Below are the course policies for the TAM 2XX courses (210, 211, 212, and 251). Please read through them and familiarize yourself with the policies regarding course logistics.
Academic integrity infractions, harassment, and discrimination of any kind will not be tolerated. See the University's Student Code, Article 1, Part 4 and the Campus Conduct Policy. Please report any concerns immediately to your professor.
Academic integrity infractions will be dealt with using the most stringent available counter-measures. All infractions are documented through the campus-wide FAIR database, that remains part of the student's permanent record. All infractions in this database will be referred to the Senate Committee on Student Discipline for review and potential additional sanctions. Typical penalties in TAM 2XX courses for academic infractions include dropping one course letter grade. Students have been expelled from the university for cheating.
Infractions include, but are not limited to, cheating, plagiarism, and assisting others in a manner not prescribed or allowed for in the original assignment or directions. Notably, for homework assignments, students are encouraged and allowed to work together. The philosophy is that homeworks are formative assessments, meaning they are intended to foster learning. This is in contrast to summative assessments, including quizzes and exams, that measure individual student mastery of course concepts, for which students are of course forbidden from assisting each other.
Computer-based testing deserves special mention. This testing is typically given across multiple days. During the entire time period of testing, students are strictly forbidden from discussing any aspect of the test/quiz whatsoever with other students. This includes specifics of questions, general aspects of questions, comments on the difficulty of the quiz, etc. This policy is strictly enforced to preserve the integrity of the computer-based testing.
The two main ways to obtain help are online at Campuswire, or in person at office hours. You can also speak with your professor briefly after lecture. Please do not send email directly to CAs, TAs or professors for routine help or absences.
This class uses Campuswire for ALL communications between the instructor, TAs, CAs, and students. Students should not communicate with instructors via email. This is so we can ensure a faster response and keep everyone informed about what's going on.
Students are encouraged to post public messages on Campuswire ("Post to Entire Class"). If you like, you can post anonymously, but we encourage everyone to use their name because it makes a friendlier and more welcoming environment. We will never judge anyone for asking anything on Campuswire, and you will see professors, TAs, and CAs making mistakes and saying stupid things as well!
You can use the private feature on Campuswire by posting a message visible only to the Instructors. To do so, choose the "Post to instructors and TAs" option in the dropdown menu located at the bottom right corner of the window.
The use of Campuswire should not replace the in-person Office Hours time, since some questions cannot be fully addressed via an online forum.
All assessment scores are stored on Canvas. Note that we are only using this website for grade reporting. All other class-related information will be posted only to the official class website or Campuswire. Any errors in grade reporting appearing on Canvas must be reported to "Instructors" via Campuswire within 2 weeks of the due date of the assessment item or by the last day of class, whichever is earlier.
Prompt and regular attendance at lectures is essential for your comprehension and success in the course.
Short quizzes are conducted during lectures using iClickers. You can use either a physical remote or the iClicker app. An iClicker remote can be purchased from any of the bookstores. You must sign up for an iClicker.com account, and register for the class you are enrolled in by searching for it once you are logged in.
iClicker participation grade is worth 5% of final course grade. Your lowest six iClicker scores for the semester will be dropped automatically. These drops should be reserved for unexpected occurrences such as sickness or a family emergency. No missed iClicker scores will be excused for the semester regardless of the reasons.
This course uses the College of Engineering Computer-Based Testing Facility (CBTF) for its quizzes and exams: https://cbtf.engr.illinois.edu.
The policies of the CBTF are the policies of this course, and academic integrity infractions related to the CBTF are infractions in this course.
If you have accommodations identified by the Disability Resources and Educational Services (DRES) for exams, carefully go through and follow these instructions: https://cbtf.illinois.edu/students/dres. Please note, The CBTF cannot add DRES accommodations at the time of an exam. They MUST be uploaded 5 business days beforehand.
Any problem with testing in the CBTF must be reported to CBTF staff at the time the problem occurs. If you do not inform a proctor of a problem during the test then you forfeit all rights to redress.
Review all instructions on the CBTF website before your first exam: https://cbtf.illinois.edu/students
Quiz Review sessions offer an opportunity to review your completed PrairieLearn quiz inside the CBTF. When you attend a Quiz Review session, you will have 25 minutes to review your quiz answers and saved Python code within PrairieLearn, and TAs will be available to help answer questions from students who are attending the session. You will get the most out of a Quiz Review session if you come with targeted, specific questions about parts of quiz problems that you did not understand how to answer correctly. For more general conceptual questions, we recommend attending office hours. Please use PrairieTest to make a reservation for a Quiz Review session time slot from the options available. Quiz Review reservation slots are limited, and if you miss your reservation without canceling, you may not be permitted to register for future sessions. Quiz Review sessions are not offered for retry quizzes.
Discussion sections start in Week 1 of the semester. Prompt and regular attendance at your discussion section is required. You must attend only the discussion section in which you are enrolled. You will not receive a grade for the worksheet if you attend the wrong discussion section.
Excusal from discussion will only be granted if you qualify per the Absences policy outlined at the beginning of this page. Your lowest discussion grade of the semester will be dropped.
Most discussion sessions will consist of a group worksheet exercise, which is a high-energy and efficient 50-minute learning experience. Students will be placed in permanent groups of three to four people during the third week of classes. If you are more than 5 minutes late to a discussion session then you will not receive credit for the section. All members of the group should be working together as a team. The TAs and CAs will be evaluating team work, problem-solution skills and interpretation of the problem.
There are two main goals for the discussion worksheets:
We also hope that these discussion worksheets will help you to meet other engineering students and we encourage you to get together outside of lectures and discussions to work collaboratively on homeworks and exam study.
Weekly online homeworks will be assigned via PrairieLearn. Each assignment is due at 11:59pm on the assigned due date. Due dates are available inside PrairieLearn. These assignments place an emphasis on mastery. The idea is to keep doing questions until you master the underlying concept or method. Once you do, you should be able to answer these questions very quickly.
The way this works in PrairieLearn is that each question has a value, a point total, and a point maximum. If you answer a question correctly, two things happen:
If you answer a question incorrectly, one thing happens:
This system rewards repeated correct answers, which tend to demonstrate mastery. There is no penalty (other than resetting the value) for answering a question incorrectly, so don't be afraid to submit an answer. Similarly, don't be afraid to keep doing a question after you reach the point maximum - your point total with never go down!
If you click on the "?" just to the right of the line about available credit, you'll see all the dates associated with this homework. In particular, it says:
Note that your score will never go down. For example, if you achieve 90% by the Main End Date, you won't be able to increase your score after that time, but you won't be penalized for not reaching 100% - your score will remain 90% forever. On the other hand, if you achieve only 70% by the Main End Date you will be able to increase your score after that time (to a maximum of 80%) until the Extended End Date.
To obtain disability-related academic adjustments or accommodations, students with disabilities must contact their professor and Disability Resources and Educational Services (DRES) as soon as possible. Students who require special accommodations for exams should schedule to take their exam at DRES, and DRES staff will communicate with the professor to organize the exam. There is no need to inform the professor about this in advance.
If you have accommodations identified by the Disability Resources and Educational Services (DRES) for exams, please submit your Letter of Accommodations (LOA) here before you make your first exam reservation. This must be done each semester you use the CBTF.
Please visit each course's home page for details regarding the final exam.