Syllabus

Contact information

243 S. Wabash Avenue, Room 748

Chicago, IL 60604

Phone: (312) 362-5324

FAX: (312) 362-6116

Skype ID: amber.settle

asettle@cdm.depaul.edu

http://facweb.cdm.depaul.edu/asettle/

Office hours

My office hours are held in room 748 of the CDM building. I am available during office hours in person, by phone, using Skype, or by e-mail. Since students may be present in person during those hours, it is possible that there will be some delay before I respond to e-mail, phone calls, or Skype requests. When you call, please leave a message that indicates the number you can be reached at and gives the best time to return your call.

Please make use of my office hours. Asking questions about the assessments, lecture notes, labs, or the readings can improve your understanding enormously.  It will also let me know if I need to review a topic with the class. If you want to talk to me during my office hours but are unable to do so for any reasons, please contact me to make an appointment outside those hours.

Course web site

All information for this course is posted to the Desire 2 Learn (D2L) site. To log onto the D2L page visit https://d2l.depaul.edu/.  Lecture notes, programming assignments, lab assignments, study guides for the midterm and final exam, and other course materials will be available through the D2L site.  There will also be links to course recordings which are useful for reviewing material.

Prerequisites

You must have taken CSC 241: Introduction to Computer Science II or an equivalent course that introduces problem-solving techniques and programming in Python and earned a passing grade (C- or better).  I will also assume that:

• You know how to create, debug, compile, and run Python, and you use a reasonable coding style (i.e. your code is easy to read and relatively concise)
• You know Python's basic control structures and types
• You can solve basic algorithmic problems

Course topics and learning goals

This course is the second of a two-course sequence introducing computer science skills, including problem solving, algorithm development, recursion, and programming using Python.  In this course, we will apply these skills in several application areas of computer science: graphical user interface (GUI) development, database development, and Internet and distributed computing.  The concept of a class and object-oriented programming will be motivated and introduced.

After you have taken this class:

• You will strengthen your Python programming skills
• You will know how to design classes and understand the fundamental principles of object-oriented programming
• You will be able to design basic graphical user interfaces
• You will be able to apply recursion as a problem-solving and programming technique
• You will be able to write simple Internet client programs
• You will have a basic understanding of the database API

Course calendar

The following gives all the important dates for this course.  The topics covered are subject to change.

Textbook

The required textbook for the course is Introduction to Computing using Python: An Application Development Focus, Ljubomir Perković,  John Wiley & Sons, 2012, ISBN 978-0-470-61846-2.

Grading policy

Course assessments include lab attendance, programming assignments, and a midterm and final exam.  The course grade will be computed as follows:

All students will be required to sign and return an Academic Integrity pledge at the start of the quarter.  The Academic Integrity pledge will be posted on the D2L site.  The pledge must be signed and returned as a part of the first homework assignment.  Students who violate this agreement are violating the Academic Integrity policy of DePaul University.  See the section on Academic Integrity below for more information about that policy and penalties for violating it.

In order to do well in this class, you must attend the lectures and labs regularly, participate in class discussions, read the chapters in the book as indicated in the homework assignment, start work on the assignments early, and ask questions early and often.  The answers to the programming assignments and the lab and exam questions should be written in a way that is rigorous, clear, and concise.

Lab attendance and exercises

Each week you will have a lab session conducted by our teaching assistant Kevin Shannon. Your attendance at the lab session and completion of lab exercises is required and will count for the portion of the grade indicated above. You are encouraged to work with classmates in completing the lab, although you must credit anyone you worked with during the lab on your lab submission. No late lab submissions are accepted for any reason. Your lowest lab score will be dropped in the calculation of your course grade.

Programming assignments

Each week you will have a programming assignment. You can consult with your homework partners, the lab assistant, the instructor, and the CDM tutors on the programming assignments, but you may not under any circumstances submit code that you have not helped to write nor may you consult anyone beyond those specified when completing your assignments. Each programming assignment will have a posted deadline, specified on the assignment. No late assignments are accepted for any reason. Your lowest assignment score will be dropped in the calculation of your course grade.

Midterm and final exams

The midterm and final exams will be cumulative.  The midterm exam will take place on Monday, February 9, 2015, 1:30 - 3 pm.  The final exam will take place on Monday, March 16, 2015, 11:45 am - 2 pm.  Both exams will be conducted in a lab and will require you to write Python code.  You will be required to work on the lab machines, and you cannot use your own laptop.  The exams are individual assessments, and you may not work with anyone on the exams.

Make-up exams will not be given.  If you wish to petition for a make-up exam, you must notify me in advance and provide documented evidence of the emergency that will cause you to miss the exam.  Failure to contact me in advance of the exam date and time will disqualify you from being allowed to take a make-up exam.  If a make-up exam is granted, it will be of a form of my choosing.

Academic integrity

Cheating is any action that violates university norms or instructor's guidelines for the preparation and submission of assignments. This includes, but is not limited to, unauthorized access to examination materials prior to the examination itself; use or possession of unauthorized materials during the examination or quiz; having someone take an examination in one's place; copying from another student; unauthorized assistance to another student; or acceptance of such assistance.  Plagiarism involves the presentation of the work of another as one's own. Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to the following: the direct copying of any source, such as written and verbal material, computer files, audio disks, video programs or musical scores, whether published or unpublished, in whole or part, without proper acknowledgment that it is someone else's; copying of any source in whole or part with only minor changes in wording or syntax, even with acknowledgment; submitting as one's own work a report, examination paper, computer file, lab report or other assignment that has been prepared by someone else (including research papers purchased from any other person or agency); the paraphrasing of another's work or ideas without proper acknowledgment; working so closely with another person other than those authorized so as to produce identical code.

The use of others' web/publication content (text, graphics, code) is regarded as plagiarism if credit is not given (see the above description of plagiarism).  When you directly quote someone's work, you must put it in quotation marks. Without such quotations and reference, it is regarded as an act of plagiarism (see the above description of plagiarism).  Using materials that the student prepared for other purposes (e.g., for another course or for his/her work) needs the course instructor's prior permission.

A charge of cheating and/or plagiarism is always a serious matter.  It can result in an automatic F in the course and possible expulsion.

Incomplete

An incomplete grade is given only for an exceptional reason such as a death in the family, a serious illness, etc. Any such reason must be documented. Any incomplete request must be made at least two weeks before the final, and approved by the Dean of the College of Computing and Digital Media. Any consequences resulting from a poor grade for the course will not be considered as valid reasons for such a request.