CS1321 Spring 2003 Class Syllabus

Instructors

Instructor: David Smith
Office: College of Computing Building, Rm 121
Time: TBA
Email: dmsmith@cc.gatech.edu

Instructor: Barbara Ericson
Office: 123
Time: Monday 2-3, Tuesday 10-11, Thursday 2-3
Email: ericson@cc.gatech.edu

Instructor: Bryan Kennedy
Office: 123
Time: Monday 2-3, Wednesday 11-12, Friday 11-12
Email: bryan.kennedy@cc.gatech.edu

Grading Policies

There is no curve in this course. The grading breakdown is as follows:

Homeworks 15%
Labs 5%
Quizzes 45% (3 quizzes at 15% each)
Final 35%

Letter grade assignments are given according to the following cutoffs with no rounding:
90.0 <= A <= 100
80.0 <= B < 90.0
70.0 <= C < 80.0
60.0 <= D < 70.0
0 <= F < 60.0
You have the right to question your grade on any assignment, but you must initiate discussion about the grade within one week of getting the grade back. Should you find yourself having an issue with a grade, contact your TA. If the issue remains, contact the Head TA of your section next and/or your instructor.

Text and Reading

"How to Design Programs" by Felleisen, Findler, Flatt, Krishnamurthi available also online at http://www.htdp.org (required reading).

GET YOUR GT ACCOUNT ACTIVATED IF IT IS NOT ALREADY ACTIVE!!!

Course Website

http://www.cc.gatech.edu/classes/AY2004/cs1321_fall/

Email Policy for this Course

You are encouraged to conduct all official email correspondence for this course using your official GT email account; that is, your prism-based email. This is to protect your privacy. Email with HTML formatting should be avoided. Email from outside sources such as hotmail, yahoo, and other personal accounts should be avoided when not absolutely necessary. For a quickest response, put CS1321 in the subject of your e-mail. Most of the people involved with 1321 filter their mail in some way, and having CS1321 in the subject will help them see your e-mail sooner.

Recitation

Held in various Skiles classrooms on Tuesday and Wednesday from 6:05 p.m. to 7:55 p.m. These will be assigned early during the second full week of classes. There is NO recitation the first week!

Newsgroups

* The .announce newsgroup is required reading once every 24 hours.

TA Access

TA Office hours will be announced. This time is used to return graded work and address any questions.

TA Help Desk

When? Starting the second week of the semester
Where? The commons area of the College of Computing building.
TAs will man a desk with computers in the commons areas during the hours to be announced. Take advantage of this useful new opportunity for help!

WebWork

WebWork will be used for all assignment and grade management. Details on how to use WebWork will be given in Lab 1.

Retrieve your work!! IMPORTANT: After submitting an assignment on WebWork, you must use the retrieval option to double check that you submitted what you intended to submit. This is your responsibility and the only way to know that the submission process did complete as you expected.

Every semester students fail to do this and do not realize when they have not submitted an assignment completely until it is too late.

Help Sessions

It is common for us to offer help sessions for homeworks occassionally and more frequently for quizzes. The best way to know of these help sessions and their details is to read the .announce newsgroup.

Due Dates/Times

Assignments are due electronically as indicated on the class Web site or .announce. Typically this is noon on the date the assignment states it is due (and this is also indicated on the course calendar.) There is a 6 hour grace period that begins after the due time. You are free to turn things in early before the due date, but once the grace period after the due date/time is over, no more submissions are possible.

There are no redos allowed on any assignment!

Late Work Policy

No late homeworks, labs, quizzes or exams are accepted in this class. Any request for exceptions to this policy due to incapacitating illness, death in the family, or something similarly serious must be accompanied by supporting documentation.

CAUTION: the preprinted note from the infirmary stating that you visited the infirmary is not sufficient documentation.

Please contact the Dean of Students with your excuse and they can provide you with the proper documentation. http://www.deanofstudents.gatech.edu/contact.html

Final Times and Places

Be aware that the final exam time shown at this point on Oscar is tentative— Do not make travel plans around it!!! The date and/or time are subject to change. GA Tech announces the actual final exam schedule much later in the semester.

