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Course format

There will be weekly lectures and assignments, and a final exam. Additionally, there will be a few Google Hangout sessions where I will address issues brought up in the forums and other topics. The assignments will typically be available on Monday and due the Tuesday of the following week. The first assignment will not be due until Friday of the 2nd week to allow those joining the course late to catch up.

Grading scheme

non-programming option 8 homework assignments are worth 10 points each. The 7 highest scores will be counted toward 70% of the grade (i.e. I will be dropping the lowest score from your assignments) . The final exam (multiple choice + short answer) counts for 30% of the final grade. A certificate will be issued to those achieving 80%+ of the total points possible. This is the regular certificate.

programming option If you select this option, in addition to the regular assignments there will be ~4 programming assignments, the last of which will be a an independent mini-project to be peer-evaluated. The projects can optionally be submitted to the forum. Those voted up by the community will be featured and discussed in a Google Hangout session. If you achieve 80% of the points for the programming option, your certificate will say "with distinction". The grading formula is (pa1 + pa2 + pa3) * 2 + (project score out of 30) + 10 points (automatically awarded)

Signature track

The signature track is an option that is independent of your choice of programming or non. It allows you to earn official recognition from participating universities and Coursera for your accomplishment with a verifiable electronic certificate. That is, joining a course’s Signature Track is optional. You can still fully participate in the course if you decide not to join, and you will still receive the standard (or with distinction) Statement of Accomplishment if you successfully complete the free course, though this Statement will not be able to attest to your real identity. More info is here.

Late policy

I realize that many of you are leading busy lives and may not always be able to meet the deadlines. You can always skip one of the assignments (only the top 7 will be counted). You also have an allocation of late days (8 in total). If you don't allocate late days, the assignment will be marked down 10%/day. These lenient policies are meant to encourage you to submit work throughout the course without stressing too much about deadlines.