Course Policies
Department of Mathematical Sciences
Last Updated: March 26, 2008
Contents
Confidentiality of Student Records
- The privacy of student education records is protected by federal law through the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). In particular, parents have no inherent right to information about education records of their child. More information about Clemson's enforcement of FERPA is at http://www.registrar.clemson.edu/FERPA/ferpa.htm.
Common Final Exams
- No common final exams will be given prior to the time designated by the university except for students with special needs or exam conflicts. Such students can take the exam at the early start time on the day of the exam but will not be permitted to leave the examination area prior to the regular start time.
- Students with exam conflicts can arrange a time to take the exam after the regular time but still during exam week if they can reach a mutually satisfactory agreement with their instructor.
- Students who have completed all course requirements and are unable to take the final exam before grades are due are eligible for a grade of I (incomplete). The department will arrange an evening exam time prior to the start of classes for the next term when the final exam can be taken. The period to remove the incomplete will not be extended beyond the standard 30 days into the next major semester.
- No exemptions of the final exam are permitted in coordinated courses.
Tutoring
- No instructor (faculty or GTR) or GLA will tutor for a course they are currently teaching.
Dropping and Adding Courses
- The Department of Mathematical Sciences complies with the Clemson University policy on dropping and adding courses.
- Through the last day to add, students can drop/add themselves. Until the last day to drop a course without record, the department will assist students who wish to drop back to lower level courses. Section changes within the same course are generally not permitted unless both instructor and student are non-native English speakers.
- After the last day to drop without record, no course adds will be done except for students dropping back to MthSc 104, 105, or 199. Such changes must be completed before the second hour exam in the associated course. The student will be responsible for all previous assignments immediately upon transfer. At the discretion of the instructor, there need be no make-up of previous assignments except by transfer of grades from the dropped course. (The score on the final exam is used to replace a single lower hour-exam score or missed exam.)
- At no time will students be added to sections already at or above department capacity.
Use of Graders in Math Sciences
- Student graders are assigned upon request by faculty (not GTR) instructors. Undergraduate graders are not to grade exams except under close supervision by an instructor.
- Guidelines for the use of undergraduate graders:
- Instructors of record are expected to grade their own exams (or assigned grading for common exams). In the event that an instructor feels the need to enlist the help of an undergraduate grader to grade an exam, the instructor must closely supervise the grader.
- Undergraduate graders may be used to grade homework assignments and quizzes.
- It is the duty of both the grader and instructor to ensure that grading assignments are completed so as not to interfere with the grader's own academic responsibilities.
- Graduate students are not assigned graders. Grading is part of their academic training.
- Guidelines for the use of graduate student graders:
- Instructors of record are expected to grade their own exams (or assigned grading for common exams).
- Graduate teaching assistants (currently in 103/106/108) are expected to assist in grading exams under the supervision of faculty instructors.
- For other courses, graduate student graders may participate in grading but only under the close supervision of the instructor of record.
- Relatively new graduate teachers of record (typically in 101, 102, and 207) grade exams but under the level of supervision deemed appropriate by the course coordinator.
Coordinated Courses
- Semester Arrival/Departure Dates
- Instructors (faculty and GTR) teaching coordinated courses are expected to be available on the Monday prior to the first day of class on Wednesday for course meetings.
- Instructors (faculty and GTR) teaching coordinated courses are expected to be available at the end of the term until their final grades have been submitted.
- Graduate assistants who are not teachers of record are expected to be available through the week of final exams for possible grading and proctoring assignments.
- Coordinator Duties and Responsibilities
- prepare general information, objectives, sample problems, syllabus, schedule
- focus on content; department support will be provided to place materials on the course web site
- organize exams and grading assignments; chair exam committees
- instructors, as assigned by the coordinator, are expected to work all exams and submit their evaluations
- exam committees review each exam after completion and prior to printing
- inform department of number of copies to be made
- inform coordinator of instruction when instructors do not meet responsibilities
- department will collect, analyze and distribute all grades
- grading groups will consist of experienced instructors with less experienced instructors, GTRs, GTAs, and graders
- Instructors Responsibilities
- attend instructor meetings unless arrangements made in advance
- work and submit exams to coordinator as assigned in timely manner
- participate fully in common grading (follow procedures, check OMR forms, finish grading on time)
- submit exam scores via grade collection web page prior to returning exams to students
- use established course grading procedures
- Rounding Final Averages
- 10 point scale for letter grades (published)
- no extra credit on exams (maximum score 100)
- all grades entered exactly in spreadsheet (up to base conversion)
- all calculations done full precision
- final average displayed with 2 decimal places
- x9.50 is rounded up to higher letter grade
- x9.00 is rounded up to the next higher letter grade if final exam score no lower than the rounded letter grade
- this policy will be applied uniformly over all courses with common graded exams
- exceptions can be made by the instructor of record; justification will be supplied to the Coordinator of Instruction
- The weighted average of the hour tests and final exam or the grade on the final exam must be above 60% in order to pass the course. (Since MthSc 103 is graded pass/fail, an appropriate value will be determined empirically. This value was 64% for fall 2007.)
