Organization of Information

Evaluation & Grading

Course grades will be determined as follows:

• 20 points: Participation (see below)
• 55 points: Assignments
• 25 points: Final exam

Points will be converted to letter grades as follows: 100-95: H, 94-90: P+, 89-85: P, 84-80: P-, 79-70: L, < 69: F

Participation

You are expected to attend class and actively participate in (but not dominate) class discussions. Beyond that baseline, there are are two other ways you are required to participate:

• Leading discussion of readings. During the semester each student in the class must volunteer to lead discussion of at least one assigned reading. When it is your turn to lead discussion, please come up with 2 good discussion questions pertaining to the reading, and post them on the class Web site (instructions on how to do this coming soon). You must post your questions prior to the beginning of class. In class, you will be expected to kick off the discussion by asking your questions and opening the floor for discussion.
• Blogging and commenting. We will have a class blog, and you are expected to post and comment there throughout the semester. Consider blogging an opportunity to think out loud and share ideas and insights you’ve had with your classmates. Blogging will also help you to see the concepts we’re introducing in this class out in the real world, helping you better understand the material. Great topics for great blog posts include news stories relating to issues we’ve discussed in class; questions or comments relating to lectures; a story about something related to information organization that happened to you; or reflections on things you’ve learned. I want this to be an open and fun place for discussion that will help enrich your conceptual understanding of the course.

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.