Where to go. What to do.

INSTRUCTOR: John McCuan (Email: gtfall21 pm.me )
209 Skiles

Registration, Student Services, etc.


Class time: TTh 12:30-1:45PM, Room 423 Cluck Commons

Class Attendance and Comment on Rona: There is a distance learning section of this course (the Q section). This means all lectures will be available in some recorded format. I also plan to make those recordings available to all students in all sections. So, if you don't want to attend class and you just want to watch the recordings, that should be possible. I will also attempt to make the lectures available in real time through video conferencing software of some sort, presumably bluejeans. This may be more complicated and depend on what technology and assistance is available in the room (and other things). I can't control all those things, but I will do what I can within reason. If that comes about, you should have the option to participate in the lecture remotely, asking questions, making comments, having your pets and children make funny noises in the background, etc.; though we all look forward to this possibility, it may not be wise to get your hopes up. At least you should have the recordings if you do not want to show up (or do not feel comfortable showing up) bodily in class.

Notice that I do not know the details of how video conferencing will work or even if that will be possible. If bluejeans is used, then I suspect I will schedule the meeting using canvas. If that is the case, and you are registered for the course, you should receive an announcement. Experience suggests many things are unpredictable with the use of bluejeans video conferencing for courses. I'm not sure I would advise you to view this as a reliable means to attend the lecture. Again, at least there should be a recording.

I think you should have the option of showing up in the classroom or lecture hall or whatever it is (423 Cluck Commons) to be bodily present, make comments, ask questions and all this kind of face-to-face-interaction-with-icky-humans stuff. There will be risks involved. If you're sick, you should stay home and get well. I feel like I should not have to say/write this, and I never have before, but the fact of the matter is that in my 30 or so odd years of teaching I've had many students who do not have the decency to refrain from showing up in class and to office hours with clear indications of serious illness---spreading whatever they have got to everyone with whom they might come in contact. Just don't do that. If you're sick, stay home or go to the doctor or something. Don't come to class, don't come to office hours, do not pass GO and collect $100. Stay home (or go to the doctor, whatever) until you get yourself well.

As you might imagine, with the advent of rona hysteria, I was quite jubilant and relieved to hear the (absurdly unnecessary though it might should* have been) repitition of the simple advice I've offered above: If you're sick, stay home until you get well. Of course, this rather rapidly took on an absurdity of its own with everyone, sick and healthy, cowering at home under a kind of medical (sic.) martial law. To sum up the silliness of this section, if rona hysteria is important to you and (especially) if it is important to you to have an instructor who subscribes to rona hysteria, then you should take another course.

Let me repeat again (in conclusion): If you're sick, stay away from the lecture and office hours (bodily). Don't give me and everyone else what you've got. I don't want it. If I'm sick, I'll stay at home too. I'll also make some effort to have office hours available in the "same" manner as the lecture, i.e., in both recorded and video format. This may actually turn out to be somewhat different, instead of the "same," because I won't be holding office hours in the same room with the same technology and the same assistance, etc., but I'll try to do something reasonable. Certainly, I'll plan to start out in 209 Skiles (my office), and I know what is likely to happen there. It may be that I'll move office hours to a (larger, open) classroom if that makes sense. Then we'll have to see what happens.

Grading Policy: Okay, this part is going to be a little bit different, so you may want to pay attention. Where to start? I'm going to compose (at least it is my intent to do so) a number of assignments during the semester. It seems like there are usually somewhere between 10 and 15 during a typical semester. These are usually posted with two weeks before the due date. There is (typically) no announcement about when the assignments are posted, so you'll need to watch the Assignments/Schedule Page to see the timing. Sometimes there may be only a week---Actually, I'll try to avoid that because it's against some kind of nominal "policy" of the distance learning program which concerns something about a week delay for distance learning students. In reality, I'm not *strictly required* to give a week delay for much of anything, but I'm not unreasonable. So think of the assignments as weekly, and with a kind of built-in week long grace period. In true reality, it doesn't really matter. The "due dates" are not deadlines, and whether or not you turn them in weekly (and then wait anxiously for the next assignment to appear), right on the due date with an extra week, or with an additional week of your own choosing does not really matter that much. I don't really care, and I don't really have any intention to "make" you do anything you don't want to (or can't) do. I have zero motivation to do that. Okay, so make a mental note of what I've said: There will be assignments. I will come back and discuss them a little more in a minute. They are really important if you want to learn about Fourier series and PDE.

Grades Let me start by saying that you will do yourself and me a favor (really everyone I think) if you just completely forget about grades and just concentrate on learning about Fourier series and PDE. Imagine these two things (grades and mathematics) are completely unrelated---it isn't hard if you try (as John Lennon might say) and in fact that is an essentially correct way to think about it. Having said that, if you don't want to learn about Fourier series and PDE, you should definitely remove this course (with me as the instructor) from your course list. Just don't do it. Do something else. This includes taking the course because it is a requirement. Just don't do it---or at least don't do it now. MATH 4581 is available every semester, and there is no shortage of instructors who are happy to fuel your illusion that learning is somehow connected with grades---you've just come up on the short end of the stick in that regard this semester. If you want to learn about Fourier series and PDE, on the other hand, then take my course and put grades out of your mind. (Make a mental note; I'm changing subjects again.)

