • Your lowest test grade will be dropped. The dropped grade may be one that was missed without excuse. If you are excused from a test, for you it is as if it didn't happen: another test grade will be dropped and the tests that are counted will count more individually, but make the same contribution to your final grade collectively.
    • Tests will generally emphasize recent material, but may cover any material covered in class and assigned readings through the preceding week, and assignments due prior to the test.
    • Material in class notes that is introduced by an FYI diamond is mentioned because it appears in the text or may otherwise be of use to you, but it is not required for tests (including the final) or assignments.
    • You are responsible for assigned reading material, whether or not it is covered in class. I try to devote class time to the more difficult concepts, but there isn't time to cover all the detail.
    • Short tests, and the final, are closed book and notes. You are expected to know syntax covered in class or assigned reading. However, you are not expected to know details of specific functions and methods unless they have been used a lot in assignments. Information about them will be provided when generally necessary and if you are not sure, make up a reasonable name and indicate in a comment what it does. That way if you get the name wrong you will lose little if any credit.
  • 35%: Assignments
    • Your lowest one-week assignment grade is dropped (as with tests).
    • Assignments are generally due every week, though at least one will be a "project" lasting more than one week. Assignments will count in proportion to the amount of time allowed for them.
    • The first line of each assignment file is to be a comment including the assignment number, your lab day-of-week and starting time, your name and user name, and also those of other team members if it is group work.
    • Assignments are returned in the lab indicated in the above comment. If you forget to indicate your lab time, you will have to pick up the assignment or test from me. (You are asked to indicate your lab on assignments and tests because it is much easier for you do to so than for the grader to look up this information so graded material can be returned to you in lab.)
    • Assignments are generally due on Thursday at 3 pm. Unless otherwise indicated, they may be submitted up to two days late with a one-letter-grade late penalty, after which submissions are not accepted. Machine downtime (unless it effects most STC labs and is near the deadline), not being able to connect to the IU network from home, and so on, are not excuses for failing to submit assignments on time.
  • 21%: Final exam
    • The final is in our usual classroom at the time indicated in the course syllabus and the registrar's web.
    • In content, duration, and contribution to the final grade, the final exam is roughly equivalent to three tests back-to-back.
    • It covers the whole course, with some emphasis on material since the last test.
    • Attendance at the final exam is required. No alternate times are offered.
  • 10%: Participation points
    • Up to three participation points may be missed without excuse and still receive full participation credit, and of course points missed due to excused absence do not result in loss of credit.
    • Points may be derived from a variety of sources including the following:
      • Papers, called handins, submitted in class and lab. These may be exercises done in class or lab, or work that an assignment indicates is to be completed early and brought to lab.
      • Oncourse submissions during lab. Be sure your name and user id is on all handins, along with those of all other members of your group if it is group work. Do not worry if you have made a good effort on a lab submission but are not able to complete an exercise to be turned in at the end of lab. Just submit what you have before the lab ends. It is suggested that if you don't finish it in lab you finish it later, but you don't have to and should not submit it after the lab ends.
      • Class participation indicated by responses to clicker questions.
      • Being the first to bring an error in the text or the course web to my attention.
    • Each instance is worth one point unless otherwise indicated. They are not graded (or returned) in the usual sense, but are checked for a reasonable level of participation. You will be notified if a handin or lab submission is unsatisfactory. You are responsible for verifying that your clicker is operating properly. Bring it to my attention immediately if there is a problem, but first be sure you have carefully followed the instructions on the Clicker page.
• The final course numeric scores are "curved up" as needed to obtain an appropriate distribution of final letter grades.
• Assignments and tests receive a letter grade, except multi-week projects, which may be assigned a grade with +/-. In computing averages, letter grades are interpreted in GPA fashion: A=4, B=3, ..., and the final numeric grade is normalized so that 100% is 4 points, 75% is 3 points, etc.
• Exam and the test questions will be mostly short programming exercises.
• If there is a medical, personal, or professional necessity, including university-sanctioned curricular and extracurricular activities, requiring you to miss an exam, test, assignment, or handin, present your excuse to me (after class is convenient) with sufficient supporting documentation. Documentation may be shown to me after class or in office hours any time before the end of the course. When in any doubt, be sure you are excused in advance. Do not email requests for grading exceptions. There are no make-up alternatives. If you are excused from a grading element, it will not be used in your grade evaluation. For example, if you are excused from one of six tests, your test grade will be determined by dropping the lowest of the other tests and averaging the remaining ones.
• Grades become final two weeks after the material is returned in lab or lecture. If you believe that a test has been mis-graded, submit your argument in writing to me, along with your test, and it will be reconsidered. Questions about the grading of assignments should be first directed to your lab instructor.
• If you miss the lab in which graded material is returned, they may be obtained from my office.
• Keep graded material that is returned. Occasionally there may be grading recalls for additional credit, and you might need to prove a grade that was recorded in error. Final exams are not returned. You may see your final exam in my office during office hours or by appointment during the first half of the following semester. Final exam and semester grades are final after that time.
• Your grades in the course roster will be uploaded to the Oncourse Post'Em tool shortly before midterm, shortly before the end of the semester, right after final course grades are submitted, and perhaps other times. Each roster upload will be announced on the home page.
  • The following special grade roster entries are used:
    • Z: zero, missing
    • L: late, no credit
    • X: excused (just as if it never existed, does not count as a dropped grade)
    • S: satisfactory
    • P: pending
    • #: penalty, like an F, but not droppable (used only in cases of academic dishonesty)
    • FN: course grade of F because not attending
    • FNN: course grade of F because never attended
  • The following grade item name abbreviations are used:
    • T: test
    • L: lab
    • A: Assignment
    • H: handin (something turned in during class or lab)
    • EC: extra credit
    • 3 or 4 digits: participation point for this date with format [m]mdd
    • lab: your lab instructor's initial
    • Note: last attending date or other information
• Programs in assignments, tests, and exams are graded on:
  • Correctness, about 70%: whether the program works as specified.
    • Program correctness is determined by executing your program and inspecting your code.
    • Program tests alone cannot guarantee correctness. Most programs have an essentially infinite number of possible inputs. You cannot test them all. Programs should behave as described in the assignment.
    • You may assume that user input conforms with the problem statement, unless the assignment specifically states that you should check for bad input.
    • If a program cannot be run when graded (bad syntax), the extent of its correctness is guessed by code inspection, but it will not receive more than a C.
    • If failure to satisfy some part of the assignment specification is conspicuously acknowledged in documentation at the beginning of the program, the grade penalty for this failure may be reduced somewhat. Bugs should be advertised, not unknown or hidden.
  • Style, about 30%: Programs should obey the style rules, follow the style guidelines most of the time, and also be nicely formatted, adequately documented, and well organized. The primary guideline is to make your program as easy to understand as possible.
• Assignment letter grade guidelines
  • E: An A with extra credit, about half a letter grade above A. (A good job on sections marked extra credit could also raise a lower grade, say from a B to an A.)
  • A: Correct implementation of the program specification, perhaps with a very minor glitch or two, and good style.
  • B: All major and most minor functionality implemented, perhaps with a few minor problems, and acceptable style.
  • C: Substantial functionality, but some major element missing or substantially buggy, or poor programming style.
  • D: Little functionality.
  • F: Very little functionality: poor effort.