Academic Standards & Accreditation (applies only to Regular Students)

Method: Problem-Based Learning with a System of Bonuses
The Material has been structured into chapters that can be studied independently after the introduction. For each chapter,

• the Students first carefully listen to the video lecture, browse through the syllabus and get acquainted with the new knowledge in a passive learning phase simply by following the Teacher's line of thought.
• In the second active learning phase, the Students reproduce the derivations and verify the numerical properties by changing the parameters and comparing different methods in the JBONE applet. A computer quiz is provided in the syllabus on-line and should be carried out at the end of each active learning phase to ensure that the material has been correctly assimilated.
• Questions are asked and answered anytime in the discussion groups (the "Forums") with help provided on a voluntary basis from peers (in the "World" Forum). Regular Students interact with each other in the classroom Forum (the "Classroom"), which is moderated by the Teacher and where individual contributions are rewarded (with 1-5 Bonus points depending on the quality of the question, the answer or the discussion).
• Assignments aim at applying the new knowledge and are designed to deepen the level of understanding in a problem based learning context. Regular Students submit their solutions for correction to the Teacher, for a reward in the range of 5-20 Bonus points for every correct solution that has been accepted (and is then signalled as "Passed").
• Particularly nice solutions are shared for reference (the "Reference solutions") with other Students from the class who finish and Passed this assignment.
• At the end of every module, the Students are kindly requested to fill-in an evaluation form, allowing us to improve the Material during the course where this is most useful.

3-4 weeks full time learning

Topic	Required Bonuses
1. Introduction	30
2. Finite Differences*	30
3. Finite Elements*	30
4. Fourier Methods*	30
5. Monte-Carlo Methods*	30
6. Lagrangian Methods*	30
Forums Discussions	30
Total (*skip one)	180

The table shows how many Bonus points should be acquired in the different categories in order to qualify for the Certificate. The total of 180 points corresponds roughly to three to four weeks of full time learning. Note the importance given to the Forum discussions. Note also that the total of bonuses of all topics exceeds 180, which means that e.g. one of the numerical methods may be skipped.

Small project
Regular student who will have qualified for the Certificate will be given the opportunuity to pursue with a small project. The choice of the topic is up to the Student, but should typically apply the numerical knowledge acquired from this Course in an area of research where the Student and the Teacher can count on external help to guarantee the scientific relevance of the project. A small 1000-3000 words report has to be submitted and may be published for a broader audience on this Website.

Rules of conduct and Rights

Syllabus and the JBONE applet

• To share the knowledge with everyone who is willing to learn irrespective of his origin, background and financial condition, the web- and the printout editions of the syllabus are distributed free of charge. Copies may therefore be reproduced for non-commercial educational purposes provided that the copyright notice below is properly referenced.
• The JBONE applet in particular can be used as much as you want: once loaded into your browser's cache, the only computing resources that are used are yours! It is however necessary to login to be allowed to modify the run parameters.
• In return for a free access to the syllabus, users are kindly asked to point out possible miss prints, particularly as the content is now constantly updated and expanded.

Application / registration / tuition fees

• Anybody with a valid e-mail address, who properly fills in the registration form and agrees with the Terms from this web page can open an account (the "Account") and register as Student in this Course.
• Students from the Swedish academic system, the Doctoral School of the EPFL and the Swedish Netuniversity can participate free of charge.
• Other Students from the developed world have to pay a fee:
  1. Holders of American Express, Visa or Eurocard / Mastercard can use their credit card and perform the payment over the web at no extra cost using the secured PayPal service.
  2. A bank transfer to UBS, 1110 Morges, Switzerland, payable to André Jaun, IBAN-nbr CH92 0024 3243 G255 4465 1 (clearing-nbr 0243, swift address UBSWCHZH10A, account G2-554,465.1) is probably the quickest alternative. Please send an e-mail for information about your payment and allow for at least 3 working days processing time.
  3. A Eurocheque or a Bankers Draft can be sent by regular mail together with a printout of the registration form to André Jaun, NADA, Royal Institute of Technology, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden. Please allow for at least 14 days processing time.
  Participants in special events (e.g. the Summer University of Southern Stockholm and the Netuniversity) courses pay their fee directly to the organizers and specify their payment during registration.

