Assessment

Assessment scheme#

Course assessment is made up of the following individual components for both COMP1730 and COMP6730

• There is also an oral assessment (viva) associated with the project assignment. It will be held in-lab in week 11 and must be completed for any marks to be received for the project assignment.

Hurdle#

The mid-term test and the final exam are hurdle assessments.

For the mid-term test, you must attain at least 7% out of 20% (35 out of 100), Otherwise, you will receive a fail grade for the course regardless of your eventual final mark. If you fail the hurdle for the mid-term test you should drop the course.

• Results for the mid-term test will be released in week 6, before the census date.

For the final exam, you must attain at least 10% out of 40% (25 out of 100). Otherwise, even if your mark is 50 or over, you will only receive a PX grade for the course and must pass a supplementary exam to receive a PS letter grade with a numerical grade of 50 (regardless of your original final mark).

Variation for COMP6730 (master) students#

Students in the masters level course, COMP6730, may have different and/or extra questions in the mid-term test, project assignment, and the final exam. These different/extra questions will require deeper conceptual and theoretical understanding to be demonstrated.

The assessment scheme is otherwise the same for both COMP1730 and COMP6730. Where the max raw mark differs, the raw mark will be rescaled accordingly to maintain the correct assessment component weight.

Student engagement and participation#

Student engagement and participation will also be monitored as we consider them specially crucial for a satisfactory learning experience. To incentivise engagement and participation, satisfactory engagement and participation may qualify you for an increase in your final mark if it is close to a higher grade.

The following are monitored:

• Attendance to weekly labs (weeks 2 to 12 except 6) with appreciation of tutors on your participation and engagement (week 11 lab excluded)
• Submission of weekly self-study quizzes in Ed Lessons
• Submission of programming excercises/problems in weekly labs in Ed Lessons

If your final mark is 2 marks away from a higher grade, then we will award +2 marks to your final course mark if at least 2 of the following criteria hold:

• 8 or more labs attended (out of 9 counted labs)
• 80% or more of quiz questions completed correctly (computed across all 9 quizzes)
• 80% or more of programming excercises/problems completed with full correctness (computed across all 9 counted labs)

If your final mark is 1 mark away from the higher grade, we will award +1 mark to your final course mark if at least 2 of the following criteria hold:

• 7 or more labs attended (out of 9 counted labs)
• 70% or more of quiz questions completed correctly (computed across all 9 quizzes)
• 70% or more of lab programming excercises/problems completed with full correctness (computed across all 9 counted labs)

In all other cases, you do not qualify for any increase in your final mark.

For the above criterion, we will only count:

• Attendance at your allocated lab time (attendance at other lab times will not be counted; if you cannot make your allocated lab time please email the course email to request a one-time lab change as soon as practical, if you email too late there may not be any labs left in the week. If you missed your lab and did not make up in the week, we will only count you as attended if there were extenuating circumstances and you email your reasons and supporting documentation to the course email)
• Quiz submissions submitted before Sunday 23:55PM of the same week the quiz is for
• Programming excercise/problem submissions submitted before Sunday 23:55PM of the week after the week of the lab

Quizzes are usually released the Sunday prior to the week it is for. Labs are usually released the Sunday prior to the week the lab will actually run. There is one quiz for each week there is a proper lab (weeks 2 to 12 except 6 and 11).

Submissions#

Homeworks will be released on Ed Lessons and must be submitted through Ed Lessons. The project assignment’s place of release and required method of submission (which will be just one of Ed Lessons or Wattle) will be announced in an Ed Discussions announcement.

Homeworks and the project assignment must be submitted via the prescribed method. We will NOT consider files sent via email or any other means.

It is your responsibility to make sure you know how to submit through Ed Lessons (or Wattle) correctly. It is also your responsibility to check that your work was submitted correctly, and that the correct work was submitted.

You can submit as many times as you want before the deadline, we encourage you to submit early to avoid any unforeseen problems close to the deadline. Remember however that we can only see the last submission that you made.

Late (re)submissions will be treated as late regardless of any excuses related to last minute technical issues or difficulties, or incorrect initial submissions.

Late submissions and extensions#

The homework and project assignments have a hard deadline. Submissions made after this deadline without an approved extension will receive zero marks.

Extensions can only be granted in unforeseeable circumstances beyond your control, and will require supporting documentation (e.g. serious illness supported by a medical certificate or an education access plan - EAP). Technical issues with computers, work or other extra-curricular commitments are not accepted.

If you want to apply for an extension, you must use the Extension App (with supporting evidence) before the deadline.

We cannot give an extension beyond a few days. If you believe you have grounds for a longer extension than that, you should fill an extenuating circumstances application instead.

Collaboration and AI usage#

The homework and project assignments are individual. You must write your own submission, and you are expected to be able to explain every aspect of it.

Collaboration (including, of course, outright plagiarism), submitting solutions that you have found on the web, or enlisting others (including AI such as ChatGPT) to work for you on assignments, are all forms of cheating, and will be reported.

If you are found to have cheated, this will be noted on your ANU records, your transcript in case of severe misconduct, or further action may be taken in line with the severity of the offense and ANU policy. In serious cases you may even have your enrollment at ANU terminated.

Make sure that you have read and understood the ANU policy on academic honesty and plagiarism. You must also read and accept the Academic Integrity Rule 2021.

If you are unsure about what is required of you with respect to academic honesty, please ask any of the course staff or send an e-mail to the course e-mail address. We would much rather discuss the matter with you prior to something occurring than have to resolve it through the academic misconduct process.

Each student in this course is expected to be able to explain and defend any submitted assessment item. Any submitted work may be subject to an additional oral examination, which may result in a change of mark, and, if there is a significant discrepancy between different forms of assessment (for example, homework and examinations, or submitted assignment and oral exam) this may be treated as a case of suspected academic misconduct.

Marks appeal and correction#

We aim to return assessment marks within two to three semester weeks of the deadline. However, it is not always possible to achieve this aim due to a large student number.

We do not remark assignments or exam. What we will do is correct errors in marking. You must demonstrate that an error has occurred by explicitly stating:

• Which marking item do you think is wrong?
• What mark should it be changed to?
• And why?

Inquiries should be sent to the course email.

Extenuating circumstances application#

If you are unable to attend a scheduled assessment (such as an exam) because of serious illness or other misfortune, you can fill an extenuating circumstances application.

Also, if you have attended an assessment, but you think that due to some unforeseeable and unavoidable circumstances (such as serious illness or other misfortune) you were unable to do as well as you would have done under normal circumstances, then you can also fill such kind of application.

The application form, along with detailed instructions (which you should read and understand before filling the form) are available at: https://www.anu.edu.au/students/program-administration/assessments-exams/extenuating-circumstances-application.

Education Access Plan#

If you have an education access plan (EAP), you may be granted extensions to homework/project assignments provided that this is stated in your EAP but you must notify the convener before the deadline.

If your EAP contains provisions for special exam arrangements (SEAs), we will adjust your exam submission deadline in the examination setup accordingly if applicable (other physical accomodations handled by the examinations office). It is your responsibility however to check the correctness of your EAP/SEAs before the exam date and to notify the conveners in case of any corrections.

For more information, see https://www.anu.edu.au/students/accessibility