1 Basic Course Information

1.1 When and Where

This course is online and has no regularly scheduled lectures.

2.1.1 Office Hours

3 Course Prerequisites

The prerequisites for this course are:

3.1 General Programming Knowledge

Students should be familiar with certain basic programming techniques that are largely independent of any specific programming language:

• using editors, compilers and other basic software development tools.
• basic software design (i.e., stepwise refinement and top-down design)
• software testing, including the use of scaffolding code (stubs and drivers), selection of test cases for black-box testing, and head to head testing
• debugging, including the use of debugging output, the use of automatic debuggers to set breakpoints and trace program execution, and the general process of reasoning backwards from failure locations to the faulty code responsible for the failure.

3.2 C++

I will assume that you are familiar with the basics of C++, including

• the various C++ statements and control-flow constructs,
• the built-in data types,
• the use of arrays, pointers, pointers to arrays, and linked lists,
• the use and writing of functions, and
• the basic use of structs and classes for implementing abstract data types.

3.3 Java

No prior knowledge of Java is assumed.

3.5 General Computer Literacy

You will be studying techniques in this course for preparing professional-quality software documentation. The key embedded word in “software documentation” is “document”. Students taking this course should be able to use word processors and other common tools to produce good quality documents, including mixing text and graphics in a natural and professional manner.

4 Assignments

Assignments for this course will include programming assignments (in C++ and Java), which must be done on an individual basis, and design assignments, which may be done in small teams.

4.1 Computer Accounts

Students will need an account on the CS Dept. Unix network to participate in this class. This account is unrelated to any University-wide account you may have from the ODU’s Information Technology Services (ITS).

5 Course Policies

5.1 Academic Honesty:

Everything turned in for grading in this course must be your own work. If an assignment is explicitly described as a team assignment, it must be the work of the team members only.

The instructor reserves the right to question a student orally or in writing and to use his evaluation of the student’s understanding of the assignment and of the submitted solution as evidence of cheating. Violations will be reported to the Office of Student Conduct & Academic Integrity for consideration for possible punitive action.

Students who contribute to violations by sharing their code/designs with others may be subject to the same penalties.

• Students are expected to use standard Unix protection mechanisms (chmod) to keep their assignments from being read by their classmates. Failure to do so will result in grade penalties, at the very least.

This policy is not intended to prevent students from providing legitimate assistance to one another. Students are encouraged to seek/provide one another aid in learning to use the operating system, in issues pertaining to the programming language, or to general issues relating to the course subject matter.

Students should avoid, however, explicit discussion of approaches to solving a particular programming assignment, and under no circumstances should students show one another their code for an ongoing assignment, nor discuss such code in detail.

Use of Online Resources

You may not post details of course assignments, projects, or tests at online Forums, Bulletin Boards, Homework sites, etc., soliciting help.

You may use information that you have not solicited but have located, subject to the following restrictions:

• Just as when writing a paper, if you use someone else’s ideas, you must cite your sources appropriately. Within code, such citations appear in comments.

  Example:

  ⋮
  double x = 23.0;
  double xsqrt = sqrt(x);
  // Search algorithm based upon code by S Zeil at
  // https://www.cs.odu.edu/~zeil/cs361/latest/Public/functionAnalysis/index.html#orderedsequentialsearch
  int loc = 0;
  while (loc < arraySize && numbers[loc] < xsqrt)
  ⋮
  

• Just as when writing a paper, if you use someone else’s words (code), you must cite your sources appropriately and mark the quoted text. Within code, such citations appear in comments.

  Example:

  ⋮
  double x = 23.0;
  double xsqrt = sqrt(x);
  // Begin quoted code from  S Zeil at
  // https://www.cs.odu.edu/~zeil/cs361/latest/Public/functionAnalysis/index.html#orderedsequentialsearch
  int loc = 0;
  while (loc < listLength && list[loc] < searchItem)
     {
      ++loc;
     }
  // End quoted code  
  ⋮
  

• Failure to appropriately cite any such “found code” will be taken as evidence of plagiarism.

• The overall principle stated in the first sentence of this section remains in effect. “Everything turned in for grading in this course must be your own work.” If the bulk of your assignment, project, test answer, etc., are copied, even with appropriate citation, to the degree that, in the judgment of the instructor, you have not demonstrated your own knowledge of the course material, you will receive a zero for that submission.

5.2 Due Dates:

5.3 Grading:

I will drop one assignment grade or the midterm exam grade, whichever improves a students overall grade more.

5.4 Extensions, Exceptions, and Incomplete (I) Grades

Exceptions to these dates or to the grading policies of the course will be made only in situations of unusual and unforeseeable circumstances beyond the student’s control.

Reasons that are most likely to justify an exception include extended illness, military deployments, or job transfer/relocation, but you should be prepared to document these if requested.

The following are usually not valid reasons for an extension:

• “I forgot that I was signed up for this course.” or “I didn’t know what the Grading policy was.”

  This was not beyond your control.

• “I have a part-time (full-time) job.”

  This is not exceptional. Most of your classmates work, many of them full-time.

• “I have a heavy course-load this semester.”

  Neither exceptional nor outside your control.

• “I’ve worked so hard on this course.”

  I’m sure that your fellow students would not appreciate the implication that you believe they have been slacking off.

  Fundamentally, though, this argument misses the whole point of grades in a course. They are not a reward for putting in time and effort. They are given, instead, to certify that you have demonstrated a certain level of knowledge and, in the case of a course like this that is a prerequisite to many other courses, to make sure that you are sufficiently prepared to succeed in those later courses.

• “I got stuck on assignment X and was never able to catch up.”

  Actually, this might qualify, but only if you made good use of email and/or my office hours to resolve your problems with that assignment in a timely fashion. Your chances of getting an exception in this case will also depend upon just how far behind you are and on how long before you waited to discuss the matter with me. You are far more likely to get a short period of time to complete one assignment than to get any extra time at all to complete 50% of the course.

• "I had trouble completing some assignments and haven’t sent you an email or attended your office hours because I’m not the kind of person who likes to ask for help.

  Then you shouldn’t be the kind of person who asks for exceptions either. A significant part of a college-level education is learning to exploit the information resources available to you. Deliberately refusing to do so is not a behavior that I’m inclined to reward.

Requests for an “I” grade or extended time to complete the course should be made before the actual end of the semester, whenever possible. Requests made after grades have been submitted will need to include an explanation of why the request was delayed.

6 Educational Accessibility

Old Dominion University is committed to ensuring equal access to all qualified students with disabilities in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Office of Educational Accessibility (OEA) is the campus office that works with students who have disabilities to provide and/or arrange reasonable accommodations.

• If you experience a disability which will impact your ability to access any aspect of my class, please present me with an accommodation letter from OEA so that we can work together to ensure that appropriate accommodations are available to you.

• If you feel that you will experience barriers to your ability to learn and/or testing in my class but do not have an accommodation letter, please consider scheduling an appointment with OEA to determine if academic accommodations are necessary.