A social networking endorsements suffer from two problems: permanence and puffery.

Whether you like it or not, your on-line social networking information is permanent. Have you thought about the permanent nature of a linked-in endorsement. Will today's professor's endorsements help or hurt in 5 years? Did you have your middle school or high school teachers' endorsements? E.g., did your high school teacher "like" you on face-book? Whether or not the high school social networking "endorsements" helped you, how do you feel about your high school teacher's comments, now? Will you have a similar feeling about a university instructor's comments 4-5 years from now?

Linked-in endorsements are puffery. In an article by Jeremiah Owyang, http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2009/07/17/requestedreccomendations_social_networks_i_wont_do_it/ he says,

Nevertheless students naively build elaborate Linked-In profiles. After unsuccessful job hunting some students try to compensate for skills and experience deficiencies by working their linked-in profile. Employers want candidates with skills and experience, not candidates with nifty Linked-In profiles. Ask yourself, what does a polished linked-in profile demonstrate: employability or desperation?

When I was a hiring manager, a candidate with many endorsements or an overly done linked-in profile caused suspicion. Never mind that the endorsements leave a slimy feeling about both candidate and endorsement author. In the back of my mind I would wonder, how much of my team's productivity will get redirected in 18 months when the candidate shops for a job again? Won't this candidate bug my team-members to write ever more endorsements? I would also wonder how much time the candidate spends on their social networking instead of their skills inventory. Some candidates use their spare time acquiring skills, others linked-in endorsements. The best candidates have lean linked-in profiles, probably because instead they spend their free time learning new technologies.

Thus instead of spending your time asking for endorsements, you would be better to spend your time, e.g. learning node.js, coffeescript, or some other new technology you can add to your resume.

Good job candidates work on their skills not their linked-in profiles.

In most cases, I am happy to provide references for students who are seeking employment.

Written references aren't used when seeking employment, especially with a Silicon Valley company. If you are looking for a job, you need only my verbal reference not a letter.

Please ask me first before you use me as a reference. You may use the "ask first" strategy with your other referrers, too. Most people give better references when you ask, first.

Silicon Valley companies use verbal references. I will get a call and have a conversation about you over the telephone. Written references usually aren't needed unless you are applying to another University or applying for a grant or scholarship.

I meet hundreds of students every year, while remembering less details of my junior colleagues. So that I can give a crisp and detailed reference about you, please send me an e-mail with the details about the position(s) you are seeking and remind me about any details about yourself so that when providing a reference I sound intelligent and knowledgeable about your background and capabilities.

Also, please let me know if you will allow me to share your scores/grades, and let me know what grade you earned. Otherwise grades are confidential and I don't share. Please note that prospective employers and recruiters always ask what grade a student earned. So if I can't share your grade information, then that may wind up reflecting badly for you. Please, it helps me if you remind me what grade you earned, so put that in you e-mail, too.

As a courtesy, please do not give my name to recruiters or head-hunters. Wait until you have lined up a concrete opportunity.

Written letters of recommendation may be needed when applying to graduate school, seeking a scholarship, or appearing before a court judge. Some places will ask you for blind references, where you waive your right to see what I write. The reference is stronger if you waive your right to see. However, as a personal courtesy, even if you waive your right to see, I will share with you what I write, but we can keep that between you and me.

To get the fastest turnaround from me in providing a written reference, you should provide me with a draft that I modify as needed. Send me an e-mail and include your draft as plain text in the body of the e-mail, e.g., don't use MS Word.

Presently, most academic institutions use on-line mechanisms to submit written, electronically signed references, so a plain ASCII text file works best, so I can cut-paste the reference onto the on-line form.

When you ask me for a written reference, you should provide me with a draft. Then I will modify as needed. I may also send it back to you to ask you to help proof read my rewrite for errors. You only need draft the body of the letter. The body is usually three or four paragraphs.

	Tip
	Ascii text only please.

The first paragraph describes a bit about me, a bit about you, and how long and in what capacity I know you. Here is a template that might work with cpp. If you don't know what that means, either you will want to ask yourself why you're asking me for a letter or enter man cpp at the Linux prompt.

