Grading Policies
Grading Weights
The final grade for this course depends upon the grades and scores earned on course components weighted as follows:
- 4%: X in-class pop quizzes
- 16%: 4 in-class labs
- 10%: Lecture presentation
- 20%: 4 individual homework
- 30%: 2 midterm exams
- 20%: Final project
Grades will be computed by rounding numerical percentages to the nearest integer and applying the following table:
| Letter | Range | Letter | Range | Letter | Range |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 93-100 | B- | 80-82 | D+ | 67-69 |
| A- | 90-92 | C+ | 77-79 | D | 63-66 |
| B+ | 87-89 | C | 73-76 | D- | 60-62 |
| B | 83-86 | C- | 70-72 | F | 0-59 |
In-class Labs in a Team
All labs are to be done in class, with the assistance of the instructor. Students are encouraged to form a team of two to solve the lab assignments together. Each assignment will be given near the beginning of a class and must be uploaded to Canvas before the due time. Some of the labs allow for late submission till midnight with late penalty, but no submission is allowed beyond the lab day. To receive full credits, a programming assignment must compile, but partial credit will be awarded based on the understanding of the material demonstrated by the student’s code.
Individual Homework
All homework assignments have to be completed individually in this course. Homework assignments are often more comprehensive tasks that may need additional reading and research. Homework assignments are to be completed in a week or two.
Late Policy
Late assignment will lose points per day, including weekends and holidays. For example, -1 after 1 day, -2 after 2 days, -4 after 3 days … until 8+ days students will receive 0 score. Under no circumstances should any student disclose their code, or copy the code written by other students or from an outside source. Both students will receive 0 score on the disclosed/copied assignment.
Individual Lecture Presentation
Students are required to read a designated chapter from the textbook and present it as a course lecture. The presentation time is 25-30 minutes and students need to cover all discussed topics from the textbook. The presenters will receive a written evaluation from all their peers and the instructor, and a weighted score (50% from the peers; 50% from the instructor) will be given to the presenters.
Final Team Project
To work on the final project, students are required to form a team of two. Topics of the final project should be one from the SEED labs in the categories of firewall, VPN and DNS.
The grading of the final project consists of four major aspects:
- 10%: the project proposal (including the conversation with the instructor a week before due date);
- 20%: project milestone check and demonstration (must have completed at least 1 task);
- 40%: the project demonstration;
- 30%: everything including revised code and the final report are due on the last day of the final exam week.