REQUIREMENTS, EXPECTATIONS AND ASSESSMENT
The student should be fully predisposed to learn, promote a good environment that encourages all their partners to be engaged with each session and eager to acquire more IT knowledge. As mentioned before, both individual and team work are tested and evaluated, and the attendance, motivation and collaboration with the discussions that will take place in each session will be positively considered. Additionally, we expect that every particular student:
- Attend the sessions, as you will need all the knowledge explained in each one of the 41 sessions to succeed in the overall evaluation. And more importantly, you will need to integrate all the knowledge to fully understand what IT software means for the business and how you can effectively use it. Obviously, the attendance will be controlled and taken into account in the evaluation. Moreover, exercises performed in class will be evaluated there, so no attendance will imply a zero in that particular checkpoint (although you will have the option to deliver it online). Finally we want to note that it is not possible to miss class when you are scheduled to give a presentation, hand-in exercises or take an exam.
- Be punctual, since this will be also taken into account in the evaluation. Anyone who arrives 10 minutes later than the starting of the session won´t be allowed to enter the class -unless there are exceptional circumstances-.
- Participate, because class participation is a must for the grade. Therefore, it is important that students come to class with the readings, exercises, activities or other materials prepared, willing to interact and discuss them meaningfully. Some topics will be based on home prepared materials while other topics will focus on brainstorming and class activities. You will be assessed on the quality of your comments and the way you do it.
- Meet deadlines, as they will not be rescheduled. Meeting due dates is a key in both academical and professional life. This policy applies for all assignments, exercises, presentations and activities. Late submissions are not accepted or will be penalized, depending on the case - this will be dealt with when the situation requires it-. An activity that is not submitted implies 0 points for that particular task.
- Demonstrate academic integrity in all of your work. If you are caught cheating in any form on exams, plagiarizing or rehashing in exercises, activities, assignments, presentations or handing in work you did not do, this will mean a failing final grade for the course without exceptions. Be sure your work is your own. You are responsible for citing all sources and references on which you rely, using quotation marks when language is taken directly from others´ work, and knowing how to use your own language to paraphrase a source (hint: changing a few words is not sufficient). If you cite a direct quote, you must provide a reference with a page number for the citation. Try to find rich sources and not rely only on the typical -and sometimes non-trustworthy- ones (i.e. Wikipedia).
- Follow the cell phones & laptops policy. Cell-phones are off limits during class: no calls - no text messaging-. No cell-phones are allowed on the table to check the time. If you have an emergency situation that requires you to be contacted quickly during class time, let your professor know at the beginning of class and an exception may be made if the professor considers so. As you will have PCs in order to do the exercises proposed in each class, laptops won´t be allowed -except under the professor´s permission and with the only purpose of taking notes or performing activities or exams-. In case the professor suspects they are used for other purposes they will be banned and the student will have to leave the class, implying an absence.
EVALUATION GUIDELINES
The Course grade will be based on the following point breakdown:
35% Individual Exercises: Block Exercises performed at the end of critical blocks.
25% Team Project: Performed during the course and enclosing all the topics explained in class.
40% Final Exam on June: Midterm exam will help to release blocks.
Daily assignments are not included in the overall course grade.
Prerequisite to pass this course is to achieve a mark of 4 out of 10 in all the segments of the breakdown, with an overall average of 4.5 out of 10 to pass the course.
In case you fail the subject in the ordinary call, you can try to pass the subject in the extraordinary call. For that purpose you will need to:
- Pass the July exam (retake exam).
- Solve a new set of Block exercises specifically designed for this retake (block ex. retake) - that will be evaluated in September.

- Solve a new Project specifically designed for this retake individually (Project retake) - that will be evaluated in September.
You will only need to do the retakes of a part when you´ve a mark below 4. If you´ve all parts with a mark above 4 but the average is below 4.5 you can will need to retake one of the three parts (you can choose the one you want).
Quality participation, attitude, daily in & out-of-class effort, and rich feedback provided will be positively evaluated and will help the student to increase their final mark, with a maximum increase of 1 point if exceptional participation and attitude take place. So attitude and daily effort can become a real help at the end of the course.
Additional considerations:
- Revision Date: The revision date will be detailed in the exam sheet. This date will be also reminded in the forum of the subject.
- In case of repeating the course: Students should attend the course and follow the regular course policy. They will be evaluated with the same methodology. They can optionally attend to the sessions but they should deliver all exercises, block exercises and attend to all exams. No exceptions will be considered.
- In case of absence: Please ensure that you notify the teachers in advance (if possible). You will be asked to bring a proof that explains the reason for the absence (it depends on the case: illness, etc.). Keep in mind that despite absences are understood if properly justified, all deliverables need to be done and properly delivered in time.
- In case of copy in an exam: You will fail that exam and you will be directly asked to do July´s retake, so be careful and avoid copying and being copied. Special meetings will be arranged with the student, the teacher and the director of the master in order to manage these cases. Special actions may be considered.
- In case of copy in a deliverable: You will fail that block of deliverables (meaning that you will need to do the daily exercises retake if it´s a daily exercise, the block exercise retake if it´s a block exercise and the project retake if it´s a project), so be careful and avoid copying and being copied. Special actions may be considered.
Additional Remarks:
- Final exam will take place within the first two weeks of June, 2015.
- Exam retakes will take place on the week of July 7th, 2015.
- The rest of retakes will have the deadline on August 31st, 2015.
- In case a session needs to be cancelled, schedule will be re-adjusted.