Instructor Guidelines Computer Science

Experienced faculty and the undergraduate coordinator will help you learn the ropes.

For examples of on-line information refered in the body of this document, it is best to look at www pages for courses in this term and previous terms and in the course files on Prism under /cs/dept/course

Regulations & Departmental Policy

Grading scheme

• You must provide a course outline during the first week of classes which indicates the date and relative weight of assignments/test/exams. You can hand out paper copies or post as a web page, or put in the course directory for Prism.
• It is strongly recommend that you do not change the grading scheme, except in extreme circumstances
• If you want to change something, it requires unanimous student consent in writing.
• If you use percent grades then you must use the standard mapping.
  A+ [90-100], A [80-89), B+ [75-79), B+[70-74), C+ [65-69), C [60-64), D+ [55-59), D [50-54), E [40-49), F [0-39)

Grading

• you must have marked and returned at least 20% of the work by the drop date, approximately at the 2/3 point in a course. It is suggested that part should come from assignments and part from tests, so students have an idea how they are doing in each area.
• You can't have a test worth more than 20% during the last two weeks.
  • Rationale: students skip classes in other courses to "study" for the test, perturbing other courses and annoying the instructors of those courses.
• Please check the class distribution list periodically through the term. Only mark and hand back work to students who are officially enrolled. Problems and administrative headaches occur when students receive marked work but are not officially enrolled. Please keep, however, any work handed by students not officially enrolled. It may be an adminstrative error that has prevented enrollment. Such students may be added later.
  • The current term's course lists are available on CAT in the directory /cs/dept/dist (a logical pointer that changes every term). These are downloaded copies of the list you can get through through Maya (faculty access to York's course lists via the web).
  • Distribution lists are updated at 7:00 am every day.
  • You to send mail to the students in your course or to grab a list of addresses for use in your own e-mail program.
  • Technical documentation. If you have any questions about the class distribution lists, feel free to mail tech.
  • You can use Unix's spreadsheet program sc for recording marks. The program dist2sc can convert the distribuion list files to sc's format.

Telling students their grades

• You can't post student marks on your door for privacy reasons (even if you only use the student number).
• It is an informal departmental policy not to post the grades on doors.
  • Please use the course information utility courseInfo. A man page is available on CAT and Prism. A less secure form is to use webCourseInfoby John Amanatides -- see the man page on CAT and documentation . Another web version ePost by Hamzeh Roumani -- see -- see the documentation.
• Final grades are not official until approved by Senate. Be sure to state this clearly when final grades are put into the courseInfo file. The Department approves grades before passing them on to the Faculty level. Grades have been changed, although rarely.
• It is recommended that you use courseInfo to post grades and record special circumstances with individual students (such as moving the weight of a midterm class test to the final examination due to illness) throughout the term. It eliminates being bugged by students on this question, and helps eliminate recording errors and other misunderstandings. See on Prism, for example, /cs/dept/course/1999-01/W/2011/infoFile, you can seeALL the interactions for special cases.

Telling the Department the final grades

• At the end of the term, when handing in the final grades, you also have to hand in a detailed breakdown (the grades for individual pieces of work), the weighting of every piece of work, the date when the grade was made available to students, and any special circumstances for individuals such as a change in weighting of the final examination due to a a student missing a midterm test due to illness. In complex cases please hand in the algorithm used to compute the final grade -- for example, the best of 3 tests, or the weight of not done exercises is added to the final examination.
  • This is very important because students may petition months later, when instructors are not available and the information is required by the petitions committe to help judge the validity of the petition.
  • All this information can appear in the courseInfo file, or instructor spreadsheet which can be handed in.
  Summary of end of term forms
  • Course description forms -- used as a historical record to find information about previous courses.
  • Final grade distribution forms -- used to produce tables for the grades ratification meeting -- some day this may be automated.
    Please append detail grades for each student, as well as the final grade -- information needed for the inevitable petitions.
    Grade reporting form-- from the registrar's office -- mark sense bubbles for final grades, we ship off to the registrar.
  • Anomalous grades A course or section with an enrollment of more than 15 and with a grade profile matching one or more of the following criteria is considered to be anomalous.
    • 30% or more A+ or A grades
    • 30% or more E or F grades
    • In multi-section courses, the section average grades span more than 1 grade point.

    If an anomalous grade profile exists, you must submit an anomalous grade report, for approval by CEAS (Committee on Examinations and Academic Standards), to the academic director of FPAS with a copy to the undergraduate coordinator of COSC. CEAS would like a rationale, together with a breakdown of the components comprising the final grade, their weighting, e.g. % class tests, % exam, % assignments etc., and the distributions for each component.

