Course overview & procedure#
Detailed explanation of what the course is about,
list of content chapter#
How you want to go about teaching.
TL;DR#
Within this course we will explore X, specifically how it can and why it should be utilized within X. To do so, we will follow a “learning by doing” approach X. The steps will be the following: X, X, X. For a rather precise outline of the course, please consult the respective section.
How to reach the folks in the front#
The contact information of the instructors are as follows:
Name
Office hours: upon request
E-mail:
e-mail@psych.uni-frankfurt.depreferred mode of contact: vie e-mail
How to address one another?
He/Him. When contacting me, please refrain from using honoraries and formal language, “Michael” or “you” is fine as long as the content is respectful, fair and constructive (I aim for the same when I reply). However, please let me know if you have a preferred way of interacting with other folks, including how you would liked to be addressed, your pronouns and the level of formality.
Gimme the details#
Below you will find important details regarding the course summarized in a compact form. Please consult and familiarize yourself with the information presented there prior to and/or within the first few days of the course.
When and where#
What about the pandemic?#
Until further notice, it is assumed that the course will take place in person. This may be subject to change given everything we experienced and learned in the last years. Therefore the course is setup in a way that would allow both in person and virtual meetings. Should changes to the course format be mandated, you’ll be notified ASAP. If you feel uncomfortable doing a busy commute to sit in a room with several other people, please let me know and I’ll give my best to come up with a hybrid format. However, based on current regulations there won’t be any recordings. Just in case: yes, everyone should wear a mask at all times (although this is not to be understood as an official regulation, as is not permitted by the university)!
How do I get all the software and do I have to apply for a loan to get it?#
Nah, everything we’ll use is open-source software or at minimum free of charge and publicly available. Why? Because teaching students via proprietary software is just not fair and won’t help anyone: students have to obtain licenses or use those from the university (which usually doesn’t have enough for everyone), leading to tremendous problems regarding inequity now and in the future. Additionally, opens-source software can do everything, if not more than proprietary software and is furthermore usually better supported, tested and documented, creating a fantastic sense of community.
In order to help you get all the software required for the course, a comprehensive installation instruction was compiled.
Where is everything?#
All course materials (lecture slides, lecture demo notebooks, lab notebooks, homework assignments, etc.) will be available on the course website, i.e. the one you’re looking at right now. Everything will be completely open and free to use, thus constituting an open educational resource you are free to explore, enhance and share. Thus, this website and all materials will also remain up for the entire duration of the course and beyond, ideally to end of the internet. The usage of this resource and the materials therein will be explained at the beginning and throughout the course.
Syllabus and Text#
As noted above, this page serves as the syllabus for this course, with the precise outline indicated in the respective section. This syllabus is subject to change; students who miss class are responsible for learning about any changes to the syllabus.
Additional reading material might be added but will always be open & free with students being informed about any addition.
How to get those credits?#
Exams and Assignments#
Grading#
Late Homework & Extension Policy#
Homework assignments will in general have a clearly stated due date, so as to manage course load clearly. Exceptions will be communicated. Please check the respective sections of this course and don’t hesitate to ask questions if things are unclear. Generally Homework assignments must be turned in on the due date in order to to earn participation credits for the course and receive full scores. Homework assignments must be turned in on the due date in order to receive full credit. Homework assignment turned in less than 1 week late will be accepted but the score will be penalized by 10%. Homework has to be handed in via e-mail to the instructor.
Late homework assignments will also be accepted under exceptional circumstances (e.g., medical or family emergency etc.) and at the discretion of the instructor (e.g. exceptional “gedenotes a rare event) with no penalty. This policy allowing for exceptional circumstances is definitely a right, but courtesy to be used when needed and not abused. Should you encounter such circumstances, simply email the assignment to instructor and note “late submission due to exceptional circumstances”. You do not need to provide any further justification or personally revealing information regarding the details.
Academic Honor Code#
You are encouraged to discuss problem sets with classmates and work on them together, but certain written submissions must reflect your own, original work. If you worked with other students on a problem set, no worries, please include their names in a statement like “I worked on this homework with XX and YY” on the assignment. If in doubt, ask the instructor. Using online-ressources to help you programm is endorsed and advised, but please note that if code is copied from the internet without alterations and not clearly marked as such, this will be understood as an attempt at deception and treated as such. The same goes for any kind of reproduction of any other published work, as per usual.
Notice about missed work due to religious holy days#
We might miss some things, so please notify the instructors of your pending absence at least 7 days prior to the date of observance of a religious holy day. If you must miss a class, an examination, a work assignment, or a project in order to observe a religious holy day, I will give you an opportunity to complete the missed work within a reasonable time after the absence.
Student Accommodations#
Please request a meeting as soon as possible to discuss any accommodations.
Please notify me as soon as possible if the material being presented in class is not accessible.
Please notify me if any of the physical accomodations are difficult to use or access for you.
Code of conduct#
This course has a Code of conduct. Please inform yourself about the specifics by carefully reading through the respective section.
How to Get Your Question(s) Answered and/or Provide Feedback#
It’s great that we have so many ways to communicate, but it can get tricky to figure out who to contact or where your question belongs or when to expect a response. These guidelines are to help you get your question answered as quickly as possible and to ensure that we’re able to get to everyone’s questions.
If you have:
- questions about course content - these are awesome! We want everyone to see them and have their questions answered too, so either use the hypothes.is plugin, the discord channel, e-mail or the GitHub repository.
- a technical assignment question - come to office hours (after making an appointment) or use the provided communication platform to reach out (e.g. discord, slack etc.). Answering technical questions is often best accomplished ‘in person’ where we can discuss the question and talk through ideas. Be as specific as you can in the question you ask (and include error messages when appropriate!). And, for those answering, help your classmates as much as you can without just giving the answer. Help guide them, point them in a direction, provide pseudo code, but do not provide code that answers assignment questions.
- been stuck on something for a while (>30min) and aren’t even really sure where to start - Programming can be frustrating and it may not always be obvious what is going wrong or why something isn’t working. That’s OK - we’ve all been there! IF you are stuck, you can and should reach out for help, even if you aren’t exactly sure what your specific question is. To determine when to reach out, consider the 2-hour rule. This rule states that if you are stuck, work on that problem for an hour. Then, take a 30 minute break and do something else. When you come back after your break, try for another 30 minutes or so to solve your problem. If you are still completely stuck, stop and contact us (office hours, post on discord). If you don’t have a specific question, include the information you have (what you’re stuck on, the code you’ve been trying that hasn’t been happening, and/or the error messages you’ve been getting).
- questions about course logistics - first, check the overview & syllabus. If you can’t find the answer there, first ask a classmate.
- something super cool to share related to class or want to talk about a topic in further depth - feel free to post on discord, contact the instructors or come to office hours.
- some feedback about the course you want to share anonymously - If you’ve been offended by an example in class, really liked or disliked a lesson, or wish there were something covered in class that wasn’t but would rather not share this publicly, etc., please fill out the anonymous Google Form*
*This form can be taken down at any time if it’s not being used for its intended purpose; however, you all will be notified should that happen.
Acknowledgements#
Several parts of this section are directly taken or adapted from Alexander Huth’s Neuro Data Analysis in Python syllabus licensed under a BSD-3-Clause License and Shannon Ellis’ COGS 18: Introduction to Python.