Participation
Class participation is an important component of this course.
Students are expected to attend all lectures and presentations and
participate in the discussion of the research papers, read all listed
research papers before class and provide constructive feedback about
the presentations made by the other students in the class.
Paper Reviews
After week 3 of the semester, each class will typically have two
assigned papers. Students are expected to read both papers before
class. In addition, by 12:00 PM (noon) of the day of class, every student is required to submit a short summary/review of one of the papers. The points addressed in this summary/review are the following:
- What is the main contribution of the paper?
- Is it important? Why?
- What was the main insight of the paper?
- What assumptions were made?
- What applications might arise from the paper?
- How can the results be extended?
- What was unclear to you?
Paper summaries/reviews are to be submitted using the
UWaterloo Learn
platform and
accessing the Forums section. There will be a forum for each paper. After the deadline for submissions, reviews
will be made available for everyone in the class to read.
Presentation Feedback
Students are also required to give constructive feedback to
presenters. This will be done by
using
UWaterloo Learn and
accessing the Quizzes section. There will be a "Quiz" for each
speaker, and you will be expected to comment on and assign scores for
different components of the presentation. Feedback is expected to be
provided within 24 hours of the presentation.
The questions you will be asked when evaluating a presentation can be
found
here. Feedback will be anonymized
and passed on to the speakers. Scores are used to help the speaker see
what worked and did not work in the presentation, however, they will
not determine the final grade for the presentation. The instructor is
the one responsible for assigning grades.