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Basics
Outline, Prerequisites, and ExpectationsThis course has a prerequisite of a grade of C or better in MATH 141 and CSCE 145. You are responsible for checking this website on a regular basis. "Regular" means at least as often as the class and lab meet. You should read the material before coming to class. If we have covered all of a particular section or chapter, you should take the initiative on your own to read the next section or chapter. Academic Support, Supplemental Instruction, and ACESome of you may find this course difficult. Some of you may also be enrolled in Math 142 or 142 and find that course to be difficult. If so, you are encouraged to to consult the academic support offices, including the offices that help with tutoring, supplemental instruction in CSCE 146 and MATH 142, and the Academic Centers for Excellence. Supplemental Instruction (SI) is offered for this course and provides you with the opportunity to attend 3 study sessions per week. SI sessions are facilitated by Jonathan Bolt, an undergraduate student who has taken this course and excelled in the course material. Your SI leader will facilitate a discussion and activities that encourage you to practice, discuss, and ask questions about the most recent lecture material. All SI sessions are held in the Student Success Center, Thomas Cooper Library. You can find the days/times for your SI leader's sessions at the supplemental instruction website, The Department of Computer Science and Engineering has specifically paid the cost of a Supplementary Instruction person for this semester, who is Jonathan Bolt. This is a resource you should strongly consider using if you are having trouble in the class. Also, if in fact you find this material easy, you should consider becoming a tutor or offering to work for the Academic Support people. My understanding is that they are always looking for good people in these courses. They will actually pay you money. And as anyone who has ever taught will say, you never really learn a subject until you have to teach it to someone else. There is a CSE department email alias for CSCE 146, namely CSCE146-001, CSCE146-002, CSCE146-003, in the domain lists.cse.sc.edu. This alias sends email to the CSE departmental login userid@cse.sc.edu that you get with this course. A mass mailing to the entire class will be done through these mail aliases. Actually, any of you can send mail to this alias. The mail alias of the previous paragraph sends mail to the CSE departmental login that you get with this course. You are responsible for reading mail sent to this account and the engr.sc.edu account of the college's mail server. Texts, References, and Links to Useful Information
Tests and AssignmentsThe mid-term exam will be on 30 September 2008. This will allow us to get back the exams during the lab sessions the next day. The last day to drop the class with a "W" grade is Thursday 2 October. The second mid-term exam is scheduled for 18 November 2008. No one has come forward to argue that this conflicts with 19 other exams, so this is now a firm date. Lab assignments will be short programs to be written in class. They must be turned in at the end of the lab time and will not be accepted if turned in later. Homework assignments are longer programs to be written outside of class. They will be turned in electronically to the departmental drop box, and they must be done individually as your own work. The exams will be closed book exams. The final exam will be cumulative. The tentative schedule for labs and homeworks can be found here. The homework assignments can be found here. The lab assignments can be found here. The final exam is scheduled for Monday, 8 December, at 2:00 p.m. ScheduleThe schedule of assignments and such (subject to change and adjustment) can be found here.
Grading Scheme
Attendance and GradesIt has been found, and should come as no surprise to anyone, that attendance at class correlates positively with your GPA. I will be taking attendance. For every three (3) unexcused absences, your grade will be lowered by one full letter. The judgement as to accepting the excuse is mine. Illness, family emergencies, and such are excusable. Returning home late from Myrtle Beach to avoid the traffic jam is not an excusable absence. Note also that the exams count a total of 45% of your grade. Your grade is heavily dependent on your lab assignments and homework assignments. What this means is that there is in the grading system a strong incentive for you to keep up to date with assignments and to come to class and labs. It is NOT possible in this class to slack off through the semester and then somehow make up the difference with a strong final. The final exam just doesn't count enough to pull up your grade, not even when combined with the two regular exams. You will need to get reasonable grades on the labs and on the homeworks in order to do well in this course. Unless otherwise indicated, there are no bonus points that can be earned in this class. If you want to total up points so as to get a good grade, then do the labs and homeworks and do well on the exams. Version ControlEverything we will use in this course either comes with the textbook or is free and available on the web for download. However, things are are available for download tend to change versions on a regular basis. We do not believe there will be functionally different versions of software available during this semester, but if you download tools for your home computer it is possible that you will be downloading a different version from that which is used in the 1D11 and 1D15 computer labs. For the most part, the things that will different from one version of Eclipse to another or from one version of Java to another are not things you will notice in this class. Java versions are labelled (and no, this makes no sense) 1.3, 1.4, 5.0, and then 6.0. The key to Java is that you have at least version 5.0 or higher. As of the day before classes started, the most recent version is Update ? to Java 6. You will notice that the Java libraries in the labs are labelled 6.0. Similarly, we are currently running Eclipse version 3.? in the labs. The most recent version is 3.3, available as of 25 June 2007. We take a risk-averse approach to computer labs, in that we are unlikely to install the most recent version until it's been used and tested (by someone else). I personally am running Eclipse 3.? on my three computers (home linux, office desktop, and laptop). You will see different versions, but I cannot imagine that you'll notice any difference from one version to the next on the kind of things you'll be using in this class. DeadlinesAssignments will have due dates. Unless otherwise specified, the usual deadline will be that assignments are to be sent to the drop box by midnight of the day the assignment is due, and the drop box will be closed as of midnight. Late assignments will not be accepted without prior arrangement to accommodate truly extraordinary circumstances. No makeup quizzes will be given. Notes and Slides(Caveat: any lecture notes I prepare may well change during the lecture process, and if you print them too early or too often you may use up your print quota.
Academic HonestyAssignments and examination work are expected to be the sole effort of the student submitting the work. Students are expected to follow the University of South Carolina Honor Code and should expect that every instance of a suspected violation will be reported. Students found responsible for violations of the Code will be subject to academic penalities under the Code in addition to whatever disciplinary sanctions are applied. There seems to be a widespread misunderstanding of the concept of "your own work." In addition to the USC Code, some good sources of text for what is or is not acceptable behavior are the academic honesty policy statement from Harvey Mudd College, the policy statement from Professor Steven Huss-Lederman at Beloit College, and the text of part of the collaboration policy statement from MIT. You can expect your programming assignments to be checked against those turned in by other members of the class as well as code that I can find on the web. I expect the correlations between your work and that of others to be minimal. I can also offer an operational definition of what you can do and of how you can distinguish "learning from a group discussion" and "turning in someone else's work." If, after having participated in a group activity, you can walk away, put the books down, have lunch, and then come back afterwards to re-create from your own head the material and techniques you discussed as a group, then you can legitimately say that you have learned from the group but the work you turn in is your own. On the Proper Use of Computing ResourcesStudents are expected to be aware of the university policy on use of computing resources, including the Student Guidelines for Responsible Computing, as well as the college and departmental policies on proper use of computing resources. Every instance of a suspected violation will be reported. Students should be aware that neither the instructor nor the department are responsible for making alternative arrangements should improper use leading to revocation of access to departmental or college resources make it impossible for you to complete the programming assignments on time. On the Nature of Academic WorkStudents might also find relevant an essay from a professor at Georgia Tech. |
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