FAQ list for Fall 2009 AST 2002 Section 0004
Make-ups
Q: I have to be out of town on a day that
we have class. Can I make up the
in-class work that I missed that day?
A: Only if your reason for being out of town counts as an excused
absence. An "excused" absense is one that is due to a religious
holiday, a UCF-sanctioned trip, a medical problem, or a death in
the immediate family.
Q: I had transportation problems on a
day we had class. Can I make up the in-class work that
I missed that day?
A: No, missing your bus or having a car breakdown doesn't
really count as an excused absence.
Q: How do I go about actually making up
the in-class work?
A: Show me documentation about your absence, and look up
on the course websites what you missed. You have about
10 days to make up the work and turn it in to me.
Generally, if you don't turn it in in a timely fashion,
I can't give you the points for it. If I get lax
on this, it becomes
a logistical nightmare to deal with lots of
late papers.
Q:I've already bought a plane ticket and
made travel plans for a day that we have class
(like around Thanksgiving).
Can I make up the in-class work
that I miss on that day?
A: No, unless it's UCF-sanctioned travel.
I expect you to be in class at every class period.
Q: I registered for the class at the end
of the first week, so I didn't come to class until the
second week. What should I do about the first week's
assignments?
A: First, come talk to me to tell me that you are in
fact a late-registrant. Then check out my website for a list of what we did
that first week before you registered. Do the assignments
as soon as you can and turn them in to me.
Exams
Q:I was sick on a day that we had an exam.
I've got a doctor's note; can I make up the exam?
A: Yes you can, but you must come to the one make-up time that
I schedule for that exam. It will be held at a time and place
that is announced in class.
Q: I'm on a UCF athletic squad and I
have to go to a meet/game/match on a day of an exam.
Can I make up the exam or take it early?
A: You can't take it early, but you can take the make-up. Taking it early
is out because that would compromise the security of
the exam. UCF-sanctioned travel is an excusable absence, so you
can attend the make-up.
Q: Why do you have only one
possible make-up time for an exam? Why can't I take
the make-up at a time conducive to my schedule?
A: For any given exam, we usually
have many students absent for excused reasons. It
would be a logistical and security nightmare to accommodate
them all individually.
It takes time and effort to create a make-up exam,
so I can't make totally new exams for every single
person that wants a make-up --- and that's what I'd have
to do if I allowed everyone to take a make-up whenever they want.
Please note that the make-up policy of the Department of
Physics gives the instructor wide latitude in
setting the parameters of make-up work. (Also, see the
next question.)
Q: I missed an exam for an excused reason, but
had a schedule conflict so I couldn't take the make-up. So
how is it fair that everybody else gets 4 chances to get
3 good exam grades and I only get 3?
A: Without more manpower, there's no way around it. Historically, many
people miss exams for excusable reasons. But again, it would take
too much effort to accommodate all of them individually. It is unfortunate,
but before we had this policy in Intro Astronomy, it was a nightmare
for the professors. Another way you might think about it is this:
there's no guarantee you would have done well on the exam you
missed. Our policy only seems unfair if you assume that you
would have done well on that exam. I don't mean to sound harsh
but often there's
no reason to believe that that assumption is true. If you assume that
you would have done poorly on the exam, it would have made absolutely no
difference to your course grade whether you had taken it or not.
Another way of thinking about this policy is to read
the Physics Department's make-up policy, which reads:
"At the discretion of the instructor, the make-up may take any reasonable
and appropriate form including (but not limited to) the following: giving
a replacement exam, replacing the missed work with the same score as a
later exam, allowing a 'dropped' exam,...."
From a certain point
of view, your "make-up" test is allowing
a dropping of the appropriate exam.
Q: Why don't you do a review before
each exam?
A: Partially because that would mean 4 fewer classes available
for you to learn material. But the real reason is that I don't
think you need a review. Before every exam, study your
homework assignments, your in-class assignments, the
lectures, the online tutorials.
The exam questions come from that, not verbatim, but
they will be similar.
Q: Generally, what's going to be on an exam?
A: There are basically 2 kinds of questions. Some questions
just ask you to recall facts or definitions that you've memorized.
Others ask you to apply what you've learned to a new situation.
Most questions are drawn from the homeworks, in-class assignments,
and lectures. Some questions are drawn from the main textbook.
Q: Can taking the final hurt my grade?
A: No, taking the final cannot hurt your grade (unless
you cheat on it and I catch you doing it; then you flunk).
Q: I missed one of the first three exams.