There is (I believe, though I don't pay so much close attention anymore) a "policy" requiring that I give you exams---and a final exam, in particular. Accordingly, two or three of the assignments will be labeled "Exam 1," "Exam 2," etc., and the last assignment will have the grandiose title "Final Assignment." These particular assignments differ from the other assignments in the following ways:

  • I will grade them myself---though I really hate the thought of it and cringe as I type it. But that's what I'll try to do. The others will be graded by a grader, i.e., a graduate student who gets paid to grade them and give you feedback. Either way, this "doing the assignments and turning them in and getting them graded, i.e., getting feedback" is really important for learning---it's important for you. The actual numerical grade is somewhat less important, but the feedback should be important. And as a side note: If you take the extended view of the due date, and turn in the assignment a week after the posted due date, probably neither I nor the grader will look at it, and you will get no feedback. If it's a few hours after the posted due date and the grader has not started grading, then he'll most likely still "grade" your work. There is never any reason to send an email saying you want an "extension" to turn your assignment in after the due date. Turn it in when you get ready to turn it in. It should be turned in electronically (like scan it and upload it or something) on Canvas, and you should be able to do that any time before the end of the semester. If you can't upload it when(ever) you try, send me an email about that. If you are submitting significantly (say more than one day) after the posted due date and you want specific feedback, send me an email and let me know about that. Otherwise, do not send me an email telling me you had to participate in a march to stop people from clubbing the spotted wing snuffaluffagus and you are turning in your homework a week after the due date. Just keep that to yourself.
  • You should work on the exam assignments (more or less) by yourself. You are welcomed to discuss the other assignments with your classmates and even get them to explain their solutions to you if you like and/or feel this contributes to your learning. At some point (e.g., mindlessly copying someone else's solutions) this kind of interaction reaches the dubious distinction of "cheating." Cheating, however, is also sort of dubiously defined, so I'm not really going to deal with that per se. If you cheat, be assured you are cheating yourself. Do your own work on the exams. I don't need to grade one person's solution on 50 papers, and that is really the point. Even the grader doesn't need to do that. It's absurd. Have some consideration for me and the grader. Make everything you turn in, more or less, original. Maybe especially on the exams. They will give you some idea of what you have really learned. That's the point.

    I think that's about it. There are really no other differences between the regular assignments and the exam assignments.

    Returning to the topic of grades proper---like what grade you will see on your transcript---if you turn in the assignments with something reasonable on them, that doesn't necessarily mean correct, but it's clear that you tried to do something reasonable---especially if it is evident you tried to learn something (I will know), then you'll get an "A" for the course on your transcript. Generally, if you don't really turn in much reasonable, say fewer than half the solutions on essentially all assignments---there could be many other manifestations of "less than reasonable" on the assignments, but this is probably one---then I'll assign you a "B" for the course. If you don't turn in anything, expect to be assigned a "C." That's really about it. For the sake of policies which require me to correlate numerical scores with transcript grades (and students who are enthusiastic about calculating such things), I'll offer this:

    90-100 "A"
    80-89 "B"
    70-79 "C"
    60-69 "D"
    below 60 "F"
    Do not ask me how you can get a "D" or "F." If you want such a grade, however, just let me know, and I'll be happy to accomodate your request---I'm all about "accomodation."

    My experience with engineering students is that most of you are pretty hard working and have at least some interest in learning something, though the educational system has mostly "cured" you of expressing such an interest or thinking or learning for that matter. This is your semester to give it a try. The vast majority of engineering students will get an "A" on the transcript for this course, so let's forget about that and try to learn something.

    Final Exam, Monday December 13, 11:20-2:10PM
    I don't set this date or time. The time is pretty much irrelevant to us, but I will make the final assignment due on this date. You should have at least a couple weeks to work on it.

    A similar comment applies to the other exams. There is really not much need to post specific dates for them at the moment. You'll see them appear on the schedule page with plenty of time to complete them in between your other activities. You'll have at least two weeks.

    Fall Semester 2021 Calendar
    Monday, August 23 Classes begin
    Friday, August 27 Student Course Schedule Done/Figured Out
    Monday, September 6 Holiday
    Monday-Tuesday, October 11-12 Fall Break
    Saturday, October 30 Last day to DROP
    Wednesday-Thursday, November 24-25 Holiday
    Tuesday, December 7 Classes end
    Thursday-Thursday, December 9-16 Final exam period

    * "Might should" is something people from Alabama tend to say. If you don't know what it means, you might should spend more time with people from Alabama and learn the language.