Course Policies: CS 332: Advanced Computer Networking at Calvin University

Instructor: Professor Victor Norman

Course Text:

Kurose and Ross's Computer Networking: a Top-Down Approach, 8th Edition, Pearson

Note that we will use the text book extensively during class time, so you must be able to refer to either a hard copy or soft copy of the current chapter of the text during class.

Grading: Your grade in this course will be determined as follows:

• Reading Reflections: 20%. There are 12 reading reflections. The lowest 1 will be dropped.
• Projects: 30%
• Tests (4): 30%
• Final Exam (during exam time): 20%
  

A couple of things to note:

• Your assigned readings are a significant part of your grade.  And, if you don't do them, you'll do poorly in the other parts, I guarantee.
• There will be 4 tests, plus a final. Each is cumulative.
• You will be allowed to "miss" 1 of the 12 assigned readings.  Use your "miss" wisely.
• In this class, A is for excellent work, B means good, C is satisfactory, D is unsatisfactory yet passing, F means failing or unacceptable. I sometimes curve final grades so that one-third of the class receives As, one-third receives Bs, and the last third receives Cs, Ds, and Fs. I do give Fs...
  I reserve the right to set the divisions between between grades anywhere I see fit, so that As are truly for excellent work, etc. Sometimes this means that a 92%, e.g., is a B.

Attendance: attendance is optional. However, you will do poorly if you skip class regularly (this has been proven time and time again). If you will miss class due to illness or some other legitimate reason, you must inform me before class that you will miss class that day.

Class Rules:

• Laptop use is allowed, but only if you disable WiFi, and only if you use it to take notes. This policy is due to a few studies that show that when someone uses a laptop to goof around during class, the grades of the people around them go down more than their grade goes down.
• Cell phone usage in class is strictly prohibited. 
  
  You do not need to check your cell phone during class. You can survive 50 minutes without it!

Assignments / Late Assignments Policy:

• Due dates for assignments are on the schedule page.
• Some assignments will be done in pairs or groups. In these cases, one submission should be made for the team.
• Assignments that are submitted within 1 business day after the due date will have 10% deducted.  2 business days = 20%, 3 days = 30%, etc.

Office Hours / Help outside of class: My schedule is posted here. See it to see my office hours.

If you need help with an assignment, please come ask for help.  I love to help students who come to me. 

Disability statement: Calvin will make reasonable accommodations for persons with documented disabilities. Students should notify the Coordinator of Services to Students with Disabilities located in Student Academic Services, HH455. Students should notify their instructors within the first two weeks of class.

Cheating:  Don't. Using code from the Internet without citing it is cheating.

My disability: I am deaf on my left side. I wear a hearing aid, but it really doesn't help too much. I appreciate students who speak loudly enough for me (and the whole class) to hear. Thanks. This is especially true when we all have to wear masks.

We will use a teaching/learning method called Just-in-Time teaching in this class. This means that for each chapter (or sub-chapter) in the book you do the reading:

Reading:

• When you are reading the assignment, keep the chapter's Learning Objectives in mind, so that you know what I consider to be important in the reading.
• You should probably take notes as you read.
• Log in to Moodle and complete the reading reflection "quiz". The reading feedback "quiz" consists of 2 questions and should take you about 5 minutes to complete. In the quiz, you will tell me what you did not understand from the reading. You should only ask questions that relate to the assigned learning objectives. The quiz must be completed by the published due date.

Slide Creation: from your reading reflections, I create slides to answer the questions that students asked that relate to the learning objectives. If no student asks a question about some topic, I will assume everyone understood it.

NOTE: I don't generally give any standard lectures like you may be used to getting in other classes. Some students don't like this, because without a lecture, they don't end up with a nice set of notes. It is an unfortunate downside of this teaching style.

Time Expectations:

The course is designed so that you do about 3 - 5 hours of work each week outside of class time. Much of this time should be spent in the reading and studying of the assigned readings.