You say in the syllabus that
skipping the final won't hurt my grade; does that mean
that the exam I missed doesn't count?
A: Well, no, missing that earlier exam did hurt your grade in
the sense that right before you take the final
your course grade is
probably a D or an F (because you got a zero
on that missed exam). At that point, skipping the final
won't hurt your grade any further -- you'll still have that D or F.
For what it's worth, it's very hard to get a C or higher in
the course if you only have 2 exams with non-zero scores.
Q: Do you curve exams?
A: Not always.
Q: I only got 55% of the questions right
on my first exam! Did I fail?
A: Perhaps but perhaps not. After every exam I will tell you
that so-and-so many correct answers corresponds to
such-and-such many points toward your course grade. If for
this exam, 55% right corresponds to 55 points, then yes that's an F.
If 55% rights corresponds to 75 points, then no you didn't fail.
Q: Why are your exams so hard that the
class average is [whatever it happens to be]?
A: The exams are indeed challenging. However, in the
end I have to put everyone's course grade into the
scheme setup in the syllabus, so obviously if
the exam averages are 50%, I'm not going to give the entire
class Fs.
Furthermore, I have to attempt to keep the overall
difficulty of the exams approximately the same. This
is because otherwise it would not be fair to the
people that miss an exam that happens to be easier
or harder than average.
Also note that when it comes right down to it, the whole
"60%-70% is a D, 70%-80% is a C, etc..." construct is
artificial. It means that an instructor has to know
a priori that the exam is going to yield an average of 75%.
It is not always obvious that an exam is going to result
in such an average. So why not just forget about it and
create an exam that uses as much of the 0-100% range
as possible to differentiate between the abilities of students?
If you move past the psychological barrier of thinking that
a score of say 50% is always unambiguously automatically equivalent to
failure, then this exam philosophy is not a problem.
MasteringAstronomy (MA)
Q:I'm having a problem with MA that involves
[some symptom that's not mentioned in another question].
What should I do?
A: Contact our MA TA Zoe at XXXXXXX. Alternatively
you can contact MasteringSupport on the web at http://www.masteringsupport.com.
Q:I keep trying to register for your
course and it seems to work ok, but when I get to
the main page after I login, it keeps saying that I haven't
added any courses yet!
A: Try this: When you get to the page where you add the class
(at the point where you enter your PID and the MA93692 code),
you must hit the 'Save' button. What might be happening
is that on that screen you're hitting the return key instead
of actually clicking on the 'Save' button itself.
Q: When I'm registering, I can't seem to
use MA93692 when it asks for the access code.
What's wrong?
A: MA93692 is the course code, not the access code. The
access code is what comes with your textbook when you buy
it new. If you bought your textbook used, or didn't buy
the textbook at all, you'll need to buy an access code from
the MasteringAstronomy website itself, and pay for it
with a credit card. See, the MasteringAstronomy business
is a two step process. First you register for the service (using
the access code),
and then you enroll in the course (using MA93692).
Q: I did an assignment but it's
not appearing in my grades section of MasteringAstronomy.
What's wrong?
A: It's possible that you didn't submit it properly
or that the MA website had some glitch.
Contact me directly. If you saved a screen-grab or
some other form of what you did on the assignment, let me know.
Q: I'm doing the online homework on
MasteringAstronomy but I'm having trouble actually
submitting my answers (or some other technical problem).
What should I do?
A: Often Zoe (our MA TA) or the MA tech support people will be better able
to answer technical problems than I will. However, if it's
coming close to the due time of the homework, make
screen-grabs of your answers and of any other pages
that MA is showing you, and save them! That way at least
you'll have a way of showing that you actually did the
assignment.
Homework and In-Class Stuff
Q: Why are some of the assignments
you assign not graded?
A: Manpower. We don't have enough of it to grade
by hand all those papers. So we only grade a subset
of your work.
Q: Why should I even bother with homework
and in-class stuff when most of my course grade
comes through the exams?
A: While most of your course grade does indeed come from exams,
the other stuff is 40%. So for example if you got 70 on
all your exams -- which is a C average -- then you
could boost your course grade up to a B if you
had gotten 95% on all your homework and in-class stuff.
But the other reason to do all this other stuff is:
the exams are heavily based on
the assignments. In other words, if you can do the homework
and the in-class stuff, then you'll probably be able
to do well on the exams.
Q: I bought the clicker, how do I go
about getting it enrolled in the course?
A: The instructions are on the syllabus. You need to go to http://www.iclicker.com/registration
to register your clicker.