- Note: these rules are not published to the students.
- Attendance
- Students who have more than two weeks of absences are subject to being dropped from the course at the discretion of their instructor.
- Common Grading Procedures
- Prior to exam
- Exam and grading guidelines made available to instructors in sufficient time for comments and revisions prior to final printing.
- Grading assignments determined by course coordinator and made proportional to teaching workload. Not every instructor need grade on every exam. With large courses, groups of instructors might be assigned to work together on a single set of problems.
- Instructors as assigned by the coordinator are expected to work completely every exam and return comments to the coordinator prior to the exam being finalized.
- Exam night procedures
- All instructors must count tests for their sections and return all exams to coordinator on Wednesday night following the test. Graders are expected to stay for approximately 1 hour to begin grading or arrange for an alternative meeting time. Wednesday night grading is intended to discover unanticipated student responses and making appropriate changes to the grading guidelines.
- A locked filing cabinet is available on the first floor of Martin O-wing for storing exams. The cabinet key will be left in a designated location in the administrative suite so that exams can be checked out by graders.
- All exams are placed in the filing cabinet. If requested, instructors may stay and grade for a longer period. Instructor designated by the coordinator is responsible for gathering all exams and locking them in storage cabinet. All exams are to remain in Martin.
- Handling exams
- Tests to be available on Thursday to all instructors and will remain in Martin Hall. The exams may be stored in a central grading area during this time.
- Instructors may check out up to 2 sections at one time and take them to their office for grading. Tests should be checked out only when the instructor plans to grade immediately and must be returned within 2 hours of check-out time.
- A log recording removal and return of exams will be kept in the exam storage cabinet for each course. Instructor name, time out, and time in are recorded on the log. Both when a section is checked out and returned, the number of tests must be counted and recorded on the log.
- Exams remain in Martin during the day. Starting Friday night, instructors may check out up to 2 sections for overnight grading. No check-outs before 4:30pm and exams must be returned by 9am the next morning (10am if Saturday or Sunday).
- All grading should be completed and exams returned for distribution to instructors by 4pm on the Monday following the exam.
- Grading procedures
- Instructors should note exceptions to grading guidelines as they grade and report these to the course coordinator.
- Coordinators will have a table on the first page of the exam with max points for each problem and space for score. Point deductions are to be recorded in area with student response to question by individual graders. All grading to be done in red. No students will write in red.
- End of student response to be marked __| (at end of problem if no response) in case additions are made after exam is returned.
- Individual instructors record scores for their sections, peruse exams, and report grading inconsistencies to the course coordinator in time to notify all sections prior to the exam being released for distribution to students.
- If a problem is graded poorly, the grader will re-grade and correct the difficulties. Such instances are to be reported to the course coordinator and to the coordinator of instruction.
- Returning exams
- Grading is completed in time for tests to be returned the next Tuesday or Wednesday after the exam.
- If a student protests the grading of their exam, instructors are to collect the exam, review the grading guidelines, and then make appropriate changes rather than changing a score immediately. Students are to be informed that their entire exam is subject to review--not just the problem being protested. Grading errors that are not simple clerical errors are reported to the course coordinator as are clerical errors if they are frequent. Corrections outside the grading guidelines are to be reported to the course coordinator for possible distribution to all sections.
- All grade protests must be made within 1 week of the time the exam is returned to the section.
- No exams will be returned to students until cleared by the course coordinator. Before exams are returned, each instructor must submit their section scores for statistical analysis via the grade collection web site.
- Student grading questions
- Final grading guidelines with point deductions for common mistakes shown will be made available to instructors at the completion of the grading and published on the web for students.
- The grading guidelines for the exam are simply "guidelines" and not definitive. Student questions should be directed first to the student's instructor. Clerical errors and scoring inconsistent with the grading guidelines are to be corrected by the individual instructor and recorded at the grade collection web site. Significant grading changes are reported to the course coordinator for consideration and possible distribution to all sections.
Exam Score Collection
- Exam Format Restrictions
- Multiple choice: same problems but order of problems and order of responses permuted in second version.
- Free response: same order of problems in both versions, but different constant values in the second version. In the final printing, alternate the source of problems for the two versions between the original and alternate problems.