  Changing a final grade

  If you need to change the final grade of a student (result of deferred exam, etc.) make sure to fill out a Grade Change Notification form (available from the undergrad office). Simply e-mailing the undergrad office isn't enough as signatures are required. (Instructors have learned the hard way)

  Final Examinations

  • Formal final examinations are the norm for 1000-, 2000- and 3000-level courses.
  • Instructors of multi-section courses are encouraged to have common final examinations.
  • Preparation: Instructors are given, towards the end of the term deadlines when to submit the examination for duplication by the faculty -- very important for large courses. For small courses (about 50 students or less) and when the instructor is willing, they can use the photocopy machine in CCB 126.
  • Invigilation
    • It is up to the course instructor/director to ensure there are enough invigilators for final examinations.
    • Guidelines indicate that one invigilator is needed for approximately every 50 students.
    • For 3000- and 4000-level courses, the instructor as invigilator is sufficient. In multi-section 3000-level and 4000-level courses with common exams, the combined set of instructors is usually sufficent.
    • For 1000-level and 2000-level courses, the instructors and TAs combine to do invigilation.
  • Attendance sheets
    • Take the sign in sheets to the examination.
      • For small classes you can use the preprinted sheets with student names, distributed by the undergraduate office.
      • For large classes, or if you prefer, or if the preprinted sheets are not available, then obtain from the undergraduate office the undergraduate examination attendance sheets.
    • After about 15-30 minutes, carry the attendance sheets to each student and have them sign it. Each student should show you a photo id (tell the students before the start of the examination), unless you know all the students. This is a great job for the TAs.
    • As soon as practical, after the examination, return the attendance sheets to the undergraduate office.
  • What to do with the examination papers
    When you have completed marking the examination papers, please take them to the undergraduate office for storage. They are archived for a year in case a student petitions for a remark. Please sort the examinations in alphabetical order before giving them to the undergraduate office.

  Deferred Standing agreements

  In some cases students may not be able to complete course work on time, cannot attend the final examination or miss a final examination. Students can present a Deferred Standing Agreement form to the course director. If the course director and student agree as to what needs to be done and by when (a few days or a couple of weeks after the end of the examination period then the form can be completed by specifying the details of the deferred standing agreement. The most common use is to have an examination on a different day -- can be either before or after the formal examination time -- or have some term work handed in late. Typical reasons are medical, examination time conflict, and a person has to be away to due work committements.

  If the period of time is more than a couple of weeks after the examination period, then the student should petition their home faculty for a deferment.

  Course directors do not have to agree to deferred standing unless they are convinced that either the grounds are valid and the circumstance has been documented sufficiently to be convincing. If an instructor does not want to sign a deferred standing agreement form, they should inform the student that the student may petition for deferred standing.

  Deferred final examinations are organized by the course director -- setting of the time with consultation with the student (especially if a deferred examination is granted by petition), finding the room and having invigilation.

  Petition forms and procedures are obtained from the Registrar's office and typically take months. Students petition their home faculty -- neither the undergraduate office nor the departmental petitions committee deal with deferred standing petitions. Petitions require instructors to fill out a Course Performance Summary form that states what work the student has or has not done, what grades they got, what the due dates where, by when did students know their grades and other information. Students take course performance summary forms to course director, who can either give completed form back to the student, or send the form directly to the registrar's office. Students can also submit the course performance summary forms to the undergraduate office. The undergraduate office forwards the form to the appropriate course director or, if the course director is not avaialable, fills in the form as best it can from the grades information course directors give to the office (see the section Telling the Department the final grades).

  Revaluations & Petitions

  Course work -- assignments and classes tests

  These are handled by the instructor, or course director in multisection courses that are coordinated. The student must make the request within 14 days of the the grades being made available (not when a particular student found out about the grade).

  Procedure
  The student should resumbit the work together with a written request to reevaluated the work. The request must have an explanation stating exactly what parts they think were under/over evaluated and why they think so. A request to reevaluate in hope of having a higher grade should be rejected.

  On accepting the reevaluation, the student should be informed that the grade may go up, may remain the same, or may go down.

  The instructor reevaluates the entire work, answering the specific points the student brought up, and addressing other points that may surface during the reevaluation.

  Student is informed of the result of the revaluation. I very strongly recommend that this be recorded in the infoFile. Please see the section Recording extra student interactions, it is important as it saves the large amount of time wasted on just one problem with not recording every special case.

  The student may appeal the decision resulting from the reevaluation within 14 days of being told the result of the reevaluation. The appeal goes to the Departmental Petitions committee. The student obtains a form from the undergraduate office, fills it in and submits the form.

  Final examinations and final grades

  If it is a simple matter of recomputing the final grade in that the student detected a recording error in one or more pieces of work, or a calculation error in computing the final grade, then these are handled by the instructor.

  Reevaluation of final examinations is handled by the Departmental petitions committee. The request must be made within 21 days of the grade being sent by the registrar's office.

  Procedure
  The student obtains a petition form and a photocopy of the final examination -- should they want that reevaluated. The Department charges a fee for photocopying.

  The student fills out the petition form stating exactly what the problem is and what remedy they would like. Revaluations of the final examination require stating exactly what parts they think were under/over evaluated and why they think so. A request to reevaluate in hope of having a higher grade will be rejected.

