OFFICE HOURS
Feel free to stop by my office at times other than my office hours; if I am free, I will be more than happy to answer any questions; if not, we can arrange for a time to meet. REMEMBER: My door is ALWAYS open even if it happens to be closed.
Here are some reasons to come to my office:
- You're confused about or need clarification on what was discussed in class
- To discuss the grading of an assignment.
- You're lost as to how to start an assignment (after having thought about it for awhile)
- You need help debugging a program.
- After working on a homework problem, you're not sure how to solve it.
- You're looking for additional projects/work to supplement what is covered in the course.
ATTENDANCE
I do not take attendance in this class. Students are responsible for any material missed due to an absence. Quizzes given during a student's absence may not be taken later.
ACCESSIBILITY STATEMENT
Westminster College actively strives for the full inclusion of all our students. Students with disabilities who require access solutions for environmental or curricular barriers should contact Corey Shaw, Director of Disability Resources, located in 209 Thompson-Clark Hall. phone: 724-946-7192 e-mail: shawcj@westminster.edu
WRITTEN HOMEWORK
All written homework must be done neatly, which means (among other things) the following:
- It should be handed in on standard 8 1/2 by 11 paper (not ripped out of a notebook) and stapled.
- Your solutions should appear in the order that the problems are listed on the homework.
- There should be ample room on the page for each problem (ideally, one problem per page) and nothing should be crossed out.
Failure to meet these standards may result in points taken off the homework. The ideal way to meet these requirements is to solve all the problems on scratch paper and then rewrite them on appropriate paper.
EXTRA CREDIT
I do not assign any extra credit assignments in my classes.
GRADE CUTOFFS
| GRADE |
RANGE |
| A |
93-100 |
| A- |
90-92 |
| B+ |
87-89 |
| B |
83-86 |
| B- |
80-82 |
| etc |
etc |
ASSIGNMENT AND GRADING POLICIES
- All programs which are to be sent to me electronically are due 30 MINUTES before class time on the due date. You should expect me to copy all files from the public, common directory to my private directories before class starts.
All other assignments are to be handed in at the BEGINNING of class on the day that they are due.
- Lateness penalties: IMPORTANT EXCEPTION: All due dates which fall on the class day before an exam are absolute -- there will be no late assignments accepted for them.
- I will take up to 5% off any assignment which is sloppy enough that it makes it difficult to read.
- Program Grading Criteria:
| ERROR TYPE | DESCRIPTION | POINTS OFF | COMMENTS |
| Obvious | Errors which the simplest of tests would detect |
3-5 pts | Max for any one error is 10% of assignment |
| Subtle | Errors which only extensivetesting would detect |
2-3 pts | |
| Efficiency | Problem or subproblem solved in a grossly inefficient way |
2-5 pts | |
| Cosmetic | Bad output format, prompts, documentation, indentation, etc |
1-2 pts | Max for all errors of this type is 10% of assignment |
| Compile Time | Program does not compile |
25% off | Program will also be graded with respect to other criteria. |
NOTE: Just because a program works correctly does NOT guarantee that it will receive a perfect score -- other factors such as readability, documentation, user-friendliness and efficiency are also important.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
From the Westminster College Undergraduate Catalog:
Central to the purpose and pursuit of any academic community is academic integrity. All members of the Westminster Community, including students, faculty, staff and administrators, are expected to maintain the highest standard of honesty and integrity, in keeping with the philosophy and mission of the College.
All students are expected to adhere to these guidelines, and to have read and understand the list of violations found (among other places) in the course catalog - this list covers the areas of Cheating, Misconduct, Plagiarism and Providing False Information. The following guidelines may help in determining what is considered acceptable in this class.
- Individual Assignments
- Unless explicitly stated, students are encouraged to group together to discuss assignments. We expect all students involved in the group to contribute to the discussions. However, all work handed in must be written in the individual student's own words. Clearly, copying a solution from another text or another student verbatim or with small changes is not "writing in your own words". Not nearly as obvious a problem is the following: if you find that the only way you can type in a program or write a homework solution or lab report or proof is to have someone sitting next to you doing the same work, you are probably not "writing in your own words." You should be able, after discussing an assignment with others, to go off and produce the solution on your own.
- Group Assignments
- All of the participants should do their full share of the work. You should discuss problems together and reach conclusions together. It is a form of dishonesty for a student who has not attended class, read the assignment, or thought about the problem on their own to try to use the ideas developed by the group or claim credit for work to which one has not contributed. It is also a form of dishonesty to encourage or allow such practices on the part of others. Each group should work on their own, not discussing their work with other groups.
- Using Tutors or help from someone not enrolled in the course
- We acknowledge that often tutors are used to help students with assignments. For your long term benefit, we strongly encourage you not to leave the tutor with a completed assignment. We suggest that you seek help when necessary and produce (or reproduce) the assignment on your own.
- Written Assignments
- All written assignments for this course will be submitted to turnitin.com, an on-line plagiarism detection system. In the case of suspected academic dishonesty, all originality reports generated by turnitin.com will be presented and discussed with students prior to any actions taken.
PENALTIES FOR ACADEMIC DISHONESTY
All incidents of academic dishonesty will be reported to the Academic Dean in accordance with Westminster's Academic Integrity Policy. In addition, the following actions will occur:
Academic dishonesty with respect to programming assignments is particularly difficult. While I urge students to work together when determining general outlines and algorithms for an assignment, you MUST hand in your own code. If you find that the only way you can type in a program is to have someone typing in their program on the computer next to you at the same time, then you have crossed the line.
If I feel that students are collaborating too closely on programming assignment and/or homework assignments, I will begin to administer short quizzes immediately after the assignments are turned in. These quizzes will test your understanding of your work on the assignment. Grades on these quizzes will range from 1.0 to 0.5 and will be used as a multiplicative factor in determining your final grade on the assignment. For example, if your graded program gets a 28 out of 30, but your quiz grade is 0.75, then you will receive only 28(0.75) = 21 out of 30 on the assignment.
NOTE: Regardless of whether any quizzes are administered, you may expect some questions on the exam to be based on the assignments given in class.