Assessment
It is my intent to design assessments that are a source of intellectual curiosity, joy, and learning rather than a source of stress. Assessments serve the purpose of measuring how much you have learned (i.e. how much you have achieved of the course goals). I would recommend you to first focus on your learning, then grades will follow.
In-Class Quizzes
In-Class quizzes are opportunity to practice as you are learning during the lectures. The questions will be asked sporadically throughout the lectures. You can discuss quiz questions with your neighbors in class, check notes, use internet etc. You will be graded for participation, not for correctness. You need to be attending the lecture and respond to all questions in order to receive the participation point. If you are not participating in lecture or have someone else participate for quizzes on your behalf, this will be considered academic misconduct. Note that during week zero we will have online quizzes which will be graded for correctness.
Homework Assignments
At the end of Wednesday after weekly topics are completed you will be assigned a homework on these topics. You will have until the following lecture to finish the homework assignments. In other words, homework assignments will be due at 9:25 am on Mondays. For homework assignments, you can use books and notes, talk to other people in your class, use online resources including generative AI however there are some limitations. See Section 3.4.
Midterm Exam
Midterm exam will be held in-person, in-class on Oct 29th at 9:30 - 10:50 am. You will work individually on the exam. It will be a closed-book exam. You will not need a calculator and thus you will not be allowed to use one.
Project
You will complete a project with a team mostly in the second half of the quarter. The project will consist of hands-on data analysis. You will apply the methods learned in this course to answer a question(s) that interests you. The project will have multiple components starting in the second half of the quarter. Two of the many components of the project is the proposal and the presentation. You are expected to submit a proposal by Nov 5th at 5:00 pm and submit a final video presentation, along with the final state of data analysis by Dec 10 at 7:30 am. You will notice that our allocated final exam time for this class is Dec 10 at 8:00 - 10:00 am. Since we do not have a final exam, during this time, you will be assigned to watch three other groups’ videos and evaluate them. Note that if we notice a big discrepancy in the amount of team members amount of work, then we hold the right to assign different grades to different team members.
Grading
The following weights will be adopted in calculating the total grade.
Weights
| Component | Weight |
|---|---|
| In-Class Quizzes | 10% |
| Homework Assignments | 20% |
| Midterm Exam | 30% |
| Project | 40% |
Letter Grades
The weighted percentage score will be assigned a letter grade based on the following scheme:
| Weighted Total Percentage | Letter Grade |
|---|---|
| 96.5 - 100 | A+ |
| 93.5 - 96.499 | A |
| 90 - 93.499 | A- |
| 86.5 - 89.999 | B+ |
| 83.5 - 86.499 | B |
| 80 - 83.499 | B- |
| 76.5 - 79.999 | C+ |
| 73.5 - 76.499 | C |
| 70 - 73.499 | C- |
| 66.5 - 69.999 | D+ |
| 63.5 - 66.499 | D |
| 60 - 63.499 | D- |
| 59.999 and below | F |
Late Work Policy and Excused Absences
Late work is not accepted except for homework assignments. Every student will be excused ONCE up to 48 hours late submission. You do not need to email the reader (aka grader) about this. For students who have already used their late submission excuse once, then the following late penalty will apply.
On homework assignments if the submission is later than the due date and time, then 25% of the achieved total grade will be deducted for every 12 hours that the submission is late. For example, if you were to get 12 points out of 15 on a homework assignment and you submitted 15 hours late then your score would be 6 points. It is recommended that you start working on the homework early and not leave it until the last minute to avoid any technological or personal issues. Starting early would also give you ample opportunity to attend office hours.
It is possible that during the quarter, other events may affect your learning. This can be but not limited to sickness, religious holiday, attending a conference, playing professional sports, feeling down, flat tire, roommate issues, canceled/delayed flight, wanting to/needing to travel, or any other reason you can think of. In such cases, you will be excused from two in-class quizzes with no questions asked. You do not need to email me about it. I would advise you to be mindful of that there are only 2 excused allowances for missing the quizzes. That already makes up about 10% of the quarter. Anything beyond 2 excused absences will be assigned zero. If you have an event going in your life that impacts your learning more than a week then I would advise you to talk to me (without waiting for the end of the quarter) to discuss your options. It’s best to discuss such high impact events during office hours.
Midterm and project are required components of the class and cannot be excused. For any needs regarding these assignments you can discuss it with me in a timely manner.
Re-grade Requests
While we will try our best to make sure that your grade is correct, it is possible for us to make minor mistakes in grading unfortunately. Thus, we strongly encourage you to go over your assignments to check for the correctness of your grade. You should immediately notify us if there are any errors. For all assignments other than the final, you have one-week after receiving feedback and grade from us to ask for regrading to correct any errors. For assignments on Gradescope you can send regrade requests directly within Gradescope. For others, you can email your TA and add me to CC field of the email. Note that the grade on Canvas Gradebook will be the official grade and you should check for its correctness.
Getting Help
Office Hours
I would highly encourage you to attend office hours and you can attend any office hour(s) of your choice. Attending office hours is an effective way to ask me or your TA questions you may have. They are also a great time to just chat with us if it is not too crowded :)
We want to be mindful of you who commute to campus so if you’d choose to attend office hours virtually, we will also be available online via zoom. The hours and locations can be checked under People. You will need to use your UCI zoom account to attend the zoom meeting.
Online Discussion
We will have an online forum. While communicating online, please note the following:
Before posting a question, please make sure that the same question has not been posted before.
Respect opinions of others.
