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Math 18 Fall 2020 Syllabus
Course Title: Linear Algebra
Textbook: Linear Algebra and Its Applications, sixth
edition, by David C. Lay; published by Pearson. Note that the sixth edition of this book is available as an ebook only, and you
are automatically granted access to this ebook when you purchase your online homework code.
Homework: There are three types of assignments in this class: online homework, "exploratory
activities", and MATLAB homework. The online homework will be your main coursework throughout the quarter, and you access
it through the "MyLab and Mastering" link on your Canvas course page. The
exploratory activities include watching short videos and completing surveys and are graded for effort and completion rather than
correctness; these assignments will be posted on Gradescope.
Finally, the
MATLAB assignments are programming exercises that will familiarize you with the MATLAB language
as well as illustrate some of the topics of the course. You will also have a short MATLAB quiz during the last week of
the quarter. For more details and to access the MATLAB assignments, refer to the Math 18
MATLAB page.
- Online Homework Policies:
- You have an unlimited number of attempts to correctly complete each online homework problem.
- Late online homework problems will be accepted up to 24 hours after the due date;
however, there is a late penalty of 50%. The late penalty is applied only to the
problems which are
submitted late, and not to the entire
assignment.
- No online homework scores will be dropped at the end of the quarter.
Exploratory Activity Policies:
- You will receive full credit on an activity as long as you follow the directions and submit the activity on time.
- Late activities will not be accepted.
- Your lowest activity score will be dropped at the end of the
quarter.
MATLAB Homework Policies:
- Late MATLAB
homework will not be accepted.
- No MATLAB homework scores will be dropped at the end of the quarter.
Quizzes/Exams:
- Quizzes
- There will be no makeup quizzes. In order to account for the possibility that students may miss a quiz due to
illness, scheduling issues, or technological issues, we will drop each student's lowest quiz score at the end of the quarter.
Thus, if you miss one quiz, your score of zero will be dropped so that the missed quiz will not have an adverse effect
on your overall grade.
- For more detailed information about quizzes, please refer to your course Canvas page.
Exams
- Our current plan is that we will not have any midterm exams and that we will have a final project instead of a
final exam. But the year 2020 has laughed at pretty much all of our plans so far. Thus, in case of
emergency,
please keep free the times which are already reserved in your schedule for the Math 18 midterms and final exam, namely
Thursday, October 29th from 19:00-20:20 PDT, Thursday, November 19th from 19:00-20:20 PST, and Saturday, December
12th from 11:30-14:30 PST.
Final Project: You will submit a five minute video in which you present your solution to a problem. The problems
that you can choose from will be announced no later than 11/28/2020, and the video will be due by 12/16/2020.
Grades:
Your cumulative course average will be calculated according to the following formula:
- 6% Matlab Homework (all assignments equally weighted)
- 4% Matlab Quiz
- 10% Exploratory Activities (lowest activity score dropped, all non-dropped
activity scores equally weighted)
- 35% Online Homework (overall online homework score computed as total number of points awarded
divided by 168 -- the total points possible)
- 40% Quizzes (lowest quiz score dropped, all non-dropped quiz scores equally weighted)
- 5% Final Project
Letter grades will be assigned
based on the standard grading scale:
A |
A- |
B+ |
B |
B- |
C+ |
C |
C- |
[93,100] |
[90,93) |
[87,90) |
[83,87) |
[80,83) |
[77,80) |
[73,77) |
[70,73) |
Important Notes:
(1) We may adjust the above scale to be more lenient (depending on the overall
class performance), but we guarantee
that we will not
adjust
the scale to make it harder to get a better grade.
(2) In order to receive a passing grade, you must complete the final project and your overall quiz average (after dropping your lowest
quiz score) must be at least 60%. If you do not complete the final project of if your quiz average is below 60%, then you
will not
pass the
class, regardless of your cumulative course average.
Academic Dishonesty: Academic dishonesty is
considered
a serious offense at
UCSD. Students caught cheating will face an administrative
sanction which may include
suspension or expulsion from the university. It is in your best
interest to maintain
your integrity. (Click
here
for more
information.)
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