CIVL 4440, FALL 2015-COURSE POLICIES

Class attendance
Class attendance is not compulsory and is not tracked. Nonetheless, students are strongly
encouraged to attend all lectures. Any material covered or announcement made during a
students absence will not be repeated.
Assessment
Students final grades are determined according to the following distribution: midterm
examination25%, final examination35%, homework30%, class participation5%, pop
quizzes5%.
Homework
There are 5 homework. For the homework, you may work individually, or in pairs. A
submissions that is late by 24 hours or less will have its score reduced by 30%. A submission
that is late by 24-48 hours will have its score reduced by 60%. Submissions later than 48
hours will not be accepted.
Pop quizzes
There are 7 to 8 pop quizzes. A quiz may be held any time during the semester, and no
announcement will be made to inform the students beforehand. When computing a students
final grade, the quiz with the lowest score will be dropped. Given this, any request for a
make-up quiz will not be entertained regardless of the students circumstances. A missed quiz
will be assigned a score of zero.
Class participation
Credit is given for class participation. To obtain full credit, students are required to
participate in class. Credit is given for effort, and NOT correctness. To track a students
participation, if the student has asked a question or contributed to a discussion during class,
the student is requested to write his/her name on a slip of paper and pass it to the instructor at
the end of the class. At the end of the semester, the instructor will make a count of the
number of slips with the students name. Students having a count of 5 or greater will be given
full credit for class participation. If the count is 4 or less, credit will be given on a pro-rated
basis.
In-class exercises
In-class exercises are small exercises carried out during lecture to improve the students
learning experience. No credit is attached to these exercises.
Make-up examinations
There are two examinations, a midterm and a final. A missed examination will be assigned a
score of zero. A make-up examination is allowed only under the most exceptional
circumstances, and is administered at the instructors discretion. A student requesting for a
make-up due to a medical reason must produce a doctors note supporting his or her claim. It

is the students responsibility to contact the instructor prior to the scheduled time of the
examination to request for a make-up.
It is often difficult, if not impossible, to create a make-up that is equal in difficulty to the
original examination. Thus, to be fair to the majority of students taking the original
examination, the make-up will have to be the more difficult of the two.
The make-up examination may be in a format that is different from the original examination.
Academic misconduct
Academic misconduct, or academic dishonesty, is taken very seriously. Students are strongly
advised against cheating in an examination. If a student is found cheating, action according to
university policy will be taken.
Sometimes a student may feel the need to cheat or copy because he or she is having difficulty
understanding the contents of the course, or unable to cope with the workload. If that is the
case, the student is advised to approach the instructor or teaching assistant for advice. Should
there be a need, special review sessions or one-on-one consultation can be arranged.
Instructor and TA accessibility
Students are encouraged to contact, either by email or in person, the instructor or teaching
assistant in case of any concern or problem. The instructor and teaching assistants contact
details are as listed in the course syllabus. The instructor will not be holding scheduled office
hours, but will be available to answer questions immediately after lecture on Monday and
Friday.
CANVAS
Lecture materials will be made available for download on the course CANVAS website about
7-10 days before being covered in class. Homework assignments will also be made available
on the CANVAS website.
Announcements
All announcements relating to the course with regards to homework, examinations and other
matters will be made through the course CANVAS website. Announcements may or may not
be repeated in lecture. It is the students responsibility to regularly check CANVAS for
updates.