Syllabus
|
||
CSC 241-601
|
|
Introduction to
Computer Science I
|
Spring
2024
Class: Monday/Wednesday, 10:10 am -11:40 am, 14 E. Jackson Room 512 Lab: Tuesday, 8:30 am - 10:00 am, TBD |
Professor: Adam J. Hecktman Lab instructor: TBD |
Daley 200B
Chicago, IL 60604
Phone: (312) 493-1612
|
Monday/Wednesday |
|
(in
person or online) |
|
1:25pm
- 3:00pm |
|
Tuesday |
|
(online only) |
|
By
Appointment |
My Monday/Wednesday office hours are held in room 200B of the Daley building, during which I am available in person, by phone, using Zoom, or by e-mail. My Tuesday office hours are remote only, during which I am available only on Zoom. If you wish to attend office hours on any day, please make an appointment with me, either on Campus Connect or by emailing me. If you want to talk to me during my office hours but are unable to do so for any reason, please contact me to make an appointment outside those hours.
This course uses several platforms to enable our interactions:
Ordinarily, the prerequisite for this class is MAT 130: Precalculus or an equivalent high-school or college course covering algebra and precalculus.
This course is the first of a two-course sequence introducing computer science. The focus of the course is on problem-solving, algorithm development, and structured programming using Python and the Python API (application programming interface), all in the context of building computer applications.
In this first course, we will focus on structured programming and learn how and when to use various data types, conditionals, loops, and functional and modular abstractions.
After you have taken this class:
The following gives all the important dates for this course. The topics covered are subject to change.
|
Week |
Date |
Topic/Deadline |
|
1 |
Monday, April 1, 2024 |
Introduction to the course
and Python |
|
Tuesday, April 2, 2024 |
Lab 1 |
|
|
Wednesday, April 3, 2024 |
Input structures, strings,
and Boolean expressions |
|
|
2 |
Monday, April 8, 2024 |
Assignments and lists. |
|
Tuesday, April 9, 2024 |
Lab 2 |
|
|
Wednesday, April 10, 2024 |
Loops and decision
structures |
|
|
3 |
||
|
Monday, April 15, 2024 |
Functions, decision
structures, iteration structures |
|
|
Tuesday, April 16, 2024 |
Lab 3 |
|
|
Wednesday, April 17, 2024 |
Functions and strings |
|
|
4 |
Monday, April 22, 2024 |
Strings, decision
structures, numeric types, operator precedence, formatted output |
|
Tuesday, April 23, 2024 |
Lab 4 |
|
|
Wednesday, April 24, 2024 |
Modules and file processing |
|
|
5 |
Monday, April 29, 2024 |
File processing |
|
Tuesday, April 30, 2024 |
Lab 5 |
|
|
Wednesday, May 1, 2024 |
File processing |
|
|
6 |
Monday, May 6, 2024 |
Midterm |
|
Tuesday, May 7, 2024 |
Lab 6 |
|
|
Wednesday, May 8, 2024 |
Exceptions |
|
|
7 |
Monday, May 13, 2024 |
Exceptions, character
encodings, loop patterns (iteration and indexed loops) |
|
Tuesday, May 14, 2024 |
Lab 7 |
|
|
Wednesday, May 15 2024 |
Loop patterns (indexed
loops and accumulator loops) |
|
|
8 |
Monday, May 20, 2024 |
Loop patterns (accumulator
loops and nested loops), multidimensional lists |
|
Tuesday, May 21, 2024 |
Lab 8 |
|
|
Wednesday, May 22, 2024 |
Loop patterns (while loops,
infinite, and interactive loops) |
|
|
9 |
Monday, May 27, 2024 |
Dictionaries |
|
Tuesday, May 28, 2024 |
Lab 9 |
|
|
Wednesday, May 29, 2024 |
Dictionaries |
|
|
10 |
Monday, June 3, 2024 |
The random module |
|
Tuesday, June 4, 2024 |
Lab 10 (TBD) |
|
|
Wednesday, June 5, 2024 |
Other collection types
(tuples and sets) |
|
|
11 |
Wednesday, June 12, 2024 |
Final exam: 8:30 am - 10:45
am |
The optional textbook for the course is Introduction to Computing using
Python: An Application Development Focus, Second Edition, Ljubomir
Perković, John Wiley & Sons, 2015. Please buy the electronic
version of the text since it contains case studies we will use. The electronic
text has ISBN 978-1-118-89105-6.
Course assessments include lab attendance, programming assignments, and a midterm and final exam. The course grade will be computed as follows:
Assessment
Percentage
Lab exercises
10 %
Programming assignments
30 %
Midterm exam
30 %
Final exam
30 %
All students must sign and return an Academic Integrity pledge at the start of the quarter. The pledge will be posted on the D2L site and must be signed and returned as part of the first homework assignment. Students who violate this agreement are violating DePaul University's Academic Integrity policy. See the section on Academic Integrity below for more information about that policy and the penalties for violating it.
