Course requirements are as follows:

1. Completion of 5 homework assignments. These are accessed in the assignments area in blackboard. Please pay attention to the due dates and don't fall behind. In addition, failure to turn in an assignment results in an automatic -10 points recorded for that assignment (that's worse than a zero).
   
   Assignments will be submitted via a Web upload form that is embedded in each assignment. Please use that instead of email.
   
   Homework is generally graded on a level of effort scale. Some students clearly blow off the homework until the very last minute while others are more conscientious. Homework questions or simulations should be done as completely as possible relative to the information that is available to help answer the question.
   
   A growing problem with the homework questions is the increasing tendency for students to cut and paste the content of a web site, completely, without citation, and submit that as their answer. Such practice is easily detected so please refrain from doing so . The proper approach to the homework questions is for you to access relevant source material and synthesize a response to the question in your own words.
   
   
2. Completion of 1 midterm and 1 final exam. The midterm will cover the first 6 modules and material in the first 3 homework assignments. The final is comprehensive but also *optional*. Note: most all students that take this course end up *not* taking the final as they are satisfied with their grade based on the completed homework assignments and midterm exam.
   
   The final is optional and is a risk/reward exam. You should only take it if you think you have a reasonable chance of improving your grade. A poor performance on the final will definitely lower your grade. If you take the final, that grade will be averaged with your midterm grade to produce a composite point total (out of 150).
   
   Both exams will be linked from the home page during the indicated range of dates. You are required to take the exams during these time periods.
   
   The exam format consists of a series of short answer or multiple choice questions and will be taken using a Web form. The exam is an open notes exam and you will have four hours to complete the exam from the time you first access the exam to the time you submit it. Note: in practice you can finish the exam in much less than four hours, but sometimes there are network difficulties, real life difficulties, etc.
   
   General information about the exams can be found in the course documents page.
   
   After you have completed 3 homework assignments and taken the midterm, a new entry called Interim Grade will appear in the gradebook on blackboard. This interim grade will be based on your weighted average, which will be updated with each homework assignment submitted after the first 3.

   The weighted averages that correspond to letter grades are as follows:

   
    * 95% and above A+
    * 90% – 95% A
    * 87% – 90% A-
    * 83% – 87% B+
    * 78% – 83% B
    * 72% – 78% B-
    * 66% – 72% C+
    * 60% – 66% C
    * 50% – 60% C- 
    

3. There is a class discussion/forum page available within Blackboard. Use this to ask questions, discuss ideas, etc. This is an asynchronous discussion page and not a real time chat room. I will responded to posted questions here usually within 24 hours of their post, if not sooner.
   
   Points of contact in this class are as follows:
   
   For content related questions about the course material please contact:

   nuts@bigmoo.uoregon.edu (the Professor)

   For registration or procedural questions please contact

   sfaust@uoregon.edu

   Finally, to adequately access all the material in this course you need to have a web browser that recognizes both JAVA and Flash. Virtually any modern day browser has this capability. Firefox is recommended for this course, but not required.
   
   There is no required textbook for this course.