The course-wide rules for late work, extensions, academic integrity and getting help.

Policies and support#

These are the course-wide rules, in one place so the assessment briefs can point here instead of repeating themselves. Where a rule had a choice to make, the reasoning is written next to it, so you can tell whether it applies to your situation and say so when it doesn’t.

Late work#

Work submitted late loses 5% of the available marks per day, counted in whole days, to a floor of 50%. After ten days it is no longer accepted, because feedback that arrives after the next assessment is already due is not feedback.

The penalty accumulates daily rather than being a single flat deduction, so that work which is already late still has a reason to arrive sooner. The rule is deliberately coarse: a submission eleven minutes late and one twenty-three hours late both lose the same 5%. We chose a rule you can apply yourself over a fairer one you would have to ask us to apply for you.

Extensions#

Ask before the deadline. An extension requested in advance is granted for any reason a reasonable person would accept, in writing, usually within a day. An extension requested after the deadline has passed needs documentation, and is a different and slower process.

The asymmetry is the whole policy. Asking beforehand takes you one message and us one reply, and we can usually answer the same day. Asking afterwards means reconstructing what happened from evidence neither of us has to hand, which takes longer for both of us and is worse at getting you what you actually need.

Resubmission#

You have two resubmissions for the semester, and they are not two per assessment. Use them however you like: both on the retry audit, one each on the audit and the policy, or neither.

The allowance is shared across the semester for the reason week 5 gives about retry budgets. Two attempts per assessment looks modest at each assessment and comes to six across the course, and most of those attempts would go on the assessment you already understood best. One shared allowance makes you decide where a second attempt would actually change the mark.

Some work cannot be resubmitted into a pass, and we will tell you that rather than let you use a resubmission finding out. If a submission missed the brief instead of executing it imperfectly, the useful next step is a conversation, not another attempt.

Academic integrity and the use of AI#

The University’s academic integrity rules apply in full, and the short version is that the work has to be yours and any assistance has to be declared.

Generative AI is permitted throughout this course, on one condition: you have to be able to defend what you submit. The week 8 assessment is explicitly a defence in front of a panel, and the week 12 assessment is an argument against someone briefed to take the other side. Neither of those goes well for work you cannot explain. Declare what you used and what for, in a short note with the submission — the declaration is not marked, and its absence is treated as a matter of integrity rather than a formatting slip.

Getting help, and who to ask#

Ask Idris Fenn first for anything with code or a stack trace in it, and bring the failing thing rather than a description of it. Ask Marisol Quaye for anything about what the course is doing or what an assessment is really asking for.

If that does not resolve it, or if the problem is with one of us, contact the School of Invented Disciplines’ student administration, who will route it to someone who is not us.

For anything affecting your ability to study — illness, a crisis, access requirements — contact the University’s student support services directly. You do not need to disclose anything to us to get an extension; the request itself is enough.