If you choose to post memes or any jokes, be mindful. Any joke about a person, or a group of people, or cultures is not funny. However, statistics and data science jokes are always welcome.
There are absolutely no stupid questions. Do not feel shy about asking questions. Do not judge anyone about any question that they ask. You can post anonymously. Others would not know who you are but I would know who you are.
If somebody asks a question about homework etc. do not reveal answers for them. Instead, help them learn and show them in which lecture we have covered the topic.
Be generous with likes. That means when you read something useful like the post, so that we all know that we are not talking to ourselves but to each other.
Answer each other’s questions.
Please do not email me about course content unless it is private to you. If you are running into an issue, it is very likely that someone else is also having the same issue. Please post on the discussion forum so that we can all learn together. You can post anonymously on the discussion forum which would hide your name from peers. This way I would only answer the question once and everyone can benefit. In fact, your TA or one of your peers may even answer it before I do. You can get a much quicker response.
While communicating over email, please make sure the email - has an informative subject line including the course code. - articulates your question or problem well. - has a closing statement such as Sincerely, Kind Regards* etc. - has your name at the end.
Here is a sample email:
Subject: STATS 6 - Your Subject
Dear Dr. Dogucu,
I hope you are doing well (or some other humane sentence). I am writing to you regarding ______________ (Your concern or problem). (Any explanations, requests or suggestions for solutions to your problem)
Sincerely/Kind regards,
Your name
Getting Help from Other People and Generative AI Tools
For any assignment other than the midterm, you can receive help from your peers and generative AI tools. The midterm is in-person and closed book. I would recommend you to use ZotGPT Class Chat if you would like to get help from generative AI. Remember that even though Class Chat is utilized for our own class, generative AI responses can be incorrect. Use at your own risk. General rules about getting help from peers and AI-like tools include the following.
- Use tools and discuss with people to LEARN. Do not use tools or discuss with people to simply copy and submit the assignment.
- Do not copy as is from the internet or your peers or any other person.
- Do not pay someone or a website to do the work for you.
- The work you submit should be reflective of your understanding. In other words, the teaching assistant and I hold the right to question you anytime about your submission. If you cannot answer about, discuss, articulate what you have submitted then we might look further into if the work submitted is not yours or copied and take appropriate action.
TLDR; Use tools or people to help you learn BUT acknowledge in detail how this helped your learning.
Collaboration Hours
This is a social class where you are encouraged to talk to each other, discuss ideas and concepts. In addition to getting help from your professor, and TAs, you can also get help from your peers while complying to aforementioned policies. You can get together online with your peers at 3:30 - 5:30 pm on Fridays. During these hours, professor or TAs will not be present.
Academic Honesty
You are expected to comply to the rules set by the Office of Academic Integrity and Student Conduct. This syllabus (i.e., course website) clearly labels instructions on when and how you can work with others, tools you can use, and under what conditions. If there are no instructions for any assignments, you should assume that the work should be completed by you only from start to finish without help of others and AI tools like ChatGPT. Academic dishonesty includes, for example, cheating on examinations or any assignment, plagiarism of any kind (including improper citation of sources), having someone else take an examination or complete an assignment for you (or doing it for someone else), or any activity in which you represent someone else’s work as your own. Violations of academic integrity will be referred to the Office of Academic Integrity and Student Conduct. You cannot share or distribute solutions online or offline or in any media now or in the future. You cannot obtain solutions from others. If there is evidence of academic misconduct , intentionally or unintentionally, YOU MAY FAIL THE CLASS. This rule applies even if you violate the policies of this course on a single problem, on an assignment, the whole assignment or multiple assignments. No matter what the degree of academic dishonesty is, you may fail the class. It is your responsibility to protect your answers being copied. Make sure not to save work on shared folders. It may be difficult to distinguish helping each other learn and cheating together. If you are unsure of the distinction check with me before hand.
Dissability Accomodations
University of California, Irvine is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for all persons with permanent or temporary disabilities. This syllabus is available in alternate formats upon request. If you have a disability that impacts your participation in this class, please contact the Disability Services Center (DSC) as soon as possible. Students approved for accommodations will notify the instructor by sending out a Faculty Notification Letter from the DSC website. Disability Services Center - Continuing Education 3, Bldg #234 www.dsc.uci.edu - (949) 824-7494
Diversity
The University of California, Irvine, in accordance with applicable Federal and State law and University policy, does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, pregnancy, physical or mental disability, medical condition (cancer-related or genetic characteristics), ancestry, marital status, age, sexual orientation, citizenship, or service in the uniformed services. The University also prohibits sexual harassment. This nondiscrimination policy covers admission, access, and treatment in University programs and activities.
Inclusion
My goal is to make everyone (yes, that includes you too) feel welcome, not only in my classroom but also in the field of statistics and data science. If there is any reason you do not feel welcome in this class, please talk to me. If anything is said to you that makes you feel uncomfortable, please talk to me. If there is any life event that is interfering with your learning in this class, please talk to me. I may not be able to solve all your problems, but I may be able to direct you to the right resources on campus.
Course Material Distribution
Selling, preparing, or distributing for any commercial purpose course lecture notes or video or audio recordings of any course unless authorized by the University in advance and explicitly permitted by the course instructor in writing. The unauthorized sale or commercial distribution of course notes or recordings by a student is a violation of these Policies whether or not it was the student or someone else who prepared the notes or recordings.
Subject to Change
Everything on the syllabus is subject to change depending on any unexpected circumstances that might arise during the quarter. I hold the right to make modifications in a way to improve the learning process of student(s).