CSCI -2220 - Programming in Java

Summer 1, 1998 - Course Policies

Grading Criteria

Each of the three homeworks has a weight of 25%. The final exam has a weight of 25%. Your final grade will be the weighted average of the grades on these, minus late penalties.

Late policy

A homework is considered late if it is submitted after 11:59:59 PM on the due date. Partial days will be penalized as full days. The instructor will keep track of the total number of days late and will assign penalties for late submission at the end of the semester. Each student is allowed two late days that can be used without penalty. Except for this policy, there will be no extensions granted. The late penalty will be calculated as follows (L is the number of late days):

L < = 2: No penalty.
L > 2: Late_Penalty = (5 * (L-2)) points from your FINAL course grade.

For example, if your final numeric course grade is an 83 (B), but you have a total of three late days, you will receive a course grade of C, since (83 - (5 * (3-2))) = (83 - 5) = 78 = C.

These penalties add up quickly, so you should use your two allotted late days wisely.

Policy on Collaboration

No collaboration is permitted on exams.
You are encouraged to work with other students in the class on the assignments. Useful forms of collaboration include discussing design alternatives, details of algorithms and data structures, possible sources of reusable code, and help with debugging, compiling, makefiles, etc.
You are also encouraged to practice code reuse, with the stipulation that any reused code submitted as part of your assignment must be clearly and explicitly attributed. Code that can be reused includes that found in the textbooks, code from previous work you have done (in this class or others), and code from other books or internet sites.
You may NOT reuse code written by another student in this class.

The easiest way to attribute any code that you reuse is with a comment. You must give enough information so that the TAs can find the code themselves. Examples:

/* the following code is from p. 317 of the Lewis textbook */
class Advice extends ...

/* the following code is from my CS I project, October 1997. */

/* The following code was downloaded from ftp://ftp.cs.rpi.edu/pub/... */

Collaboration and discussion does not mean that the assignments may be done jointly; each assignment you submit must be 100 percent your work. You must be especially careful when discussing another student's code (perhaps to help with finding a bug).
At no time should you copy any part of another student's work (either on paper or electronically), or permit someone else to copy any part of your work. For example, work done on campus or other computers should not be made available so that another student could unknowingly copy any part of your work.
DO NOT write any code for the other student, even just to fix a typographical error. DO NOT look at another student's code and write nearly identical code yourself. DO NOT "paraphrase" code from another source and fail to attribute it in a comment.
If at any time you are not sure what constitutes appropriate collaboration or code reuse, it is your responsibility to clarify it with the instructor.

Academic Integrity

Student-teacher relationships are built on trust. For example, students must trust that teachers have made appropriate decisions about the structure and contents of courses they teach. Teachers must trust that the assignments which students turn in are their own. Acts which violate this trust undermine the educational process.
The Rensselaer Handbook defines various forms of Academic Dishonesty and procedures for responding to them. All forms are violations of the trust between students and teachers. Students should familiarize themselves with this portion of the Rensselaer Handbook and should note that the penalties for plagiarism and other forms of cheating can be quite harsh.
Students will not be given credit for any code which the TAs find to be too similar to that of another student's code, or any code which is similar to code from a book or another source which has not been properly attributed. More specifically, credit will not be received in any case of Academic Dishonesty and may result in failure of the course along with disciplinary action.