To do well in this class, you must attend the class sessions and labs regularly, participate in class discussions, start work on the assignments early, and ask questions early and often. The answers to the programming assignment and the lab and exam questions should be written in a way that is rigorous, clear, and concise.
Every Tuesday, you will have lab exercises available at 8:30 am and due at 9 pm. You are highly encouraged to attend the scheduled lab session from 8:30 am to 10:00 am. Students attending the lab session in person will have priority for answers and help from the teaching assistant. You can find the link for the lab sessions in the course calendar above.
To receive full points for the lab exercises, you must submit solutions to all exercises on the lab assignment by 9 pm on the day of the lab session. Lab submissions are accepted up to 12 hours after the deadline for partial credit. The penalty for submissions received up to 12 hours late is 15%, meaning that the maximum lab score that can be earned for a late submission is 8.5 points. No submissions will be considered more than 12 hours after the original lab deadline for any reason.
Each week, you will have a programming assignment. You can consult
with your homework partners, the teaching assistant, the instructor, and the
CDM tutors on the programming assignments. 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. Assignments submitted by the deadline will be graded
for full credit. Assignments submitted no later than 12 hours after the
deadline automatically will lose 10% of the points. Assignments submitted more than 24 hours after the deadline will lose 20%.
No assignments are accepted more than 24 hours after the deadline for any reason.
The midterm and final exams will each
represent 30% of your grade. The midterm and final exams will take place on the
date and time in the schedule above. Both exams will be conducted in a lab and require
you to write Python code. The details about how the exams will be given will be
shared later in the quarter on the midterm and final exam study resources,
which will be posted to D2L. You
will have access to D2L and all the resources from the quarter on D2L for the
exams.
Make-up exams will not be given.
If you wish to petition for a make-up exam, you must notify me and the Dean of
Students in advance. Exams will take place in person at the lab. No late
exam submissions will be accepted for any reason not approved by the Center for
Students with Disabilities.
Evaluations are a way for students to provide
valuable feedback regarding their instructor and the course. Detailed feedback
will enable the instructor to continuously tailor teaching methods and course
content to meet the learning goals of the course and the academic needs of the
students. They are a requirement of the course and are key to continue to
provide you with the highest quality of teaching. The evaluations are
anonymous; the instructor and administration do not track who entered what
responses. A program is used to check if the student completed the evaluations,
but the evaluation is completely separate from the student's identity. Since
100% participation is our goal, students are sent periodic reminders over three
weeks. Students do not receive reminders once they complete the evaluation.
If you are
sick, please do not attend class. Keeping our DePaul community safe is of
utmost importance.
The recommendations may change as local, state, and federal guidelines evolve. Students who do not abide by any mask requirement may be subject to the student conduct process and will be referred to the Dean of Students Office. Students with medical reasons for not complying with any requirements should register with DePaul's Center for Students with Disabilities (CSD).
The course adheres to the DePaul University's
Academic Integrity Policy. For complete information about Academic
Integrity at DePaul University, please see: http://academicintegrity.depaul.edu/.
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 or programs written using the assistance of an AI tool);
the paraphrasing of another's work or ideas without proper acknowledgment;
working so closely with another person so as to produce identical code.
All
students are expected to abide by the University's Academic Integrity Policy
which prohibits cheating and other misconduct in student coursework. 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).
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.
Publicly sharing or posting online any prior or current materials from this
course (including exam questions or answers), is considered to be providing
unauthorized assistance prohibited by the policy. Both students who
share/post and students who access or use such materials are considered to be
cheating under the Policy and will be subject to sanctions for violations of
Academic Integrity. The use of AI tools such as ChatGPT is disallowed in this
class.
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.
·
DePaul
University Counseling Services: Mental health is as important as physical
health, and there are professionals a phone call away: (773) 325-7779 or 911
for emergency situations. You can find more information here: https://offices.depaul.edu/student-affairs/about/departments/Pages/ucs.aspx
·
The
DePaul Dean of Students can help you with a wide range of topics, including
figuring our if you should withdraw or apply for an incomplete: https://offices.depaul.edu/student-affairs/about/departments/Pages/dos.aspx
·
There
are a lot of additional, more specific resources listed with the Office of
Student Affairs, including crisis hotlines and sexual assault resources: https://offices.depaul.edu/student-affairs/support-services/counseling/Pages/Crisis-Hotlines.aspx
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 Jarvis
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. Students must have been making adequate progress in the class prior to
the emergency in order to be eligible to apply.