Honor code and group work
Collaboration and discussion are crucial for this class. You are encouraged to engage with the problems and discuss with peers as much as you can. You will most likely find that you will gain a better understanding of the material by discussing the problems with peers. Our goal is to ensure that the collaboration is appropriate and effective, and that you become an independent problem solver capable to do work on your own. All students are expected to be familiar with and to comply with the department’s collaboration policy and the four levels of collaboration it outlines. Specifically for this class,
In-class work, labs: All in-class work towards understanding the lectures, including study questions, practice problems and self-quizzes are (unless otherwise specified) at collaboration-level 0; that is, no restrictions.
Assignments: The assignments are at collaboration-level 1; that is, verbal collaboration without solution sharing. You are allowed and encouraged to discuss ideas with other class members, but the communication should be verbal. No one is allowed to take notes during the discussion (being able to recreate the solution later from memory is proof that you actually understood it). Communication cannot include sharing pseudo-code for the problem.
Pre-checks, quizzes: At collaboration-level 3 (no collaboration allowed, professor clarifications only).
While peer instruction can be immensely useful, it can also harm. Once you have an idea, or you found a solution, resist giving hints to your peers or leading them towards the answer. You are not helping them by doing so. Direct them towards the TAs who are trained to give help. Remember that you are responsible for reading, understanding, and adhering to the department policy. If you have any questions about any aspects of the policy, please do not hesitate to ask for clarification.
Assignment Partner Policy
You may work on the assignments with one partner (teams of at most 2 people). You can have the same partner for all assignments, or you can change partners. You and your partner(s) will work together on the assignment throughout the whole process, you will write it and review it together, and will submit one assignment. The assignment must be a true joint effort, equally owned, created and understood by both partners. Specifically splitting the assignment and working on the problems separately is not allowed and violates the honor code for the class.
Flex days
To provide reasonable flexibility with deadlines, you are allotted three flex days for the semester, each of which may be used to submit an assignment or a quiz up to 24 hours late (up to 72 hours late if all three flex days are applied all at once). For a team project, applying a flex day uses a flex day from each group member’s allotment. Beyond the use of flex days, quizzes and assignments will not be accepted after the posted due date,unless alternate arrangements have been approved in advance of the deadline. If you have an unusual situation that you forsee impacting your ability to meet a deadline, please let me know as soon as possible so that we can make a plan.