Course Format: The schedule and the grading system are
subject to minor changes.
Prerequisites: There are no prerequisites for this course
other than a strong interest in learning to program and a
willingness to work hard.
Email: Any group email regarding this class will be sent
to your email address that is on record with the registrar's office
(which is typically an “@wsu.edu” address).
This email may discuss things such as a change in the homework or
cancellation of class and it is important that you receive it in a
timely manner. If you do not use that address, you should ensure
that you have your mail forwarded to the account you actually use.
If you have not yet sorted out your WSU email address, please do so
as soon as possible. You should be able to do this by going
to zussis.wsu.edu and creating a
network ID—click on the red “Help” link and from
there click on “Create Your Network ID.” (For replies to
individual email, I will reply to the address from which you sent
the mail. Note that yahoo.com seems to think I'm a spammer
and my mail sent to an address at yahoo.com are often
delayed or put in the spam folder.)
Email sent to me after 9:00 pm will typically not receive a reply
until the following day. This is an important consideration when
doing the homework. Start your assignments early! (Starting an
assignment late in the evening on the day before an assignment is
due is definitely not a good idea!)
Attendance: Bonus points will be added to your total class
score for attendance as follows: 3 points for zero or one absence; 2
points for two absences; 1 point for three absences; 0 points for
four or more absences. Bonus points can potentially change your
grade a half step (e.g., from a C– to a C), so make sure you
get these “free” points! The attendance sheet will be
distributed at the start of each class beginning with the second
lecture. If you are not at the start of class, do not expect to be
able to add your name to the attendance sheet. Please come to
class on time.
You are expected to attend all the labs. However, as described
below, the lowest lab score will be drop, so if you miss one lab,
that can be the one you drop.
Test Policy: For the first three exams you will have 50
minutes to complete the work. For the final exam you will have 110
minutes. These exams are not races! The goal is to do the work
correctly, not quickly. If you are absolutely certain you have
everything correct, you may turn in the exam early. However, if you
submit your exam before the end of the allotted time, the number of
missed points will be multiplied by three (e.g., if you miss 10
points, 30 will be subtracted from your score). Therefore, if you
find you have finished early, the best thing to do is check and
recheck your work. If you are stuck, do not give up and turn in an
exam on which you know there are errors—keep working on it!
All exams will be “open notes” but “closed
computer.”
These tests will be in-class and involve pencil and paper.
(Unfortunately we do not have the resources to give at-the-computer
exams.) All tests will be comprehensive.
If you miss an exam, you will receive a zero.
Behavior: Chronic tardiness, (excessive) talking in class,
and other disruptions will not be tolerated. Cell phones must be
turned off during class. (Vibrate mode is okay, but don't even
think about answering that buzzing in your pocket, purse, or pack.)
Please be considerate of your classmates!
Some students have found it helpful to take notes on a laptop where
they can also try some of the examples presented in lecture. If
you bring a laptop to lecture, do not surf the Web, play games, or
use the computer for anything other than work related to CptS
111! Doing otherwise is discourteous and distracting to those
around you.
Homework: In general, homework will be assigned each week.
You will typically have one week to complete the assign. Homework
will be due at midnight on the date specified when the assignment is
posted. Solutions will be posted shortly after the due-date.
Since I don't want you staying up past midnight working on homework,
late homework will not be accepted! If you submit work after
the due-date/time, it will get zero credit. There are no
exceptions to this policy. The lowest homework grade will be
dropped. Thus, if you miss submitting one assignment on time, you
should be okay. (If you miss two assignments, it will start to
hurt. Don't do that.)
You will submit your homework electronically. The URL for
electronic submissions is available via a link at the class Web
site. The electronic submission system will send you email
acknowledgment of your submission. If you do not receive an email
acknowledgment, then you have not submitted your work. Said another
way: if you do not have this acknowledgment, you cannot claim to
have submitted your work. Again: There will be no exceptions to
this policy! If you believe you have correctly submitted your
homework prior to the deadline but did not receive acknowledgment,
you must contact me or the appropriate TA.
Note: If your laptop dies, this is not an excuse for
failing to do the homework. You can always use the computers the
School provides in Sloan 353 to do your homework (more information
about these machines is provided below).
