Policies

Some links:

• The full syllabus can be found here (link).
• Excused absence policy (link)
• Policy on academic integrity/misconduct (link)

Grading

The majority of the grade will be based on short projects based on the various topics of the course. There will be a midterm exam covering roughly the first half of the semester. There will be no final exam.

Grading will be done on an absolute, but adjustable scale. This means that there is no curve. Anyone earning 90% or more of the total number of points available will receive a grade of A; 80% or higher a B, etc. This scale may go down, but it will not go up

All grades will be posted in Blackboard.

Projects:	75%
Midterm exam:	25%

Late policy

Late work is strongly discouraged. However, for your learning, I would prefer you to do the work late than not at all. Therefore, deadlines will not be enforced, up until the last day of class.

Learning Environment

Below you can find some "official" language from Mines on similar topics, but I also want to share my own views regarding the learning environment as it relates to my course, both in and out of the classroom.

Fundamentally, I expect and require respect in this course for yourself, your classmates, and your instructor and TAs.

• Respect for yourself includes taking care of yourself physically and mentally and advocating for an environment that facilitates learning for you.
• Respect for your classmates includes recognizing and appreciating the diversity of backgrounds and experiences of your classmates and making it your interest to foster a learning environment for everyone. Some of your classmates may already be expert programmers, while others may have only just begun to learn; all are welcome.
• Respect for your instructors (as well as your classmates) includes not participating in disruptive or distracting behavior: talking, playing games, or web surfing during lecture, for instance, make it difficult for others to focus on the reason we are all here.
• Respect must be mutual to be effective; we (your instructors) and your TAs will be held to the same standards of respect.

It's important to recognize that the rigorous requirements of studying at Mines can cause stress, which sometimes results in distressed or disruptive behavior. If you are experiencing issues, or believe that one of your partners or teammates is, please SPEAK UP. Feel free to come talk to your instructor, or visit CARE at Mines. For serious violations of school policies, also see SpeakUP@Mines.

Discrimination and Harassment

This course and all learning opportunities at Mines require a safe environment for everyone to be productive, develop professional practices, and to be able to share and learn without fear of discrimination or harassment. Discrimination or harassment of any type will not be tolerated. Sometimes harassment is unintentional, but regardless of intent the instructor will address any language or behaviors that might discriminate, stereotype, or promote harassment. If you witness discrimination or harassment of others, please bring it to the attention of Mines faculty so it can be addressed immediately.

Title IX is a federal law that protects individuals from discrimination based on sex and gender in educational programs or activities. Mines takes its Title IX obligations seriously and is committed to providing a campus community free from gender-based discrimination. Gender-based discrimination, including sexual harassment, sexual violence, stalking, and domestic violence, is prohibited within the Mines campus community. If these issues have impacted you or someone you know, you can find appropriate resources here: http://inside.mines.edu/POGO-Title-IX. You can also contact the Mines Title IX Coordinator, Karin Ranta-Curran, at 303.384.2558 or krcurran@mines.edu for more information.

Disability Accommodations

The Colorado School of Mines is committed to ensuring the full participation of all students in its programs, including students with disabilities. If you are registered with Disability Support Services (DSS) and I (your instructor) have received your letter of accommodations, please contact me at your earliest convenience so we can discuss your needs in this course. For questions or other inquiries regarding disabilities, I encourage you to visit http://disabilities.mines.edu for more information.

Collaboration Policy

All students are advised to be familiar with university policy on Academic Integrity. In addition, The following Collaboration Policy exists for all CS@Mines courses. This policy is a minimum standard; your instructor may decide to augment this policy.

1. If the project is an individual effort project, you are not allowed to give code you have developed to another student or use code provided by another student. If the project is a group project, you are only allowed to share code with your group members.
2. You are encouraged to discuss programming projects with other students in the class, as long as the following rules are followed:
1. You view another student's code only for the purpose of offering/receiving debugging assistance. Students can only give advice on what problems to look for; they cannot debug your code for you. All changes to your code must be made by you.
2. Your discussion is subject to the empty hands policy, which means you leave the discussion without any record [electronic, mechanical or otherwise] of the discussion.
3. Any material from any outside source such as books, projects, and in particular, from the Web, should be properly referenced and should only be used if specifically allowed for the assignment.

All issues of misconduct are reported to the Dean of Students.

Instructor's Addendum

As an addendum to this policy, you are required to submit a README file with every assignment (except where noted). The README should list every person (other than the instructor or a TA) who assisted you in some way on the assignment. The README is also the place to give appropriate credit to any outside source that contributed to your submission.