CS 11 Syllabus

Course Policies and Administration

Table of Contents

CS 11 Axioms

  1. Start early. Unlike, say, a set of individual math problems, a program has to function as a whole. The more you build, the more carefully you must think about how the various components fit together. If you're rushing, it's far more likely that you'll break something than build something functional.
  2. Think before you code. A program is just a faster and more reliable version of a procedure that can be done with a pencil and paper. If you do not have a clear idea of how you would solve the problem with a pencil and paper, then you are not ready to write code for it.
  3. Write a little, test a little. Finding a bug in 5 lines of code is far easier than finding a bug in 500 lines of code (a billion times easier, in fact). A good program is written in small, testable increments. You should not write the next section of your program unless you have a clear plan for how to test it.

More tips on how to succeed on assignments in CS11 can be found on the Homework Guidelines page.

Contacting Course Staff

Note: If you are ill, have a lab conflict, or expect to be late submitting homework, please read the sections on what to do if you are ill, labs, late homework. Typically, you will not want to email the professors when these things occur; read the instructions in the linked sections of this document.

Instructor: Mark Sheldon
Email: msheldon@cs.tufts.edu
Office hours: Will be set after first week of classes. See https://www.cs.tufts.edu/~msheldon
Please do not send emails to ask general questions about the course. See this page (the syllabus/admin page) for questions about course mechanics, ask other course questions (publicly or to all instructors) on Piazza. Only email in emergencies, e. g., in the case of a loss of a loved one. See other policies below for how to get help.

Our teaching fellows are Cicely Panara, Sam Berman, Jackson Parsells, Isabella Urdahl, and Caleb Arzt. We also have an army of undergraduate teaching assistants who will hold office hours. Schedules for the undergraduate assistants are posted on Piazza. To make your office hours experience as pleasant and helpful as possible, we have office hours policies that you are required to read and understand before asking for help.

The preferred means of contacting the course staff is via Piazza. General questions about the homework, course policies, C++, or Linux should be posted publicly on Piazza so that your classmates can benefit from the answers and any resulting discussion. Before posting a question, please check to see whether your question has already been asked! Questions that are personal in nature, or that pertain to specific pieces of code that you have written can be posted privately to the course staff (mark them "Instructor Only").

The Piazza course link is available on the course calendar.

Check the forum at least once a day: Important information and announcements will be sent there, including assignment clarifications and schedule changes.

Inclusivity, accessibility, extra help

This course is inclusive of all participants, regardless of previous programming experience or personal identity (gender, race, sexual orientation, etc.). In the classroom and our discussion forums, everyone is expected to treat everyone else with dignity and respect. If you feel unwelcome or mistreated for any reason, please let a member of the teaching staff know so we can work to make things better.

Accommodations for students with disabilities

Tufts University values the diversity of our students, staff, and faculty; recognizing the important contribution each student makes to our unique community. Tufts is committed to providing equal access and support to all qualified students through the provision of reasonable accommodations so that each student may fully participate in the Tufts experience. If you have a disability that requires reasonable accommodations, please contact the StAAR Center (formerly Student Accessibility Services) at StaarCenter@tufts.edu or 617-627-4539 to make an appointment with an accessibility representative to determine appropriate accommodations. Please be aware that accommodations cannot be enacted retroactively; all accommodation notes must be provided to the instructor within one week of the note being written to guarantee consideration.

If you have an accommodations letter, email an instructor a PDF so we can keep track of your needs. If you have concerns, you may come see an instructor during their regular office hours. If you cannot come to office hours, then please schedule an appointment. We want to be sure that your needs are met.

Academic support at the StAAR Center

The StAAR Center (formerly the Academic Resource Center and Student Accessibility Services) offers a variety of resources to all students (both undergraduate and graduate) in the Schools of Arts and Science, Engineering, the SMFA and Fletcher; services are free to all enrolled students. Students may make an appointment to work on any writing-related project or assignment, attend subject tutoring in a variety of disciplines, or meet with an academic coach to hone fundamental academic skills like time management or overcoming procrastination. Students can make an appointment for any of these services by visiting tutorfinder.studentservices.tufts.edu or by visiting the StAAR Center web site.

