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Course Grading Policy : This class has an optional final exam. Students who have clearly demonstrated their understanding of this material (A, B, C, etc.) may use the evaluation and grading scale determined before the final exam for your grade in the course. On the otherhand, the final exam gives students one additional chance to demonstrate your ability of this material. All grades will be finalized by the beginning of class on Dec. 1 (or before), and every student will have their opportunity to choose whether they will take the final or not. The choice will be settled, individually and one-by-one, by the end of this class period. Students choosing not to be in class that day without a valid institute excuse will have the choice made for them. Your grade evaluation will be determined using the following metrics:
Grades will be assigned on a curve; however, I will guarantee the following grades if you reach the following percentages: 89% for an A, 79% for a B, 60% for a C, and 50% for a D. Rarely does the line for a C or D move as a result of a curve; the curve for an A and B vary significantly between classes. |
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Examinations: Relevant information for exams
On-line examination will be possible through the Honorlock proctoring software connected through Canvas. For this class, you will need a laptop system and resulting network connection to support Honorlock proctoring. You will need to have Chrome working on your laptop (not in a virtual machine). Apparently Chrome on Linux has trouble with the Honorlock software. A student will need a webcam and microphone. Students must have a secure private location to take an exam and will be asked to provide a picture ID as part of the exam process. When taking your exam, your video and audio will be recorded. More information on Honorlock: https://honorlock.kb.help. For the entire class community, I need to protect the integrity of the exam for everyone in the class, and therefore all exams will either be fully digitally proctored, or handled in person by the appropriate GT office in the case there are special needs, during class time on the same day. GT further information on Honorlock for students: Student Guide , FAQ I am planning to make a practice quiz available to test the technical aspects of the Honorlock proctoring system. It will be optional (and open to everyone) and will be worth bonus points on the first exam. In the case of pending changes to our school (e.g. moving to entirely virtual teaching), xi I reserve the right to either move these dates to an earlier time or eliminate an exam and adjust the percentages accordingly. There will not be any unproctored exams for this course as most students expect a safe and secure experience in this course.
Instructions from Honorlock: Honorlock will proctor your exams this semester. Honorlock is an online proctoring service that allows you to take your exam from the comfort of your home. You DO NOT need to create an account, download software or schedule an appointment in advance. Honorlock is available 24/7 and all that is needed is a computer, a working webcam, and a stable Internet connection.
Some useful resources for Honorlock:
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Projects: Information on the Experimental Projects Each unit we will have one experimental project. The point of the experimental projects is to develop intuition about linear circuits, as well as develop confidence in experimentally building these circuits. Circuit concepts are directly tied to actual physical structures, and nothing quite connects the depth of the concepts like actually seeing things work. Therefore, the course will go through three experimental projects tied to our unit material. These labs will use your existing laptop. Remember every student is required to have a laptop of particular hardware capabilities. Items you need to obtain : To do the labs you need obtain two items:
The labs and resulting reports will be done in groups of two unless I make an exception for a particular group ahead of time. One report will be submitted per group, particularly for a group of two. You may self organize for your groups of two. You will have one writeup, which must be word-processed, with data figures integrated into the text. No data figures added to the end of the writeup. You will submit the writeup as a .pdf file. You should integrate data and analysis together on your submitted plots. For example, if you perform a curve fit, I expect the curve fit and the data to be on the same graph, where the data points would be in point markers (e.g. "o"), and the curve fit would be a straight line. The plots need to be MATLAB style plots (MATLAB, scilab, python MATLAB), and not other non-technical forms (e.g. Excel). Do not submit your MATLAB code to generate the plot. The experimental projects will be fairly subjective in nature, in contrast to the exams which are more objective in nature. The starting point for the labs, are labs that have been used for ECE 2040 and ECE 3710 for many years. On the otherhand, these labs tend to be very objective, and my experience teaching IC labs in classes show labs are a better place to get subjective understanding. I will use similar items, but will have some different requirements of what will be completed and submitted. I will make these previous lab versions available since they might be useful for circuit setup. You will see that I will use similar structures, etc, but the requirements will be different. For example, I will want you to give me plots of data (MATLAB / Scilab plots; don't do excel) and discuss the plot, rather than just a couple of data values. I will likely choose a best lab each time, and if they are willing to have it posted, I will give a few bonus points(3-5) for that distinction. For all four of the labs, we will have one dedicated day of class to work through lab aspects. You will be required to bring your laptop to class that day. You will personally obtain all of the materials you need for the lab, and therefore, you can do the lab at any time. My strong suggestion is that your group of two start the lab before our class lab day and get as far as you can, noting questions along the way. In this case, when you get to our lab class, you can have questions directly answered. Homework : We will have weekly homework assignments. These will be problems assigned in the book, a set of problems per week. The homework will be submitted into Canvas electronically. Good scans of clear hand written solutions are acceptable. The homework is effectively checked that you have made a clear attempt to completely solve the problem. I understand as it is your first time through some questions you may not get everything right, and you won't have points taken off. An honest attempt to completely work through the problems is essential. My plan is to make the homework solutions available on-line, and hopefully that will be successful.
Academic Honesty: It is the responsibility of the instructor to encourage an environment where you can learn and your accomplishments will be rewarded fairly. Any behavior which compromises the basic rules of academic honesty as described in the General Catalog will not be tolerated. |