Jeff Kinne Course Policies

Note that many of my course policies are changing for the 2025-2026 academic year. In particular, I will be trying out allowing the use of AI on assignments, but then also focusing a much higher percentage of points on exams and interviews / demonstrations.

To see what my course policies were previously, see Jeff Kinne Course Policies 2024.

This page contains information about the course policies in courses with Jeff Kinne as instructor.

Other thoughts to consider: using GAs to help with interviews, proper use of AI.

Policies

Summary

• Assignments - frequent, required header section with citations (0 credit if missing), allowed to use AI or work together (but you will not be prepared for exams if you don't do your own work), graded pass/fail for participation (but with some comments on your code/solutions). I will go through my solutions soon after the assignment is due (many times, the next lecture day). The focus is on you learning quickly; the focus is not the grades.
• Exams - every 3 weeks, on paper for face to face students, lockdown browser with follow-up interview for distance students, very much based on assignments (so if you understand how to do the assignments, you should do well).
• Code review / demo - at least every few weeks, maybe more frequent - will be based on submitted assignments and will explain to the class and/or during office hours. You will do well if you can do the assignments on your own.
• Project - at least one per semester, multiple check points, required header section with citations (0 credit if missing), graded based on code review / demo. The goal is to do something "real", interesting, and/or exciting, and have something you can use in your portfolio (i.e., github).
• Academic misconduct - leaving out a citation from assignment or project, using anything not allowed on exams (not allowed to use anything other than paper/pencil on the exams). Penalty - F for the course and academic misconduct form filed.
• AI - allowed for assignments and projects, you will get 0 points for code review/demo if you don't actually understand what you are handing in. Some assignments may require using AI, learning using AI, finding and fixing problems with AI solutions. The goal is to learn to use AI responsibly and see potential pitfalls.
• Total course grade - will be 60% exams, 30% code review/demos, 10% participation (assignments marked pass/fail). The goal is to assign a grade based on what you can do on your own (fine to learn using AI or others, but the grade should be what you can do on your own after all of that).

Note - all CS Policies are in effect (assuming those are re-approved before the Fall 2026 term starts).

More details are in the rest of this page.

Grades

Your overall course grade will be computed as: exams 60%, participation 10%, demonstrations/interviews 30%.

Exams - These will be roughly every 3 weeks (so about 5 total). Each exam will normally be worth a little bit more than the previous one. The lowest exam score will be dropped. There will be no makeup exams; if you miss an exam, then that is your dropped exam. Online students will take the exam at the same time as the rest of the class, in a lockdown browser, and will schedule an interview followup soon after the exam to confirm that this was your own work. For all students (online and face to face), for exams you are not allowed to use anything except yourself - no internet, phone, calculator, AI, communicating with other people, etc.

Participation - There will be frequent assignments. For most assignments, they will be graded strictly pass/fail based on whether you made some reasonable attempt to complete the assignment. Late work will not be accepted. My solutions will be shared with the class soon after the due date. The goal is to have frequent assignments that you do your best on, and then see my solutions so that you can more quickly learn. I will not do detailed grading on these assignments so that more of our time is spent working new problems than focusing too much on grading them. After you see my solution to a problem, you should go back to your work after class and fix your work so it is also correct.

Demonstrations/interviews/projects - Some assignments will be to demonstrate your code/solutions to the class. For some assignments, I will interview you to confirm your solutions. Some assignments will be to work on a project that is more open-ended or in-depth (and that will have a demo or interview). These are all things that give you practice on soft skills, and also allow me to confirm your understanding. You will be graded based on the understanding that is demonstrated during the demo/interview.

For each of the above categories, the total grade for that category will just be the sum of all the points in that category.

Assignments

Attribution and Comments

For all assignments that are handed in (this includes assignments, projects, or anything else that you submit for the course), you are required to have at the top of the submission a summary that includes the following elements.

• Author: your name
• Contents: what is this file for (e.g., hw 1 cs 500)
• Date: date handed in
• Summary: summary of a sentence or few - what does the program do or what is the file about, what changes did you make, etc.
• Attributions: list of sources you used. If you used AI you need to list the prompts you used, which AI was used, and if possible a link back to the AI's responses. If you discussed with anyone, list their names and the amount of discussion. If anyone looked at your code, you need to list that. If you copy/pasted code from anywhere, you need to indicate that and give a link to where you got it from. If you started with a file from class, you list that as well. If you have no attributions to list, then just put "none".

Missing - if this summary is missing, you get a 0 for the assignment.

