Term details
- Information
- Course details are evolving. Check regularly for updates both here and on LMS.
- Offering
- Spring 2022/2023
- Instructor
- Berkant Ustaoğlu
- Meetings
- Mondays 13:30, 14:30 and 15:30 time slots
- Course notes
- Linear Algebra notes (last updated: Tuesday, 04-Apr-2023 23:36:53 EDT)
- Graph Theory notes (last updated: Tuesday, 26-Apr-2022 10:46:15 EDT)
Running the course
Weekly meetings
This course will not follow the standard approach of lecturing. Instead you will be assigned weekly readings. On the content of the assigned reading you will be given quizzes and homework. Every week during scheduled meetings you will have the chance to ask questions should you feel the need for clarification. Explanations will be provided first by your colleagues and should those are insufficient, I will contribute explanations. Reading assignments will be mainly from the course notes. Extra reading on the same topic from other sources is encouraged.
Past course experience suggests that discussing homework solutions is a good starting point for discussions. Homework is assigned about a week in advance so you have time to study and attempt it before coming to class. However, you are welcome to find alternative questions and raise them up for discussion.
Except the first week during one of the meetings there will be a quiz. At that time there will be discussions should you need to ask questions but those will run concurrently with the quiz. The quiz topic are cumulative with emphasis on last week's discussion topics.
Extra meetings
I will be available for meetings outside our class meetings. Those may take place over Teams, jitsi, over the phone and very rarely in person. You may use those to ask clarifying questions should time be insufficient during scheduled meetings or raise any other issues related to this class. Those must be prearranged by sending me an email in advance that includes the following information:
- Topic of discussion.
- How much time you think you will need for the meeting.
- At least three different slots when your are available. These slots must point to a time that is at least 24 hours after the email is sent.
If reasonable, I will respond and attempt to arrange personal discussion time. Unreasonable request (e.g., a 24 hour meeting to discuss camel existence on Mars) will be ignored.
Evaluation
Computations vs theory
I value understanding over routines! Consider the following toy question (do not worry about the details):
Is a given set of vectors linearly independent?One way or another this questions implies solving a system of linear equations. What I call understanding is the ability to write the system of linear equations that has to be solved to answer that question. What I call routines is actually solving the system of linear equations. You, as a human being, can probably solve a system of linear equations with say five variables and three equations, so can a computer. But I will be truly shocked if you by hand are able to solve a random system of linear equations with a hundred thousand equations and similar number of variables. A computer can certainly do it. But unlike you a computer cannot on its own answer the above question.
As a result I value understanding over routines. To that end feel free to use Computer Algebra Systems such as Sage to perform all tedious tasks. You are welcome to do so even during quizzes. As far as I am concerned once you can explain a PC what needs to be done to answer a problem you already solved the problem. All that remains is computations, computations, computations - no need to waste your time on those when there is a tool to perform that task for you (we live in the third millennium after all).
Further, the goal for you is to learn! You have unlimited number of attempts for each homework and quiz. In other words you can attempt a quiz (or homework) over and over until you get the perfect grade. From all attempts only the best will be taken into account when computing your grade. As said you can use a computer when solving answers and perhaps get help from colleagues, that is alright as long as you learn. During individual evaluations and exams you will be on your own and your progress will be measured. Note that even if you achieve perfect scores on quizzes and homework, you still need solid achievements from other evaluations to get a high course grade.
Attendance
I do not enforce class attendance for hybrid education, however, if you do not show up for the meetings (Teams or in person) your forfeit your chance of individual evaluation. There is no make up for any individual evaluations.
Grading policy
As stated above class attendance is not required but at the same time completing on-line tasks such as homework and quizzes are not sufficient for a high grade. I have no means of proctoring those and as such I treat them mostly as a means for you to measure your own progress. Should you struggle with a certain problem, or you do not feel confident in your solution strategy, or you believe your approach will teach and emphasize important issues to your colleagues then volunteer your contribution during meetings. These contributions are an important source for me to evaluate your progress and assign you a grade at the end of the term.
