Course Policies, CPSC 314, January 2007
Index
Attendance
Attendance in all lectures and your registered
tutorial section is expected. You are responsible for all material presented
there. We will make some material for both the lectures and the tutorials
available online at the
course web page. However, we do not guarantee the completeness
of those notes!
Plagiarism
Department policy
Be sure to read the Computer Science Department's Guidelines and Practices
Regarding Collaboration.
Plagiarism on Assignments and Homework Problems
Collaboration and Reuse of Source Code
All assignments and homework problems are to be solved independently
by every student. It is permitted to discuss individual problems with fellow
students, but it is forbidden to use other people's solutions to homework
problems or assignments. It is also forbidden to provide other students with
access to your own solutions or assignment code. Any
source of information in addition to the course notes, the textbook, and
other material on the course web pages must be explicitely acknowledged in
the submission. In particular, this includes
- discussions with other students (describe which parts of
the assignment or homework were discussed with whom, and to what
extent )
- web pages, books, and other literature that was consulted
- external source code used to solve programming assignments
Note that points may be deducted at the discretion of the instructor and/or
TAs depending on the amount of external information used.
Failure to acknowledge an external source of information as described
above consitutes an act of plagiarism.
Responsibility
In the context of CPSC 314, every student is responsible to ensure that:
- his or her files (which contain material the use of which, by another
student, would constitute an act of plagiarism as herein defined) are inaccessible
to other students,
- current or out-of-date hardcopy of her or his files (which contain
material the use of which, by another student, would constitute an act of
plagiarism as herein defined) is inaccessible to other students, and
- communication with other students does not include information
the use of which, by another student, would constitute an act of plagiarism
as herein defined.
Failure to comply with any of these responsibilities, either knowingly
or through negligence, will also be considered an act of plagiarism indistinguishable
from that of the other student(s) and subject to the same penalties.
Penalties
Violations of the above rules as well as all instances of plagiarism on
exams will be documented and forwarded to the
appropriate department, faculty, and senate committees. UBC is taking
academic misconduct very seriously, and has in the past issued
severe penalties such as a grade of zero on the course and/or suspension
from the university for several months (see the annual
Student
Discipline Report for details).
The instructor reserves the right to exercise leniency as he sees
fit.
Missed Work
General Remarks on Missed Work
If a student is unable to turn in an assignment or write an exam due
to medical, emotional or other reasons recognized by the University, one
of the following
courses of action will be taken after receipt of appropriate documentation
of the situation.
- Usually the assignment or the exam will receive a computed mark
that is judged to be equivalent to what the student would normally be expected
to have received had the assignment or exam been completed by the student.
The specific calculation will involve a ``scaled z-score'' in which the
computed mark will be based on the class average and standard deviation for
that mark, the class average mark(s) and standard deviation(s) for related
work, and the student's actual mark(s) for the related work. The computed
mark will be such that it is the same number of standard deviations from
the class average as for the related mark(s). Usually the related mark(s)
will be of the same category (i.e., assignments will be used for a missed
assignment and exams will be used for a missed exam).
- If the missed work is a significant portion of the term mark, then
a standing of AEGROTAT may be awarded, as provided for by the University's
policies. A student will always be able to elect this option if the missed
work is a final exam.
- In rare cases, where there is clear justification, a deferred examination
may be given to the student if the missed work is a final examination,
subject to approval by the Office of the Dean of Science.
Students will be consulted before a course of action is chosen, but the
final decision will be that of the instructor except as noted above.
Documentation of Illness or Other Problems
It is the responsibility of the student to provide adequate documentation
of the situation and to inform the instructor in a timely manner so that
the necessary appropriate action can be taken. Usually it is expected that
the student will provide a written explantion of the situation to the instructor
within three days of returning to the University after any absence or period
of illness or other problem. In no case will documents be considered more
than seven days after a student has returned to the University.
A form for
the information required in the documentation is available on this Web site.
Missing an Assignment
Students who miss an assignment because of medical, emotional, or other
problems should talk to the instructor about it as soon as possible. In
such cases a mark computed using the z-scores of the other assignments in
the course will be substituted.
The form
for missed work must be submitted; talking to the instructor is not an
acceptable substitute for submitting the required form.
Missing a Midterm Exam
Students who miss a midterm exam because of medical, emotional, or other
problems should talk to the instructor about it as soon as possible. In
such cases a mark computed using the scaled z-scores of the other exams in
the course will be substituted.
The form
for missed work must be submitted; talking to the instructor is not an
acceptable substitute for submitting the required form.
Missing the Final Exam
Refer to the University's policies on exams for more information. In
some cases a mark computed using the scaled z-scores of the other exams
in the course will be substituted.