EF105 Procedures

## Communication Staying in regular communication with your peers, TAs, and Dr. Puretskiy will be crucial to stay up to date and get the assistance you need to have an enjoyable semester. Because the course instructors are responsible for a large number of students, it is important to follow some guidelines when using email: - Always send email from your `@vols.utk.edu` email address. Not that the Inbox feature on Canvas does *not* send email from your `@vols.utk.edu` email address. We do not check our Canvas inbox regularly, please send all email using an [actual email client](https://oit.utk.edu/email/volmail?target=_blank). - Start the subject line with "[EF 105]" followed by a brief but descriptive subject, e.g. ``` [EF 105] Mistake on Prep 1-1 ``` - In the body of the message, tell us what section (day and time) you are in. - When replying to an instructor from a class-wide email announcement, be sure to change the subject line to something specific about your question. Otherwise replies from different people with different questions will all show up under a single "conversation" on our end, which makes it difficult to keep track of who we've answered and who still needs an response. - Emails to your instructors are professional correspondence, while you do not need to be overly formal, use language that you would be comfortable using in a business setting. - Sign your message with the name you go by, even if it is different than the name that registered with UT. We make every effort to reply to emails within 24hours Monday-Friday, even if that reply is to tell you we need more time to find an answer to your question. While rare, it is possible that a message can get erroneously filtered into our "Junk" folder and we miss it. If you do not receive a reply within 48 hours excluding the weekend, it is fine to send a follow-up in case your first message got lost. ## Attendance and Missed Labs Our primary reason for tracking attendance is to ensure that you have regular reminders of the resources you have available to you to complete the material. If you miss a lab for any reason, complete a missed lab form to indicate a plan for completing required lab material. All lab assignments are accessible online, so deadline extensions are extremely rare. If you have to miss class, you are encouraged to complete the corresponding assignment from home. Lab attendance points are connected to in-class activities and generally cannot be made up if the student misses class (unless it is due to a legal requirement or university requirement). However, attendance points constitute a very small percentage of the overall grade. Missing one attendance grade corresponds to something like "-0.2%" from the student's overall class average. - [Missed Lab From](/ef105-2023-08/gen/labmiss.php) ## Exam Absence All students are expected to take their exams at the regularly-scheduled time, in the classroom (or the SDS Testing Center, if the student secured the accommodation from SDS). Exceptions are very rare. Make-up exams will only be given in the event of: 1) Major emergency (e.g., car accident, serious illness involving physical incapacitation), with proper documentation. 2) Legal obligation (e.g., jury duty, military orders), with proper documentation. 3) Obligation to University (e.g., athletic competition or other university-sponsored event involving required travel), with proper documentation. Please note that it is your responsibility to be aware of the University of Tennessee Academic Calendar. Do not request exam rescheduling to accommodate your travel plans. ## Grading Questions For any grading concerns or clarifications, your GTA should be your first point of contact. If, after discussing your concern with your GTA, you decide an existing grade needs review, please send an email to Dr. Puretskiy at apuretsk@utk.edu with the following information: - The exact assignment (name, original due date) that you are requesting a review of, and the name of your GTA. - A brief, but complete and clear description of what you are appealing and why. - A 1-2 sentence summary of what you discussed with your GTA (including the GTA's response to your initial appeal). - Please note that leaving out that last part does not increase the odds of the appeal being approved. It just results in the process taking longer, as that information will need to be obtained from the GTA, which will take additional time. For consideration, you must send this email from your UTK email address within one week of the grade being posted. Grade appeals initiated later than that will not be considered. !! To report missing grades, e.g. rubric items not filled in, you may just report without justification or explaination. You will have one week from the time the correction is made to request a re-grade on that item.