Course Policies
GRADING
50% of your grade will be determined by homework exercises related to each course unit.
20% of your grade will be determined by a mid term project (which would be a great item to include in your Data Science Portfolio).
20% of your grade will be determined by a final project (which would be great item to include in your Data Science Portfolio).
10% of your grade will be determined by participation in class discussions.
GRADING SCALE: The grading scale is standard: A (90 -100 %), B (89 - 80 %), C (79 - 70 %), D (69-60 %), F( below 60 %).
ATTENDANCE POLICY
Missing a scheduled class session is at your discretion. I will be posting all the course materials online. If a discussion or in-class exercise occurs and you miss it, you will lose those participation points. There is no way to make up those points.
LATE ARRIVAL OF PROFESSOR POLICY
The R Markdown template I used for this syllabus was created by Dr. Steven V. Miller at Stockholm University. It contained this section, which I found amusing and have therefore retained. Professor Miller’s current university asks professors to have policies written into their syllabus about what students should do if the professor is more than 15 minutes late to class. Here is my version of that policy:
I will inform students via e-mail in advance of class if class is cancelled for the day. Events that might create such a scenario include travel obligations that emerged after the semester has begun, a family emergency that encompasses multiple days, or some other thing. I will also contact our department secretary in emergent situations, such as something happening on the way to work. Failing that, assume the worst. Alien abduction, the return of one or more Old Ones to our plane, or some kind of attack by wizards are all viable explanations for my inability to attend class. I ask that the students make sure that my story gets the proper treatment on the “Mr. Ballen” YouTube channel. I also ask that my story be narrated by Morgan Freeman and that the role of me in the made for TV movie be played by Keanu Reeves or Danny DeVito.
MAKE UP EXAM POLICY
The bad news is that there are NO make-ups for missed exams. Don’t bother asking. The good news is that there aren’t any exams.
ACADEMIC DISHONESTY POLICY
All students are expected to uphold the highest standards of academic honesty. This includes but is not limited to: not cheating, not using the ideas of others without giving appropriate credit (including AI tools), and not falsifying data. Any incident of academic dishonesty will be handled according to the guidelines of the University of Idaho.