Grading
Policy
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 (12) 10%
Midterm Exam 10%
Final Exam 20%
Group Project 40%
Individual Projects/Homework 10%
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. As a minimum 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. In addition, incidents of academic dishonesty
may be reported to the University and further disciplinary actions are possible
including expulsion or suspension from the University. (See Appendix E-2 of the
University Catalog.)
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 week in which the midterm exam is given. The lowest two (2) quiz grades 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 four 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 8% 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 and demonstrate their software system 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.
Sharing
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 on a course online
sharing forum. Other opportunities for
sharing will be explained during the course of 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.