The next paragraph expands on your performance and achievements. The paragraph only includes those that I have seen, e.g., your class performance. Here is a template:

The next paragraph should emphasize three of your strengths. Please pick three and write pyramid style with a summary sentence. Begin like this, "For your attention, I would like to highlight three of [YOUR FIRST NAME]'s strengths: (1) (2) (3)". Write three sentences that provide examples or experiences demonstrating your strengths. End with this: "As a result of the three strengths: [REPEAT and/or rephrase the strengths], I observe that [YOUR FIRST NAME] is [FILL IN BLANK].

This a possible concluding paragraph.

The grading formulae have been designed to objectively measure academic performance while offering each attendee with the opportunity to positively influence the outcome.

Although it may be difficult to predict your scoring potential for the final exam component, you have a great amount of control over you scoring on projects, assignments, exams and quizzes. Projects and assignments are designed with well defined deliverable objectives. Thus while doing the work, you should be able to assess your own scoring potential.

Keeping pace with assigned readings will enhance attaining high marks for the quizzes component.

Previous attendees feedback suggests that the final exam is difficult. Most questions are multiple choice and require clever thinking, efficient calculation and much subject knowledge. An on-going, regular pattern of study throughout the term is the recommended approach to preparation.

Study hard, study often.

The grading formulae have been designed to score each enrollee's achievements objectively, and this is represented by a number of points from total possible (e.g., 100) points. The final number is not the final grade, so there is a process for converting the number to a letter grade.

A small class size means a small statistical sample, which rules out using a straight normalized distribution “curve”. You final grade is determined by weighing your performance against course objectives.

Cutoff's are used to convert scores to letter grades. E.g., if 89 is the cutoff for a B, and 73 the cutoff for a C, then earning 89, 90, or 91 points would be a B while 88 down to 73 would be C work.

To account for really close fractional scores (e.g., 88.89) and for other technical errors in measurement the cutoffs used to determine final grades are typically more generous than those published during the term.

But, don't count on final grade generosity. Study hard, instead!

If you believe your instructor or grader made a grading mistake on an exam, quiz or assignment. You need to return the work immediately after it is returned to you with an accompanying explanation of the grading mistake. If you do not return the work immediately, no re-grade is possible. The goal is to prevent students from rewriting their solutions in order to claim higher marks.

Please be reasonably confident that re-grading is warranted, i.e., your instructor or grader made an obvious mistake. If necessary, a re-grading may include reviewing the entire submission, thus there is a possibility that your grade might be reduced.

No.

Favors are still accepted... it just won't improve your grade. :-)

Out of respect and courtesy for full-time faculty members, your instructor asks that you not address him as "Professor," since your instructor does not currently hold this title.

In Silicon Valley, outside the university, the professional custom is to address one another by first name. You may address your instructor by first name, Johnny. If you prefer something more formal, you can say, Dr. Martin or Mr. Martin. But please, it's better not to use the title, Professor.

Send e-mail, or visit in-person during office hours.

Send e-mail to ask about an appointment outside office hours. If enough people suggest a different time, your instructor can change the office hours schedule for the remainder of the academic term.

You are responsible for the information during lectures. If you miss a lecture you are responsible for getting this information, and it is suggested you get this from a fellow classmate. Please refer to the course green sheet for more information about class attendance requirements.

E-mail inquiries about what you missed in lecture will not be answered. Also, office hours are not to be used as make-up lecture sessions.

No. Although the department web pages advertises telephone extensions for all faculty, this is not a reliable way to contact your instructor, since part-time instructors do not have access to the university phones.

Please try to visit in person during office hours or send e-mail.

You are strongly encouraged to meet or communicate with fellow attendees outside of class.

Culture, social, and personal differences can make this challenging. Also the large number of off-campus commuters doesn't help. If you're having trouble with this, redouble your efforts -- it'll be worth it.

If you miss lecture you should get the material secondhand from a fellow classmate.

As noted on the green sheet, attendance is not recorded. This is done on purpose. University attendees are mature enough to make their own choices in time management, and sometimes things happen. Nevertheless, you should make an effort to attend lecture.

If you missed class on a quiz or exam day, see below.

It is considered unprofessional to inform your instructor that you missed missed lecture. E-mail inquiries about what you missed in lecture are unwelcome. Also, please do not use office hours as make-up lecture sessions.

Sorry, no. There are no makeup quizzes.

If miss a quiz and you provide a written excuse in accordance with university policy, the missing quiz will not be tallied and thus not count against your total score.

