My Teaching Policy

The brief summary above highlights the most important points; the details below are provided to make expectations and procedures fully transparent.

My teaching methodology: Please read this document to gauge your expectations from my classes! In addition, please check out this document to see my responses to common complaints that are made after examinations in my classes.

Academic accommodations: I would love to do my best to tailor your learning experience to your needs; in particular, if you have any special situation, please contact me to discuss further. Such a situation may be physical disability, learning disability, ADHD, chronic health issue, mental health condition, complications with a pregnancy, temporarily disabling injury or circumstance, upcoming surgery, and else. Being a mathematical physicist who is bound to teach math-heavy courses, I would particularly advise that students contact me if they have dyscalculia, and advise that they check if they have dyscalculia in case they suffer greatly in mathematical courses.

I usually do not require The Letter for Academic Accommodation for my classes (please check with me first though); however other instructors may prefer students to have this: please check the website of METU Disability Support Office (DSO) for further information.

Academic integrity: By enrolling in this course, you agree to abide by the academic integrity rules applicable to this class. You should definitely read my explanations of the expected academic integrity.

Language: The medium of instruction in my classes is English (article 5/1 in Regulations): you are of course free to use any language (Turkish, English, Quenya, etc.) when interacting with the instructor outside the classroom, but please do your best to stick to English inside the classroom!

Assessment & Grades:

• By the Regulations (article 24/5), each student receives a letter grade at the end of the semester.
• The letter grades will be determined based on the scores of the students, and the subdivision of overall score among examinations or other possible courseload is determined per the course: see its syllabus for further details.
• As per my right provided by the Regulations (article 24/2), I will determine the conversion of Score to a Letter Grade at the end of the course: although there are various guidelines (say, assigning AA to the interval $90-100$), I will use my judgment to determine the appropriate designations based on the overall class performance and the class’s reception of the exams. For my grading strategy in past, check out my explanations here.

Attendance: Class attendance is mandatory by the Regulations (article 23/1), which leave the full discretion to the instructor regarding the effects of the attendance (article 23/3). In accordance with my view on the subject, the attendance policy will be as follows:

• attendance will not affect any student who receives a passing letter grade (DD, DC, CC, CB, BB, BA, AA);
• for all other students, attendance will determine whether the failure is academic (FF/FD) or procedural (NA).

In accordance with the relevant Regulations (article 23/2), I will keep the attendance records of the students. The procedure is as follows:

1.

attendance will be checked several times (minimum 4) at randomly chosen lectures during the semester, through ODTÜClass attendance plugin or the old-fashioned pen & paper;

2.

any student who was absent in four or more attendance checks will be labeled insufficiently participated;

3.

any insufficiently participated student who would otherwise receive the letter grade FF/FD will be given NA.

Note: Students who are present in the lecture but unable to access the ODTÜClass attendance plugin at that moment should inform me immediately after the lecture (before leaving the classroom).
Note-2: If a student has a timetable clash with a must course, they are exempt from attendance for the conflicting class hours: they should inform me of the situation after the add-drop period ends.

Examinations & Admissible Excuses:

• Students are responsible to take each and every examination announced in the syllabus. If you fail to take an examination without an admissible excuse, I will invoke my rights provided by the Regulations (article 23) to penalize your score (hence effectively your letter grade) as detailed in the respective syllabus of the course.

• If a student misses one or more examinations in the following cases, they may be entitled to admissible excuses:

  1.

  If you were at the Health and Guidance Center for medical examination or treatment at the same time as the exam, request a medical examination document from HGC: I may or may not accept it as an admissible excuse, in alignment with the relevant regulation (article 9/4b).

  2.

  If you have a medical report, it is an admissible excuse (see article 11/3c of Regulations) provided that you submit your medical report to Health and Guidance Center (HGC) within 5 days after the period covered by the report ends, as required by the Regulations (article 10/2). Therefore, I reserve the right not to accept your medical report as an admissible excuse if it was not validated by HGC. In any case, I suggest that you contact me immediately if you miss an exam due to a medical complication, and email me a picture of your medical report as well.

  3.

  If the student has a concurrent examination scheduled for another course, then I count it as an admissible excuse provided that the instructor of the other course sends me an email through their METU email address, verifying the exam clash.

  4.

  For other situations (such as a family crisis, death of a relative, etc.), please contact me: I may (or may not) grant you an admissible excuse.

• An admissible excuse does not warrant a make-up examination; it may simply change the algorithm with which the student’s score is calculated in accordance with the relevant regulations (for instance, see article 11/3c of Regulations). For more details, consult to the syllabus of the relevant course.
• During examinations, please adhere to the regulations detailed in this document.

Teaching Assistants: Some courses might have teaching assistants associated with them; please contact these assistants for further information regarding their duties in the given class. To learn more about their responsibilities towards the class and teaching in general, see the guideline here.

Schedule & Appointments: You might access my weekly schedule, my office hours, and related information through the link https://soneralbayrak.com/schedule.