Organization of Information

Evaluation & Grading

Course grades will be determined as follows:

• 10 points: Participation (see below)
• 40 points: Assignments (10 points each)
• 20 points: Midterm exam
• 30 points: Final exam

For graduate students, points will be converted to letter grades as follows:

100-95: H, 94-80: P, 79-70: L, < 70: F

For undergraduate students, 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 undergraduate bulletin for definitions of these letter grades.

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:

• Commenting on readings. As you do the readings, you are expected to comment briefly on each them, either in Piazza, or (if the reading is from the textbook) using the textbook annotation tools. Comments may take the form of questions about concepts, explanations of how a concept relates to your personal or professional experience, relationships to or contrasts with earlier readings, or responses to others’ comments. Not regularly commenting on readings will negatively affect your participation grade.

• Online discussion and blogging. We have a class discussion forum in which you are expected to ask questions, post thoughts and comment throughout the semester. Consider this an opportunity to think out loud and share ideas and insights you’ve had with your classmates. Please share 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. The discussion forum is private, but occasionally I may ask that you re-post something particularly interesting to our public class blog.

Quantitatively assessing participation is difficult, but here’s one way to think about it:

You begin the semester with five participation points. You can raise this to the full ten by regularly participating in online and in-class discussions, regularly posting interesting and relevant items to the discussion forum, and insightfully answering questions and commenting on others’ contributions. Conversely, failing to attend class, tuning out of class discussions, and failing to comment on readings will cause you to lose participation points.

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.

Student Code of Conduct

You are expected to know and follow the UNC Student Code of Conduct, and in particular to be aware of its policies on academic integrity. Collaboration, discussion, and seeking assistance from other students is encouraged in this class and is not inconsistent with those policies. What counts as acceptable collaboration does change from one activity to another, though, so please see my guidelines for each activity, and ask me to clarify if you are unsure. In the case of written work, all words drawn from others must be attributed appropriately.

Attendance

As stated in the University’s Class Attendance Policy, no right or privilege exists that permits a student to be absent from any class meeting, except for these University Approved Absences:

• Authorized University activities, about which the University Approved Absence Office (UAAO) publishes FAQs for students.
• Disability, religious observance, pregnancy, or short-term military service, as required by law and approved by the University Compliance Office — or, for short-term military service, the Dean of Students.
• A significant health condition, or a personal or family emergency, as approved by the Office of the Dean of Students, Violence Prevention and Advocacy Services, or the University Compliance Office.

If you need to miss a class for a reason that is not one of these, please talk to me, and we will work out the best approach to any work you miss.

Changes to This Syllabus

I reserve the right to make changes to this syllabus, including to project due dates and test dates. Any such changes will be announced as early as possible.

Accessibility and Accommodations

The university facilitates the implementation of reasonable accommodations, including resources and services, for students with disabilities, chronic medical conditions, a temporary disability or pregnancy complications resulting in barriers to fully accessing courses, programs and activities.

Accommodations are determined through the University Compliance Office (UCO) Accommodations Team, which receives requests for accommodations for disability, pregnancy and related conditions, and sincerely held religious beliefs and practices, and determines eligibility and reasonable accommodations in accordance with applicable state and federal laws. See the UCO Accommodations website for contact information or email: accommodations@unc.edu

Counseling and Psychological Services

Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) is strongly committed to addressing the mental health needs of a diverse student body through timely access to consultation and connection to clinically appropriate services, whether for short or long-term needs. Go to the CAPS website or visit their facilities on the third floor of the Campus Health building for an initial evaluation to learn more. You can also call CAPS at 919-966-3658 at any hour for immediate assistance.

Dealing with Discrimination, Harassment, Violence or Exploitation

Any student who is impacted by discrimination, harassment, interpersonal (relationship) violence, sexual violence, sexual exploitation, or stalking is encouraged to seek resources on campus or in the community. Reports can be made to the University Compliance Office (UCO), formerly the Equal Opportunity and Compliance Office, or by contacting its Report and Response Managers (reportandresponse@unc.edu). Note that instructors are designated Responsible Employees, and must report to the UCO any information they receive about the forms of misconduct listed above. Confidential resources include Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS; see above), the University’s Ombuds Office, and the Gender Violence Services Coordinators at Violence Prevention and Advocacy Services (VPAS) (gvsc@unc.edu). Additional resources are available at https://safe.unc.edu/.