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COMP2300/6300 Assessment 2009

[Assessment Scheme]] [Extensions]] [Plagiarism]] [Marked Work]] [Supp Exams]

Proposed  Assessment  Scheme

(c.f. the scheme for 2006)

Any changes to this page after week 1 will be marked in blue.

The proposed assessment scheme for COMP2300 in 2009 will be in the following parts:

1. Tutorial/laboratory mark: 10%
   • This will include 5 computer assessed laboratory exercises, plus a mark allocated by your tutor on your tutorial preparation, attendance, and participation in discussions.
2. Assignments: 30%, total of three, weighting of each subject to minor adjustments:
   • Assignment 1: 12% (released week 2, due early week 6)
   • Assignment 2: 10% (released week 5, due end week 9)
   • Assignment 3: 8% (released week 9, due end week 12)
3. Examinations 60%
   • Mid-semester exam: 20%
     • This is a 1 hour written exam, to be held during a lecture slot. One A4 page of notes (both sides, printed or hand written) is permitted; a calculator is not permitted.
       The two questions of this exam will be independently redeemable in the final exam. That is, the final exam will have an extra two optional questions of the same weight and content as in the MSE. For either of these questions, if the mark scored exceeds that of the corresponding question scored in the original MSE, that mark will be used to compute the final score for the MSE. An extra hour's time will be given in the final exam to accommodate this.
   • Final examination: 40%
     • This will be a 2+1 hour written exam held at the end of semester during the normal examination period. One A4 page of notes (both sides, printed or hand written) is permitted; a calculator is not permitted.

These components are then added to give your final mark. This may then be scaled to give your overall course mark and grade. In particular, the final marks may be moderated by the Department of Computer Science examiners meeting.

Notes:

• Any changes to the assessment scheme will be announced and discussed in lectures and posted to this web page.

• If there are no changes to the proposed scheme by the end of week 2, it will be the scheme that will be used.

• The Tute/Lab mark will be calculated as follows. There will be 7 assessable lab exercises worth 1% each; the best 5 of these will be summed (total of 5%). The best 5 out of a selection of 7 Tute/Lab participation marks will be summed (and divided by 3, total of 5%). These will be calculated mainly on the basis of effort (including preparation, attendance, and participation in discussions) TuteLab02 will be excluded from the selection (purely a lab exercise), as will one towards the end of the semester.
• COMP6300 will have some different questions in the exams and some different parts in the assignments (as compared with COMP2300 students).

Extensions and Late Penalties for Assignments

In general, there will be no extensions for assignments, the exception being for illness serious enough to keep you in bed, supported by a medical certificate. Other similarly un-foreseeable and serious circumstances may be considered (if similarly verified). Work and sporting commitments are not normally sufficient grounds. The failure of external computer systems used to undertake the assignment will not be considered, even if it involves software downloaded from DCS sites. If you think you have grounds for an extension, you should notify the course coordinator as soon as possible and provide written evidence in support of your case (e.g. medical certificate). The course coordinator will then decide whether to grant and extension and inform you as soon as practicable.

Extensions may be granted to a date that is not more than 1 week from the nominal deadline.

Without an explicit extension from the course co-ordinator, late assignments will be penalised at the rate specified on the assignment document.

Plagiarism and Assisting Plagiarism in Assignments

You should read the chapter in the Department of Computer Science Student Handbook that discusses assessment (Chapter 6, pages 17-25), particularly the sections headed Misconduct in examinations (which also applies to assignments and other forms of assessment) and Guidelines for assignments. In particular, it should be noted that working in groups where group members are inspecting each other's solutions in progress is Unacceptable Collaboration.

Files you have found on the Internet should not be submitted as your work; but your documents may include URL links to external documents. You should avoid copying or closely paraphrasing material from documents that you find, including those of your friends (it's plagiarism) or textbooks. If you feel it necessary to include material from some other document, then it should be clearly identified as such, identifiable as quoted material by layout or quotation marks, and proper attribution made. Be aware that automated tools to detect plagiarism exist (e.g. Glatt or JPlag ) and will be used.

All assignment submissions will be compared electronically, with any that are suspiciously similar being investigated by the lecturer. If such similarities cannot be satisfactorily explained, appropriate action (see the penalties mentioned in the handbook) will be taken. Note that the action of providing access to another student access to an assignment may result in the offense of assisting plagiarism, and similar penalties (i.e. partial or complete loss of marks) may apply. Don't take such risks!

Students suspected of being involved in Unacceptable Collaboration may be asked to fill out a Assingment Submission Questionnaire

Collecting Marked Work and Remark Policy

Marked assessment can be collected from your tutorial/laboratory classes, generally 2 weeks after its hand-in date. Uncollected assessment will be kept by your tutor until the end of semester, after which uncollected work may be collected from a yet-to-be-specified place in the CSIT Building.

You can check the marks we have recorded for you progressively throughout the semester. You can do this through StReaMS

From the date that your assignment marks are released electronically, you have a period of two weeks in which to question your mark. After this period your mark will be final. Release of your assignment marks will be announced on the course Announcement forum.

If you are unhappy about the marking of an assignment, first discuss this with your tutor. If you were unable to resolve this with your tutor, the matter can be brought up with the course co-ordinator, who will discuss the matter with you. If, after that, you request a remark, the policy is as follows:

• The disputed assignment will be remarked in its entirety by a different tutor. No extra material or explanations may be supplied by the student for the remark.
• The remarking will be done in a time frame convenient to the DCS.
• The new mark will be final, and may be lower or higher than, or the same as, the original mark.

Special Consideration and Special / Supplementary Exams

If you miss the examination, or wish to request a Special Examination or Special Consideration for an examination, please see Carol Edmondson's page on the subject. From there, there are links to on-line forms (these include a section to be filled out by a medical practitioner, where medical reasons are the grounds for the application).

If you are feeling unwell on the day of an examination, you can consider taking the exam and then applying for Special Consideration. Note that it normally takes fairly severe symptoms before your performance will be significantly affected (and that only for a sufficiently serious condition will a Special Examination be granted, should you decide not to take the exam then). Note that you should never assume that you are entitled for a Special Examination, and that in 2009 the University is becoming more strict on granting Special Exams.

If you have a chronic condition (that is also diagnosable) that is likely to affect your ability to meet assessment requirements throughout the semester, and/or is reasonably likely to affect you on any given examination day, you should register your condition with the Disability Services Centre. This will give any subsequent request for deadline extension and/or Special Examination more credibility, plus you will only need to cite any supporting evidence with them, rather than to each lecturer of all courses affected. It might also enable you to obtain Special Examination Arrangements (e.g. extra time, quieter room).

If you experience a traumatic personal event during the semester (which is likely to affect your assessment), you should register your situation with the University Counselling Centre. Not only can their professional help be of great assistance in such distressing circumstances, but, as for the above situation, evidence of the event need only be cited at that one point and it can expedite any resulting requests for changed assessment conditions.

Supplementary exams will be awarded to all students who receive a PX grade (i.e. have a final mark of AT LEAST 45/100 but less than 50/100), and only to those students. Students who receive a PX grade will be notified by the DCS Office of the time and place of the Supplementary Exam as soon as that is decided (likely to be the 1st week of semester 2) -- ignore any messages from ISIS that you need to contact the lecturer first. The Supp Exam will have the same format and same conditions (i.e. what you can take with you) as the main exam.

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