What to do if you are ill or in quarantine
(or while otherwise unavailable for significant periods)

In general, students are expected to attend all lectures and labs in person. Most students will also require frequent assistance from our TAs, and that help also is provided in-person.

We understand that some students will encounter illness or other emergencies requiring them to be unavailable for in-person work from time to time, and some students may have difficulties returning to campus. We will do our best to support such students; details are still being worked out as to when and how you should report illnesses or other emergencies to us, and as to what accommodations we can provide. In the meantime, please carefully follow the following instructions:

Thank you for following these procedures carefully. We hope you understand that in a class with 300 students, we must limit emails to the most urgent and unusual situations.

These instructions will be updated as new procedures for managing accommodations are implemented. Please check back here each time you need support, and follow the instructions as posted.

Course techware

This course relies on a small number of critical programs and tools that support the basic routine of completing and submitting labs and homeworks. It is crucial that students arrive at a basic understanding of these technologies in order to complete their work without issues. The technologies used in this course are described and explained here in our course technical guide.

Grade breakdown

The final grade in this course will be computed according to the following breakdown:
40% Homework/projects average (see below)
5% Labs
10% Exam 1
20% Exam 2
25% Exam 3

i. e., CourseGrade = 0.40 × HWProj + 0.05 × Lab + 0.10 × Exam1 + 0.20 × Exam2 + 0.25 × Exam3

We do not expect to curve any portion of this grade. We may change the grading formula depending on how the on-line modality is working. We will announce any change before the drop date.

A project counts twice as much as homework. To calculate your homework/project average, average a list of all the homework scores, and put the project score in twice.

Projects are submitted in two parts. To get your project score, add the two parts together. If a student received 12 points (out of 15) on the first week of a project and 79 points (out of 85) the second week, then the project score is 91 points out of 100, or 91%.

Lab grading is described below.

When calculating your grade, be sure everything is coverted to a 100-point scale.

Letter grades: We use the following categories for assigning letter grades (after discarding any fractions of points on the final course average):
  * B+ 87–89% C+ 77–79% D+ 67–69%
A  > 93% B  83–86% C  73–76% D  63–66%
A- 90–92% B- 80–82% C- 70–72% D- 60–62%

*Grades of A+ may be awarded based on the overall final grade statistics.

Homework and exam grades will be available via Gradescope. We will sign you up for the course using your Tufts email.

Homework

All homework assignments will go out and are due as described on the course calendar. You will submit your assignments using the submit11 command. Detailed informtaion about how homework assignments work, tips for success, and general guidelines can be found on the Homework Guidelines page. There you can also access information about how homeworks and projects are graded

Late Homework

Generally, we expect assignments to be submitted by their posted due dates. However, we recognize that college is full of unexpected events. There are two kinds of extensions available based on the specific circumstance.

  1. Late tokens are for short-term issues like a routine cold, sore throat, etc., and grant you a 24-hour extension on an assignment, no questions asked. Every student starts the semester with a virtual bank of 5 tokens to be used in situations not extreme enough to warrent a dean's involvement.

  2. Dean-supported extensions are only for cases of serious illness, family emergencies, or other unforeseeable severe difficulties. In these special circumstances, extensions are granted after we receive a request from your associate dean.

You can the full extension policies here.

Labs

Attendance in weekly labs is mandatory. Labs provide supervised, hands-on practice and prepare students for the homework. You cannot get credit for a lab without attending.

Submit whatever work you finished at the end of the lab period. You are not required to work on labs outside of class time. However, if you would like to polish your work, labs submissions are ultimately due by the end of the Friday of the week they are released. We will not accept submissions later than that, which we hope encourages students to keep up with the course.

Labs are graded based on attendance and a good faith effort at the lab. If you attend the lab, do your best, and submit your work, you will get full credit.

We assume that things come up, people get sick. So, for grading purposes, we credit you with full attendance even if you miss 1 or 2 labs. Labs are important, however, so you should avoid missing them, and you should review the material of any lab you miss.

If you need to attend a different lab in a given week, please contact the instructor of the lab you would like to attend (via Piazza) to make sure there is space.

