As you know, everyone is allowed to choose Pass/Fail this term. Furthermore, I, like all the faculty I have discussed this with, plan to grade significantly "lighter" than usual this semester.

Since I cancelled the final, I am changing the rough estimate of how the work you do affects your grade to the following:

Very important is that before each class you have read the material for the upcoming class. There will be short problems sets due most Tuesdays (45% of grade) and a midterm (40% of grade). The other 15% will be based on participation.

I understand that how much I notice you participating varies on many things. In particular, think of it this way. Your participation can only help your grade; a lack of participation will not hurt someone's grade. (The only exception to this -- which I haven't seen so far and don't expect to -- would be a harmful public comment on Piazza, e.g., something that was hurtful, or gave away part of a homework problem before the late deadline for that homework. A somewhat negative Piazza comment, as long as it is private to the instructors, won't hurt your participation score.)

How can I improve my grade from this point on? Helpful or thoughtful or insightful comments and questions in class or on Piazza are the best. If I have marked your question, answer or note, "Good question, etc." then you have done well. Good questions and good answers to questions are very helpful to me and everyone else in the class, and much appreciated.

You can also improve your grade by going back and looking over a topic from class or reading or homework or midterm that you hadn't completely understood before, asking a useful question or making a useful observation about it.

Another kind of positive Piazza comment would be a suggestion for how to improve your ability to learn in this class now, or how to improve the class in a future year. In particular, I am perpetually disappointed at the lack of comments about the assigned readings. How can I encourage future classes to do the assigned reading before the relevant class and to ask questions about the reading that fellow students can think about and respond to as they do the reading, also before the relevant class??

What it had been before COVID-19: Very important is that before each class you have read the material for the upcoming class. There will be short problems sets due most Tuesdays (45% of grade), a midterm (25% of grade) and a final (25% of grade). The other 5% will be based on participation.

Homeworks will be due in pdf, on line, most Tuesday at midnight. We will be using Gradescope for homework submission and grading. If you have any objection to using Gradescope, please let me know right away.

You should create your solutions using LaTex. (If your hw is created with a different system, or written by hand and scanned, we will not grade it unless it is extremely neat and easy to read.) Late homework may be handed until no later than 5 days late, for a deduction of 10% of the grade except everyone gets two free late hws. Homeworks more than 5 days late will not be considered because solutions to the homework will be posted on Piazza Monday mornings, slightly over 5 days after they were due. I want everyone to do all of the hw's, so I don't drop the lowest hw grade, but I look at all the grades and from there try to come up with a fair final grade. One poor hw won't hurt you.

Cooperation: Students should talk to each other about the subject matter of this class and help each other. It is fine to discuss the problems and ask questions about them. I encourage such questions in class and office hours and on Piazza. However, there is a line past which you must not go, e.g., sharing or looking up a solution is not okay. If a significant part of one of your solutions is due to someone else, or something you've read then you must acknowledge your source! Furthermore, all solutions must be written up by you, alone, in your own words. Handing in anything that you have copied from any source will be considered plagiarism and could result in a zero on the assignment, failure in the course, or worse. See the UMass, Amherst Academic Honesty Policy and Procedures for more information.

Please do not look up answers to problems, especially not on the web. The only appropriate places to look things up are in the text and your notes, and the notes I post. To do a problem, ask for clarifications until you understand the problem. Try it on small examples, play with it, make sure you understand the problem or ask a simple question about a small instance of the problem on Piazza. This will help clarify your thoughts and it will help your classmates and me, by making sure that all questions have been clearly stated and you can fruitfully work towards their solution. This fruitful work is the best way to learn the course material and this kind of learning will stay with you.

Which Questions about the Homework are Appropriate on Piazza? If you have a question about the meaning of any current homework question, that's fine for Piazza. However, please be very careful not to give anything away towards a solution. If you are not sure if your question is appropriate, then send it privately to the instructors. We will answer and we will make it public if appropriate.