I. Academic Honesty

This course will adhere to the Academic Integrity Policy of the Colorado State University General Catalog (see p. 7) and Student Conduct Code, and the Mechanical Engineering  Student Academic Integrity Policy. Please review the material at these links. In short, you are expected to not give, receive, or use any unauthorized assistance for any course work.

The policies below provide additional specific guidelines for this course.

II. General and Homework

1. You are responsible for everything you miss in class (handouts, notes, assignments, etc.). Extra handouts can be printed from the course website (see handouts).
2. You are required to work in groups of 2-3 people on homework and the project. Groups will be formed by the beginning of the second week of the semester based on survey forms you complete.  I recommend the following approach to group work: try to work the problems individually first, then compare your approaches and results with your group members, then work together to settle on the correct approach and final answers.  DO NOT DIVIDE THE PROBLEMS UP WITHIN YOUR GROUP -- EVERY PERSON SHOULD TRY TO WORK EVERY PROBLEM.
3. Submit only a single neat homework per group with the group number and each person's full name listed.
4. At the end of the semester you will evaluate individuals in your group, and your evaluations can be used to adjust grades (up or down) where appropriate.
5. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU SHOW ALL STEPS IN YOUR WORK.  GRADING WILL BE BASED ON THE COMPLETENESS, CLARITY, AND CORRECTNESS OF YOUR WORK, NOT JUST THE ANSWERS YOU PROVIDE.
6. Submitted homework assignments must be original work.  Do not copy work from other groups, past students, solution manuals, other books, etc.
7. Homework must be submitted before the beginning of class the day it is due. If you have trouble getting to class early, you should turn in your homework the night before or earlier in the morning (by sliding it under Dr. Dave's office door). Late work will not be accepted without penalty (e.g., during or after class: -10%;  few hours late: -50%; more than a day late: -100%) unless there are unanticipatable and unavoidable circumstances.
8. The course Project will involve programming the Adept Robot in the Robotics Laboratory (Engrg B6).  You must not operate the robot by yourself -- there must always be at least two group members present.

III. Exams

1. There will be two examinations during the semester.  The first will be an in-class multiple choice exam and the second will be a take-home exam.  There is also a final exam that will be comprehensive but will stress material not covered by previous examinations. The final exam will be similar in format to the first exam, and both will be administered in the regular lecture room. The purposes for the multiple choice exams are to eliminate time as a factor; eliminate traditional "plug and chug" number crunching; test a broad understanding by having many simple, diverse questions rather than just 1 to 3 big problems. Also, the format provides fast, fair, and uniform grading without need for "partial credit."
2. To me, the purpose for exams is to test understanding and application of basic concepts and principles in the course. The purpose is not to give traditional, detailed homework-like analysis problems or open-ended design problems. In my view, a limited time, high pressure, in-class exam is not the appropriate forum for attempting to evaluate problem-solving and solution-synthesis skills. In principle, oral exams or take-home exams would be better tools to measure knowledge and understanding; however, there are practical issues that eliminate these options as possibilities.
3. One of the reasons that I use multiple choice exams is that it lets me break down very large problems into small parts so "partial credit" is automatic. If I gave 3 or 4 large problems instead of 25-35 small sub-problem questions, I would still take off points for the small sub-problems answered incorrectly on the large problem exam. I feel that the multiple choice exam format is lower stress for you, allows me to give exams during the regular class time (instead of 2-3 hour evening exams), prevents you from losing a huge number of points if you were to totally space out on a large problem, and is a good measure of your basic understanding of the material. Also, grading is fast, impartial, and error-free. Also, many important exams that you might take in the future (e.g., FE, PE, GRE, LSAT, MCAT, etc.) are also multiple choice, so it is important that you are comfortable with these types of exams.
   
4. The non take-home exams will be closed notes, closed book, and closed neighbor.  No calculators are allowed (or necessary). The only things allowed during these examinations are pencils and an eraser.
5. You are required to bring you CSU ID to all examinations. You must enter and fill in dots for your last name and CSU ID # (not SSN) on your Scantron sheets.
6. Make-up exams will be given only for unanticipatable, and unavoidable circumstances.

IV. Grading

1. Any disagreement with homework or exam grading must be settled with Dr. Dave within one week after the graded material is returned.
2. At the end of the semester, you will evaluate how well each of your group members contributed to the group.  An individual's final grade may be adjusted by as much as one letter grade based on these evaluations.  A positive adjustment will be given to an individual who worked much harder and contributed much more than the rest of the group, and a negative adjustment will be given to an individual who didn't work hard and didn't contribute much to the group. The correlation between a person's final grade and their individual (vs. group) work scores is also considered.
3. Grading will be adjusted at the end of the semester with a sliding scale (e.g., an 87.4 might be an A).  Cutoff scores between the letter grades will be based on overall class performance and based on the distribution of scores.  Cutoffs usually occur where there are gaps between clusters of similar scores.  Initial cutoffs will be based on the traditional decade-based grading scale (90 for A, 80 for B, etc.).  The cutoffs will never be above the decade-based values (i.e., you will never require a score higher than 89.5 to receive an A).  Estimated grades will be posted throughout the semester so you always know where you stand.
4. +/- grading (for C+ and above) will be used for borderline final scores.  It will be applied only at the end of the semester. The exact cutoff points for the +/- grades depend on how scores are distributed around the sliding-scale cutoffs, but the +/- cutoffs are usually within 0-3 points of the sliding-scale cutoffs. The goal is for students with similar scores to get the same grade.
5. No individual extra credit work, or any other special treatment, will be offered to improve grades.