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

The schedule for coursework will be published by year tutors on the Year Web Page at the beginning of the semester. The schedule will contain the hand-out dates and deadlines for all of the units taken during the semester. 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.

No deadlines for semester one units will be set past Week 12, and no deadlines for semester two units will be set past Week 24. All M-level units with exams in January will have deadlines for coursework before the start of Week 11.

Deadlines

Coursework must be handed in by the deadline published on the Year Web Page. 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.

Please note that it is better to hand in what you have completed so far than to hand in nothing at all, and it is better to organise your time and hand in work by the deadline. After three days, the submission system locks the submission directory, and submissions are only accepted after prior approval of the unit director. If the network goes down 2 days and 23 hours after the deadline and blocks your submission, then that is your problem. And even if the network goes down 1 minute after the deadline for three days, then it is still your problem (this has never happened by the way).

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.

Mitigating Circumstances

If you become seriously ill or have any other personal problem which is beyond the scope of the automatic 3 day extension you should contact your personal tutor as soon as possible.

Your tutor will open a "mitigating circumstances" case in the personal filestore on your web page. This will document the problem and allow us to take action if necessary. The information will be treated in strict confidence and will be accessible only to you and to staff who need it to make decisions on, for example, deadline extensions or progression to the next year. If you wish, you can instead put details of the case in a sealed envelope, marked "to be opened only in case of XXX", where XXX might for example be progression to the next year or degree classification. This should be handed in to the Department office.

For problems which affect a few courseworks (e.g. problems lasting a couple of weeks) the year tutor may set new deadlines or waive coursework. The year tutor is the only person who can do this. If coursework is waived you must check that a `W' appears as the coursework mark.

Problems which affect an entire unit or year must also be the subject of a mitigating circumstances case but will be dealt with at the end of the year by a special committee.

With few exceptions you will have to produce appropriate evidence for the problem. In most cases this will be a note from your doctor stating the extent to which the problem is likely to or has affected your ability to study. If it is impossible to produce documentary evidence, you need to submit a written personal statement. If you miss an exam for medical reasons you need to obtain a medical certificate to pass to the exams officer or department administrator straight away.

You should check that the details regarding your mitigating circumstances in your personal filestore are correct. It is also important that any changes in your circumstances are promptly and accurately recorded in the filestore, including how and when matters are resolved. It is your responsibility to ensure that your personal filestore is kept up to date - incomplete information on mitigating circumstances, particularly the duration of the problems, may mean that we are not able to make allowances.

On the Faculty web site, there is a self-certification form for documenting short illness problems without needing a doctor's note. This is used primarily to explain absences from fixed lab sessions etc, and so is less relevant in the Computer Science department. A self-certification form will eventually be copied to your department personal filestore, but this is likely to be less effective than approaching your tutor directly.

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'' 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 usually marked before the submission deadline of the next piece of courswork; 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 the core 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 the supervisor 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.