Academic Integrity: Students in this course will be expected to comply with the University of Pittsburgh’s Policy on Academic Integrity. Any student suspected of violating this obligation for any reason during the semester will be required to participate in the procedural process, initiated at the instructor level, as outlined in the University Guidelines on Academic Integrity. To learn more about Academic Integrity, visit the Academic Integrity Guide for an overview of the topic. For hands-on practice, complete the Academic Integrity Modules.

Attendance: Class attendance, while not mandatory, is required if you want to succeed in this course, especially since the course does not have any course book and it involves a lot of in-class discussions and activities. If you have missed the lecture, make sure that you have a copy of the slides. All the lecture materials will be uploaded online. The class participation credit is engineered to encourage your active participation during the class.

Late Submissions: Homework or projects submitted after due date will be accepted, but your objective grade will be scaled so that you lose 10% of the grade for every late working day. I.e., if you submit your work one week late, you will lose 70% of the grade.

Religious Observances: The University of Pittsburgh strives to foster a supportive environment and to respect the beliefs and values of all community members. Accordingly, recognizing that certain students may observe religious holidays (activities observed by a religious group of which a student is a member) and cultural practices that conflict with scheduled class activities, instructors will work with students to try to make reasonable accommodations in the event of such a conflict.

At the beginning of the semester, you should review the course requirements to identify foreseeable conflicts with assignments, exams, or other required attendance. If you identify a conflict, please contact your instructor (or your course coordinator/s), ideally within the first two weeks of the first class meeting, to allow time to discuss and attempt to make fair and reasonable adjustments to the schedule and/or tasks.

Disability Services: The University of Pittsburgh is committed to inclusive and accessible education experiences for all students. If you have a disability for which you are, or may be, requesting an accommodation, you are encouraged to contact Disability Resources and Services (DRS), 140 William Pitt Union, (412) 648-7890, drsrecep@pitt.edu, as early as possible in the term. DRS will engage in a review process with you to determine eligibility and reasonable accommodations. If you are already registered with DRS, please complete the necessary steps on the DRS Student Portal to utilize your accommodations this term.

Statement on Classroom Recording: To ensure the free and open discussion of ideas, students may not record classroom lectures, discussion and/or activities without the advance written permission of the instructor, and any such recording properly approved in advance can be used solely for the student’s own private use.

An important note on plagiarism: Cheating and plagiarism will not be tolerated. Students caught cheating or plagiarizing will receive no credit for the assignment on which the cheating occurred. Additional actions -- including assigning the student a failing grade in the class or referring the case for disciplinary action -- may be taken at the discretion of the instructors. You may incorporate excerpts from publications by other authors, but they must be clearly marked as quotations and properly attributed. You may obtain copy editing assistance, and you may discuss your ideas with others, but all substantive writing and ideas must be your own or else be explicitly attributed to another, using a citation sufficiently detailed for someone else to easily locate your source.