On assignments where it is explicitly noted, students will be allowed to form groups of at most three students and submit as one group. The groups may consist of members from any section of the course (online, on-campus, etc.). All group members should contribute to the work equally. Details on group submission are found under Submission Policy.
Submissions for all sections will be collected through the school's Compass portal. The login URL is: https://compass2g.illinois.edu/webapps/login/ Students are expected to deliver a zip file containing the source code files they have written for the assignment. Students do not need to include 3rd-party library code files they have used, as these files may be large in size, but students should cite which libraries were used and where the library source code can be found on the Internet. Unless otherwise specified, students should not upload the large data files used during the assignments. Students must include a typewritten PDF report in their zip file. The assignment prompt may ask for numerical results, plots, and short-answer analysis of the results, which should all be included in the report. Any submission that does not contain a PDF report will receive a grade of zero.
You are welcome to use R Markdown or IPython, but the requirements are the same. You must respond to all questions from the homework in a thoughtful manner and discuss your results as requested by the homework. You are welcome to do this all in the notebook, in which case you must turn in a compiled PDF of the notebook in a readable format with the analysis inline. Otherwise, you can submit the responses to the homework questions in a separate PDF. In all cases, you must turn in the original R Markdown or IPython notebook files which can be executed if needed.
For group submissions, only one group member should submit the code and report content. ALL THREE group members should submit a file listing the names and NetIDs of their group members. This "group.txt" file should be submitted on both Compass and Coursera (if you are enrolled in the Coursera section).
Students can resubmit their work with edits on Compass any number of times, but after the deadline passes, we will grade the latest received version. The late penalty is 10%/day, up to a maximum of a 30% deduction; if you submit or resubmit more than two days after the deadline, the maximum score we can give you is 70%. E.g., if you resubmit an assignment 10 days late hoping for a better score, and our grader decides the raw score is 90%, then you will receive 90-30=60. Please take this into consideration when you resubmit. We will only regrade an assignment one time; that is, each assignment may be graded AT MOST twice. If you are trying to get a regrade, please notify us. There are some hard deadlines, after which no late submissions will be accepted at all: Regular assignments: May 2 (The last day of instruction for the semester.) "Take-home" final assignment: May 10 (The scheduled final exam date for this course.)
Summary:
In this course, students are allowed to use library code to solve high-level problems, unless an assignment specifically requests that students implement an algorithm completely by themselves. Students should always cite any library code they have used. Students must cite online code references (documentation examples, StackOverflow, Piazza posts, Slack discussions, etc.) that they have referred to. If students collaborate to any extent, they must cite each other (name and NetID where appropriate) in their code comments and PDF reports. That is in addition to the formal group.txt disclosure described under Submission Policy. (That is, students may talk to members of other groups and cite them, but they are limited to at most three students in a submission group.)
In summary, this policy reflects the University policy on plagiarism as it applies to academic writing.
Students must cite all references, including any code they have used that they did not write themselves. Failure to cite references will be considered an academic integrity violation and be pursued according to University policy, which may include receiving a failing grade on an assignment or in the entire course.
Citations do not need to follow any specific format (such as ACM style, etc.) but should mention the author's name and where the cited work can be found (including a URL, if applicable). In code, a citation can be left in a comment. The PDF report should summarize any citations.
If you have some extenuating circumstances that would warrant an extension on a deadline, you need to contact us a week ahead of time and explain the issue.
To facilitate the self-paced nature of MCS-DS courses, we'll release preview drafts of upcoming homework on his course page. You may work ahead based on the information in the preview drafts. But PLEASE NOTE that details are subject to change until the release date of the homework. This means you may need to make small changes to your work as the deadline approaches. Course staff will also prioritize support for the currently assigned homework content.