Policies
Lecture Policies #
We encourage you to "attend" the recorded lectures (and any synchronous lectures that we might have). We also encourage you to "participate" in the lectures via Pizza -- by asking questions about the lectures and offering comments on topics that you know well. Your lecture attendance and participation are important to your success in the course. They also are important to the success of the course as a whole, and so will be large components of your subjective grade.
Project Policies #
While working on your semester-long project you may use any source of information that you want.
If you have a question or comment about your work on your project that will be helpful to other students, then you should send it to Piazza. One of the course's instructors will reply as soon as possible. We welcome replies from students.
If you have a question or comment about your work on your project that will not be helpful to other students, then you may e-mail your question to the course's instructors at cos333instructors@lists.cs.princeton.edu. One of the course's instructors will answer your question as soon as possible. To facilitate the consistency of instructor replies, we prefer that you send questions or comments about your project to all instructors at the aforementioned email address rather than to any individual instructor.
Assignment Policies #
You may work with one teammate on each assignment, and we prefer that you do so. If you do work with a teammate on an assignment, then we will expect you to work with the same teammate on all assignments. You may switch teammates only with the approval of the course's lead instructor.
The policies described in this section supplement the University's academic regulations, making explicit what constitutes a violation for this course. Princeton's Rights, Rules, Responsibilities handbook asserts:
The only adequate defense for a student accused of an academic violation is that the work in question does not, in fact, constitute a violation. Neither the defense that the student was ignorant of the regulations concerning academic violations nor the defense that the student was under pressure at the time the violation was committed is considered an adequate defense or a mitigating factor.
If you have any questions about these matters, please consult the lead instructor. Violators will be referred to the Committee on Discipline for review.
Getting help from people #
Programming is an individual creative process much like composition. You must reach your own understanding of the problem and discover a path to its solution. During this time, discussions with other people are permitted and encouraged. However, when the time comes to compose code that solves the problem, such discussions (except with course instructors and your assignment teammate) are no longer appropriate: the code must be your own work.
If you have a question or comment about your work on an assignment that will be helpful to other students, and you need not reveal any parts of your work to express the question or comment adequately, then you may send it to Piazza. One of the course's instructors will reply as soon as possible. We welcome replies from students.
If you have a question or comment about an assignment that will not be helpful to other students, or you must reveal parts of your work to express your question or comment adequately, then you must not send it to Piazza. Instead you may e-mail your question to the course's instructors at cos333instructors@lists.cs.princeton.edu. One of the course's instructors will answer your question as soon as possible. To facilitate the consistency of instructor replies, we prefer that you send questions or comments about the assignments to all instructors at the aforementioned email address rather than to any individual instructor.
For each assignment you must report, in your readme file, the names of any people from which you received help, and the nature of the help that you received.
Getting help from written material #
You may use any written material that you find on the web or elsewhere, with one exception: you may not use any COS 333 assignment solution or partial solution, from this semester or any prior semester, that someone (in violation of course policies) had made available. Even looking at a COS 333 assignment solution or partial solution — beyond the amount of time required to recognize that it indeed is a COS 333 assignment solution or partial solution — is a violation of academic regulations.
Do not, under any circumstances, copy another person's code. Incorporating someone else's code into your code in any form is a violation of academic regulations. This includes adapting solutions or partial solutions to assignments from any offering of this course or any other course. There is one exception to the code-sharing rule: you may adapt code from the COS 333 course materials provided that you explain what code you use, and cite its source in your readme file.
Copying and transforming someone else's code (by rearranging independent code, renaming variables, rewording comments, etc.) is plagiarism. Some inexperienced programmers have the misconception that detecting such plagiarism is difficult. Actually, detecting such plagiarism is quite easy. Not only does such plagiarism quickly identify itself during the grading process, but also we can (and do) use software packages, such as Alex Aiken's renowned MOSS software, for automated help.
For each assignment you must report, in your readme file, the written sources of information — the addresses of any websites, the titles of any books, and so forth — from which you received help, and the nature of the help that you received.
Giving help #
For each assignment you must specifically state, in your readme file, the names of any COS 333 students to whom you provided help, and the nature of the help that you provided.
Abetting plagiarism or unauthorized collaboration by "sharing" your code is prohibited. Sharing code in digital form is an especially egregious violation. Do not e-mail your code or make your code available to anyone. Do not share your code with anyone even after the due date/time of the assignment, and even after the end of the course.
You are responsible for keeping your solutions to the COS 333 programming assignments away from prying eyes. If someone else copies your code, we have no way to determine who is the owner and who is the copier; the Committee on Discipline decides. If you are working on a public cluster computer, make sure that you do not leave the computer unattended, and that you delete your local files and logout before leaving. If you store your work in a version control repository on the web, then make sure your repository can be accessed only by you and your assignment teammate.
Penalties for plagiarism #
If we suspect a student of plagiarism on an assignment, then we will refer the case to the Committee on Discipline. If the Committee on Discipline finds the student responsible for plagiarism, then the standard penalty is automatic failure of the COS 333 course. The Committee on Discipline may impose additional penalties.
If we suspect a student of abetting plagiarism on an assignment, then we will refer the case to the Committee on Discipline. If the Committee on Discipline finds the student responsible for abetting plagiarism, then the standard penalty is one course letter grade. The Committee on Discipline may impose additional penalties.
Penalities for late assignment submission #
You should submit your work on an assignment (electronically) before its due time. If you submit your work late, then we will give you credit for it on this scale:
- 95% for work submitted up to 3 hours late,
- 90% for work submitted up to 6 hours late,
- 85% for work submitted up to 12 hours late,
- 75% for work submitted up to 24 hours late,
- 50% for work submitted up to 48 hours late,
- 0% for work submitted more than 48 hours late.
If an assignment consists of multiple files, then we will consider the date/time of submission of your work as a whole to be the same as the date/time of submission of the last file that you submit.
We will grant extensions only in the case of illness (with a doctor's note) or extraordinary circumstances (with the permission of the Dean or Director of Studies of your residential college). If illness or an extraordinary circumstance will cause you to submit an assignment late, then you should discuss the matter with the lead instructor as soon as possible. Please plan your work on the assignments so that travel, religious holidays, etc. do not cause you to submit it late. Heavy workload is not an extraordinary circumstance.
You have one late pass that allows you to submit any one assignment up to three days late without penalty. You may apply your late pass to at most one assignment; you may not split your late pass across multiple assignments. If you wish to use your late pass on an assignment, then you must tell the course instructors via e-mail before the assignment's due date/time.
You may use your late pass on an assignment if and only if your teammate uses his/her late pass on that assignment. The implication is that you may not use your late pass on an assignment if your teammate already has used his/her late pass.
Grading Policies #
Your final grade will be weighted as follows:
| Component | Approximate Weight |
|---|---|
| Assignments | 40% |
| Project | 50% |
| Subjective | 10% |
The assignment grades will be weighted as follows:
| Assignment | Approximate Weight |
|---|---|
| 1 | 25% |
| 2 | 25% |
| 3 | 25% |
| 4 | 10% |
| 5 | 15% |
Approximately 85 percent of your subjective grade will be based upon your lecture attendance. If you were helpful to the course — if you expressed good questions or comments about the lectures on Piazza or during office hours, if your contributions to your project team were outstandingly strong, and so forth — then your subjective grade might be affected positively. If you were detrimental to the course — if you missed deadlines, if your contributions to your project team were outstandingly weak, and so forth — then your subjective grade might be affected negatively.