- Free Response Key Format
- Header line: course, exam number, number of problems, total points, number of versions.
- Second line: point value of each problem (test version A order).
- Third line: label for each problem.
- For example:
101 1 9 52 2
5 6 5 6 7 7 6 4 6
1a 1b 2 3 4 5 6 7a 7b
- Multiple Choice Key Format
- Sample key for multiple choice problems:
999 1 15 49 2
3 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 3 4 3 3
A B D A C B A C B B E C E B D
B D C C E C B E B A D B B C D
8 B C D A E
9 D E C B A
10 E D B A C
1 E D A B C
13 A C D B E
14 A D B E C
11 B E C D A
3 A B C E D
4 B A C D E
5 C E D A B
6 D A C B E
7 C A B E D
15 E D B A C
2 A D B E C
12 E B A C D
- Text file, all entries separated by white space. All choices/answers UPPERCASE. Include choice of "E" even if only four possible answers.
- Line 1: course number (999), exam number (1–n, "b" for BST, "f" for final exam), number of questions (15), percent of total exam score (49), number of exam versions (2)
- Line 2: point value of each problem (test version A order)
- Line 3: correct response for each problem (test version A order)
- Line 4+: correct response for each problem (test version B order)
- Next line: blank
- Next lines (one line for each problem, one set for each version other than the first version): In version B, first physical problem is #8 from version A; first answer choice for this problem is B in version A, second choice is C in version A, etc. Repeat for each problem.
- Handling Scantron Forms
- no stickies on the bundles
- all forms from each instructor bundled together
- all forms left in test cabinet in O-112
- use small rubber bands to bundle forms; do not double the rubber bands (large sizes and doubling often tear the form edges)
- Common Coding Errors
- missing version letter
- transposed digits in CUID
- single line in bubble (not dark enough to be read)
- multiple bubbles for single response (often before a skipped column)
- marking incorrect bubble
- using ink rather than pencil
- SSN rather than CUID
- form shoud not be curled, folded, dog-eared, wrinkled, or have torn edges
- use a soft lead (#2) pencil to mark your answers
- Instructor Responsibilities
- check that version is bubbled
- check CUID is bubbled
- check for physical condition of form on submission
- combine all forms for each instructor into a single bundle
- Submitting Grades
- Submit free response scores and late or changed multiple choice responses via the web form: http://www.math.clemson.edu/~jpjrv/cgi/grcol/dispinstr.py.cgi. The link is also on the department web site under the "Forms and Documents" link at the lower right. You must authenticate with your employee userid.
- Submit data in the format: CUID version scores/responses. All separated by whitespace; new line for each student; missing multiple choice responses denoted by a single dash ("-").
- It is not necessary to submit data for all students. Current data is echoed for missing students. You should Submit/View Free Response Data to check for errors in your submission. Keep an electronic copy of the submission in case you need to resend later.
- If you make changes in grades after the exams are returned, you should return to the score submission form to update the scores for those students. You should only make changes in grades for addition errors or clear guideline violation. If you see the same violation of guidelines repeatedly for the same problem, you should inform the course coordinator.
- Student's with "one-time" hour exam conflicts may be granted permission to take the exam early with the special accommodations group. Instructors should check with the course coordinator prior to granting permission so there is consistency in how these exceptions are made. If a student contacts an instructor prior to the exam, it may be possible for the student to take the exam later but prior to the time exams are returned. Otherwise, the student's final exam score will replace the missed exam. Scheduling make-ups is the responsibility of the instructor.
- You should keep your Scantron forms for about 2 weeks. Then you may discard them or keep them. It is up to you.
Miscellaneous
- Credit for MthSc 101 after 301, 309, etc.
Date: Fri, 25 May 2007 11:39:17
To: jpjrv@CLEMSON.EDU, sbsmith@CLEMSON.EDU
From: LeDon Wilson <lmwils@CLEMSON.EDU>
Subject: Credit for MTHSC 101
Discussions involving Rick Jarvis, Stanley Smith, and Elaine Laiewsky occurred sometime after the implementation of the 0506 curriculum regarding the awarding of credit of MTHSC 101 after taking MTHSC 301, 302, 309, or EX ST 301. This was in response to a few students who had elected to change to the new curriculum, who had taken one of these latter courses before fall 2005, and who also found themselves in need of MTHSC 101 in order to satisfy a requirement. Ultimately, it was agreed that if a student took MTHSC 301, 302, 309, or EX ST 301, prior to the fall 2005 term, they would be able to enroll in AND receive credit for MTHSC 101 toward the degree. The DPR could not be programmed to reflect this decision.