SYSC 4502: Communications Software (Winter 2022)

FLASHLatebreaking News

·         None, the course is over

In the Winter 2022 term, Thomas Kunz was teaching SYSC 4502: Communications Software. The online calendar description can be found here. This page contains some information about the course and links to additional resources available to the class, either provided by the instructor or existing in the Internet.

Students who do not write the final exam have the option to write an exam at a later point in time. This rule, aimed at students who are sick during exam periods, apparently leads to some abuse by students who strategically choose which exam to write when. In an effort to be fair to students who cannot write the exam for a legitimate reason, while at the same time discouraging the abuse of this rule, the following policy has been used by some faculty members: 

Students taking supplemental or deferred examinations have
several more months to study than their colleagues. Also they
have a less-crowded examination schedule. Thus it is only fair
to the majority of students to expect a substantially better
performance on these examination than on the final.

This is the policy that I will also adopt for this course. Please note that the above formulation leaves it up to the instructor whether the supplemental or deferred examination will be harder or the marking scheme will be more rigorous.

A note on assignments and cheating: the assignments are individual assignments. Evidence of cheating will be investigated and will be reported to the Associate Dean, see also General Regulations 14. Cheating consists of collaboration (handing in someone else's solution as your own as well as allowing someone else to copy your solution) and extensive quoting from textbooks and other sources without proper reference. I do encourage students to discuss the assignment questions with each other, and to consult textbooks and other sources to derive an answer. However, I also do expect students to hand in solutions that are clearly their own effort, clearly identifying the extensive use of external sources (and your classmates do not count as valid external sources).

eProctoring: as long as courses are delivered online, I reserve the right to request eProctoring for any of the exams we write (midterm, final exam). eProctoring has been approved by the Carleton University Senate as a legitimate option to ensure academic integrity when writing exams, but it does impose a certain amount of work on students. Since there is no required textbook, I expect that you will have (or acquire) a computing platform that will allow you to fully participate in eProctoring. As of Nov. 2020, the minimum hardware and software requirements are follows:

·         Hardware: Desktop, or Laptop

·         OS: Windows 10, Mac OS 10.14, Linux Ubuntu 18.04

·         Internet Browser: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, or Microsoft Edge

·         Internet Connection (High-Speed Internet Connection Recommended)

·         Webcam (HD resolution recommended)

Note: Tablets, Chromebooks and Smartphones are not supported at this time. Windows-based tablets are not supported at this time.


Course Handout and Other Material:

·         Official Course Handout (on Brightspace)

 

Recorded Course Lectures and Material (to be completed throughout the term):

·         TBA