Course Policies

Office Hours

• indicates graduate TA, able to give advice in 5240.

Regrade Requests

In order to submit a regrade request, first wait 24 hours after you receive the grade. Requests must be made within two weeks of receiving an on-time grade, or one week of receiving a grade for a late submission. Please submit all regrade requests by filling out the survey below. We ask that you read it carefully, think carefully before requesting a regrade, and note that a regrade may result in a lower grade.

NB: We are working hard for quick, accurate, fair feedback. That said, Gradescope has been very challenging to work with, and there may be errors such as ungraded workbook assignments. In this case you will be granted extra slip days on the next workbook assignment. Please do actively check your assignment submission, and if it lacks a grade or comment, fill out the regrade form.

Please note:

• Regrade requests must be submitted within 2 weeks of receiving your grade.
• If we regrade your assignment, this could result in your grade going up or down.
• It is possible that course staff will request a personal meeting to clear up misunderstandings around grading and/or your request.

Regrade Form

In-person policy

In both lecture and section we aim for robust dialog in a mutually supportive environment. Over and above the campus code of student conduct linked from here we use a course code of conduct derived from the Mozilla and Ubuntu codes of conduct.

Students are expected to come to class on time, whether in person or remote, and to treat eachother and teaching staff respectfully.

Zoom policy (in case of pandemic)

You need to log in to Zoom using your Cornell netID to attend lecture/section- Please keep your microphone muted except when it is your turn to talk, and make sure that your screen name is set with your first and last name.

We appreciate that it can be uncomfortable to give the entire class a view into your personal life. In lecture you are not required to have your camera on. As lecturers, though, we have to admit that we love to see you, and to get feedback from you. We do ask you to turn your cameras on when we have small-group breakout sessions of 5 or fewer students; the quality of conversation and co-design improves greatly with a visual channel.

In section, to foster a personal, relational climate and collabroative design work, you are required to have camera on; to accommodate students in special circumstaces, exceptions are possible by contacting your section TA privately.

If you need to step out temporarily during lecture or section, please log out of the Zoom meeting and log back in when you return. This avoids other students having the unpleasant experience of getting into a breakout room to find the other “students” are zombie attenders.

Please treat our Zoom classes as you would in-person class in terms of dress and appearance. Your camera should not reveal anything potentially offensive.Of course, babies, little siblings, grandparents, pets, messy rooms, etc. are fine — we’re all working in unusual locations.

You may use the “Everyone” chat channel to share questions or comments about the lecture; we will also use chat at times for in-class exercises. Public and private chat channels should be used for course-related work. Personal comments or other non-section dialogues should not be sent in Zoom chat, even with friends. Flirting on chat channels is off-topic and may easily be experienced as sexual harrassment, even if this is not your intention. Please remember that anything said on a private chat channel in the Zoom meeting may potentially be seen by the course instructors, and keep your comments on appropriate topics.

Late policy

It is possible to hand in design workbook submissions and mini-projects up to 7 days after the assignment is due. You will be charged “slip days” for late assignments. A slip day is accrued starting immediately after the assignment is due (i.e. an assignment which is one hour late will incur a full slip day).

Life happens. We believe you are the best judge of when you need a break in the course. Therefore, we allow you some flexibility in handing in your assignments, to use at your own judgement, for situations such as routine illness, minor injuries, interviews, competing workload in other courses, extra-curricular activities, or just the need to take a break. You will have 7 free slip days that you can use to hand homework assignments in late at any point over the semester. For example, you could hand one workbook assignment in 4 days late, and one mini-project 3 days late without penalty. Each slip day beyond the 7 allowed for the course will result in a deduction of 1/2 point from your final grade. Please note that free slip days cannot be applied to the final exam.

Additional homework extensions can only be granted by the professors and are only granted under truly exceptional circumstances. It is wise to save your slip days for illness, sudden personal emergencies, and other unexpected events. We strongly discourage using slip days on your first assignment. Indeed, we encourage you to try to hoard them as much as possible, as semesters rarely become more easy as they go along.

The final exam carries a late penalty of 1 full letter grade (10 points out of 100) per hour late, starting immediately after the final exam is due (i.e. a final exam which is 10 minutes late will incur a full letter grade penalty).

Please note late assignments may be (very) delayed in grading, as they fall outside our regular course rhythm. This means that you may not receive feedback in time to incorporate it into future assignments, which is another reason to avoid using slip days early!

Addressing special circumstances

We teach this course with the goal of reaching every student, no matter your circumstances. If you find that issues around ability, family commitments, health problems, religious commitments, legal issues, or other personal situations are impeding your ability to learn in this course, please reach out to the course instructors so we can make a personal plan to help you succeed. Reaching out early, before things get out of hand, makes it easier for us to help you effectively. Nevertheless, do not let being late deter you from reaching out.

Some other resources that might be of use include:

1. Office of Student Disability Services
2. Cornell Health CAPS (Counseling & Psychological Services)
3. Undocumented/DACA Student support: In the Dean of Students office, contact Kevin Graham (Kevin.Graham @ cornell.edu) and see this list of campus resources

Copyright policy

Disseminating course materials

The teaching team owns copyright on all materials we produce. We make as much available publically as we can in order to aid others teaching or taking similar courses. When we cannot make materials public - for example, because it might violate someone else’s copyright - we provide them to course participants in print or through Canvas. These materials should therefore not be provided to any third-party site, even if your intention is to aid other students. To do so is a violation of our copyright. Please trust our judgement about what can be made public and what can’t.

Reusing material on this site

Other instructors from anywhere in the world are welcome to reuse materials, texts, assignment descriptions, policies, or anything else you find useful on this publically available webpage. You do not need to ask permission, although we appreciate hearing it if it’s been useful to you!