Matthias K. Gobbert

General Policies and Procedures

Study Suggestion

While I realize that you have only a limited amount of time available for this class, the following strategy has proven very successful in studying for university classes, and I strongly advise its use: Prepare for class by reading the scheduled material, e.g., section(s) in the textbook; even if you do not understand everything, you will have an overview of what to expect in class. At this point, you should review any material or section(s) that might be needed as background for the new material. Then attend class and take your own notes. Afterwards, you should review the textbook and your notes as much as necessary to understand the material; test yourself, for instance, by working out the examples in the text. Now you are ready to do the homework as a final test of your understanding. This approach actually saves time over the whole semester, since it is easier to do the homework right after studying the material and it also reinforcing the class better. Also, by starting all homework problems as early as possible, you have the opportunity to get help before the due date. You should expect to spend at least three hours of your own time per week for every credit hour of the course.

Assignments

The first purpose of assignments is to reinforce concepts introduced in class and to help guide you in your own explorations of the subject matter. The material can only be learned by applying its concepts yourself. If you defeat this goal by not doing the work yourself, you are essentially cheating your own education, but you might also be committing academic misconduct; see below. A second purpose of assignments is to provide feedback to me about your learning progress, and the third purpose is to prepare you for exams. Only as a fourth purpose is the homework used to evaluate your performance.

Please note that assignments are due in class, at the beginning of class to be precise. No guarantee can be given for assignments turned in at any other time and/or place. No late assignments will be accepted under any circumstance, but a sufficient number of assignment scores will be dropped in order to avoid penalizing infrequent absences.

Some formal notes: Assemble your assignments in professional style, properly ordered, each problem clearly labeled, using sufficiently large and clear lettering, etc. Please leave sufficient margins and other spaces for comments and feedback. You must show complete work for full credit. This means that you have to give enough details such that another person with a similar background as yourself can reproduce your answers. This criterion will be the guiding principle for grading.

Grading

The number and type of exams is given in the detailed schedule. The final exam is comprehensive and will cover all material covered in the course. Additional quizzes might be given. Please note that you are encouraged to write your solutions in permanent ink. If you choose to use pencil or other erasable media, I will not entertain corrections or grade changes afterwards. While the grading scale may be adjusted later to some degree, the following serves as a guideline:

Score above 90% 80% 65% 50% otherwise
Letter grade A B C D F

Please note that the syllabus is subject to change by announcement, in particular the number and types of exams, the weight distribution, or the grading scale. If there is a class cancellation for reasons beyond our control, e.g., due to snow fall, assignments are generally due in the next following class meeting; similarly, exams are considered automatically rescheduled for the next class.

If you miss any major graded component of the course, such as tests, discuss your options with me. There will generally need to be a make-up. However, while the coverage will be the same as the original, due to variability in exam designs, I cannot positively guaranteee that difficulty level will be exactly the same. If you miss the final exam, I will file a grade of Incomplete immediately; this is done in order to avoid holding up the announcement of other students' grades.

Policy on Academic Integrity

You are welcome to talk to others, because it is important that you learn how to communicate, but you must do all assignments on your own, unless an assignment is specifically designed as a group project. Submission of any work (including computer code, on-line quizzes, etc.) implies your representation that you produced it without any illegitimate help. If you make use of any information from any source, you must include proper references to sources, e.g., to books, articles, software, webpages, individuals, etc., including to the textbook. This is a vital issue of academic integrity. Failures to properly cite sources constitutes plagiarism and a serious violation of academic integrity as defined in the catalog and the directory. You are encouraged to review the codes and policies there. If a violation is observed, you can expect me to pursue the matter to the full extent of the policy, including but not necessarily limited to issuing a failing grade for academic misconduct. The right is reserved to check a picture identification during exams. You may also be asked to explain your solution to assignments or exams to me orally and/or to show me intermediate results, for instance, raw computer output.

I apologize for these drastic measures, but past experiences have forced me to add this paragraph to the syllabus. Please, remember that I am charged with enforcing academic integrity in order to preserve the quality and reputation of your education, grades, and degree at this university. The webpage http://www.umbc.edu/integrity provides information on academic integrity and UMBC's policies including background information and examples; I strongly urge you to become familiar with the issues.

When in doubt about anything or if you have any questions, feel free to contact me. Note that I will only accept e-mail that is sent to the correct address, that clearly identifies the sender by full name, and that has a meaningful subject line. Notice that mail without name or subject might be deleted by UMBC's mail filtering software.