Coursework
Almost all units have coursework associated with them. Coursework can take various forms, from pencil and paper work to program development. Coursework counts for a certain percentage of the unit mark, typically 30%, 50% or 100%. This percentage reflects the amount of time that you are supposed to spend working on it.Coursework has to be done during a specified time - this means that you make the best use of your time and we are able to monitor your progress and make available the equipment, lab times, etc, that you'll need to do the work. Assignments are handed out at a set time and there is a deadline when the coursework is to be handed in. Your year tutor will ensure that coursework is scheduled to allow sufficient time for you to complete it. That does not imply that deadlines do not coincide. You will have to plan when you are going to complete a unit's coursework. If you simply leave it to the last week before the deadline, then you will find out that there is too much work to be done. You may want to ask your tutor for help in scheduling your coursework.
Schedules
Year tutors will schedule all coursework and publish the schedule on the Year Web Page at the beginning of the term. The schedule will contain the hand-out dates and deadlines for all of the units taken during the year. Lecturers will ensure that the workload within a unit is balanced so that you only need to spend the time allocated to the unit (over 12 weeks, a 10 credit point unit requires just under 7 hours per week in total and a 20 credit point unit just over 13 hours per week in total). For example, when you need more time for doing coursework, less time will be needed for working on material covered in lectures, etc.Deadlines
Coursework must be handed in by the deadline published on the Year Web Page. If you are not able to meet the deadline because of illness or other circumstances, there are two options:- You can hand coursework in up to three calendar days late without penalty, but at your own risk Your mark will be tagged `Late'. If there are many `Late' marks, your tutor will call you in to discuss your time management. Please take deadlines seriously, and be advised that when asking for a reference future employers normally want to know about your time management skills. The only instrument we have to assess this is your ability to stick to deadlines.
- If you have been ill or had personal problems for a prolonged period of time, we will have to rearrange your coursework. This may involve setting new deadlines or waiving coursework. In this case, you must contact your personal tutor. If coursework needs to be waived, your tutor will refer you to the year tutor. The year tutor is the only person who can waive your coursework. You will have to produce appropriate evidence, otherwise late submissions are not marked or waived. If it is agreed to waive coursework, you must check that a `W' appears as the coursework mark.
It may occasionally be necessary to change deadlines due to, for example, equipment failure or staff illness. Changes to coursework deadlines can only be made by the year tutor.
Handing in coursework
The assignment will specify how to hand coursework in, usually either electronically or via the appropriate post-box situated on the third floor. You must clearly mark the coursework with your name and the unit, and bind the coursework in such a way that it doesn't spontaneously disintegrate. Please note that it is your responsibility to keep an electronic copy of all the coursework that you hand in. This will enable you to resubmit easily if necessary.If you made your coursework on a machine at home, you will also have to make backups. Excuses such as ``my hard disk crashed and I lost my coursework'' or ``the dog ate my floppy'' are not acceptable. The department and faculty servers are backed up regularly. Every year there have been incidences in which students have lost work due to hard disk crashes on their own computers. This has led to them being required to resit the unit. This wasted their summer and has possibly resulted in lower marks.
Marking coursework
Coursework is marked within four weeks of being submitted; if not, an estimate of when the marking will be completed is published on the appropriate Web page. All coursework marks are published on the Web. You must check your marks and report problems straight away to the lecturer, not five weeks later. In any event, all queries about coursework marks must be dealt with by the time of the exams. Personal tutors and year tutors will be able to monitor the progress of their tutees regularly.Assignments will have a marking scheme that indicates how the marks are distributed over the coursework. For example, a marking scheme may state that the code is worth 60% of the marks, and the write-up 40%.
Portfolio
You are expected to maintain a `portfolio' of all your practical work throughout the year, including the short exercises you do in the laboratory and solutions to any problem sheets that you may be given. You should understand everything that is stored in your portfolio.You may be required to attend an oral examination at which your portfolio is discussed. The purpose of the oral is to ensure that you have given adequate attention to the coursework and that you have fully understood the material you have submitted. The oral examination is part of the assessment of the course. We will give you full details about the portfolio at the beginning of the year, including a folder in which to keep it.
The first year
In the first year, the coursework on Computer Science units forms up to half of the total assessment. The large amount of coursework means that you do not need to give in every piece of work. The short exercises that you will do in laboratory classes will be checked by whoever is supervising the class and ticked off against your name if you have completed the exercise. All first years will normally have an oral examination about their portfolio at the end of the year.Cheating
You must not copy another student's work, and you must not copy from books or other sources without proper acknowledgement. At registration, you signed the University's regulations in which you undertook not to engage in any form of plagiarism with regard to assessed work. The definition reads: `Plagiarism is the incorporation of material from other works without acknowledgement and with the intention of passing it off as your own'.If you submit assessed work containing material which has been copied without acknowledgement, the Department will regard this as a serious matter. Lecturers do not deal with copying themselves, and you will be required to attend an interview with the Head of Department (or a deputy) and another member of staff. You may be accompanied at the interview by a friend or advisor.
During the interview your work will be discussed, with the aim of determining whether the allegations are founded and, if so, whether you should be awarded any marks for the work and also whether you have committed a disciplinary offence.
There is usually no doubt as to whether work has been copied or not. It is almost impossible to start with a computer program and edit it to produce a new program which cannot be recognised as a modified copy of the original.
If you do not agree with the outcome of the interview, you can appeal in the first instance to the Head of Department.
Penalties
If you have collaborated to an excessive extent with other students, taken work from another student or taken work from a book or other source, you will be required to explain clearly what you have done and provide a written statement. The statement will be placed on file for the remainder of your course.Cheating will normally result in your mark being reduced. In some cases, you may receive no marks at all which may result in you failing the unit which in turn may result in you failing the year. You will receive written confirmation of the revised marks.
If you have previously been involved in cheating, or if the offence is deemed to be too serious to deal with in the department, then the case will normally be referred to the University Registrar, and will be dealt with as described under paragraph 4.1 of the University Examination Regulations (the Examination Regulations can be found at http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/Secretary/examreg.htm). The consequences of this can be very serious and may, for example, result in you being suspended from the University.
How to avoid cheating
The Department will regard as cheating any uncited incorporation of work which is not your own. This means that you must identify the sources. If you have copied or paraphrased any material from a book or article, or utilised a standard piece of computer code, then acknowledge the source. A common difficulty arises when you have collaborated on a piece of coursework with someone else. Of course, we want you to talk to each other, to help each other, and to study together, but if the work submitted contains material that was not developed by you alone, it must be acknowledged. It might be helpful to include a statement of authorship in any coursework, stating that, for example, ``This is all my work'', or ``I discussed the design with X, Y and Z.''. The statement of authorship is a requirement for any dissertation and for the first year portfolio.If you are concerned that you may have overlooked a citation or feel that a piece of work is essentially yours despite a certain amount of help, then you don't need to worry. It is most unlikely that you will commit an act of copying unintentionally - those who cheat do so in order to deceive.
It is always better to avoid cheating. If illness or personal problems prevent you from doing coursework, you should see your tutor (or MSc programme director). If you choose to cheat instead you will be penalised. If you just cannot finish coursework because you find it difficult, hand in what you have. You may get marks, while for copied work the serious consequences detailed above will apply.