Policies

1) Screens in class

During class, you are welcome to take notes in whatever form works best for you, whether on paper, laptop, or tablet. If you take notes electronically, it is important that you don't distract others from the material being discussed. This is particularly applicable to laptops, where your screen is easily within others' fields of view. Therefore, we insist that your screens display class material only and not other content, such as email, games, video, chat, other coursework, etc.

If others find your screen usage distracting to their learning, they have the right to ask you to stop. If you need to work on something else during class, you are welcome to step outside to complete it and return when ready.

2) Collaboration and AI

In the real world, seasoned programmers frequently collaborate and increasingly use AI tools to boost their productivity. However, they have solid foundations that allow them to accurately judge each others' work and AI's output. Our goal in 6.1000 is to help you start building those foundations, and it begins with developing independence in your own programming skills. Thus, it is important that you follow the spirit of "writing your own code."

It goes without saying that copying-and-pasting or transcribing code from others is prohibited. Ideally, you would limit collaboration to understanding the problem and coming up with solution strategies. Then, you would figure out on your own how to express those strategies in code.

Realistically, this is a programming class, and code snippets will naturally come up in conversation. Your responsibility is to prevent snippets from becoming wholesale chunks that deprive you of discovering how you would have constructed them. Here are some example scenarios to avoid:

1. Two students work out a code solution on a board. Then they individually type the code, making their own "customizations," but the basis of their work was not independent.
2. A student who has finished the pset is helping a friend. They briefly show their screen, but for long enough that the friend can see the code's structure and type it up themselves.
3. You're working in your dorm lounge, and get up to use the restroom. A floormate comes by and studies your code on your screen while you were away.

Here are simple fixes to avoid those scenarios:

1. Draw pictures on the board instead of writing code or even too much text.
2. Rather than trying to tell your friend what you did, ask them what they are trying to do and how they want to do it. Use the Socratic method. You might learn something from what they say!
3. Don't leave your devices (laptop, tablet, phone) open while unattended. This is just good security practice.

Finally, our policy on AI tools for course content is you should treat using them like talking with other people. You are welcome to interact with them for conceptual understanding and even to generate code examples. However, you should not ask them to solve problems that are similar to our assignments. The output of these tools can be highly variable, so it is your responsibility to stop such an interaction if it veers in that direction.

3) Extensions

We have a default extension policy for problem set submissions only. On the day that a pset is due, if you find yourself unable to submit by the deadline (usually 10 pm), you may email 6.1000-staff@mit.edu before the deadline, and you can assume we will grant you a 24-hour extension. This is not a late day "budget." This policy is intended to help with unexpected delays, and we will only accept requests made on the day that a pset is due.

Given the built-in flexibility in due times for finger exercises and pset checkoffs, there will be no extensions for those. We recommend you complete them well before they are due.

Our midterm exams are during class time, when attendance is expected, so we will not offer makeups. The registrar will schedule our final exam, and if needed, a conflict exam time.

For any further consideration beyond this policy, we need to hear from Student Support Services (S³) that you've spoken with them about your situation, and that they would support additional flexibility.