UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE <br>
UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE<BR>
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER AND INFORMATION SCIENCES
CISC 181---Intro. to Computer Science Fall 1999

Class Policies

Make excellence a habit, not an exception. ---Aristotle(?)

Staff Attendance Grading Academic Honesty

Teaching Staff


Instructor: B. F. Caviness, 448 Smith
email caviness@cis.udel.edu, Phone 831-8234
Office Hours: Wed 1:30--3, and by appointment.
Teaching Assistants: Srivatsa Desikamani, 214 Smith*
email desikama@cis.udel.edu, Phone 831-1949*
Office Hours: Wed, 6-8PM
Sonny Rajagopalan, 214 Smith*
email rajagopa@cis.udel.edu, Phone 831-1949*
Office Hours: Mon PM

*TA Office Hours are held in 404 Wolf Hall, Phone 831--2770. All the TAs on duty in 404 Wolf Hall are there to help all CIS students. Another one that may be particularly helpful to you is the other CIS 181 TA,

Attendance

Attendance at lectures and labs is required. Three unexcused absences will result in failing the course. An absence is excused only for some event beyond the student's control, e.g., sickness, a death in the family. Some examples of absences that are not excused include (1) conflicts with work schedules (these are assumed to be worked out before the student enrolls for the course), (2) reservations to travel, especially around vacation periods (the semester calendar is published well in advance), (3) non-emergency doctor and dental appointments.

Grading

Daily homework & labs 25%
Programming projects 25%
Test 1 15%
Test 2 15%
Final Exam 20%
TOTAL 100%

Daily homeworks and labs will be graded on a 10 point scale. Programming projects and tests/exams will be graded on a 100 point scale. Late homework assignments will be penalized 2 points for each day they are late.

Course letter grades will be assigned according to the table below. If the final course average is

>= 90 = A
>= 88 < 90 = B+
>= 82 < 88 = B
>= 80 < 82 = B-
>= 78 < 80 = C+
>= 72 < 78 = C
>= 70 < 72 = C-
>= 68 < 70 = D+
>= 62 < 68 = D
>= 60 < 62 = D-
< 60 = F

However, project and homework grades cannot raise the course average more than ten points (normally, one letter grade) above the average on the exams.

Special consideration will be given to students who fall just below a grade cut-off. The special consideration will take into account such factors as class participation, punctual completion of projects, ``bad days'' suffered in exams, and other intangibles. Such considerations will never lower your grade but can raise it in a few cases.

There are invariably mistakes in grading exams and projects. After an exam, project, or any graded paper is returned in class, you will have one week to submit a written request to have it regraded. After one week no requests for grade changes will be considered. The request for regrading should include the original paper and the reason and justification for regrading.

Academic Honesty

Simply put, I expect you to observe the highest ethical standards, not even appearing otherwise. You are expected to always do your own work unless otherwise instructed. All daily homework assignments and computer programming projects should be your own work. All violations of academic honesty will be handled according to University policy. Copying another person's work without proper acknowledgment is plagiarism, a serious offense, and the one most common to computer science courses. "Plagiarism is the use of the words or ideas of others without proper attribution. It is your responsibility to know the proper way to cite your sources so that no misunderstanding as to origin will result." (This quote was taken from K. C. Brauchle, Plagiarism and the Internet: Cut and Paste Your Way to Success, The National Teaching & Learning Forum, Vol 10, No 1.)

I consider anyone that aids another with work that is expected to be done without collaboration to be as guilty as the person who seeks help. I encourage you to familiarize yourself with the University's Policy of Academic Dishonesty found in The Official Student Handbook.

Rather than simply following the rules because of the negative consequences if you do not, I hope that you will be inspired by values such as the following expressed by William Cobbett.

``It is the mind that lives; and the length of life ought to be measured by the number and importance of our ideas; and not by the number of our days. Never, therefore esteem [persons] merely on account of their riches or their station. Respect goodness, find it where you may. Honor talent wherever you behold it unassociated with vice; but, honor it most when accompanied with exertion, and especially when exerted in the cause of truth and justice.''
A Grammar of the English Language, 1819.

Faculty-Student Interaction

The instructor and the TAs are here to help you, so please do not hesitate to call on us. If you are having trouble, the sooner you talk to us the easier it is to deal with your problem. We are also happy to see you if you are not having problems, e.g., if you find a particular topic interesting and would like to know more about it, if there is a question that you did not get a chance to ask in class, etc.


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CISC 181 homepage.

This page has been accessed times since 2 Sept 1999.

Corrections, suggestions and comments to caviness@cis.udel.edu

Copyright 1999 B. F. Caviness