Foundations of Information Science

Evaluation & Grading

Course grades will be determined as follows:

• 5 points: Participation (see below)
• 10 points: Miscellaneous assignments
• 25 points each: Two midterm exams
• 35 points: Final exam

Points will be converted to letter grades as follows:

100-95: A, 94-91: A-, 90-88: B+, 87-85: B, 84-81: B-, 80-78: C+, 77-75: C, 74-71: C-, 70-68: D+, 67-60: D, < 60: F

See the UNC Catalog for definitions of these letter grades.

Participation

Your participation grade is based on three things: attendance, behavior and general participation.

1. Attendance. You are expected to attend all classes and to arrive to class before it starts. You will lose participation points for excessive and unexcused absences and for arriving late to class. You should be seated and ready to start at 11:00 AM. You can miss one day for any reason, no questions asked and without penalty.

2. Behavior. Be courteous to your classmates and course instructor by not conversing with others during class lectures. Turn off cell phones, pagers, and other devices that might disrupt class. Use laptops and other devices to support current course activities only. Pay attention. Daydream infrequently.

3. General Participation. Class participation consists of doing the following: being prepared for class, making observations about the readings, asking questions, taking notes, actively working on in-class exercises and actively listening.

If an unexpected problem arises for you during the course of the semester (serious illness, etc.), please let me know so that we can discuss an appropriate plan. If you need to miss class because of a religious holiday, then we can make alternative arrangements for this as well. (For other information about class attendance, see the UNC Catalog.)

Communicating with me

Email is the best way to communicate with me outside of class. It is particularly well-suited for short-answer and clarification questions.

I will try my best to respond to you within a 24-hour period, but in some cases it may take 2 to 3 days. Please keep this in mind when you are scheduling your own activities, especially those related to exam or assignment preparation. If you wait until the day before an exam or assignment due date to ask me a clarification question, there is a good chance that you will not receive a response in time.

If you need assistance understanding a concept or an assignment, or have another potentially complicated question, then please make an appointment for my office hours. If you ask a question via email that I believe is better suited for in-person discussion, then I will ask you to make an office hours appointment. If you have questions about how your assignment was evaluated, then you must make an office hours appointment. I will not discuss your grades or my evaluation of your work via email.

Honor Code

You are expected to know and respect UNC Honor Code. Collaboration, discussion, and seeking assistance from other students is encouraged in this class and is not inconsistent with the Honor Code. In the case of written work, all words drawn from others must be attributed appropriately.