Policies

Required Safety Training

Students taking CS/FINE 383 are required to complete the following online training modules on LEARN:

WHMIS 2015 (SO2017) offered by the UW Safety Office
Fine Arts Health and Safety Orientation

Registration

Login to LEARN using your University of Waterloo WatIAM username and password
Click "Self-Registration" at top of page
Search for "WHMIS (SO2017)" in the list, click on it to register.
On last registration step click "Register for another course".
Search for "Fine Arts Safety Orientation" in the list, click on it to register.
Both training modules will appear in your list of courses (under "All")

Course Completion

Please note that WHMIS training and the Fine Arts Health and Safety Orientation take approximately one hour each to complete and require that you pass a quiz at the end of each module. A score of 80% or higher is required to pass these quizzes. Once successfully completed these modules will appear as milestones on a student’s academic record after a few days.

🔥 Students that do not complete this requirement may be unable to participate in certain studio activities. More information about Fine Arts Department studio safety.

Illness and Other Conditions

In Winter 2026, the University renamed Verification of Illness Form (VIF) to Verification of Condition (VOC) Form. It's your responsibility to adhere to the conditions and required steps outlined on that page and below.

🔥 You must notify the instructor by email if you file a VOC Form.

If your declared condition overlaps with a graded component deadline, the accommodation will be either a penalty-free extension of the original deadline or the re-distribution of the graded weight to other course components.

Self-Declared Short-term Absence (STA)

In fall 2022, the University expanded the options for a self-declared absence for undergraduate students by introducing the option of self-declaring a "short-term absence" (which we refer to here as an STA). It's your responsibility to adhere to the conditions and required steps outlined on that page and below.

🔥 You must notify the instructor by email on or before the day you file the STA.

If your STA overlaps with a graded component deadline, the accommodation will be a penalty-free extension until the day after the STA ends.

Academic Integrity

To maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of the University of Waterloo community are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility. Contact the Office of Academic Integrity for more information. You're expected to follow the policies outlined for assignment submissions.

Using Code from Other Sources

You're expected to submit your own work.

If you use code from other sources (e.g. Stack Overflow, online article, etc.) you must document the source as a comment where the specific code is used. No single source can constitute more than 15% of your assignment.

You can use any code from this term's offering of CS 383 without documenting it as a source. This includes code shown in workshops and code from course code repos.

Using Advanced AI Systems

Use of advanced AI systems to generate code (i.e. Claude, CoPilot, ChatGPT, etc.) is also considered using code from other sources. The same rules apply from the previous policy: each AI system source must be documented and no single source can constitute more than 15% of your assignment.

Student Discipline

A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity to avoid committing an academic offence, and to take responsibility for their actions. A student who is unsure whether an action constitutes an offence, or who needs help in learning how to avoid offences (e.g., plagiarism, cheating) or about ‘rules’ for group work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course instructor, academic advisor, or the undergraduate Associate Dean. For information on categories of offences and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy 71, Student Discipline. For typical penalties check Guidelines for the Assessment of Penalties.

Intellectual Property

Students should be aware that this course contains the intellectual property of their instructor, TA, and/or the University of Waterloo. Intellectual property includes items such as:

Lecture content, spoken and written (and any audio/video recording thereof)
Lecture handouts, presentations, and other materials prepared for the course (e.g., PowerPoint slides)
Questions or solution sets from various types of assessments (e.g., assignments, quizzes, tests, final exams), and
Work protected by copyright (e.g., any work authored by the instructor or TA or used by the instructor or TA with permission of the copyright owner).
All source code written by the instructor and provided in lecture, as starter code for an assignment, or in a sample code repository.

Course materials and the intellectual property contained therein, are used to enhance a student’s educational experience. However, sharing this intellectual property without the intellectual property owner’s permission is a violation of intellectual property rights. For this reason, it is necessary to ask the instructor, TA and/or the University of Waterloo for permission before uploading and sharing the intellectual property of others online (e.g., to an online repository). Permission from an instructor, TA or the University is also necessary before sharing the intellectual property of others from completed courses with students taking the same/similar courses in subsequent terms/years. In many cases, instructors might be happy to allow distribution of certain materials. However, doing so without expressed permission is considered a violation of intellectual property rights.

University Policy

Mental Health: At the University of Waterloo, we are dedicated to supporting your mental and emotional well-being. Our Counselling Services offer confidential support, including individual counselling, workshops, and crisis intervention.
If you're struggling, please reach out for help at 519-888-4096 or visit their website for more information.

Academic integrity: In order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of the University of Waterloo community are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility.

Grievance: A student who believes that a decision affecting some aspect of their university life has been unfair or unreasonable may have grounds for initiating a grievance. Read Policy 70, Student Petitions and Grievances, Section 4. When in doubt, please be certain to contact the department’s administrative assistant who will provide further assistance.

Discipline: A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity to avoid committing an academic offence, and to take responsibility for their actions. A student who is unsure whether an action constitutes an offence, or who needs help in learning how to avoid offences (e.g., plagiarism, cheating) or about “rules” for group work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course instructor, academic advisor, or the undergraduate associate dean. For information on categories of offences and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy 71, Student Discipline. For typical penalties, check Guidelines for the Assessment of Penalties.

Appeals: A decision made or penalty imposed under Policy 70, Student Petitions and Grievances (other than a petition) or Policy 71, Student Discipline may be appealed if there is a ground. A student who believes they have a ground for an appeal should refer to Policy 72, Student Appeals.

Note for students with disabilities and disabling conditions: The University of Waterloo recognizes its obligations under the Ontario Human Rights Code to accommodate students with known or suspected disabilities and disabling conditions (e.g. medical conditions, injuries, impacts of trauma such as from violence or discrimination) to the point of undue hardship. To support this obligation, AccessAbility Services (AAS) collaborates with all academic departments and schools to facilitate academic accommodations for students with disabilities and disabling conditions without compromising the academic integrity of the curriculum. If you believe you may require academic accommodations (e.g., testing accommodations, classroom accommodations), register with AAS as early in the term as possible by completing the online application. Students already registered with AAS must activate their accommodations for each of their courses at the beginning of each term using AAS' online system. If you require assistance, contact AAS by phone (519-888-4567 ext. 35082), email (access@uwaterloo.ca) or in-person (Needles Hall North, 1st Floor, Room 1401).

Turnitin.com: Text matching software (Turnitin®) may be used to screen assignments in this course. Turnitin® is used to verify that all materials and sources in assignments are documented. Students' submissions are stored on a U.S. server, therefore students must be given an alternative (e.g., scaffolded assignment or annotated bibliography), if they are concerned about their privacy and/or security. Students will be given due notice, in the first week of the term and/or at the time assignment details are provided, about arrangements and alternatives for the use of Turnitin in this course.

It is the responsibility of the student to notify the instructor if they, in the first week of term or at the time assignment details are provided, wish to submit alternate assignment.