Foundations of Information Science

How to Succeed in This Course

Attend the lectures

The main content of this course consists of my lectures. Everything that you will be tested on will be drawn from the lectures.

I will post my slides to the course website before each lecture. You must be logged in to the course website to download the slides. Once you’re logged in, you should see download links in the course schedule.

Do the readings

There is no textbook for this course. All readings have been made available through this course website. You must be logged in to download them. Once you’re logged in, you should see download links in the course schedule.

You will get more out of the lectures if you’ve done the reading ahead of time, but the lectures are not summarizations of the readings, and many concepts will only be introduced in the lectures.

Readings marked as optional are somewhat more advanced—I provide these for those who are curious to learn more.

Attend recitations

Recitations are your opportunity to learn more actively through synchronous group activities and discussions. You’ll be able to ask questions, clear up confusions, and connect the course topics to your other interests.

Communicate about problems

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 have a documented disability or medical condition, make sure to contact Accessibility Resources and Service.

If you are experiencing mental health issues, contact Counseling and Psychological Services.

If you are experiencing discrimination, harassment, violence or exploitation of any kind, see the resources listed here or https://safe.unc.edu/.

Evaluation & Grading

Course grades will be determined as follows:

20% Report from the real world

20% Midterm exam #1

20% Midterm exam #2

40% 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.

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.