You may switch labs on SIS up through the usual Tufts add date (which is marked on the course calendar). After that, if you need to switch to another lab permanently, you can do that via www.eecs.tufts.edu/~courses/lab11/. That link will not work until after the add date. Use SIS before the add date.

Exams

There will be two midterm exams and a third exam: either a final exam during the regular final exam period or a third midterm in the last two weeks of classes. We will announce which after a few weeks.

Unless specifically stated otherwise in advance, exams are closed book, closed notes, and no electronic devices are permitted (that includes computers, calculators, cell phones, etc.). For each exam, each student may bring in one U.S. standard-sized sheet (8½ × 11 inches) of paper with their own handwritten notes (on the front and back if desired) to use as a reference. The reference sheets will be collected. Photocopied notes are not permitted. (If you write notes yourself, then this can be a study aid, so we want you to do that.)

You may miss the first or second midterm for any reason, but there are no make-up exams. The usual reason for missing an exam is illness, but the same policy (described below) applies whatever the reason. We do not require notification or justification. However, we strongly recommend that you do take these exams as they provide you and us with valuable feedback about how you're doing, and they get you used to taking computing exams in preparation for the required third exam.

If you miss exam 1 and/or exam 2 your grade will be based on your other exam score(s). For example, missing the first exam, will mean your second exam will be worth 25% and the third exam will be worth 30% If you miss the second midterm, the third will be worth 45%. If you miss both the first and second midterms, the third exam is worth 55% of your grade (not recommended!).

The third exam is a requirement: you must take this exam. If you miss it, then, if you have a note from your dean giving an appropriate reason (e.g., illness, family emergency), then you can get an incomplete and take the exam by the incomplete deadline of the following semester. Missing the third exam without your dean's approval will result in a 0 for that exam score.

A final note about illness and exams: Students who are somewhat ill, for example, sometimes suggest that they would like to take the exam and “see how it goes.” The implication being that, if their illness or other issue is a problem, they'll not count it. At first, this seems reasonable, but the dean's office generally does not approve of this strategy, because once you've seen the exam, it's impossible to tell whether the desire to not count it is based on valid medical (or other) issues or on the content of the exam. So, you must decide (consulting with medical professionals or counselors of your choice) whether to take the exam before seeing the exam.

Regrade requests

Sometimes, we make mistakes, of course, and we want to get things right. If the mistake is in your favor, you don't have to do anything: it's your lucky day. If you feel there was an error, first think very carefully. If it is our mistake, then make a regrade request.

All regrade requests (whether for exams or homework) must be submitted via Gradescope within one week of the assignment grades being released. In cases where it is not immediately obvious how to submit a regrade request for a particular component of an assignment, it is always fine to submit the request on the first problem of the assignment.

A regrade request may or may not result in a new grade being assigned. The new grade may be higher or lower than the original grade.

Collaboration and Academic Integrity

Everyone should read the Tufts policy on academic misconduct located on the student affairs office website: https://students.tufts.edu/student-affairs/student-code-conduct/iv-policies-regarding-student-behavior. Suspected academic integrity violations are forwarded directly to the Office of Student Affairs. Their sanctions range from horrible to inconceivably horrible. It's not worth it.

For exams, no collaboration and no use of the internet is permitted unless expressly allowed in the exam instructions. Information regarding collaboration on homeowrk assignments can be found on the Homework Guidelines page.

Policy on sharing materials

This course is designed for everyone to feel comfortable participating in discussion, asking questions, learning, and facilitating the learning of others. In order for that atmosphere to be maintained, any recordings of our conversations will only be shared with enrolled students in the class (not posted publicly), and it is prohibited for any of us who have access to the video to share it outside the course. It is against Tufts policy for anyone to share any content made available in this course including course syllabi, assignments, videos, and exams with anyone outside of the course without the express permission of the instructor. This especially includes any posting or sharing of videos or other recordings on publicly accessible websites or forums. Any such sharing or posting could violate copyright law or law that protects the privacy of student educational records.

Mark A. Sheldon (msheldon@cs.tufts.edu)
Last Modified 2022-Jun-13