Academic Integrity: Cheating will not be tolerated. You
may collaborate with your classmates on the homework and labs
assignments (but not lab quizzes). Note that collaborate does not
mean copy! (More on this in the last item in these rules.) Be
savvy about the amount of collaboration you do. You can get input
from me, the teaching assistants (TA), your classmates, or perhaps
other students who know how to program. However, keep in mind that
when it comes to the tests, you will probably be better prepared if
you have tackled most of the homework and labs on your own.
All work on the tests must be your own. Receiving, giving, or
seeking any help on the tests is considered cheating and will result
in a failing grade (one which cannot be erased from your transcript
upon subsequent retaking of the class). Additionally, the incident
will be reported to the Office of Student Affairs and to the
School's undergraduate advising office. Such infractions may affect
your certification into a major in the School of Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science.
Labs and Quizzes: There is a three-hour lab session each
week of the semester (including the first week). After the first
week, labs will start with a quiz that will take between 15 and 25
minutes. The quiz will be given at the start of the lab. If
you are late for lab, you will not be allowed to take the quiz.
Your lowest quiz score will be dropped.
Other than the quizzes, the labs will primarily entail that you
carefully read the provided material and work your way through
various programming tasks. These tasks are to be completed while
you are in the lab. You may receive help from the teaching
assistant who will be present in the lab or from your classmates
(provided your classmates are “teaching” you and not
just “telling” you how to solve the problem). The goal
of these labs is to provide you an opportunity to practice and hone
existing programming skills as well as to learn new programming
techniques. You get full credit for the lab upon completion of all
tasks. At the discretion of the TA, partial credit may be awarded
for partial completion of a task. Your lowest lab score will be
dropped.
Note that the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
has a laptop
policy that requires you to have a laptop if you plan to major
in one of our degree programs (EE, CptE, or CptS). You should
ensure this laptop
can access the WSU
wireless network. You should bring your laptop to all the labs
(including the first one!).
All labs will be held in EME 52. (Note: This
is not Sloan 353.) There are four, and only four, desktop
machines available in this lab (to accommodate those who do not yet
own a laptop). Thus, you need to bring your laptop!
Computer Facilities: There are numerous computers in the
back rooms of Sloan 353. This room is open 24-hours a day but note
that the building is not. I believe the doors of Sloan are locked
at 10:00 pm, so you should be inside the building prior to this time
to use these machines. If you are registered for CptS 111 (or any
other EE or CptS class), you should have an account on these
machines. The first homework assignment provides more details about
how to log on. If you have trouble with your account or one of
these machines, you should contact the folks at the Help Desk in
Sloan 358 (regular business hours apply). Neither the TA's nor I
have control over these machines and hence we will not be able to
help you with account issues.
Collaboration: As mentioned previously, you are allowed to
collaborate with your classmates on the homework (and lab
assignments). In fact, if you are struggling with the assignments,
I strongly encourage you to seek help from your classmates. You
are, of course, free to contact me or the appropriate TA with any
question you have, but my own experience is that you can greatly
benefit from working with your fellow students. However,
collaboration must result in enhanced learning and should not simply
be a means for completing assignments with the least amount of
effort.
Any collaboration on the assignments should be openly acknowledged.
When submitting assignments, at the start of your solution (in the
comments which will be explained later), you must list the people
with whom you collaborated and the people from whom you received
help. For example, you might write:
# I worked on this program with Linus Torvalds and Alan
# Turing. Professor Schneider gave some input too. I also
# contacted Professor Leibniz in the math department.
There are four ways to “go wrong” on the homework
assignments:
If you collaborate but do not acknowledge that collaboration,
that comes close to cheating. This is strongly frowned upon and may
result in your getting a zero for the assignment. Make sure you
acknowledge any and all collaboration!
If you do not collaborate with anybody or do not seek help and
yet you are unable to complete an assignment, then you are getting
nothing from the assignment! Make an effort to get help if you're
struggling!
If your “collaboration” takes the form of one person
doing the work and the other person (or persons) merely copying that
work, that is clearly cheating. A successful collaboration will
involve an exchange of ideas (perhaps this “exchange”
will be primarily in one direction---that's okay) such that all the
collaborators will be confident (or at least relatively confident)
that they know how to solve a problem. On the homework it is
permissible to compare answers, but the work leading to the answers
should be primarily your own.
You may never use solutions to previously assigned homework.
Doing so is cheating and will result in a score of zero. You may
use the Web (or, of course, the library and other textbooks) to seek
other information related to this course. You should not, however,
use the Web to seek full solutions to problems.
Note, as stated previously, there is no collaboration permitted on
the tests or quizzes.
