General

Your grade is determined by your performance in up of four areas: homework assignments, a course project, classroom participation, and exams. The approximate weighting of these components is described below, however, exceptional (positive or negative) performance in any area will be given additional weight.

Students are expected to do their own work at all times and to follow the university's codes of academic conduct and honor code. Cases of suspected collaboration or cheating will be immediately forwarded to the Dean of Student Affairs, and will be pursued to resolution. (Do not test me on this.)

Students are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner--this entails showing up for exams at the appointed time, cell phones and pagers silenced, not sleeping in class, not carrying on conversations about topics unrelated to the lecture, etc. The lectures will be conducted in a way which assumes the student has read the appropriate material prior to class. Late make-up exams will not be given, so beware of circumstances such as "My alarm didn't go off," or "I thought the exam was Thursday." If some form of prior commitment does not allow a student to take an exam at the given time, PRIOR arrangements should be made with the instructor.

Extra work after the term, is not allowed to "bring up" a grade. A student's grade shall be earned from their performance solely on the term's assignments. Extra credit assignments will be permitted, but will be the responsibility of the student to propose, accomplish, and present at least one week before the last class meeting. A typical small extra credit activity might consist of a critical review of some topic or paper, with a brief (5-10 minute) classroom presentation or short (4-6 pages) report.

Grading is determined by a term-long accumulation of points, weighed in percentage as stated for each component as summarized below. Determinations of the individual category breakdowns will be determined by looking for gaps or clumps in the final averages.

Examinations
Periodic short Exams or Quizzes will be given. I will not give surprise exams or pop-quizzes, except perhaps as an ungraded measure of our progress. A comprehensive final examination is planned for the course. Most exam questions will reflect the material covered in lecture and assigned reading. There may also be question(s) on the content of your project or other projects presented to the class. The exams may consist of short essay questions, with a few multiple-choice, and longer essay questions thrown in as well.

Homework Assignments
The homework assignments will be substantive and you will have about a week to do them. Hopefully, the homeworks will be moderately fun, but will always be related to lecture lessons. I anticipate giving around three or four homeworks. Individual weight will be determined later, but should be thought of as preparation for the project.

Project
One term-long project will be given in this course. The project will be accomplished in stages, each around three weeks in duration. Each of these substantive assignments is worth about 15% of your final grade. The project will have you develop an alternative interface for some computer-based application. The assignments will have you evaluate users, needs, and tasks in the domain, design a mock-up for a new interface, develop a prototype of that interface, and evaluate your design. The material which you turn in should be presented professionally, and should stress grammatical correctness and clarity. It will be submitted via on paper, with supplementary material via the Web. You will be judged on your originality, innovativeness, quality of writing, and correctness. Each assignment will be assigned a letter grade. Further details will accompany each assignment.

Class Participation
Reading assignments will be specified for each week. You are expected to come to class, and be prepared --- that is, having read and having made an attempt to understand the material. You should be ready to discuss the material covered in the lectures and reading. I will expect that each of you participate in class by asking questions, or helping to clarify an answer to another's question, or by presenting a paper or special interest topic. Sleeping in class, even if you snore, is not considered participation. (However, being tired is completely understandable. I prefer that if you feel sleepy, you stand in the back of the classroom. If you cannot stay awake, please excuse yourself and go take a nap. Alternatively, I have no particular problem with exiting quietly to get coffee or a soda. )

Summary
The approximate weight of the different course components toward your final grade is below.

Component		Weight
Classroom Participation		5%
Homework		25%
Exams/Quizzes		20%
Project Performance		25%
Final exam		25%