Notice: All course materials including syllabus, lecture slides, exams, and announcements, etc. will be posted in Sakai system. All students are required to check their jaguar1 email and the course announcement on a daily basis.

   Although the attendance in class will not be taken, a regular attendance is expected and will be the responsibility of students. More often than not, there will be issues discussed that might not be included in the readings. If you miss class, you are responsible for getting the notes from someone in class, and you are still responsible for any assignment that is made. Your absence does not change the due date of an assignment.

   Homework will be assigned on a regular basis. If there is a dropbox associated with an assignment, you need to turn in both an electronic version and a hard copy, unless stated otherwise. You should exactly follow the submission instructions contained in the assignment, if any. In order to avoid the situation of a late submission, you will want to i) periodically back up your work; ii) plan ahead; iii) submit finished work early; and iv) do not just wait until the last minute. Keep in mind that none of the following, i) difficulties with your computer; ii) problems with Internet access; iii) problems in power supply; ... (the excuse list will continue to be updated), constitutes a legitimate excuse.

If there is no dropbox for an assignment, you will then only need to turn in a hard copy, and you must turn in at the beginning of the class period on the due date. Additionally, the general format requirement for hard-copy homework assignment is specified below. Late homework and homework that does not conform to the format requirement will not be accepted. This is not negotiable.

General Format Requirement for Hard-Copy Homework: Homework is to be typed up with a text editor at your choice. Handwritten documents will not be accepted under any circumstances (including the fact that your handwriting is terrific). Homework is to be submitted on 8.5" by 11" paper, stapled at the top left corner, and not folded. Odd-sized pages and pages torn from spiral-back notebook will not be accepted. It is expected that each assignment will be neat, legible, grammatically correct, and contain no spelling or punctuation errors. Also, your full name and J-number should appear on the first page.

   All exams may contain questions of an objective nature, short problems, short answer questions, or other types of questions. The exam questions will generally be derived from or cover materials presented in the lectures and/or in the textbook, and in most cases, exams will be open-book and open-notes. Usaully no makeup exams will be given, unless due to reasons deemed appropriate, e.g., illness, family problems, emergencies, weather, etc. Whether or not makeup exams will be given and/or how much penalty to be incurred will be to the instructor's discretion. Notice that under any circumstances no "extra work" will be assigned to raise the final grade.

  The goal of homework assignments is to give you practice in mastering the course materials, and the goal of exams is to evaluate your performance, i.e., the extent to which you have mastered knowledge and its application in solving problems. Consequently, you are encouraged to collaborate on problem sets for your homework. In fact, students who form study groups generally do better on exams than students who work alone do. If you do work in a study group, however, you owe it to yourself and your group to be prepared for your study group meeting. Specifically, you should spend at least 20-30 minutes trying to solve each problem before any group meeting. If your group is unable to solve a problem, talk to other groups.

  You must write up each problem solution by yourself without assistance, however, even if you collaborate with others to solve the problem. You are asked to identify your collaborators on each problem set. If you did not work with anyone, you should write "Collaborators: none." If you obtain a solution through research (e.g., on the Web), you should acknowledge your source, and write up the solution in your own words. Notice that it will not lower your score for homework assignments by providing the collaboration and/or acknowledge information, if any. At the same time, it will be a violation of this policy to submit a problem solution that you cannot orally explain to the instructor.

  Obviously, no collaboration whatsoever is permitted on exams.

  The collaboration policy is regarded violated if:

• Each time you turn in work with only your name on it, you in effect claim that the work is yours while in fact you have received outside help
• You submit or present the results of another person's work as your own
• You collaborate with other students engaged in any form of violation of collaboration policies
• You turn in work which is represented as a cooperative effort when in fact you did not contribute your fair share of the effort
• You fail to acknowledge every person (except the instructor) with whom you discussed any problem

  In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, students with bona fide disabilities will be afforded reasonable accommodation. The Office of Special Student Services (OSSS) will certify a disability and advise faculty members of reasonable accommodations. If you have a specific disability that qualifies you for academic accommodations, please notify the instructor and provide certification from OSSS that is located in Room 270 of the Student Center (460-7212).

  The CIS Divisional Policy on cheating is: Unless otherwise stated by your instructor, all work submitted for grading must be your own work. This means that the work you submit for grading must be designed and implemented by one and only one person, and that person must be you. Any deviation from this policy will result in a failing grade for the course for all parties involved. A letter documenting the incident will be placed in the student's academic file, and a second cheating incident will lead to the student's dismissal from the program. This policy applies to examinations, programming assignments, quizzes, and homework assignments.

  If you suspect that your work has been copied by another student, please contact the instructor immediately. Where there are doubts about the permissibility of some degree of cooperation, advice should be sought from the instructor.

  The University of South Alabama is committed to the fundamental value of academic honesty. The student handbook, The Lowdown, defines plagiarism as one form of academic misconduct which is "subject to investigation and disciplinary action through appropriate university procedures." Plagiarism is using somebody else's ideas and/or words in your writing without correctly identifying the sources. By taking this course, you agree that all assignments and/or exams may be subject to some form of originality review.

  You must set your cell phone to completely silent. In case such setting is not available in your cell phone, you must then turn it off. If it is an emergency situation where you have to answer or make a phone call, you must do so outside of the classroom. Any disturbance from cell phones during the class meeting time is definitely intolerable.