The
same grade will be given for both the lecture and laboratory portions of the
course. An absolute grading system will
be used, where 90% is required for an A, 80% for a B, 70% for a C, 60% for a D,
and anything below 60% is failing.
Pluses and minuses will be given for grades within 3 percentage points
of the dividing marks. For example, a
final total which is 80% or more but less than 83% would correspond to a letter
grade of B-, a total of 77% or more but less than 80% would correspond to a C+,
etc. The final grade will be based on
the following:
Quizzes (11) 10%
Midterm Exam 15%
Final Exam 30%
Group Projects 20%
Individual
Projects/Homework 15%
Presentations 5%
Sharing 5%
Late
work will be accepted without penalty ONLY
if some compelling reason is provided (preferably in advance) justifying the
lateness. Without such a justifiable
excuse, late work will be penalized 5% for each calendar day that it is late.
Plagiarism
(intentionally or knowingly representing the words, ideas, or work of another
as one’s own) or any other form of academic dishonesty will not be
tolerated. Students who are guilty of
such dishonesty will receive no credit for the given assignment or exam and
will not be allowed the opportunity to redo the work in question.
Quizzes will consist of several multiple choice questions on the reading material. There will be a quiz each week except for the first week, the last week and the weeks in which mid term exams are given. The lowest quiz grade will be dropped. The quizzes will be given during the lab sessions.
The exams may be “take home” exams or “in class” exams. They may be open book or closed book, but, in any case, they must be individual efforts. Discussing the questions on the exam with an individual, other than the instructor, is not permitted.
The students in the class will be divided into teams of three to five members each. The group projects will be done as team efforts and a single result will be turned in by the team. Members of each team will evaluate the performance of the other team members at the end of the semester. This evaluation will account for 25% of the total Group Project grade (or 5% of the total course grade).
Individual
assignments and projects will also be given.
Discussion and collaboration with other class members on individual
assignments is permitted, and even encouraged, to the extent that said
collaboration is a fair and equitable exchange of ideas. That is, one individual should not be doing
all the work and sharing it with others.
It is permissible to ask other students for help, but it is not
permissible to copy the results of others.
If several students collectively solve a problem, each should write up
the results in his or her own words.
Each group will present the results of their efforts to the rest of the class at the end of the semester. In order to get credit each group member must deliver part of the presentation, but it must be organized as a group activity.
A
portion of the final grade (5%) will be based on sharing. There are many ways to accumulate sharing
points. Bringing in relevant material
found in the newspaper, technical journals, or other such sources and
explaining it to the class is one way.
The material could be an article, a cartoon, a videotape, a software
engineering document or program, etc.
Another way to share is by posting information online. This is a
convenient way to share information found on the Web. Other opportunities for sharing will be
explained during the semester. Each
instance of sharing will be worth one to two percent of the final grade
depending on its relevance and significance up to a total of five percent.
Updated: September 5, 2016