CISC 323: Introduction to Software Engineering Assignment Policies Winter 2006

Collaboration
        Working in Pairs
        Academic Dishonesty
        Helping Classmates
Logistics
        Cover Sheets
        Assignment Box
        Lateness Policy
        Computer Problems and Backups
        Getting Your Assignments Back
        Administrative Penalties

Working in Pairs
For each assignment, you may work alone or with one partner. We will be designing the assignments to be quite possible for one student working alone to finish in the allotted time. However, we know that some students find it helpful to work with a partner, so we're allowing this. You don't have to work with the same partner for each assignment. Your partner does not have to be in the same lecture or tutorial section as you are. You must hand in one assignment, labelled clearly with both names. You will both receive the same mark.

You may not work in groups larger than two. If you hand in an assignment with more than two names, we will not mark it.

If you work in a pair, you do so at your own risk. If your partner gets sick or doesn't do his or her part, you are still responsible for handing in an assignment.

We will not put you into pairs. If you're looking for a partner to work with, try posting a note on the WebCT forum.

Academic Dishonesty
Any of the following actions constitute academic dishonesty:

• copying another student's work to hand in, even if you modify it afterwards
• allowing another student to copy your work
• working in groups larger than two and submitting the same work as separate assignments

We take academic dishonesty very seriously. If we find that you have committed one of the actions listed above, or anything else that compromises the integrity of this course, we will charge you formally with academic dishonesty. Your penalty will be worse than a zero on the assignment involved, so it's not worth taking a chance. In addition, you'll end up with a file in the Dean's office.

Please note that you may be penalized not just for copying but for allowing someone to copy your assignment. Most Queen's students are honest, but there are a few who will take advantage of others. Please protect yourself:

• Make sure your files on lab machines are read-protected
• Don't leave paper copies or disks lying around
• If a classmate asks for a copy of your assignment "just to look at for ideas", say no.
• If a classmate who has not contributed to an assignment asks you to put his/her name on yours, say no. Admittedly, we can't check up on this one, but you're really not doing that person a favour.

Helping Classmates We realize that the above may be making you feel quite paranoid.  That's good.  We are very serious about insisting that you hand in your own work and not someone else's.  However, there are many ways in which talking over an assignment with classmates is legitimate and helpful. You may discuss concepts and strategies in general terms. For a programming assignment, if a classmate is stuck, you may look at their program and make general suggestions (such as "did you forget to increment that counter?", or "why don't you try putting some debug output here to see the value of this variable?").

The cardinal rule is that you may not write any portion of an assignment for another person or hand in someone else's writing as your own. This applies to every part of every assignment: prose, numbers, figures, code, comments within code, etc.

Cover Sheets and other Logistics
For each assignment, you will be given a cover sheet to print out and submit with your paper copy. You must include it with your assignment in one of the following ways:

1. Attach it securely to the front of your assignment. Use staples or a sturdy clamp; paper-clipped assignments tend to fall apart while being passed back and forth between TAs and instructors.
2. Put your assignment in an envelope along with the cover sheet. Your envelope must be labelled with the name and lecture section of the student to whom the assignment should be handed back. Use this option if you're concerned about privacy; your mark will be inside your envelope where other students can't see it as the assignments are being handed back. Make sure that your envelope is sealed or otherwise securely closed so that the papers inside can't fall out.

Assignment Box
You must leave your assignments in the CISC 323 assignment box on the second floor of Goodwin Hall (opposite room 235). This box is part of a set of secure, locked boxes, a bit like apartment building mailboxes. From the main entrance to Goodwin, go up the stairs and turn left past the elevator. Go through the double doors and the boxes are most of the way down the hall on your right. Please do not confuse them with the open shelves on the other side of the hall. These are used by some other courses for handing back assignments and are not secure. To make sure your assignment is not lost, please make sure to use the box marked "CISC 323". We will not be responsible for assignments left in the wrong place.

Lateness Policy
We do not accept late assignments. If you are late, you get a zero on the assignment. This is a harsh policy, but accepting late assignments, even with a penalty, creates too many administrative headaches.

The deadline for each assignment is listed in the assignment schedule. We will clear out the box no earlier than noon on the due date. If your assignment is not in the box when we clear it out, it is late.

Computer Problems and Backups
Not all of the assignments for this course involve programming, but you may wish to use a computer to write up many or all of them. If your computer breaks down, this is not an excuse for missing an assignment. We will also not give extensions for small amounts of down time on CASLab machines. You need to allow enough extra time to cope with problems and delays; this is part of life when working with computers.

Whether you work at home or on campus, make sure you always keep backup copies of your assignment. Don't depend on shared drives on lab machines as your backup; these are known for going out of order at inconvenient times. Likewise, home computers can fail unpredictably.

If you find yourself needing to back up your work or to move it to another location and you don't have a disc or other backup device on hand, a simple trick is to e-mail it to yourself.

Getting Your Assignments Back
Your instructor will hand back your assignments during lectures. We will try to hand back each assignment before the next is due, but when the TAs are busy with their own course work this is sometimes not possible. If you work with a partner in the other lecture section, you must specify on your cover sheet who will be picking up the assignment. If you forget, we will choose a section at random.

If you aren't in class when an assignment is handed back, visit your instructor's office hours to get it. We won't lug piles of unclaimed assignments to each lecture!

We will be making special arrangements for handing back the last assignment, which will not be marked before the end of classes.

Your marks will be posted on the WebCT area. Please don't panic if you don't see an assignment mark right away, even it has already been handed back. It takes a while to collect the marks from the graders and enter them into WebCT. If the assignment doesn't appear on your list of marks, we haven't entered the marks yet, so don't worry that we've lost it. If the assignment does appear and your mark is shown as a dash, we either don't have your assignment or there has been some kind of administrative problem. Please talk to your instructor.

Administrative Penalties
If you fail to follow these general instructions, we reserve the right to apply an administrative penalty of up to 10% of the total marks. For example, if you don't use a cover sheet, or if your assignment falls apart because you haven't stapled it, you will lose marks. Our TAs' time is limited and this kind of thing costs them time they should be spending on actual marking.