According to section 2 of FASS Undergraduate Teaching Regulations and Procedures, this course outline constitutes a contract between you the student, and me, the professor. However, the word ‘syllabus’ (aka, the course outline), it seems is based on a misreading of a misprint of the Greek word ‘sittybis’, meaning a table of contents. A table of contents is not a contract. Nevertheless, let us have a contract thus:
I, Professor Graham, agree to undertake to the best of my abilities, the task of challenging, guiding, and fostering in you, a deeper appreciation, awareness, and understanding for the ideas discussed in this class. You, for your part, agree to undertake the necessary intellectual work to meet me halfway, bringing your best abilities to bear, endeavouring to be receptive and prepared for all course-related activities. Together, we agree to create a community of learning and practice, such that true learning may occur.
After you read this page, move onto the general philosophical underpinnings of this course.
The complete syllabus is made up of these pages:
- General Philosophy : why this course looks the way it does
- Learning Outcomes & My Policies : what you’ll learn and how I handle that
- Official Carleton Policies : general policies germane to every course
- Assessment Pieces : what actually gets assessed
Contacting Dr. Graham
My details are in the navigation bar above, but you can also find me in PA 406 (my office) or PA 435-439 (the XLab) or in the library coffee shop, especially on Wednesday mornings. You’ll know me: I’m the middle-aged bald guy sitting at the long table with a Mac air covered in stickers (you’ll know you’ve got the right guy if you see a sticker placed centrally with a stylized white ‘T’ in a blue circle.)
shawn dot graham at carleton dot ca
If you wish to email me, be warned that I get a lot of email, and have several filters in place in self-defense. To defeat my filters, please observe the following style:
- subject line: course code & concise description of the nature of your note
- salutation: ‘Dear Dr Graham’ or ‘Dear Prof. Graham’. Do not use my first name unless I invite you to do so.
- message: ‘I’m writing about’ :module, exercise, reading, issue, code problem, other.
- with regard to code problems, include screenshots, the full text of error messages, the thing you were trying to do, the expected outcome, the actual outcome. Give me sufficient detail that I can help you troubleshoot.
- also, if something code related doesn’t work within 30 minutes, it doesn’t matter how long you fight with it. I don’t want to hear that you struggled with something for 3 hours. The best thing you can do, after 30 minutes, is close the computer, walk away, come back later fresh. Then if it doesn’t come together, write to me, write to a friend, show the problem to someone on the street, whatever.
It’s ok to ask for help. I’m just asking you to help me help you more easily.
Right? I’m an actual human trained to help other humans who wants to help. Amazing!
