Attendance

Participation

Active participation in class is expected. This means contributing to class discussion by speaking in class, bringing in relevant materials (such as copies of articles) from outside sources, contributing to the online discussion via the class listserv, visiting Professor McNeese or TA during office hours to discuss materials being covered in class. Participation also means being a responsible member of your group as you work with other team members on class problems. There will be times during class when you will be required to participate in an exercise or assignment. In many cases I will collect written work to be graded as pass or fail which also goes toward your attendance / participation grade.
Participation requires that you be prepared.
Class will begin promptly at 9:45 am. Everyone is expected to be seated by then. I will end promptly at 11am to the best of my ability. If you come in past the start time of class the back rows are reserved for you. To the extent possible please move forward in class leaving the back rows empty. You will be able to see much better to the extent that you move forward.

Attendance

You are allowed three excuses (un-excused). Notes from Ritnour are not needed for these three unexcused absences. For every absence after, your grade will drop. The value of this drop will be decided, in part, by the members of your group (who must work more to cover for your absence).
It is your responsibility to sign the attendance sheet. If you fail to sign the attendance sheet, you will be considered absent.
If you are over 10 minutes late, you are considered absent.
Any sick excuse should be accompanied with a doctor's note. Otherwise, you will be considered absence without excuse.
Students who participate in University-sanctioned events (such as athletics) must make prior arrangements and give ample notice. Missing class for practice or for external employment is not advised.
Please – if you know you are going to be absent – contact Professor McNeese and/or Xun Ge.

Assignment

Please complete and turn in your work by the assigned time on the assigned date. Any delay of the requirement will result in 25% reduction of the total points earned for each passing day. Note that a computer's failure is not an excuse (it represents poor planning on your part).
Unless in very exceptional cases, a hard copy is required for all the written papers or assignments.
Assignment should be computer-printed, double-spaced, on 8.5"x 11" paper. Pages should have 1" margins. Papers should be collated and stapled. Your name, course (IST 110 (002)), the date and email address should be on the first page of everything you turn in to me. Please do not use report covers or coversheets. Failure to comply to these is a mandatory (and minimum) one point deduction from total possible points to be earned.
I read to the fifth mistake. Your grade will be based on what we have read to that point. Mistakes include spelling, grammatical errors, and typos. Carefully proofread your work. Take advantage of the Writing Center (219 Boucke, 863-3240).
Your work should be properly referenced and adhere to standards of both academic integrity and proper form. Generally, I prefer the APA style (http://www.apa.org/) though any coherent style is fine.

Team Work

For any teamwork, there will be evaluation of team performance based on the following four components: trust, respect, acceptance, and credibility of efforts. If a team fails to function appropriately, Professor McNeese or the TA will intervene. Any malfunction of the team work will either result in deduction of different degrees of team participation grade, or you will be asked to do the team work on your own. If you are experiencing a problem with a teamwork situation do not wait till the last minute to contact us for advice! Don’t let a situation get out of control.
This class is predicated on the goal of having great teamwork. – there is a norm expected that you will treat each other with the utmost respect during class and otherwise.

Labs

Some lab assignments will be required to be sent in by email, depending on the specific requirement of the specific lab.
For any lab work, if you cannot finish the assignment during the lab hours, you may ask for an extension of no more than 24 hours. That means you must submit the lab assignment within 24 hours. Delay to turn in the assignment will result in a deduction of 25% of the lab point(s) per day.
You will have an opportunity to resubmit your returned lab. However, the resubmission must be made within 24 hours after the work is returned. If you fail to do so, the resubmit will not be accepted. Therefore, it is your responsibility to pick up your returned work and - if necessary - make revisions if you choose to.

Grading

You have the right to inquire about your grade. However, if you need to discuss the grading, you need to do it within a week after the grade is provided. Otherwise, any request to discuss your grade after that time will not be accepted.
Unless otherwise specified the University Grading Scale will be used for this class.

Use of Laptops in Boucke

The laptops are for the purpose of doing classwork - if assigned. They are NOT for the purpose of chatting, surfing, or conducting other activities during classtime (except for the 2 notetakers assigned for a given day who may make use of the laptops for taking notes.
During class, the laptops are to be faced down (closed) unless Professor McNeese indicates otherwise.

Sleepers Alert

I do not tolerate sleeping in the classroom. If someone is asleep the students have the right to wake the person up in a reasonable way.
If you are found sleeping during class, you will lose attendance credit for that day.

Effort

You will need (minimally) to spend at least 2.5- 3 hours extra (beyond the programmed class & lab times) to be successful in this IST class. Begin preparing a budget now for your extra time as it is critical to PLAN PLAN PLAN! This roughly equates to about 240 hours outside of class time for this semester. Of course this is only an estimate and different students may need more time than this estimated amount.
An early warning – do not procrastinate as you can fall beyond quickly in assignments and problems and labs requirements for this class. The class is designed to distribute the workload across the semester. Therein, assignments are due quickly. Waiting till the last minute typically results in poor quality work so try your best to keep up and create a time budget and plan for the class.