For example, if there are 12 total quiz points possible and you miss a one point quiz, while providing a written excuse according to university policy, your total quizzes will be averaged over 11 instead of 12.

It depends. Missing an exam is pretty serious, and would require consultation with the department or other university bodies. If you know in advance that you will miss a scheduled exam, proactively inquire with the department or your instructor. If possible don't wait until after you have missed the exam.

To be fair to those who do attend examinations, in all other cases, a missed exam counts zero.

Students caught cheating will earn an "F" grade for the course and be reported to the Vice President for Student Affairs. Although the ultimate decision to evict you from the university is up to the Vice President, your instructor will cooperate fully to that end.

Unless otherwise requested, assignment answers should be original work, not gleaned from the web, nor adapted from past courses. You must report on all collaboration by providing in writing a list of collaborators.

The school's academic honesty policy used to be available on-line, here http://www.sjsu.edu/student_affairs/academicdishonestyrevisedpolicy.pdf but seems that site's web administrators didn't read Greenspun's tips: "Web directories and search engines will contain all kinds of links to your interior pages, so think carefully before changing any file names on your server "

Somewhere probably there is a hardcopy in the University Catalog or the class schedule. Sorry the link changes too frequently for me to keep track.

Collaborating on programming efforts is a common industry practice. For example, Pair Programming, http://www.extremeprogramming.org/rules/pair.html is a industry accepted software development methodology that encourages software people to work and learn collaboratively. Whether or not employers adopt pair programming methods, most understand the value of employees working together to learn from one another so that all become more productive faster.

Some assignments are designed to permit collaboration. Instead of wasting time being stuck on some trivial item, staring at the screen all by yourself, working collaboratively can get you past these trivial nuisances and instead get you and your collaborators thinking of more interesting programming problems.

If you collaborate on an assignment, per university policies you are required to document with whom you worked. List the names of all other students with whom you shared your work. This shows that you didn't steal the work from someone, and stealing would be considered a violation. So be sure to document everyone with whom you worked.

Note that collaboration is forbidden during quizzes and exams.

You cannot get out of (nor get an extension for) an exam, quiz, assignment, project without a properly documented excuse according to university policies. If you do not have a written excuse signed by a real doctor, you are expected to perform according to the same guidelines as your peers.

For legal and confidentiality reasons, the department prohibits instructors from posting final grades.

The final grades are submitted to the registrar and will eventually appear on your transcript.

Sorry, no.

The department's guidelines do not permit this. E-mails requesting final grades will be ignored.

According to department policy, a faculty member may only submit a grade change request if there has been an error in calculating or recording your scores.

The department's guidelines do not permit any other means of improving final grades.

During the course, yes. Study hard. After grades have been posted, sorry, no.

The university and department's guidelines do not permit grade changes except for changes due to recording errors.

Think twice before you do it.

The university and department monitor illegal activities carefully. Even just threatening to do something may lead to serious consequences. The criminal implications of harming a University employee are especially grave at SJSU compared to other universities. For example, under Section 41301, it is a felony to strike any government employee, and all SJSU faculty and staff are employees of the State of California.

For questionable academic conduct there could be other consequences, even if not legal, including disciplinary action by the University or expulsion.

If you believe you are being treated unfairly or you believe someone is doing something you don't deserve and you just cannot work it out with your instructor, you have options. Some of your best options include:

Both of these offices are empowered by the university to do many things including possibly making adjustments to grades and transcripts. These offices may be able to offer more options, especially before the academic session ends. So if you need to, contact these offices early while the term is still in session.

The Disability Resource Center can offer help to registered students. Here is an example, from their Web site:

Of course you will need to convince them that you qualify for these services.

The University Counseling Center offers free to students advice and counseling on personal or academic matters. Call 408-924-5910.

Your instructor is a doctor, but not that kind of doctor. Although your instructor can offer advice and suggestions on personal study habits, most personal issues are beyond your instructor's capabilities. Please do not take it personally if your instructor doesn't want to discuss your personal problems. For legal and liability reasons, the university asks faculty to refer students with personal difficulties to the university's counseling center.

The University Counseling Center offers free to students advice and counseling on personal or academic matters. Please call 924-5910 if you feel you cannot manage by yourself.

Send e-mail to martin@cs.sjsu.edu