Your grade will be solely based on your course performance. The grading scheme includes a way to reward those who I believe for whatever reason underperformed their abilities during the standard evaluation but only course performance will be taken into account when your grade is assigned. Any reasons for grade increase that are not related to your progress in this class (say because you may have to repeat the year if your grade is below CB) will be ignored.
Grading components
Grading components are under review. Updates will posted in due time
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- Homework
Homework will be assigned weekly on LMS. You will have about two weeks to work on you homework - one week before scheduled reading assignment week plus the week when the reading assignment is due. Attempt the homework both on your own before in class discussion on the reading material and after the in class discussion. From all homework attempts only the highest grade is taken into account.
- Quizzes
Quizzes will take place on LMS; quiz topics will be cumulative but will not include topics from that week's reading assignment. A quiz will start and end with the allotted meeting time, thus discussions if any will run concurrently with the quiz.
Quiz grading will be best N-X out of N, where N is the number of quizzes and X is the number of quiz grades that will be discarded. That is not all quizzes will be taken into account when setting your quiz grade. So do not worry if you perform poorly on some quizzes, you can still get the maximum possible quiz grade. In particular if you feel sick or are otherwise unable to attend a quiz the grade for the quiz will be zero. However, from all the quizzes I will take the best grades each student takes and disregard their worst grades. Naturally this means that all quizzes have equal weight and there is no make-up for the quizzes.
- Exams
There will be a single cumulative exam administered on LMS. During the exam you are expected to meet reasonable means for proctoring. At the very least if you decide to take the exam at your own premises be ready to have a camera and microphone open. Make the necessary privacy arrangements in advance and be assured to have suitable access level to the Internet. Other proctoring means such as taking the exam on school premises will also be available but the exam for everyone will be on-line. CAS assistance during exams is not allowed.
- Make-up
- You will have a single make-up opportunity. Taking it will require a valid reason for missing the exam. There will be no make-up for the make-up. Submit your reasons for missing an exam to your own department. They will decide and notify me should they see your reason(s) valid. Do not send any explanation directly to me. Check details with your department.
- Individual evaluations
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Offering homework solution strategies, criticizing your colleagues solution strategies are a way to contribute towards your grade. Be active in class. During meetings there are no penalties for anyone: understanding that something is wrong, identifying an error or a weak answers is an important milestone towards the best answer. Do not hesitate to ask questions, no matter how trivial you think those questions are. Chances are if you have issues many other students also have issues. Consistently contributing with valuable questions and initiating discussions during meetings are a way to contribute towards your individual evaluation grade.
During one of the class meetings I will be asking question related to the reading assignments (the questions will be cumulative). Answering those questions with open camera will count towards your individual evaluation. There will be no penalty for wrong answers during class meetings. Should there be a volume of volunteers to answer a particular question a pop-up quiz will take place requiring the answer to said question.
During the final exam period for some but not all of you I will offer the opportunity to take a short individual online oral exam. Such exam will not be compulsory. It will be open to students who were unable to achieve in class individual evaluation grade, for example students from the regions directly affected by the earthquake, students whose internet connectivity was poor during the term, or students that were unable to take in class individual evaluations due to high number of volunteers. If such an offer is extended you will be able to decline the offer without any penalties. If an offer is accepted your grade will range from negative 50 to positive 100.
- Grievances
- It is a human nature to err, so errors could be made while grading your work. After grades are announced you will have ten days to request a reevaluation. Any exam objections must be in written form and indicate clearly what you think is wrong and where and why you disagree with the evaluation you received. Your request will be looked at and as a result your grade may go either up or down. One sentence objections such as
- don't you think I should get more points,
- aren't my points too few,
- please, read question X again,
Updates and clarifications
- Quizzes
- During the first four weeks of courses you will be assigned a quiz but the deadline to complete the quiz will be April 13 at the earliest. During that time you can attempt the quiz as many times as you want and only your highest grade will be recorded. As such the first four quizzes will behave like homeworks.
- Exams
- The style of mid semester evaluations will be decided at a later date. As a result the date of the first mid term evaluation may change.