Summer 2026 — Policies

Late submission

Everything in this course (POTDs and learning portfolio modules) is scheduled from the first day of class. This is to help you plan your study and other activities throughout the semester.

There is no pop-up POTD and no pop-up learning portfolio module in this course. I do not believe in pop-up POTDs / learning portfolio modules as they can be stressful and interrupt some students' life plans. I am aware that students have many activities and responsibilities. Having a predefined schedule allows them to focus on their revenue tasks. It is entirely up to students how they manage their time and schedule.

Unless arrangements are worked out in advance, 25% of the total possible points per 24 hours will be deducted for late submissions. POTDs and learning portfolio modules are not accepted after 48 hours past the deadline. Note that the last learning portfolio module does not allow any late submission due to the University's grade submission deadline.

In the software industry, timing is crucial. If a software company (or you) misses a deadline, a breach of software contract fine applies, and the company's (or your) reputation is damaged. Therefore, to help you prepare for your software-related career, I place a high emphasis on the timely completion of POTDs and learning portfolio modules.

You may think that we have many POTDs and learning portfolio modules. That is true, and there are reasons why this course is structured this way. As mentioned in the Syllabus, each POTD and learning portfolio module helps you develop competency in basic and advanced concepts. POTDs and learning portfolio modules are also used to reinforce the concepts in recent classes and help you assess your understanding of recent topics/skills.

For these reasons, late POTDs and learning portfolio modules are heavily penalized.

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No extension, no exception

To help you practice managing your time and make the best use of our time together, it is important that you prepare for class and complete all work on time. There is no extension / no exception / no make-up on POTDs or portfolio learning modules in this course unless the student has procured special accommodations for warranted circumstances.

If you email me requesting an extension or an exception but have not received a response from me, your extension or exception request is most likely denied. Please do not make any assumptions. Without official approval from the course instructor, the same penalty applied to other students will be applied to your case(s).

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Regrading policy

If you are dissatisfied with a grade on a learning portfolio module or a POTD, please submit a regrade request to Gradescope. To ensure the grading is completed in a timely manner and you can benefit from the feedback, you must submit the regrade request within three days for a Summer session (within one week for normal Fall and Spring semesters) of the graded work being returned to you.

For the final learning portfolio module, a regrade request period may vary depending on the University's grade submission deadline. Given the Summer session, the deadline for the regrade request may range from a few hours to 24 hours after the grade has been made available. We will formally announce the request period and how to submit the request when the grade becomes available.

All regrade requests are subject to the following policies:

• We will regrade serious errors in judgment; we will not regrade partial credit judgment calls.
• When regrading, we reserve the right to regrade the entire submission, which may result in either an increase or a decrease in your grade. We are not trying to scare off students whose work was graded incorrectly, but we are trying to avoid frivolous requests.

What should be regraded?

• Your answer is the same as what is on the key, but the grader didn't realize it.
• Your answer is different, but is also correct (e.g., code that compiles, runs, and produces the correct outcome, but is different than the key).

What should not be regraded?

• "Most of what I wrote is correct, so I think I deserve more partial credit."
• "My answer may be general, but it is not wrong, although it does not answer the question, so I think I deserve more partial credit."
• "I misunderstood the question, so I wrote something else. Although it does not answer the question, it is not wrong. So, I think I deserve some partial credit."
• "I wrote so much, and the grader didn't notice that the correct answer is buried somewhere within this long paragraph."
• "I'm just 1 point (or 2, 3, 4,... points) away from an A, so I thought it was worth scrounging around to find an extra point somewhere."

We reserve the right to dock professionalism points for frivolous regrade requests.

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Zoom etiquette

This course values social presence and emphasizes how you perceive each other as real human beings experiencing the course together as a community. You are encouraged to interact with others during class. In general, you are also encouraged to have your camera on during the class (if you feel comfortable doing so). However, depending on the size of the class and the bandwidth, we may not be able to have a camera on during class.

To ensure that as few background noises as possible are captured in the class recordings, please have your microphone muted unless you are speaking.

Whenever you want to speak, you are encouraged to use Zoom's "raise hand" option. You may use the "thumbs up," "yes," "no," "go faster," or "go slower" option to endorse or signify something.

If you need to leave (your computer) for a while (e.g., to use the restroom, go get some water, or take a phone call), please indicate this by using the "away" option.

You may have refreshments or snacks during class (and we may have a virtual party while learning). You may support your animals (such as dogs, cats, ducks, and dinosaurs), given that they do not distract you.

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Email

We occasionally send important announcements to your UVA email account, so it is imperative that you read them regularly.

