CS 321: Decision Making in Artificial Intelligence

Each portion of a programming assignment will receive one of these grades.

• 4: Exemplary work. All specified functionality is working correctly.
• 3: Meets expectations. The core functionality of the assignment has been correctly completed, but one or more of the exemplary-level aspects may not be working correctly.
• 2: Partially meets expectations. The assigned task has been partially completed to a level indicating some understanding of the concepts, but the core required functionality has not been completely achieved. It is clear that the core goal of the assignment is there and is on its way to being accomplished, though it may not be completely correct.
• 1: Beginnings. The work is not complete enough to indicate that a baseline level of correctness has been achieved. This likely applies when the work has very large gaps in functionality or in implementation. Nonetheless, the work submitted demonstrates that real progress has been made towards solution of the problem.
• 0: Not assessable. The work was not submitted, or shows a deep disconnect with what was assigned.

Similarly, each portion of an analysis assignment will receive one of these grades.

• 4: Exemplary work. The submission is completely correct without omissions.
• 3: Meets expectations. The question has generally been answered correctly. Some relevant details may be missing, or some details may be incorrect that are relatively inconsequential.
• 2: Partially meets expectations. The submission has been partially completed to a level indicating some understanding of the concepts, but the essential main idea has not been addressed correctly.
• 1: Beginnings. The work is not complete enough to indicate that a baseline level of correctness has been achieved. This likely applies when the work has very large gaps between the correct solution and what was submitted. Nonetheless, the work submitted demonstrates that real progress has been made towards solution of the problem.
• 0: Not assessable. The work was not submitted, or shows a deep disconnect with what was assigned.

The worksheets that you’ll be doing in class will not be graded. That said, they are important for learning the material in the class, and they are fabulous preparation for the in-class exams.

The video quizzes are intended to be straightforward, and are intended to help keep you up to date in watching the videos. You’ll simply receive a total average grade for your quizzes at the end of the term.

The in-class exams will be timed exams that will be scaled to a traditional percentage, and their score will be averaged. They will be a mixture of conceptual questions that could appear as mini-essays, short answers, multiple choice, problem solving, or other possibilities.

Individual assignments: 40%
Team assignments: 15%
Exams: 35%
Video viewing quizzes: 10%

Assignments will be assigned frequently throughout the course; there will typically be one or two assignments due each week. The exams will occur on Fridays, and there will be 3 of them. Dates will appear on the Moodle site. The final project will be part of the assignments grade, and will count as approximately two assignments.

The quiz average will be maintained on a traditional 100 point scale. Getting every quiz question correct means you’ll get a 100; answering no questions means that you will get a 0.

The homework assignments (programming and analysis) will be scaled to a scale where a 4 maps to 95, a 0 maps to a 55, and everything else in between maps proportionately. Some of the assignments may break down more cleanly into separate gradeable pieces than others, so the grades maybe be weighted so that each entire assignment counts for roughly the same amount.

The exams may have variations in the number of points, but they will each be converted to a 100 point scale and then averaged together. That said, any exam which is submitted will receive a score of 50 as a minimum. This means you have an opportunity to somewhat recover if a particular exam goes less well than you hope.

Based on the above weighted average, here are the thresholds that will be used for each grade.

There is one important special exception to the above, however: to achieve a C- in the class, you must achieve an average of at least C- (i.e., 70%) on the individual course assignments. If you reach this threshold, then the grade will be calculated via the technique described above. However, if your individual assignment average is below 70%, you will not receive a grade of C- or better.

The videos are designed to serve as an introduction to the content that we’ll be doing in class that day. This blog posting by Robert Talbert does a pretty good job at explaining the idea. The goal is for students to get familiar with the basic ideas of what we’re doing, where interaction with me is less essential. We then maximize our time together focusing on deeper exploration. Therefore, it is important that you watch the videos before class. The quizzes, which are associated with the videos, are a way of helping to encourage you to keep up.

The system by which Moodle handles due dates for video quizzes is a little strange. It’s manageable, but the terminology is a little different from how we regularly talk about due dates.

The deadline for each quiz in Moodle will be referred to the expected completion date and time. This is a Moodle term, but for our purposes, the expected completion date and time is when it is due. You will incur late penalties if you submit a quiz after the expected completion date.

You have a quota of 7 late quiz days that you may use throughout the term if you like. This means that you can submit 7 quizzes one day late each, or a single quiz 7 days late. Once your late days are used up, you will no longer be able to submit quizzes past the deadline, which is the expected completion date. Moodle does not have any automatic way of keeping track of these late quiz days, but we will review your quiz submissions on a regular basis and have a somewhat out-of-date inventory in Moodle. Once your 7 late quiz days are used up, any quizzes you submit late will receive a grade of 0.

Moodle uses more conventional terminology for assignments. Every assignment will have two deadlines associated with it: the due date and the cut-off date. The due date is the actual due date. You will incur late penalties if you submit an assignment after the due date. The cut-off date is the last possible date that you can submit the assignment, under any circumstances, regardless of late days or extensions. Moodle will prevent you from submitting after the cut-off date.

You have a quota of 7 late assignment days that you may use throughout the term if you like. Once your assignment late days are used up, you will no longer be able to submit assignments past the due date. Moodle does not have any automatic way of keeping track of these late assignment days, but we will review your assignment submissions on a regular basis and keep a somewhat out-of-date inventory in Moodle. Once your 7 assignment late days are used up, we will configure your assignments so that the due date and the cut-off date are on the same day.

Most importantly: if you’re unsure, just ask me. I’m happy to help!

Your default view should be that if you use code or materials from elsewhere, you should cite it.

One exception is that you may use any code or materials that I supply without citation. It is understood that any code I write or provide for this class is done so with the intention that you can use it and/or modify it. Likewise, any concepts, definitions, and theory I supply are intended as a starting point for learning. This includes starter code that I give you for the assignments, but also any code or other materials that I supply in lectures, class worksheets, or the like.

If you find materials anywhere else (StackOverflow is the classic example, but there are many such places), you must cite it unless it is exceedingly short. Exceedingly short means perhaps less than three lines of code. Regardless, you should not be looking for code that solves the actual goals of the assignment, as this would be inappropriate use of work by others.

Citing for purposes of this course is easy. If you find it online, add a comment to the code or materials with the URL where you found it. If you find it in a book, put in a comment with the title and author of the book. If you get it from someone else (a lab assistant, friend, etc), put the name of the person in the comment. We’re not writing a research paper, so you don’t need to spend time with carefully formatted bibliography styles. The key point that matters is simply making clear what the source of the material is.

If you are using an idea based on code you find online, you still must cite it. Taking code that you find online and modifying the variable names, for example, is still plagiarism if you don’t cite it.

If you submit an idea from somewhere else, you must cite it. This applies for example to definitions, explanations, and conclusions that you find elsewhere, either online or from other people.

Again, if you have any concerns about this, just ask me and I’m happy to clarify in any particular case.

The answer to this varies based on the assignment, and hinges on what the goals of the assignment are. Anything I say here may be superseded by a particular assignment, but here is the philosophy.

The goal of an assignment is for you to accomplish the tasks specified. Of course, you may get help from others — either people, or reference sources — to help understand the challenges within. However, you should be assembling these pieces yourself in your own way to accomplish the tasks at hand. If you submit correctly cited work by others that accomplishes the assignment as a whole, or a significant fraction of it, then you are not accomplishing the goals of the assignment, and that is inappropriate work by others. Ask, and I’m always happy to clarify.