General Policies#

Anti-Bias Statement:#

We respect the rights and dignity of each individual and group. We reject prejudice and intolerance, and we work to understand differences. We believe that equity and inclusion are critical components for campus community members to thrive. If you are a target or a witness of a bias incident, you are encouraged to submit a report to the URI Bias Response Team at www.uri.edu/brt. There you will also find people and resources to help.

Disability, Access, and Inclusion Services for Students Statement#

Your access in this course is important. Please send me your Disability, Access, and Inclusion (DAI) accommodation letter early in the semester so that we have adequate time to discuss and arrange your approved academic accommodations. If you have not yet established services through DAI, please contact them to engage in a confidential conversation about the process for requesting reasonable accommodations in the classroom. DAI can be reached by calling: 401-874-2098, visiting: web.uri.edu/disability, or emailing: dai@etal.uri.edu. We are available to meet with students enrolled in Kingston as well as Providence courses.

Academic Honesty#

Students are expected to be honest in all academic work. A student’s name or email address associated with a commit on any written work, quiz or exam shall be regarded as assurance that the work is the result of the student’s own independent thought and study. Work should be stated in the student’s own words, properly attributed to its source. Students have an obligation to know how to quote, paraphrase, summarize, cite and reference the work of others with integrity. The following are examples of academic dishonesty:

  • Using material, directly or paraphrasing, from published sources (print or electronic) without appropriate citation

  • Claiming disproportionate credit for work not done independently

  • Unauthorized possession or access to exams

  • Unauthorized communication during exams

  • Unauthorized use of another’s work or preparing work for another student

  • Taking an exam for another student

  • Altering or attempting to alter grades

  • The use of notes or electronic devices to gain an unauthorized advantage during exams

  • Fabricating or falsifying facts, data or references

  • Facilitating or aiding another’s academic dishonesty

  • Submitting the same paper for more than one course without prior approval from the instructors

Tip

Assignments are tested against LLMs and designed so that they require you to learn and that an LLM answer will be low quality and not earn credit.

All of your work must reflect your own thinking and understanding. The written work in English that you submit must all be your own work or content that was provided to you in class, it cannot include text that was generated by an AI or plagiarized in any other way. You may use auto-complete in all tools incuding, IDE-integrated GitHub co-pilot (or similar, IDE embedded tool) for any code that is required for this course because the code is necessary to demonstrate examples, but language syntax is not the core learning outcome.

If you are found to submit prismia responses that do not reflect your own thinking or that of discussion with peers as directed, the experience badge for that class session will be ineligible.

If work is suspected to be the result of inappropriate collaboration or AI use, you will be allowed to take an oral exam in lab time to contest and prove that your work reflects your own understanding.

The first time you will be allowed to appeal through an oral exam. If your appeal is successful, your counter resets. If you are found to have violated the policy then the badge in question will be ineligible and your maximum number of badges possible to be earned will be limited according to the guidelines below per badge type (you cannot treat the plagiarized badge as skipped). If you are found to have violated the policy a second time, then no further work will be graded for the remainder of the semester.

If you are found to submit work that is not your own for a review or practice badge, the review and practice badges for that date will be ineligible and the penalty free zone terms will no longer apply to the first six badges.

If you are found to submit work that is not your own for an explore or build badge, that badge will not be awarded and your maximum badges at the level possible will drop to 2/3 of the maximum possible.

Viral Illness Precautions#

The University is committed to delivering its educational mission while protecting the health and safety of our community. Students who are experiencing symptoms of viral illness should NOT go to class/work. Those who test positive for COVID-19 should follow the isolation guidelines from the Rhode Island Department of Health and CDC.

If you miss class, you do not need to notify me in advance. You can follow the makeup procedures.

Excused Absences#

Absences due to serious illness or traumatic loss, religious observances, or participation in a university sanctioned event are considered excused absences.

You do not need to notify me in advance.

For short absences (1-2 classes) for any reason, you can follow the makeup procedures.

For extended excused absences, email Dr. Brown when you are ready to get caught up and she will help you make a plan for the best order to complete missed work so that you are able to participate in subsequent activities. Extensions on badges will be provided if needed for excused absences. In your plan, include what class sessions you missed by date.

For unexcused absences, the makeup procedures apply, but not the assistance plan via email, only regularly scheduled office hours unless you have class during all of those hours and then you will be allowed to use a special appointment.

Mental Health and Wellness:#

We understand that college comes with challenges and stress associated with your courses, job/family responsibilities and personal life. URI offers students a range of services to support your mental health and wellbeing, including the URI Counseling Center, MySSP (Student Support Program) App, the Wellness Resource Center, and Well-being Coaching.