For any personal issues that can only be handled by an instructor, please email me directly. Please make sure to use the UVA email system for all correspondence with the instructor. Put CS 3250 in the subject line so that your email can be tracked — without "CS 3250" in the subject line, I may not notice it. Please also note that I receive a lot of emails and it is easy to get behind; so please be patient with me in responding. I will try my best to respond as soon as possible. If there is a time-critical nature of your email, please let me know that as well.

General assignments or class questions should not be sent through email — in such events, your email will be returned and you will be asked to post your question to the discussion board. In general, the turnaround time for responses to questions will be much quicker on the discussion board. Students should also avoid emailing their code to the instructor unless permission has been obtained (under no circumstances should the code be posted publicly to the discussion board). Please also note that the UVA email system blocks certain kinds of file extensions (e.g., program source code such as Java); and there is no fail delivery notification.

If you need to contact me via email, please note that I typically answer emails during work hours Monday − Friday, 8:00am − 5:00pm EST.

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Office hours

Office hours are times that an instructor commit to being in their designated locations (virtual office hours via Zoom), door open, first come, first served. No appointment is needed. If you cannot make the office hours, then we can try to set up an appointment. Please make a private post on Piazza, tagging all instructors, with your availability. We will try our best to match our times with yours; we want to see you succeed.

We will inform you in class or through announcements if we have to miss office hours.

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Resource usage

For POTDs and learning portfolio modules, you may consult with any outside source you wish in the completion of your work. This includes but is not limited to web tutorials, a different book, classmates, or a friend. However, if you do consult with any outside source, including generative AI tools (such as LLMs, Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude, etc) and other classmates, you must clearly cite/reference every source that you consult, and you must answer each question in your own words.

I cannot stress this enough. Any submission that is a straight copy of anyone else's that is turned in with the justification of "we were working together and thus it is okay" will result in a zero grade for all collaborators. I simply request that if you work together, take the time to understand the answer and write it down in your own words.

Some assignments allow you to work in a group, if this is the case you do not need to cite/reference your group members in your resources.

Any misrepresentation of the work of others or the results produced by generative AI tools as your own work is plagiarism — and will be considered cheating and will be handled according to the University procedures on academic misconduct.

Under no circumstances should you be copying solutions or code written by others found on the Internet or provided by others in other ways. There is no learning taking place in such actions.

See the Collaboration section for additional information.

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Collaboration

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Professionalism

In this course, there will be a focus on learning and working well together. A large portion of that process involves interpersonal skills and conflict management. Students and staff are all expected to treat each other with respect. This includes, but certainly is not limited to:

• Behave appropriately and professionally.
• Use respectful language.
• Never abuse anyone (including the emotional abuse of criticizing, embarrassing, blaming, or manipulating others). Kindness is more important than correctness.
• Our TAs are students, too. Let them be students when they are not on the clocks as TAs.
• Work and collaborate professionally as a team.
• Be honest. I always hope everyone will behave honestly. All work must be your own work. You may use only officially-provided or personally-created materials including:
  • The course textbook
  • Anything (materials and examples) on the course website or linked to from the course website
  • Your personal notes or materials created as a result of class activities or discussions
  Sometimes, we all are tempted to do what we ought not; if you do something you regret, the sooner you tell me the sooner (and more leniently) we can correct it.

Students can and will be penalized for unprofessional behavior.

If I believe you have acted dishonestly, I will communicate this fact to you and propose a penalty. If you have the information I lack, please share that with me; I may thereafter change my belief and/or proposed penalty.

If you submit a solution or code that was not your own (e.g., copied from another student or the Internet), or if another student submits a solution or code that matches your solution or code, then your (and another student's) overall course grade will be dropped significantly. All will be reported to the University Honor Committee.

If course staff detect violations such as cheating, plagiarism, improperly sharing, copying another solution to an assignment / learning module / learning portfolio (including portions thereof), or other dishonest behavior and honor code infractions, they may impose any penalty up to and including a failing grade (F) in the course. This is independent of and in addition to the operations of the Honor Code.

• 1^st Offense: You will receive zero (0) points on that assessment and your final course grade will be reduced by one full letter grade (e.g., B- goes down to C-)
• 2^nd Offense: Automatic F in the course

Students who have had prohibited collaborations may not be allowed to work with partners on remaining assignments.

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Incomplete grade

(based on the information obtained from the CS department, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and the College of Art and Science)

When an IN is an appropriate option?

• You have a solid attendance record.
• You have completed approximately 75% or more of the work for the class.
• You are not failing the class.
• You have consulted with the instructor and you have a viable plan to complete the coursework within the allotted four weeks.
• One to two incompletes is reasonable; more than that may mean that you should withdraw from the semester.