Section 10 General Course Policies

  1. Any concerns or questions regarding these general policies, the teaching assistants or the course itself should be directed to Dr. Love, if at all possible.
  2. All student work is subject to the University’s policies and procedures.
  3. Registration is required. I do not permit anyone to audit the course who has not previously taken it, without exception. If you’ve taken the course before and want to sit in again, consider volunteering as a teaching assistant.
  4. Grading. You are not in competition with each other for grades. I have no set percentage of students who will receive any particular grade.
  5. Attendance is expected, and your absence will be noted. If you need to miss more than one class in a row, inform Dr. Love via email beforehand, or as soon as possible thereafter. I will assume you have a good reason - details are not necessary. You are responsible for all missed work, regardless of the reason for your absence. All work is turned in electronically, except for the final project presentation.
  6. Late work is unacceptable under anything but the most harrowing of circumstances. Dr. Love (via email) is the person to discuss this with, at least 48 hours prior to the deadline, if you feel your circumstances are sufficiently dire to warrant an exception. It is far better to turn in timely, but only partially complete work than nothing at all.
  7. Feedback on assignments - deadline. On every assignment, Quiz, project-related task, whatever, we will be delighted to respond to email questions up to 18 hours before the assignment is due. After that time, you are on your own. The reason for this is that Dr. Love and the teaching assistants will regularly post responses to frequently asked questions about assignments, and we need sufficient time to accomplish this task.
  8. On Getting Help Quickly and Effectively: In general, we don’t have a way to diagnose your problem with R, R Studio or Markdown if you don’t show us what you’re typing that causes an error, or a lack of results. If you wrote a Markdown file, send it, along with a specific question (or series of them) about specific error messages or strange results you are getting. We need to replicate the problem in order to know how to fix your problem, and it also helps if we know what error message you’re seeing, or what strange result you are getting.
  9. Using a Laptop Using a laptop to follow along, take notes, or try things out during class, can be very helpful. Feel encouraged to do so.
  10. Computer You will need access to a computer (PC or Mac - a ChromeBook won’t do) outside of class to do every assignment. You need to be able to install software on this computer, and update it frequently.
  11. Distractions. Silence your phone during class. The temptation to look at your phone or Facebook or email during class is nearly irresistible. Resist anyway, if only to avoid distracting your instructor and your fellow students. Dr. Love has absolutely no shame about embarrassing people on this issue. If it’s critical, just step out of the room.
  12. Research Usage. Any and all results of in-class and out-of-class assignments and activities are data sources for research and may be used in published research. All such use will always be anonymous.
  13. Audio-Recording. It is our intention to provide audio recordings of each class after they are complete. Anything you say during a class session may be audio-recorded.
  14. Typos. Dr. Love makes occasional typographic and grammatical errors, which irritate him enormously. Please email him if you find any in this syllabus or any other course materials. If you are the first to let us know, and we make the change, you will receive a small amount of bonus credit in your class participation grade.