General Course Information
Prof. Roy B. Levow
This page contains general information that applies to many courses
that
I teach. Information is available on the following topics.
Seeking assistance
From time to time you may find that you are stumped by a programming
problem.
Don't panic! Help is available from Dr. Levow or one of the
graduate
assistants assigned to the course, if any, either in person during
office
hours or through email. When you seek help, you must
provide
the a current copy of all of your program code and any output that you
can obtain (all compiler messages for compilation errors; all output
for
run-time errors.) If the problem is with design rather than
coding,
you must provide pseudocode for your design ideas, not code. If
you
seek help without these essential items, assistance may be delayed
until
you provide them. If you are seeking help by email, your message
should contain a statement of the problem and include the above items
as
attachments.
Email identity
If you use email to seek personal information, you must use an account
that I can definitively identify as yours. Usually this means it
must be an FAU account though there are instances in which
I may be able to confirm the owner of another email address. This
is because
I am obligated to keep your personal academic information confidential
and in general it is not possible to reliably confirm the owner of an
email
address.
Individual work
Programming and other assignments should be completed by each student
on
their own. It is expressly forbidden for students to collaborate on
assignments
without the permission of the instructor. A few friendly pointers and a
bit of advice is fine, but "borrowing" or copying another's work is
grounds
for punitive action, including a failing grade on the assignment or for
the course and on a second occurrence possible dismissal from the
University.
CSE Unix accounts
You must have a CSE Unix account. To obtain this account you must
first activate your FAU Active Directory account. You can find
instructions on the web at http://www.cse.fau.edu/Resources/pluto.html
Program submission
The method for program submission will be specified for each
assignment. One or more of the following may be required
- Submission as a Blackboard assignment
- Submission using the Blackboard Digital Drop Box
- Electronic submission of source code with hwroy on the web
version at
http://student.cse.fau.edu/~hwroy/student.
- Posting of web pages on a specified server.
- Submission of printed copy of code and printed output from
testing
Late penalties
Assignments are due at the start of class on the assigned date unless
otherwise
indicated. In most cases late work will be accepted with a
penalty
of 5 points for the first day plus 4 for the second, 3 for the third, 2
for the fourth, and one for each additional day, assessed. The
official
submission time for programs will be the time they are submitted with
hwroy;
printed materials should be submitted as soon after that as is
practical.
Exceptions and extensions
Exceptions to course requirements and extensions on deadlines will be
granted
only where documentation of an exceptional circumstance beyond the
student's
control is provided.
Incompletes
The Undergraduate Catalog says the following.
A student who is passing a course but has not completed all
the required work because of exceptional circumstances may, with the
approval
of the instructor receive a grade of Incomplete (I). ... It is
not
to be used to allow students to do extra work subsequently in order to
raise the grade earned during the regular term.
When a student receives an incomplete they are given a specific period
of time, not to exceed one year, to complete their work. If it is
not done in that time a grade will be recorded based on work completed,
with zero for work not done.
University policy prohibits a student from retaking a course in a
subsequent term without paying tuition in order to satisfy and
incomplete.
Students taking incompletes are expected to be able to complete the
remaining
work in the course promptly and in a period to time corresponding to
time
lost during the term.
I follow these rules and will give Incompletes only where there is
documentation
to support the exceptional circumstances.
Academic Irregularities
Cheating can take many forms including obtaining or giving unauthorized
information and submitting as one's own the work of another. Any
academic
irregularity in my classes will be dealt with according to University
policy
detailed in the Florida Administrative Code, Section
6C5-4.001. The penalty can range from a zero on the particular
piece
of work to failure for the course.
Last update: 11 September 2005