User Interface Design

Harvey Mudd College CS124/CS182 Spring 2010

Welcome

Basic Information

Policies

Schedule

Course Content 

    Reading

    Responses

    Presentations

    Investigations

Course Policies

Attendance

On-time attendance to every class is absolutely required to pass this course. This is a small class and class participation is essential to both your learning and class dynamics. If you are ill and cannot attend or an emergency arises, please contact me as soon as possible. I will ask for a dean's note to excuse more than one sick day during the term. If you need to miss class for any other reason, you must get permission in advance.

Unexcused absences will be handled as followed (for both 124 and 182):

• 1 unexcused absence: no consequences
• 2-4 unexcused absences: -5% of your final grade for each absence
• More than 4 unexcused absences will result in course failure. No exceptions

I will track your participation in class daily.  To get full participation credit, you must actively engage in class by contributing to class discussion, answering questions, and participating in class activities.  If you attend class and listen respectfully but do not participate, you will get half credit for that day.  If you engage in any disruptive activities (sleeping, texting, disrespectfully dominating the discussion, etc) you will get no credit.

Late Homework and "Free" extensions

Late investigations will not be accepted.  However, for the investigations only, you have three 48-hour or three 24-hour extensions that you can use for any reason.

• Students in CS124 have 3 24-hour extensions.  You may use at most 2 on any one investigation.
• Students in CS182 have 1 48-hour extension.

You do not need to ask me in advance to take your extension. 

For students in CS124:

Late paper responses will not be accepted.  Note that each short response is worth only 1% of your grade.  While I do not encourage you to skip any response, if you miss one, it probably won't hurt you too much.  

You must lead class discussion on the days that you are assigned.

Grading

CS 124

Your final grade will be a weighted average of your grades on each course component. Components will be weighted as follows:

Paper presentations: 20% total: 5-10% for the first, 10-15% for the second*
Class participation: 15%
Reading responses: 30%
Investigations: 25%
Midterm Exam: 10%

* I will weigh your first presentation lower than your second to give you a chance to practice without too much impact on your grade.  If your second score is higher than your first, the first will count for 5%, while the second counts for 15%.  If your second score is lower for some reason, I'll weigh them equally (10% each).

CS 182

Class participation: 15%
Final exam: 25%
Investigations: 60%

Collaboration

Your work in this class should be in conformance with the Harvey Mudd honor code.  I encourage you to discuss the research papers and assignments with others, but all written work must be completed on your own (except when the assignment explicitly states that you should work with a partner, in which case the written assignment should be the work of only you and your partner).  If you discuss an assignment or a paper with anyone else (which, again, is encouraged!) you must list that person's name on your writeup.

This class involves a lot of writing.  Please review the guidelines for avoiding plagiarism, available at many online sites (e.g. plagiarism.org).  I assume that no one means to intentionally plagiarize, so please pay particular attention to the resources on unintentional plagiarism.

If you have any question at all as to what is considered acceptable collaboration, what is or is not plagiarism, or anything else please ask me.

Christine Alvarado (alvarado@cs.hmc.edu)