Three or more unexcused absences result in a No Credit for the course. Students should sign in with the TA every class; if you forget, it counts as an absence, and that’s on you to remember since it can’t be fixed after the fact. Classes are recorded, so a student who misses one can catch up on the content, though this does not substitute for attendance credit. If something comes up, just communicate: respect and transparency go a long way, and that’s what the Remote Attendance section on the Course Home page is there for.
Students are asked not to use AI tools such as ChatGPT, Copilot, or Claude to complete their weekly assignments, particularly in the first half of the semester, while core skills are still being built by hand. The reasoning is straightforward: without understanding what the underlying concept is actually doing, a student cannot tell when an AI tool’s suggestion is wrong, or adapt it to their own work. This course builds that understanding first, one concept at a time, so that later, when AI tools do assist, students can read and verify what is produced rather than trusting it blindly.
A required workshop on using AI tools well takes place in Week 14, once the fundamentals are solid enough for AI to help rather than become a crutch.