"Your Choice" Readings Due

Each lecture has one or more “Your Choice” reading assignments. During the semester, you must complete at least two “Your Choice” readings: one before the mid-term exam, and the other before the final exam. Each exam will have one question per “Your Choice” reading (similar in difficulty to the regular reading quiz questions); answering one of these (that you choose, hence the name) correctly will be part of your grade on the exam.

You’ll be permitted to answer as many additional questions as you like for extra credit, too, so long as you don’t get any incorrect. (Students who get at least one “Your Choice” reading question wrong are ineligible for any extra credit from “Your Choice” reading questions on the exams.)

One “Your Choice” reading (“What is Software Engineering”’s task related to reading research paper abstracts) has a specific task associated with it. If you submit this “Your Choice” assignment to Canvas before the final exam, you’ll recieve one point of extra credit on the exam.

(Last semester, I asked students to write one-page reactions to these readings instead of putting questions on the exams. I’ve been experimenting with ChatGPT and similar tools over the summer, and it’s become clear to me that these tools can produce similar reactions to the sort that an average undergrad produces. So, I decided that I could either 1) grade the reactions much more harshly, applying my usual standards for graduate students, and give most of you zeroes, or 2) try an alternative marking strategy. I chose the latter: I want you to succeed!)