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These are the policies I follow in all of my courses. Your specific course may have no project, so the project-related policies won't apply to it. Each course has a schedule with its deliverables.
The university, college, and department policies against academic dishonesty will be strictly enforced. You should review the NCSU Code of Student Conduct.
Unless otherwise specified, every gradable part of the course requires individual work. Where collaboration is permitted, students may discuss problems with each other, but the solutions must still reflect their individual understanding. All kinds of collusion will be subject to disciplinary action. Students must acknowledge sources such as books (other than the textbook) and old assignments. Unacknowledged use of any such material is subject to disciplinary action. Any attempts to circumvent computing system security or interfere with others' work will also be subject to disciplinary action.
Here are some additional points specific to exams.
Homework and project deadlines are firm.
Students who have completed their deliverables on time are often frustrated if extensions are given. Further, an extension will often cause interence with later work. For this reason, please don't request extensions.
Please note that computer systems tend to break at the least convenient time. This happens remarkably often close to programming deadlines and late in the semester, partly because of the extra load at such times. Please factor in some slack in your schedule.
Please turn off all your electronic gadgets, with the exception of computers, during class. On occasion, we will do exercises in class for which you may use your computers. The rest of the time, which is most of the time, please leave your computers with their screens down.
Students are responsible for updating their email address in WolfWare records, and for monitoring their email for any course-related announcements. I send a test message early in the semester; contact the TA if you don't receive it. You will be added or deleted from the mailing list automatically based on your registration status for the course. The TA can insert and remove additional addresses, but neither the TA nor the instructor can remove your main WolfWare address from a mailing list. You can set your preferred address from https://www.acs.ncsu.edu/reg_records/tracs_lk/trc_frm.html. Please also look here for additional information.
Classes taught in the Engineering Online program have video streams recorded. These are managed by the EOL program and generally restricted to EOL students. If you are an EOL student and can't get to the class videos, please contact one of the EOL program staff.
The following instructions apply to all students. You might also read the instructions that I give to TAs, the EOL office, and the Disability Student Services office.
The homework problems are marked independent or collaborative. You have to take care not to discuss the former with anyone. For the latter, you are encouraged to form teams of 1–3 members (of students in the class). The teams can change for each deliverable. After discussing the problems, think independently for eight hours, after which you may write up your answers individually. (The idea is to reduce the risk of last-minute conversations often leading to last-minute copying of solutions.) On your answer sheet, list the names of the other members in your team, if any.
The projects should be carried out such that they can be evaluated by the instructor and TA. If you wish to use software that is not recommended by the TA, please consult with the TA regarding how your work will be evaluated. In some cases, for EOL students, a demo over the Web is adequate. In other cases, you may have to visit campus.
Often, a project requires teamwork. Project teams ought not change over the semester. However, I would allow a change for a good reason. I encourage you to to resolve technical differences with your team-members through discussion. Each member of the team is expected to work equally hard. However, if you find that a member of your team is not working satisfactorily, you should let the TA and me know as soon as you are convinced that it is so. We will entertain complaints about team members throughout the semester, and may reduce the credit for any person we find not working satisfactorily.
I encourage class participation. Participation means asking good questions and responding to my questions. I assign problems to work on during class - work on them! I call on students during class - be alert! (Sometimes students are tempted to attempt to answer class problems by peeking ahead in the textbook or in posted notes and slides. This rarely works. Please think by yourself!)
Please direct questions as follows. Please don't use the message board for questions where you want the TA or me to take specific action. Also don't use the message board for questions about how your homework, program, or exam was graded. Use the message board for general programming related questions for which it is OK to share knowledge (don't post code listings that give away part of a solution students or teams are supposed to obtain by themselves.
In the interest of fairness, I try to post answers to questions asked privately or by email on the course mailing list.
I expect close to perfect attendance. However, I don't always take attendance in class. If you miss a class, please don't tell me, but it is your responsibility to make up missed work.
While I make all my prepared slides available, there is a lot of value added in class. Only rarely can a student do well on an exam without having regularly attended class.
If you miss an exam, please supply official documentation in order to get credit. For anticipated absences, I will give an exam prior to the date for the rest of the exam. For unanticipated absences, I will prorate your scores on the other exams. You should review the official Attendance Regulations (http://www.ncsu.edu/policies/academic_affairs/courses_undergrad/REG02.20.3.php).
Prerequisites are waived for enrollment as an audit student. Audit requirements for all my courses are 50% attendance and a grade of C or better in any exam. Projects by auditing students are not graded and are not considered equivalent to an exam.
My exams involve more than a rote repetition of the course material, so that differences in grades reflect differences in understanding. Scores would generally not be clustered at the top. Thus if a good student does poorly on one exam, they can easily catch up in other exams. If scores were clustered high, you could never recover from a minor mistake. For this reason, even a relatively low score in the exams may translate into a high grade, depending of course on other performance.
I emphasize quality of work rather than quantity of work. You do have to perform all the tasks required but going beyond doesn't help. You cannot make up for a poor showing on an exam through extra credit.
The assignment of grades in a course should be independent of other considerations. In particular, please don't try to pressure me based on facts such as that a certain grade will spoil your summa cum laude status, delay your graduation, cost you your financial aid, get you kicked out of the program, or whatever. To the extent that these regulations depend on a student's GPA, it is because of the expectation that the grades won't be manipulated to satisfy some requirement. Besides it won't be fair to others.
I assign +/- grades.
Grading is relative. I have no preset thresholds for any letter grade.
The weights of different components of the course are specified in the course description. I generally assign nominal grades based on the total score. However, I also look at the whole record to decide if a student merits a better grade than the nominal one. Specifically, I consider the score in the exams seriously in moving students to a better grade. That is, in the end, thresholds based on total score only partially determine the letter grade: a student with a lower total score can get a better grade.