Q:Why aren't your assignments due
on a consistent day, or even at least in a
temporally sequential order?
A: Sheesh, is that so hard to keep track of? Welcome
to the real world, where deadlines come at you in all forms.
myUCF Grades
Q: I turned in an assignment (or I was
in class for clicker questions) but my grade isn't
appearing on myUCF grades. What's wrong?
A: There might be one of three reasons. The most likely
reason is that we haven't typed in the grades yet. Sometimes
this takes a while for us to do. Check back later.
The second reason is that we typed in all the grades
but for some reason accidentally skipped you. If the assignment
was a paper assignment, you can come to my office to find
your paper. If the assignment used clickers, there should
be an electronic record. You can contact me to find out what's up.
The third reason is least likely of all, and that
is we've lost your paper. Despite what you might think,
this just doesn't happen really very much. Unless
you or we can find the paper somewhere you're pretty much
out of luck.
Q: When I login to myUCF and
click on the AST 2002 Webcourses, I can't find my grades.
Where are they?
A: Don't go into the Webcourses part of myUCF; this course doesn't
use Webcourses. Your grades are in the myUCF Grades section
of myUCF. Go straight there when you login to myUCF, don't
try Webcourses.
Material
Q: You're putting your lecture slides
on line, so is there any reason I need to come to class?
A: Uh, yeah, duh! You'll probably grasp the material a lot better if you
actually see it being presented to you. Also there are all
those in-class assignments we're doing that will be easy points for you.
Course Grades
Q: I've got 399 points, a B-, and
I'm just 1 point away from the B level (400 points).
It's so close, can I just be moved up to a B?
A: I can't really do
that. That's not really fair to everyone else is it? If your performance
in the course isn't reflected in your grade, what's the point of
having grades at all? If that answer doesn't satisfy you, then
how about this: you're asking me to do something unethical by
changing your grade away from the one you earned in the course.
I won't do that. One way to make sure that this
problem doesn't happen in the first place
is to take advantage of the easy points in this course.
If you don't get the grade you want but didn't take advantage of
all that, then it's not really fair to come crying to me.
Q: I've got 399 points, a B-, and
I'm just 1 point away from the B level (400 points).
It's so close, can I just do some little bit
of extra credit so I can move up to a B?
A: I can't really do that. It's not fair to everyone else.
If I allow an extra credit, I have to give everyone the opportunity
to do it, not just one person.
Q: I'm a senior and I need to pass this
class to graduate. Can you just give me a
break?
A: I'd love to, but that wouldn't be fair to everyone else. You've
got to live with the grade you earn. That said, it's actually hard
to out-and-out fail my class if you put in the effort to do the homework, the
in-class stuff, and the extra credit assignments.
Q: I'm part of a group that requires me
to get a certain grade in this course if I'm to remain
a member. Can you give me a break?
A: I'd love to, but that wouldn't be fair to everyone else. You've
got to live with the grade you earn. One way to be sure this
problem doesn't
happen though is to take advantage of the easy points in this course.
If you don't get the grade you want but didn't take advantage of
all that, then it's not really fair to come crying to me.
Q: Don't I get "No Credit" (NC) on
my transcript if I get a D or an F in this course?
A: AST 2002 doesn't work that way. If you get a D or an F,
you get a D or an F.
Extra Credit
Q: I tried going to the Observatory to
do that extra credit, but it was cloudy all the time.
Can I do something else instead?
A: No, there's no substitute for the Observatory extra credit.
Unless it is cloudy at every single time during the semester
on which it is open, there's no recourse. You just have to
be diligent about going on a day when it's clear.
Q: I did the Observatory extra credit
but only got 4 out of the possible 10 points. What gives?
A: Probably you didn't write enough description. Certain objects
have a higher standard than others. For example, you should be able
to write a pretty long and detailed paragraph about the details of the Moon.
Same for Saturn, Jupiter, the Orion Nebula, and many clusters
of stars. Check the syllabus for hints about what to do.
Q: The first time I did the Observatory
extra credit, I got 4 points, and the second time I went
I got 9 points. Why is it that I see only 9 points on
myUCF grades and not 13?
A: You can't do an unlimited number of observatory visits
and get the cumulative amount of points. The points you get
is the points you get on your best assignment. Since 9 > 4,
you got 9 points.
Q: Where is Robinson Observatory?
A: Look on any campus map. Get to the water tower on
the corner of Gemini and Libra. Go south on Libra from
there. Pass the police station, and a little bit later
is a sign indicating Robinson Observatory is down
a road (Neptune Drive) on your left.