Late Submission

No extensions will be granted without an approved application for Special Consideration. There will be a deduction of 10% of the total available marks made from the total awarded mark for each 24 hour period or part thereof that the submission is late. For example, 25 hours late in submission for an assignment worth 10 marks – 20% penalty or 2 marks deducted from the total. No submission will be accepted after solutions have been posted.

Supplementary Exam

If you receive Special Consideration for the final exam, a supplementary exam will be scheduled after the normal exam period, following the release of marks. By making a special consideration application for the final exam you are declaring yourself available for a resit during the supplementary examination period and will not be eligible for a second special consideration approval based on pre-existing commitments. Please ensure you are familiar with the policy prior to submitting an application. Approved applicants will receive an individual notification one week prior to the exam with the exact date and time of their supplementary examination.

Classes

Each week you should attend the class which is three to four hours. For details of days, times and rooms consult the timetables webpage.

This course has no extra classes for tutorials or practicals.

Please note it is to your benefit to attend most of the classes, prepared to participate in discussions, ask and answer questions, and provide perspectives from your own background and workplaces.

Resources to assist your learning

Digital recordings of lectures are available as Echo360 through iLearn login. These are provided for review material and in case of missing lectures.

Online discussion. We will have an active online discussion forum in the ED system. It is expected that you contribute to these discussions.

iLearn is used for out-of-class communication as well as forums where active discussion of issues is encouraged. iLearn can be found at can be found at http://learn.mq.edu.au. You are encouraged to review iLearn weekly and to do background reading before each class.

Textbook

The main textbook for ITEC801 is:

Maarten van Steen and Andrew s Tanenbaum Distributed Systems 3rd Edition (2017) (M&A)

Available for free at:

https://www.distributed-systems.net/index.php/books/distributed-systems-3rd-edition-2017/

References

• “Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design” by George Coulouris, Jean Dollimore, and Tim Kindberg, Addison Wesley, 5th edition. (Coulouris).  Available free at https://www.gecg.in/papers/ds5thedn.pdf
• “Distributed and Cloud Computing: From Parallel Processing to the Internet of Things” by Geoffrey C. Fox, Jack Dongarra, and Kai Hwang, 1st edition. (Geoffrey). Recommended but not required 

The detailed unit schedule will be available on iLearn. The following is an approximate schedule and is subject to change. In all cases, refer to iLearn for up-to-date information.

* Note that the schedule is indicative only and subject to change.

In this unit, the final mark will be calculated by combining the marks for all assessment tasks according to the percentage weightings shown in the assessment tasks.

Students obtaining a higher grade than a pass in this unit will        

• have a total mark of 85% or higher to obtain High Distinction;
• have a total mark of 75% or higher to obtain Distinction;
• have a total mark of 65% or higher  to obtain Credit.

A more detailed interpretation of the Grade is below:

• Fail (F): does not provide evidence of attainment of all learning outcomes. There is missing or partial or superficial or faulty understanding and application of the fundamental concepts in the field of study; and incomplete, confusing or lacking communication of ideas in ways that give little attention to the conventions of the discipline.
• Pass (P): provides sufficient evidence of the achievement of learning outcomes. There is demonstration of understanding and application of fundamental concepts of the field of study; and communication of information and ideas adequately in terms of the conventions of the discipline. The learning attainment is considered satisfactory or adequate or competent or capable in relation to the specified outcomes.
• Credit (Cr): provides evidence of learning that goes beyond replication of content knowledge or skills relevant to the learning outcomes. There is demonstration of substantial understanding of fundamental concepts in the field of study and the ability to apply these concepts in a variety of contexts; plus communication of ideas fluently and clearly in terms of the conventions of the discipline.
• Distinction (D): provides evidence of integration and evaluation of critical ideas, principles and theories, distinctive insight and ability in applying relevant skills and concepts in relation to learning outcomes. There is demonstration of frequent originality in defining and analysing issues or problems and providing solutions; and the use of means of communication appropriate to the discipline and the audience.
• High Distinction (HD): provides consistent evidence of deep and critical understanding in relation to the learning outcomes. There is substantial originality and insight in identifying, generating and communicating competing arguments, perspectives or problem solving approaches; critical evaluation of problems, their solutions and their implications; creativity in application.

 You are encouraged to:

• set your personal deadline earlier than the actual one;
• keep backups of all important assessed tasks;.
• make sure no one else picks up your printouts.

All work submitted should be readable and well presented.

PRESENTING YOUR OWN WORK IS ESSENTIAL. You should never commit plagiarism or copying in any of your submitted work. In particular, you must put any web sources in your own words. DO NOT COPY BLOCKS OF TEXT FROM THE WEB – you will be penalised for this, depending on the extent of copying.