Participation Policies

Every week, you will be eligible for 4 participation credits. You will receive:

  • 1 credit for attending one lecture,
  • 1 credits for attending discussion, and
  • 0.5 credits for making one well thought-out comment on any Ed thread.
    • Note: This could be a comment on a past week’s thread. For instance, if you make a comment in Week 4 on one of the Week 3 Lecture Threads, you will get 0.5 credits for Week 4, not Week 3.
    • If you are making a comment, and not asking a question, please make sure to resolve your comment.
    • We have more documentation on commenting tips that we recommend reading through.

You cannot receive more than 4 credits for a given week.
For example, you may attend all four lectures for full credit. Another way to receive full credit would be to attend two lectures, one discussion, and make two well thought-out answers posted on any Ed thread.

Fill out the attendance form linked on the main page every week to get credit (https://forms.gle/HddJW5B4NcBmCs788)

Taking attendance in lecture

We will distribute a Google form at a random time during lecture to take attendance. Please fill out the form only if you are present in the lecture hall. At some point during the semester we will audit to check the authenticity of your response. Any sign of dishonesty will be regarded as a student misconduct and result in 0 participation credit throughout the semester.

A Reminder on “Meaningful Answers” Online

  • Our overarching goal is to build an intellectual community conversation around Ed threads to ask questions, clarify, debate and expand on the material, to enrich the material for collective learning. Think of it as a collective conversation beyond just the lecture slides, where you can ask questions, delve deeper into the topics discussed in class, and talk about any personal experiences you have with the topics! These comments can help you in learning concepts, implementing assignments, and studying for exams.
  • Please remember this is an academic platform! Be respectful, thoughtful, and intellectually engaged.
  • We encourage comments such as thoughtful questions about something you didn’t understand, clarifications or alternative derivations that you think may help your classmates, or sharing relevant outside resources that enrich what what is presented in the lecture.
  • Instead of: “Whoa, this is cool!”, Try: “Whoa, this fur rendering model is cool! It was actually used in “War for Planet of the Apes” for the first time. Here’s a write-up from the developers that explains…”
  • Instead of: “Can someone explain this?”, Try: “I’m not sure how we got the final result here. I understand that blah blah blah, but I thought that blah blah blah.”
  • Staff may ask questions on threads that are meant to spark discussion and answer questions that go unaddressed, but we are hoping most discussion happens between students! We may occasionally make constructive requests to expand on your comment if we feel that is appropriate.