  The Department petitions committee either rejects the petition or grants the petition. If a final examination is to be reevaluated, the petititons committee gives it to the course director if the examination was marked by many people (e.g. 1520, 1530, 1020, 1030 and other multisection courses have TAs and multiple instructors marking), or gives it to another faculty member for reevaluation, if the instructor was the only person to make the original evaluation. The objective is to have an independent second opinion.

  The result of the petition is mailed to the student. The final grade may go up, may go down, or may remain the same.

  Appealing the result of Departmental Petitions

  The result of a Departmental petition may be appealed only on procedural grounds to the petitions committee of the Faculty of Pure and Applied Science. The appeal should be made within 21 days of being notified by the Department Petitions Committee. Petition forms are available at the registrar's office.

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  Advice & informal departmental policy

  Office hours

  Try to schedule 2 office hours/week for each course. Please post office hours where students can gain access to the information such as course WWW page or Prism course directory. The office will ask you, by email, for your office hours so they can inform students when they enquire.

  Academic dishonesty

  Warn students about academic dishonesty. Have your web page point to the departmental policy.

  Electronic assignment submission

  The undergraduate teaching lab (Prism) 'submit' command can be used to collect assignments electronically - see 'man submit' on any Prism machine.

  Web pages

  • Create a web page for the course. Put the actual course web pages in /cs/dept/www/course_archive/[year]/[term]/ rather than somewhere in your home directory. These directories are automatically archived so instructors new to a course can see what was done before. It's a better way of archiving, esp. for part-time faculty.

    Do not post solutions to problems on the web. It causes problems for instructors everywhere now and in the future because students search the web for solutions.

  • For multi-section courses, it is best to have one common home page with the standard name being the course-number. If sections have separate information, provide links from the common home page. Any other naming system makes it more difficult for faculty and undergraduate office to search the archive.
    The archive is important, we get many requests for adminstrative purposes and instructional purposes to look at what was done in the past.

  Prism course directories

  • A set of directories are created on Prism every year for every term in which instructors can store files that they do not wish to post on the web or are inappropriate to post on the web.
    • Answers to tests and solutions to assignments
    • Specifications for exercises and assignments
    • Files that may be used in exercises and assignments
    • The course infoFile.
    • Subdirectories for electronic assignment submission
  • The directories are under the directory /cs/dept/course and are organized by year and within year by term.
  • The current term is accessed using path /cs/course/.
  • Instructors insert a directory with the course number as the name -- e.g. 3311
  • Students access the files using the path /cs/course/[course-number] -- e.g. /cs/course/3311.
  • For multi-section courses that have common assignments and other data, it is recommended to use a common directory. If sections are not closely coordinated and innformation is different in each section, then the course number should be suffixed with the section label -- e.g. /cs/course/3311A, /cs/course/3311B. This makes is easier when faculty are looking for past information to find the appropriate directory.

  Recording extra student interactions

  Create a file and record extra student interactions, eg. who you gave extensions to, special arrangments re. midterms, who you signed letters of permission and when, etc. You will find it invaluable if students petition later on (and they will). Some instructors put much of this information into the courseInfo file. See on Prism, for example, /cs/dept/course/1999-01/W/2011/infoFile, you can seeALL the interactions for special cases. It is very important to record these and also make it possible for the student to verify that you have recorded the case. This eliminates much student anxiety, simplifies handling peitions, and simplifies dealing with with student questions about what happened. Please remember, you as instructor, are not the only person students deal with regarding course work. Please help the undergraduate office deal with problems.

  TA support

  The amount of TA support you can expect is:

  Course	TA hours/student
  1020	3
  1030	1.3
  1520/30	1
  1540	1.6
  2xxx	1.3
  3xxx	1.3 (1.5 for Digital Logic)
  4xxx	1 (for large classes (>= 30 students))

  TAs are used to invigilate final examinations, hold office hours, mark assignments, be available in Prism (1000-level normally), preparse solutions. About 10% is allocated to meetings with the instructor -- for example, to learn marking guidelines, brief the instructor on student problems in assignments and office hours. So schedule your assignments accordingly.

  For TAs who are graduate students (called Unit I) you have to fill in a workload form at the beginning of the term outlining the number of hours they will do at each task. A second form is filled in about halfway through the term as a checkpoint. You are not bound by the hours on the first form, it is a guideline to the instructor and TA as to what may be done. All the work is considered to be equivalent by the union, so you can reallocate hours during the term as circumstances dictate, as long as you do not exceed the maximum number of hours allocated to the course.

  While workload forms are not required for TAs that are not graduate students (called Unit II), it is a good policy to use them to minimize misunderstandings that may arise.

  Workload forms are obtained from the graduate assistant. The TAs should bring them to the initial meeting.

  In multi-section courses with common assignments, it convenient to pool the TAs and have one instructor in charge for each task. For example, in 2011 with 2 sections and 4 TAS, you can have 3 different TAs work in rotation on different assignments, while the instructors rotate as who is in charge. This helps distribute the load.

  Sept. 19, 2002 by John Amanatides