CS101D-Computers, an Introduction
Spring 2007 - Syllabus

Instructor:

Rekha Gupta

 

 

Phone:

Dept Office: 683-3915

Office:

Hughes Hall, Room 1106

Hours:

Walk in MWF 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Other times by appointment only.

 

 

 

 

 

Instructor:

Bill Sympson

 

 

Phone:

Dept Office: 683-3915

Office:

Hughes Hall, Room 1101

Hours:

MW 5:15pm - 5:45pm and 7:00pm - 7:45 pm
Other times by appointment only.

 

 

 

 

FSCS Link:

FSCS link for all sections

 

 

Modules/Prentice Hall Website:

http://www.prenticehallgateway.com/

 

 


Texts:

1) CS101 Package - Go With Microsoft Office 2003 by Gaskin and Preston.

Reference Book:

1) Google Hacks, Tara Calishain, Rael Dornfest

Content and Presentation: Lecture and demonstration 3 hrs/week. Laboratory work required, through the Prentice-Hall Lab website. Practical projects demonstrate the skills learned.

Students must complete on-line lab modules to pass the course, regardless of exam and project scores.  Failure to complete required lab modules, on-time, will result in a failing grade.

You’ll get log-in instructions about the Prentice Hall training website in class. Please don’t try to create your account or log in to the site until you get instructions in class. Safeguard PIN code. It is a one-time use code, without which you cannot self register on the Lab website.

Evaluation:

Midterm

12.5%

Final

12.5%

Online website module assignments

25%

Projects

40%

Attendance and other quizzes

10%

Grade Scale (in percent):


Percent Scored

Grade

93-100

A

90 - <93

A-

88 - <90

B+

82 - <88

B

80 - <82

B-

78 - <80

C+

70 - <78

C

68 - <70

C-

60 - <68

D

<60

F

 

Project Due Dates: Four practical projects demonstrate skills on the computer applications learned. They are combined with Internet-based research projects to show the results of the research. Project work formats are on the Projects link and will be demonstrated and tutored in class. The project due dates and work formats are listed below. Projects are due by 11:59 pm of the dates listed below. No hard copy Assignment is accepted. Projects should be  turned in as e-mail attachments through the FSCS system. They are time stamped automatically by the system. Late projects will not be accepted.

Project1 (Word Processing)

Feb 18, 2007 (Sunday)

Project2 (Presentation)

Mar 25, 2007 (Sunday)

Project3 (Excel Spreadsheet)

Apr 08, 2007 (Sunday)

Project 4 (Access Database)

Apr 21, 2007 (Saturday)

Website Lab Module Due Dates: Students must complete on-line lab assignments by 11:59 pm of the respective due dates.  All lab work is recorded automatically in the web site database; Lab work completed after the due date is ignored.   As above, late modules will not be accepted. All  students including Fast track students must complete the modules by the respective dates.

Attendance: Several times during the term there will be an “attendance quiz” during the class period. The questions will be one or more brief items covered during that class meeting. Have a number 2 pencil and blue scantron sheet with you everyday.There will be no makeup Attendance Quizzes.

Exam Schedules:The Midterm exam will be held in the regular classroom. The Final exam is also held in the regular classroom during the exam week.  Scheduled exams cannot be taken early.

Due Dates, Exams Missed, Grades of Incomplete, because of verifiable emergency: If a student misses an assignment or module due date, or scheduled exam, because of a verifiable emergency or athletic schedule conflict, makeup midterm exams will be posted in the Learning Assessment Lab in Gornto Hall only after permission has been given to the student to do a make-up exam. Final exams missed for verified acceptable reasons are taken early the following term or by other special arrangement. Missed due dates are expected to be met as soon as possible after resolution of the emergency. There will be no makeup exams, due-date extensions, or Course Grades of Incomplete unless there is a documented emergency, verified by the ODU Office of Student Services, Student Ombudsman. That office determines what constitutes a genuine emergency, not the Instructor.

Other Exam And Assignment Information: Midterm and Final exams will be objective, require blue Scantron answer sheets and #2 pencil. Buy them at the bookstore. Return exam booklets with answer sheets. Midterm and final exam items are derived directly from training module content and the textbook. Pop quizzes and/or other evaluative methods, for individuals, and/or an entire class, may be given by the instructor at his discretion. All other application assignments will be announced in class and posted on the course web site. Assignments may be added, altered, omitted, re-weighted at instructor’s discretion.

Computer Labs: Browser plug-in software for working the website is currently installed in all open ODU computer Labs, Virginia Beach Center, Peninsula Center.Here is the link for schedule of OCCS Computer Labs
Note : Office 2003 is available only at Library Lab ,Bal 105, Webb Center Lab.

Personal and Home Computer Access To the Web Site: The CS101 Course web site can be accessed from any computer with an internet connection. Performance on standard dial-up home connection, such as AOL, will be noticeably slower than Lab speed, or access through dormitory ResNet. Those with broadband access (Cox Cable or DSL) will see no difference from ODU Lab speeds.

Using a personal computer: You do NOT require Windows XP nor MS Office 2003 software on your personal computer to do the Lab training. It is precisely simulated on the training website.

You DO require access to the actual software applications to complete the hand-in project assignments, if you don’t have them as part of your personal computer software. Older or newer versions of the MS Office software are fine.You may purchase the entire MS Office 2003 Software Suite at the ODU Techstore in the Webb Center for special student discount of + taxes.

All dormitory or at-home personal computer users will have to use a free browser plug-in download from the Prentice-Hall website. Installation will be demonstrated in class.

The website performs best with MS Internet Explorer 5.0, Netscape 4.0, or later.

Those with AOL internet service must use the MS Internet Explorer or Netscape browser. The regular AOL browser will not accept the Authorware Reader plug-in. AOL users should dial up and log on normally. The AOL browser appears by default. Then minimize it to the taskbar with the dash button in the upper right corner, open Internet Explorer or Netscape, download and install the plug-in as demonstrated in class, and do your work. Note: Please do not install Authoware plug-in from the CD that comes with your CS101 textbook package.

Cheating, Performance, Honor Code Issues: There are no Honor Code violations in discussing assignments, giving or receiving advice, studying together, consulting others with knowledge. Students may not give or receive assistance on individual assignments or exams. It is a violation of the Honor Code for someone who is not the student to work on the student’s homework, assignments, or the on-line website modules assigned.

The PHGENIT website on which Computer Based Training (CBT) Lab work is performed, records student time on every screen to the second. On the average, the 12 mandatory modules will require 6 to 10 hours of work.  It is possible to "click through" the screens while ignoring the training. Be advised this leaves a highly characteristic record in the student's database. Each slide in a module records only a few seconds of screen time and the total elapsed time for all eight modules is little over 1 hour.  Any module with the click-through pattern will be invalidated, making it very likely the student will fail the course for not completing the required modules. Don't do it!

Using other people’s words as your own is plagiarism: Using other people’s words in a research assignment is not only permissible but encouraged as good scholarship, IF you enclose them in quotes, attribute them correctly, include the reference in a bibliography. An internet link is a satisfactory reference. A correct attribution is language like ‘As Jones said in (1), “……………” ... . ’ Using those words as your own is plagiarism. Plagiarism is an Honor Code violation for a student, an academic scandal, grounds for a lawsuit against a writer using published and copyrighted material. Be aware that when language not in quotes looks familiar it may be run through an instant internet search! Cheating or plagiarism detected on exams or work products will result in a zero on the specific exam or work product, may lower the student’s course grade at least a full letter grade, can result in a very serious disciplinary referral with consequences up to and including dismissal from ODU.

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