Coursework and Grading

In CS 131, we combine several forms of learning. There are many ways to succeed in CS 131, and we hope that a good grade is the byproduct of lots of learning. There is a lot of information about coursework and grading in this section—maybe more than you want to know right now. We’re including all this information so that it’s easier for you to keep track of your learning and your grades throughout the semester. For now, you might want to briefly skim this section for any questions you might have, then return to it throughout the semester.

Three kinds of coursework

In general, the work we do in CS 131 can be broken down into three categories:

Creating knowledge. Learning about new things, which you do mainly by coming to class and lab, by reading and posting on Piazza.

Applying knowledge. Using what you’ve learned to solve new problems, which you’ll mainly do by working on assignments.

Synthesizing knowledge. Reflecting on what you’ve learned, finding connections to other things you’ve learned, and solving problems in new contexts. You’ll synthesize your knowledge mainly through exams and by contributing “quiz questions” to the course.

These categories don’t have rigid boundaries—they’re a general guide. You’ll certainly apply and synthesize knowledge in class and learn new things on assignments!

Grading

We believe that grades should support and measure your learning and not measure other things, such as whether you got sick for a few days during the semester.

With these things in mind, we’ve designed a point-based grading scheme for this course. As the semester progresses, you’ll accumulate points as you accumulate knowledge. At the end of the semester, your total number of points will determine your grade.

There are 2,500 total points available, distributed as follows:

Your final letter grade in CS 131 will be calculated based on your total number of points:

Keep in mind that some points may be easier to get than others. For example, you may find it easier to do work that encourages you to try multiple times and to bounce ideas off other people (e.g., lectures, labs, assignments); whereas you may find it more challenging to do work that asks for your personal synthesis of the materials (e.g., exams).

Classes and Engagement

Instead of adding a “participation” component of the grade, we wanted to incentivize the kinds of engagement that we and you think are most useful for learning. We’ll do this in two ways:

1. In-class activities and worksheets, for each class day.

These worksheets are graded on a credit / no-credit basis because showing up is a big part of engagement!

You are expected to attend class and be on time. It is important to arrive to class on time (or, even better, slightly early). Arriving late to any class is surprisingly disruptive to the flow of the class and distracts both your peers and your teachers. It also negatively impacts your learning as you miss out on material that lays the foundation for that day’s class or key class announcements or clarifications. Thus, while occasionally being delayed may be unavoidable, routinely arriving late is disrespectful to all the other participants in the class. As such, we consider lateness (both how late you arrive and how often) when calculating your participation grade. If you’re regularly coming from another event that may make you late, please let us know.

We also know that life happens sometimes and you may need to be late or miss a class. For that reason, the grading scheme is designed such that you can get all of the available “Lectures” points with active participation in 27 of the 29 lectures. That means it’s possible to get more than 100% of the lecture points!

2. Weekly self-reflections on your engagement.

These weekly reflections award some points for doing the kinds of things that help you engage with the course material and connect the daily work to the bigger ideas of the course (e.g., talking about the course materials with other people, such as students, grutors, or profs). The intent is that doing a handful of such things a week would be considered an “A” for this part of engagement. We will be in touch with more details during the second week of class.

Labs

The weekly labs are designed to be a net time-saver for the homework. Sometimes they provide background information you’ll need for the assignment, and sometimes they just get you started on the homework at a time where help is available.

You are expected to attend lab and be on time. Remember that you get points for coming to lab and learning. You don’t even need to finish the lab to get the points!

Lab work is undertaken in pairs. You can work with the same lab partner throughout the semester, or switch around as you see fit. Your lab partner need not be your homework partner. All lab work happens on knuth. If you can, bring your own laptop and ssh from there. There will be a smaller number of CIS laptops available for use.

Homework

There will be approximately 11 week-long homework assignments during the term, typically due at 11:59pm on Sundays.

Some homeworks build on previous ones, so completing the homeworks on time is important. However, we also know that things come up, and you should have the freedom to manage your schedule without consulting us. So, we’ve built in some flexibility to the assignment schedule. At the start of the semester every student gets five “CS 131 Euros.” Each Euro provides one 24-hour extension on any one homework assignment, i.e., a “late day.” You do not need to tell us that you’re using a “Euro” extension—we will infer it from the submission time. At most one Euro can be used per assignment. If you’re working with a partner, both partners need a Euro, so you may need to do some planning ahead.

In general, we will not accept homework that is more than 24 hours late or submitted after the deadline when no Euros remain. In extreme circumstances that cannot be anticipated (such as serious illness), if you require an additional extension or a longer extension, you should talk to your instructors and your Dean.

Student-created “quiz questions”

As part of the course, you will contribute to a collaboratively maintained list of “quiz questions”: questions about each class-day’s content. There won’t be an actual quiz—the primary goal of these quiz questions is to create good review content, in particular helpful review questions. We will provide more details about how to contribute during the second week of class.

Exams

We will have two take-home exams this semester: a midterm and a comprehensive final.

Fine Print

All policies in this syllabus are subject to change if there is a compelling academic justification. Such changes will be clearly announced on Piazza. (We don’t expect there will be any.)