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Syllabus

Logistics

Office hours

Section A

Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:30-4:50 PM, Foreign Languages Building, room G27. Section A is intended for students who have prior programming experience.

Section B

Tuesdays and Thursdays 2:00-3:20 PM, Foreign Languages Building, room G17. Section B is for students who have no programming experience, or who have very little programming experience.

Required Texts and Tools

Student Responsibilities

Schedule and Readings

Students are expected to regularly review the schedule of assigned readings and video lectures. This schedule is subject to change.

  • Some of the material covered in readings will be covered in class.
  • Some of the material covered in readings will be covered in video lectures.
  • Some of the material covered in readings will not be covered in class and will not be covered in video lectures.
  • Some material will be covered in the video lectures, but not in the readings and not in class.
  • Some material will be covered in class, but not in the readings and not in video lectures.

Responsibilities

  • Students are responsible for all of the material covered in every reading.
  • Students are responsible for all of the material covered in every video lecture.
  • Students are responsible for all of the material covered in class.
  • Students are responsible for all of the material covered in public Piazza posts. This includes clarifications to homework instructions.

Expectations

  • Students are expected to attentively read assigned readings.
  • Students are expected to actively follow along and practice the examples presented in the readings.
  • Students are expected to attentively view assigned video lectures.
  • Students are expected to attend the entirety of every class session and actively participate in the class.
  • Quiz questions may come from readings, video lectures, or other material previously covered in class.
  • Homework questions may cover material from the readings that have not been covered in class or in video lectures.
  • Homework questions may cover material from the video lectures that have not been covered in class or in the readings.

Learning Goals and Outcomes

Students are expected to attend class, attentively read assigned readings, attentively view assigned video lectures, regularly practice the presented tools and techniques, and complete all assigned work.

Students who do so are expected to attain the learning goals and outcomes.

Grading

Students will be assessed on the extent to which they have attained the learning goals & outcomes. This assessment will be primarily hands-on, assessed through a combination of daily quizzes, practical exercises, homework assignments, and projects.

Grades will be assessed on a 10-point fixed letter grade system.

  • Programming and scripting assignments will make up approximately 75% of the overall grade.
  • Quizzes and other similar assessments will make up approximately 13% of the overall grade.
  • Daily homework and reading log will make up approximately 12% of the overall grade.

DRES

If a student has a disability or condition that requires special consideration, the student is expected to post a private message to the instructor on Piazza (filed under the DRES folder) no later than the beginning of the second day of class. The message should:

  • Include a scanned attachment of the requisite letter from the University Division of Disability Resources and Educational Services.
  • Include a detailed description of the accommodations that the student is actually requesting for this class.

Academic Integrity

This course follows the University of Illinois Student Code regarding Academic Integrity. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences also has an excellent web page on the topic. You are expected to read these resources prior to the second day of class, and to understand your responsibilities with regard to Academic Integrity.

All work submitted for this class must be solely your own. Violations of Academic Integrity include, but are not limited to, copying, cheating, and unapproved collaboration. Violations will not be tolerated.

Absences and Late Work Policy

Students are expected complete all assigned readings and video lectures prior to the class for which they are assigned.

Excused absence

If a student will be absent from class for any reason, the student is expected to inform the course instructor and TA ahead of time.

  • Each absence must be separately reported ahead of time via a private post on Piazza to the instructor and TA
  • Each Piazza post must be filed under the folder “excused-absence”
  • Each Piazza post must list the date of the absence
  • Each Piazza post must list the reason for the absence
  • Each Piazza post must mention whether or not makeup credit is being requested
  • If makeup credit is being requested, the Piazza post must include a PDF attachment of the makeup work

Makeup work

If an absence is properly reported ahead of time, the student may turn in makeup work at the time that the absence is reported. If the absence is excused by the instructor, the makeup work will be graded in lieu of any participation and/or quiz credit missed as a result of the excused absence.

  • The makeup work must be a single PDF for each excused absence.
  • The PDF must begin with a title of the form “YYYY-MM-DD: TOPIC”, where YYYY is replaced with the four-digit year, MM is replaced by the two-digit month, and DD is replaced by the two-digit date of the absence and TOPIC is replaced by the topic of the day as listed on the course schedule.
  • The PDF must list the student’s name, email address, and github ID immediately after the title.
  • For every assigned reading and for every assigned video, the student must include a titled section for that reading or video. Each section body must be no less than 200 words in length, and must summarize the content of that reading or video.

Late work

Homework assignments are expected to be turned in on time. Homework turned in late will be docked 5 percentage points per day late (this corresponds approximately to half of a letter grade per day late).

For some or all homework assignments, the correct solution will be presented to the class after the homework deadline. The solution will typically be presented on the first class period after the assignment is due. Under no circumstances will late work be accepted after the solution has been presented to the class.

Penalty-free late days

However, it is understood that illness and other extraordinary events do occur from time to time. In order to accommodate such extraordinary events, students will be allotted a budget of 3 penalty-free late days for which no late penalty will be assessed. Penalty-free late days are intended to accommodate unforeseeable extraordinary events, not poor planning or poor time management.

If a student wishes to make use of a penalty-free late day, the student must do all of the following prior to the current assignment deadline:

  • Post a private Piazza message to the instructor and the TA:
    • The message must be filed under the Piazza folder for that homework assignment.
    • The title of the message must be “Penalty-free late day (X of 3)”, where X is replaced by the number 1, 2, or 3.
    • In the body of the message, the student must explicitly request the use of a penalty-free late day.
  • In the student’s git repository for the assignment, the student must note the request in the appropriate file, check in the change, and push the change to the appropriate remote repository.

Only when all of these steps have been taken prior to the deadline will a penalty-free late day be applied. If a student wishes to make use of more than one penalty-free late day per assignment, all of the above steps must be performed separately for each penalty-free late day.

Penalty-free late days may not be used to extend any deadline beyond the last regular day of class for the semester.

Penalty-free late days may not be used to turn in work after the solution has been presented to the class.