What to do in case of problems

You should contact the following people in the order that they are listed from top to bottom— not following this order may only slow down the help that you may receive.

Your TA / Newsgroups (when appropriate)
Your Head TA
Your Instructor (e-mail addresses at the top of this syllabus)

Miscellaneous Reminders

  1. You are responsible for turning in assignments on time. This includes allowing for unforeseen circumstances.

  2. You are also responsible for insuring that what you turned in is what you meant to turn in. WebWork includes a retrieve submission feature. USE IT. This allows you to retrieve exactly what you submitted and insure that the submission process was complete. Ever semester students manage to lose credit for assignments because they fail to complete the submission process completely and do not realize this fact. Following every submission with a retrieval of that same submission will allow you to be sure this does not happen to you.

  3. Finals and quizzes must be taken at the scheduled date and time. Please do not ask for special treatment because you (or your parents) have purchased non-refundable airline tickets. The safe time to travel is after finals week. The finals schedule published at the beginning of the semester is TENTATIVE. The official schedule is published very late in the semester.

  4. If you have any personal issues (family/illness/etc.) please go to the Dean of Student's (Gail DiSabatino) office located in the Student Services Building (Flag Building) next to the Student Center. She is equipped and authorized to verify the problems and she will issue a note to all your instructors making them aware of the problem and requesting whatever extension, etc. is necessary.

  5. The .announce newsgroup must be read every day. Official announcements about course matters will be posted there. The general course newsgroup is for posting technical questions about assignments, tests etc. Complaints, questions about your personal problems, etc. should be discussed with your instructor in person or via email.

Course Expectations

  1. Attend lecture on a regular basis and keep up with the reading. These are the ONLY sources of new material to be learned.

  2. Attend recitation on a regular basis. Participate in the TA-led discussions and ask questions about the material. This is your best opportunity to review the material and see examples to solidify your understanding.

  3. Visit your TA's office hours with questions about grades and the course materials. This is your chance to have one-on-one contact with your TA to take care of individual questions and issues.

  4. Read the git.cc.class.cs1321.announce newsgroup *every* weekday and at least once per weekend. This is where you will get important information and updates about the course.

  5. Refer to the course newsgroups to have discussions about course material with your classmates and the TAs. This is where you can have general-interst questions answered ouside of recitation and office hours. You are also expected to follow good newsgroup ettiquette, as per the newsgroup lab. This keeps the newsgroups usable in a large class like CS 1321.

  6. Complete every homework assignment and use it as a learning opportunity; use collaboration in order to gain a better understanding, not to get the work done faster. This is your chance to learn the material in preparation for the test; not having a solid understanding of the homework *will* lead to poor performance later (i.e. tests, other homeworks and the final exam).

  7. Take responsibility for your coursework submissions; it is your job to make sure that you successfully turned in what you meant to turn in and verify your submission by retrieving your files from WebWork. This is how you make sure that you get credit for the work you do.

  8. Be prepared when you go to get help from a TA or your instructor. We can best help those who help themselves. You should complete as much of the design recipe as you can prior to meeting for help. Bring your work and any other relevant materials to the meeting.

  9. Take initiative. You will only get out of this class what you put into it. Begin your assignments early and if you think you need help, come prepared. Use the resources that are provided for you, and be determined to succeed from the start.

Course Components

  1. Lectures - Attend, listen and learn. This is the only place where we will introduce new material.

  2. Recitations - Example questions with discussion. Questions about the homework and interactive solutions, taking advantage of the small group setting. This is *not* another lecture; it's a place for walking through live examples and asking questions.

  3. TA Office Hours - Individual questions about grades and homeworks. The primary focus for individual office hours: the students in this TA's section. All other students are second priority.

  4. "Help Desk" - group-oriented help for *specific* hw and lab questions. More general sort of help for other topics.

  5. Homework - learn ins and outs of the topics. Apply the stuff learned in lecture to programming problems. Collaboration encouraged here especially.

  6. Tests - should demonstrate your *understanding* of the course material. Focus on applying concepts and skills learned in hw to novel problems.

  7. Labs - self-led exercises in assorted computer-related topics.

  8. Final Exam - cumulative assessment of everything in the course.

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