Inaccurate attribution - if you give an inaccurate attribution (failing to cite that you used AI, failure to indicate that you talked with someone or showed someone your code, etc.), this is academic misconduct.

Very limited effort - if I determine that you put forth very little effort on any assignment, you will get a 0 for the assignment. For example, if all you did was ask an AI for the answer and then provide the AI's response. Or, if all you did was copy code from the internet or another student.

Schedule

The default schedule for my courses is the following.

• Exams - every third week on Wednesdays. Online students take the exam at the same time as the face to face students, and should schedule a 15 minute online meeting with me for the same day as the exam at a time that is after the exam.
• Assignments - most weeks there will be multiple assignments that are graded for participation. Normally, the recommended due date is the next lecture, and my solution will be shared at the beginning of the next lecture.
• Demonstrations - we will normally have around 10 minutes per lecture that is allocated for demonstrations. Depending on the number of students in the course, each student should expect to give a demo to the class roughly every few weeks.
• Interviews - these will be conducted during office hours. These may be about once/week if I have enough time for that. Interviews for assignments will be short (5-10 minutes).
• Projects - there will normally be one or two projects per course. They will normally have multiple check points that are graded. For each check point you will meet with me for a code review.

Exam Content

Most exams will be over just the content from that period in the course. So they are cumulative only in so far as earlier content is still needed for doing the later content in the course. The final exam will be cumulative.

Exam questions will be similar to those that were given as assignments in the class. Some questions will be identical to what was given as an assignment. Some questions will be an extension/modification of an assignment. Those who do what you are supposed to on the assignments (do them on your own as much as possible, only go to AI or others for help after you have struggled on your own, really understand the model solutions) should do well on the exams.

There will normally be a few exam questions that are a challenge even for the top students in the class. There will normally be a few questions that are easy even for the bottom students in the class. The goal is to have a broad range of scores so that the exam accurately measures your skills/knowledge.

Academic Misconduct

What is considered academic misconduct in this course -

• Assignments/projects - lack of citation. All assignments and projects require to have a header section that includes citations to anything used (AI, internet sites, etc.) or anyone you discussed the assignment with. If this section is missing, the assignment is worth 0 points. If the citation section is present but is not accurate (i.e., you leave out a source that you used), that is academic misconduct.
• Quiz/exam - using anything that is not allowed. For quizzes/exams, you are not allowed to use anything except pen/pencil and paper. No calculators, no phones, no notes, no internet, no AI, no communicating with other people. Using any of these is academic misconduct.
• Quiz/exam - distance students will take the quiz/exam in a lockdown browser and otherwise have the same rules (no internet, no notes, etc.). Distance students are not allowed to take the quiz/exam on the same computer as another student in the course; doing so would be academic misconduct.

Penalty for academic misconduct -

• F for the course. This is a 0 tolerance policy. You do not get a second chance, the penalty is F for the course.
• Report is filed for academic misconduct (see Student Support and Accountability) violation (link to file report is https://cm.maxient.com/reporting.php?IndianaStateUniv and then select Academic Misconduct).

Grading Programs and Problems

• Programs: sometimes will be given scores for correctness, style, and being safe/secure code. By default, 1/2 of the points are for correctness, 1/4 for style, 1/4 for being safe/secure. Sometimes only the correctness will be graded. For programming style, see Programming Style - Generic. For safe/secure code, see Programming safe and secure code - generic.
• Math/proofs/essays: sometimes will be given scores for correctness and style. By default, 2/3 of the points are for correctness and 1/3 for style. Points are subtracted for any statement that you include that is false - so you should avoid a brain dump of every thought that you have because I will take off for things that you say that are not correct. For style in writing math/proofs/essay responses, see CS Writing Style - Generic.

Complaints or Questions

If you have any complaints or questions about anything in a course, you should always communicate with the instructor first. If you skip communicating with the instructor and go straight to complaining to someone else (your advisor, the department chairperson, the dean, the university president, etc.), they will generally tell you that you need to talk to the instructor first.

Course Policies Quiz

Note - this quiz needs to be updated since I have changed my policies.

The following is a quiz over Jeff Kinne's course policies: sample quiz. The link is to a practice quiz that you can try out. Those enrolled in the course need to take the quiz within the course for it to count. For Jeff Kinne's courses, you are required to score a 100% on this quiz within the first week of classes in order to continue in the course. Note that you will be able to take the quiz multiple times. If you choose not to score 100% on this quiz you should drop the course.