Syllabus

The final project is your chance to take what you have learned and implement some cool idea you have–an iPhone app, an Android app, a web service, whatever.  So long as the project uses what we learned in class, you are free to do what interests you.

Rarely are real software projects a one-person effort and for the final project you can collaborate with one or two other students.

pre-proposal – 15XP

due 11:59pm Monday 14 November; class presentation 15 November.

Each student will generate one or more ideas for a final project. By the deadline above send me a short informal email (see submission guidelines below) explaining your ideas and your motivation (what interests you about the ideas). If you have any questions, please include those. The subject line of the pre-proposal should be pre-proposal. Each student will present their ideas to the class on 24 March. After the presentations you will organize into development teams.

proposal – 60XP

due 11:59pm Thursday 17 November

Each team will submit a proposal electronically. The proposal needs to include a short description of the project and a rough design. It should include the names of the team members and their responsibilities.

status report – 100XP

22 November

This is an in class verbal status report and demo of what you have coded so far.

demo day – 225XP

8 December (the last class)

details forthcoming

Side Challenges – at least 150XP

In other classes this might be termed extra credit. Throughout the semester I will post a side challenge–typically a question–on our website.  Depending on the question, it can be answered with a short paragraph or a few lines of code. The experience points will vary depending on the challenge but will be worth at least 20XP.

Team Participation  – about 120XP

Each student will rate the helpfulness of all members of their team. Individual team participation scores will be the sum of the points they receive from other members of their team. Each team member distributes 100 points to other members of the team. The average team participation score will be 100 points. The rater must differentiate some of their ratings (they cannot assign the same rating to all members).

Avatar names, pseudonyms, noms de plume

During the first week of class I will ask you for your avatar name, pseudonym, whatever. This is the name that will appear on the Experience Point Google Spreadsheet that will be viewable by everyone in the class. If you wish to remain anonymous, don’t share your avatar name with anyone. On the other hand, if you would like recognition for achieving level 10 as an example (“a big shout out to tera miner for achieving level 10″), you can share your name. The decision is yours. To further protect the anonymity of those who wish to remain anonymous, the spreadsheet will also be populated by fictitious avatar names.

How to submit programming challenges

Unless I specify that the work needs to be demonstrated in class, you will be submitting your individual  programming challenges and other work via email to submit.0.bot_AT_gmail.com. You can either attach your code as an attachment to the email.

Do I need to be a math wiz or computer geek to succeed in this class?

I am hoping that there will be some of you who look over the above list of activities and think, wow! that’s exactly what I want to do. I expect some of you will look at that list and panic. Programming in front of a teacher–that seems scary and high stress. You may hate math and feel you have no talent there.  You may feel that you are not computer geeky enough to take the class.   Rest assured, this is not the case. I designed this course to enable people from a variety of backgrounds to succeed.  You’ll be doing the majority of your programming in class and much of that time will be working with other students. If you have problems we will solve them quickly.  The computer language we will be using, Python, is easy to learn but yet very expressive.

I figure if I can program chances are good that you can program. I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts in music performance. I took zero math classes in college. Zero. Maybe you think, yeah, but you were probably a math wiz in high school. Nope.  I went to an all boys trade high school with basically zero math.  Regardless of your background, if you are interested in learning to program you can do it.

If you have any questions or would like more information about the course please contact me.

If you have any computer related questions, even if they are not central to the topic of this course, please come and see me.

Accommodations for students with special needs

Any student with a documented disability may receive a special accommodation to complete any requirements of this course. If you are have a disability or believe you have one you may wish to self-identify. You may do so by providing documentation to the Office of Disability Services located in Room 203 of George Washington Hall (Phone: Voice 540-654-1266, Fax: 540-654-1163). Appropriate accommodations may then be provided for you. If you have a condition that may affect your ability to exit the premises in an emergency or that may cause an emergency during class, you are encouraged to discuss this in confidence with me and/or anyone at the Office of Disability Services. This office can also answer any questions you have about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Academic Integrity

I assume you are an ethical student and a person with integrity. I expect that you will follow the university honor code (see http://rosemary.umw.edu/CSHonorCode.html). Please use common sense and ask yourself what would a person with integrity do? To help you, I would like to make three comments related to this:

Plagiarism

Plagiarism means presenting some other person’s work as your own. This can mean using some other person’s words without acknowledging their source, or using some other person’s ideas. Copying another student’s work (homework or exam) is also plagiarism. Plagiarism will minimally result in an automatic zero for that submission.

Collusion

Collusion is unauthorized collaboration that produces work which is then presented as work completed independently by the student. Collusion includes participating in group discussions that develop solutions which everyone copies. Penalties for plagiarism and collusion include receiving a failing grade for the course.

Classroom behavior

I ask that you respect the other people in the class. I recognize that your life circumstances may require you to receive cell phone calls during class. If this is the case please set your cell phone on vibrate and discretely leave the class to accept calls. During tests, if you walk out of the classroom, or consult/display your cell phone, I will assume you are done with the test and collect your grading sheet.

Class participation

I expect students to attend classes regularly. That said, attendance is not taken and no XP will be awarded based directly on attendance.  If you are going to miss a class, please be courteous and inform your team mates.

 General Education Student Learning Outcomes

• Students will demonstrate an ability to interpret quantitative/symbolic information. For example, students should be able to examine an algorithm or source code and state in English the behavior of that code.
• Students will have the ability to convert relevant information into various mathematical/analytical forms. For examples, students should be able to take a problem description and produce a working computer program.
• Students will be able to apply analytical techniques or rules to solve problems in a variety of contexts. For examples, take an idea they have for an Android application, produce a specification for how to implement that idea, and produce a working version of the program.
• Students will gain an appreciation for how analytical techniques or rules are used to address real-world problems across multiple disciplines.