User Account

• User Accounts are strictly personal and cannot be shared between different Students.
• For the protection of personal data, the user access code (the "Password") should remain secret at all times.
• To prevent other users who may have access to the same terminal from entering the Account without permission, steal or destroy data, it is the Student's responsibility to always LOGOUT and CLOSE the web browser at the end of each learning session. This will in effect empty the cache where an encrypted "cookie" is temporarily stored to grant temporary access.

Video-Lectures

• They replace the regular classroom lectures and are best viewed together with a web browser opened on the top of the syllabus to follow the Teacher's line of thought.
• The sound is transmitted without too much difficulty even over a 28 KB/sec modem, but a broadband network connection is more comfortable for a good picture quality.
• Recordings are available on demand in CD-ROM and DVD format.

Discussion Forums (important: read carefully!)

• The Forums are to be used exclusively for questions, answers and discussions related with the Course and its applications. The tone is informal and everyone identifies himself only with his / her user name.
• To prevent cheating and harassment, messages with an e-mail, telephone and indeed any kind of address that could establish a link between distance learning Students outside these Forums is prohibited.
• Three Forums are opened with increasing access permissions:
  • World. Opened to Self-learning Students for writing and to everyone for reading. Message are only displayed after one of the moderators (the "Moderator") verified that the conditions and the spirit for writing in this Forum are met. Advice is provided on a voluntary basis from all the users and the messages are posted with no judgment of quality, suitability or correctness from the Moderator, neither explicit nor implied.
  • Alumni. Former Regular Students who graduated from this course (the "Alumni") are given the possibility to keep contacts, exchange expert advice, advertise professional events and display job offers for their younger friends.
  • Classroom. Regular Students are given real-time (uncensored) write access and have therefore imperatively to follow the rules of conduct if they want to qualify for an academic accreditation.
• Direct help and advice from the Teacher is only provided through discussions with Regular Students in the Classroom.

Assignments

• To have the legal permission to publish the solutions of assignments on the web, the copyright belongs both to the Student and the owner of the website.
• The solutions web-pages will be stored for a minimum of 2 years after registration. To allow other students to benefit from the same distance learning environment, the solutions are not to be distributed and cannot be linked from the outside world.
• For a stable documentation of the work, Students are encouraged to download the solutions in Postscript format and to print them on regular paper that can be stored for reference.
• Although this is not in fact useful to perform the exercises, Regular Students who paid their tuition fee are given access to the complete source code of the JBONE applet. Restrictions apply and are specified in the License agreement below.

General License for the Material on this Website

Copyright Notice

Permission
This License is intended to give you legal permission to download, edit and/or modify the Material from this Website for educational purposes including learning and teaching your own course, provided that:

• you properly fill-in the registration form,
• the copyright notice is properly referenced in your own course,
• the use of the Material is solely for non-commercial use and doesn't interfere with the activity promoted by this Website.

Terms

• A few minutes after registering, you will automatically receive an e-mail with your personal access code. You may then immediately access most the Material and start your studies.
• You are not allowed to communicate your access code and / or "mirror" the downloaded Material in the present or modified form on any other server.
• You may however distribute and / or publish part of the Material, provided that it is for non-commercial and educational use and the copyright notice is properly referenced in your course.
• You may not copy, modify, sub license, or distribute the Material except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise to copy, modify, sub license or distribute the Material is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.
• You are not required to accept this License, since you have not signed it. However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or distribute the Material or its derivatives. These actions are prohibited by law if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by modifying or distributing the Material (or any work based on the Material), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying the Material or works based on it.

No Warranty

• This Website could include inaccuracies or typographical errors. The Authors and the Third Party Providers may make improvements and / or changes in the Material described in this Website at any time without notice. Changes are periodically made to the Website and corrections / suggestions from licensees to the Webmaster are most welcome.
• Because the Material is exclusively for educational use and often builds on the forefront of research carried out in this field, there is no warranty to the extent permitted by applicable law. The Material is made available "as is"; should part prove defective, you assume the cost of all necessary servicing, repair or correction.
• In no event unless agreed to in writing will any copyright holder be liable to you for damages, including any general, special, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use or inability to use the Material (including but not limited to loss of data or data being rendered inaccurate or losses sustained by you or third parties or a failure of the program to operate with any other programs), even if such holder or other party has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

Third Party Content Disclaimer
The Authors are committed to respecting others' intellectual property rights, and we ask our users to do the same. Materials provided by Third Party Providers have not been independently authenticated in whole or in part by the Authors. The Authors do not provide, sell, license, or lease any of the Material other than the one specifically identified as being provided by them.