You will be expected to be able to use electronic mail to communicate personally with your instructor or grader or anyone else. Relevant e-mail might be sent either to your name.number@osu.edu address, or to your loginname@cse.ohio-state.edu address! So, please make sure you check both -- or have e-mail forwarded to your preferred account. To forward e-mail from your CSE account to another account, make sure there is a file called .forward (note the '.' at the beginning of the file name) in your CSE account home directory that contains exactly one line: the e-mail address to which you want your CSE account e-mail forwarded. Please get in the habit of checking your e-mail once every day or two.
When sending e-mail to your instructor or grader, please be aware that "spam" filters may intercept e-mail sent from an external account (e.g., sally@aol.com or bill@hotmail.com) and either delay it or prevent it from reaching your intended recipient. We therefore strongly recommend sending e-mail from your OSU or CSE account.
Essentially all course-related information will be available on-line either through the course sequence home page or through the appropriate course home page:
For example, the course syllabus, all assignments, etc., are available this way. Some materials and assignments may appear incrementally during the course of the quarter.
You might hope to be able to do the lab assignments on your personal computer. In fact, normal written assignments are best done this way (see below). But your programming assignments will rely on software that is available only on the workstations in the CSE laboratories, unless you port it to your personal computer. The course instructors often will not be able to assist you in setting up this sort of thing; which is not to say it's impossible, only that you shouldn't expect the instructors to help but instead should consider asking fellow students for assistance. Currently, the best access to workstations is available in CL 112. For additional information about this and other laboratories, such as hours of operation, see the CSE Labs page. If you are logging in remotely, be sure to connect to "stdsun.cse.ohio-state.edu".
If you expect to be unavailable for an exam, please make alternate arrangements in advance. You will need a documented, valid excuse for missing an exam. If you have trouble writing in English (and this goes for native English speakers, too), then practice! Points will be deducted for incomprehensible answers -- probably more than for wrong ones. Please note the following important statement in each course syllabus: "A passing grade on the final exam is required in order to receive a passing grade for the course."
Homework and other written assignments should be done in a "professional" manner. This does not mean "expensive". It means that you should make your reports look nice in addition to having the right content. You are strongly encouraged to use a word processor to prepare them. In addition, we will have a specific set of design and coding standards, just like most professional programming organizations. Adherence to these standards will be worth a substantial fraction of each lab assignment. Pay attention to the sample code you are given, and feel free to explore other code that is available on-line. You should consider keeping a copy of each homework assignment you turn in. There are many homework assignments and sometimes the grader gets behind in returning them. Keeping a copy might help you when it's time to study for an exam, if the assignment hasn't yet been returned.
If you need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability, you should contact your instructor to arrange an appointment as soon as possible. At the appointment you and the instructor can discuss the course format, anticipate your needs and explore potential accommodations. We rely on the Office for Disability Services for assistance in verifying the need for accommodations and developing accommodation strategies. If you have not previously contacted the Office for Disability Services, we encourage you to do so.
All students will be expected to complete assignments while observing Ohio State's standards for academic integrity. It is the responsibility of the Committee on Academic Misconduct to investigate or establish procedures for the investigation of all reported cases of student academic misconduct. The term "academic misconduct" includes all forms of student academic misconduct wherever committed; illustrated by, but not limited to, cases of plagiarism and dishonest practices in connection with examinations. As obligated by university rules (Faculty Rule 3335-5-487), the instructor will report all instances of alleged academic misconduct to the committee. For additional information, see the Code of Student Conduct (http://studentaffairs.osu.edu/resource_csc.asp) and Ohio State's COAM Home Page and FAQ (http://oaa.osu.edu/coam.html)
The specific policy on collaboration with others for CSE 221, 222, and 321 is fairly liberal -- but please don't be tempted to test its limits. Here are some ground rules about the "fringe area":
The fundamental principle that determines the scope of acceptable collaboration is that it is never permissible to pass off as your own the work of someone else. If you have doubts about what is appropriate, ask your instructor for a ruling in advance. Violations are surprisingly easy to detect and they must and will be dealt with according to OSU rules on academic misconduct.
For information about what constitutes appropriate use of the laboratory computing facilities, please see the official policies on the OSU CSE web site.
The default situation is that an assignment is meant to be done by an individual working alone. For such an assignment:
Some assignments are explicitly required to be done by a team of individuals ("teammates"), and others are explicitly designated as permitting teamwork. Your name and the name(s) of all your teammates must be clearly visible on the submitted work. One team member will submit one copy of the solution on behalf of the entire team, and all teammates will receive the same grade for that assignment. For such an assignment: