Absence and Lateness Policies

One of the most important characteristics of a technical professional is their ability to meet their commitments. To prepare you for your technical career, we make attendance mandatory at all EG1003 classes. However, we recognize that there may be exceptional circumstances which cause you to be absent or late. This page explains how to handle those events.

Technical professionals always work in teams, so it is critical that you learn how to act as a member of a team. Therefore, EG1003 gives you an opportunity to build this skill by having you work with one or more partners on the labs and projects.

When somebody misses a lab or recitation, it puts an unfair burden on their partners, where whoever remains now has to support the entire effort themselves. Therefore, we strongly discourage having students miss sessions unless there is a compelling reason to do so.

Lab Absence Policy

If you miss a lab, you will have to make up the lab on your own during an Open Lab session. The Open Lab hours can be found on the EG Website.

In order to make up the lab in Open Lab, you will need to get permission to do so from the faculty member in charge of your section. To do this, download and print an EG1003 Open Lab Authorization Form, or get one from a TA.

Fill in your name, section, and lab. Get your faculty member to fill out the rest of the form. When you go to the Open Lab, the TA in charge will collect this form from you and let you make up the lab.

If you do not have a form, the Open Lab TA will not permit you to make up the lab!

Lab 1 can only be made up during the first two weeks of Open Lab sessions.

Note that you'll probably be working alone in Open Lab, making the lab more difficult. Also, many of the labs are competitions, and have bonus points awarded based on how your team places. If you're making up a lab in the Open Lab, you are not eligible for these bonus points.

Your lab presentation will be done at the next recitation session. Since you'll be making up the lab usually several days after the scheduled lab session, this leaves you less time to prepare the presentation, making another good reason why you should not miss labs.

Finally, when you miss a lab, you will probably also miss a quiz related to the lab as well. There is no way to make up this quiz, so missing the lab is equivalent to getting a zero on a quiz. If you only miss one lab, there will probably be negligible impact on your overall grade, but a large number of absences will probably hurt you.

Note that your faculty member is not required to give you an authorization for Open Lab. The faculty member will probably also want to discuss with you what's wrong since you are missing a significant portion of the course experience.

Lab Lateness Policy

The first time you're late for a lab, you will join the lab in progress. If you arrive while the quiz is underway, you can take the quiz, but will get no additional time to complete it. If you arrive after the quiz is over, you will get a zero for the quiz, and can do the lab in whatever time is left, but your lab TA will notify your faculty member of your lateness. If you do not complete the lab in the allotted time, you will need to have your faculty member approve an EG1003 Open Lab Authorization Form allowing you to finish the lab during Open Lab.

Recitation Absence Policy

If you miss a recitation, your partners will have to give the presentation without you. This puts a heavy burden on them, so you should only miss a recitation when there is a compelling reason to do so. In addition, you should notify your teammates of your absence ahead of time if at all possible. You should also notify your faculty member and recitation TA of your absence ahead of time if at all possible.

If you are excused from the recitation by your faculty member, you will receive the same presentation grade as your teammates. If you are not excused, you will receive a zero for any coursework performed that day, whether they be such things as lab presentations or milestone presentations.

Recitation Lateness Policy

If you are late for a recitation, it is at the faculty member's discretion whether or not to allow you to be admitted to the recitation. If you missed your team's presentation, it will be equivalent to not having been at the recitation, as described in the Absence Policy. If you are more than 10 minutes late for the recitation, the faculty member will not allow you to be admitted except in truly exceptional circumstances, and it will be equivalent to having missed the recitation, as described in the Absence Policy.

Lecture Policies

If you miss a lecture, there is no way to make it up. The TAs will take attendance by scanning your ID during the first five minutes of the lecture; thereafter, you may enter the lecture but you will not get any credit for attending the lecture. This way you will receive the handout for that lecture so that you can prepare for the upcoming quiz on the lecture material during the next lab session. It is the student's responsibility to make sure that their ID is scanned.

Course Registration Issues

Occasionally, students cannot be present starting at the first day of class. They may not be able to register, or they may be stranded overseas when the course starts. We will make every effort to accommodate these students and help them to complete the course successfully.

If you miss any lectures, you should see your TAs or faculty member and get a copy of the slides that were presented at the lectures. These slides contain valuable material, and you will find it rewarding to review them. The name of the presenter is also on the first slide, and they would welcome any questions you might have.

For the labs, you must complete all the labs in order to complete the course. There are no excused labs. The way to complete these labs is to go to the Open Lab and complete your work there if you need to. For the labs that use software that's already on your laptop, you can do the lab on your own, or in the Computer Lab. However, most of the labs require access to EG1003 lab equipment, and you will probably have to use the Open Lab time to complete your work. You should agree with your faculty member on the due date for the lab report when you get your EG1003 Open Lab Authorization Form. Any lateness will be measured from that date. Similarly, you will have to do your lab presentations at a date that you and your faculty member agree on. Any lateness from that date will count as a zero for that presentation.

Since the workload for most students only increases as the term progresses, you and your faculty member should come up with a plan to make up work as quickly as possible so that you're back on schedule with a normal workload as early in the term as possible.

If you join the course after teams have been formed for the semester-long design project, your faculty member will either have you join a team that already exists as an additional member, or split up an existing team into two teams, with you joining one of these teams. This decision is the faculty member's responsibility.