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Professor: | Paul Ammann |
Office: | Nguyen Engineering Building 4428 |
Email: | pammann@gmu.edu |
URL: | https://cs.gmu.edu/~pammann/ |
Class Hours: | Tuesday/Thursday 10:30-11:45, Horizon Hall 3008 |
Format: | This class meets in person, face-to-face. This is NOT an online class. |
Prerequisite: | ENGL 101 or ENGL 100 |
Office Hours: | Tuesdays 12:00-1:00 in person, or by appointment |
GTA: | TBD TBD@gmu.edu, office hours TBD |
UTA: | TBD TBD@gmu.edu |
SWE 205 is part of the BS in Applied Computer Science, concentration in Software Engineering, and the Minor in Software Engineering. SWE 205 is also suitable for all students interested in usable computing applications, including students in psychology/human factors, computer science, math, physics, and all engineering fields.
Every student needs to be part of a group. I would prefer that groups stay stable throughout the semester, but if there is a good rationale to reconfigure a group or two, we'll do that. Group size: 3-4 students.
Group creation mechanism: As a default, we'll drop students into groups at random. If you are happy with your random group, great! If you prefer a different group, during the first week you will have the option to re-group. If your group dwindles to two students, you'll both need to join another group.
At the end of the semester, each student will provide an assessment the promptness, reliability, and engagement of other students in their group. Students will not assess competence; this is about showing up, doing your share of the work, and being a good citizen.
This assessment will determine the "Group Functioning" part of the grade. Generally, this works out to full credit for the majority of students. But for students who are MIA, this works out to zero credit. Occasionally, there are a few "partial credit" students. Please don't do that to your group.
Groups can communicate internally through any mechanism they choose: zoom, discord, google docs, carrier pigeon, whatever.
Notes:
Hence, I expect students to be in class. To enforce this, the GTA will capture attendance and I will factor it into your final grade.
Here's the algorithm: we have 28 scheduled meetings. The first 21 meetings you attend don't earn any credit. After that, each class attended earns 20% of the attendance grade. If you work this out, you'll discover that you can miss two classes and still earn full credit.
I understand that we are still in the tail of a pandemic.
For the vast majority of students, this policy works fine. In exceptional circumstances, it doesn't. If necessary, contact me for a discussion.
For each assignment, some groups (possibly volunteers; otherwise chosen at random) will present their solutions. We'll cycle through groups; everyone will have multiple chances to present homework solutions. Because of the nature of the assignments, it's unlikely that any two solutions will be exactly the same.
Presentations should last just a few minutes. You will often find it helpful to display images. You can simply put these on Piazza with your report and display them if called upon. Think about the usability of your presentation when preparing. There will be an explicit evaluation of this in every assignment rubric.
Important: Everyone in the group should participate in the presentation. I'm specifically looking for statements connecting principles discussed in class to specific details in the homework. Please put these explicitly these into your solutions.
Whether your group presents or not, homework grades will be determined by a grading panel. Details will be explained in class.
Assignments are generally open-ended enough that there is no reason for assignments to be super similar.
We will use Piazza for homework submissions and a discussion board.
I find anonymous discussions unhelpful in this class; here learning is predicated on interactions. Plus, part of your education is to learn to stand behind your questions and ideas. That's how employees function in the working world. Piazza allows partial, but not complete, control of anonymous posts. Should someone post anonymously, I will ask the poster to change the visibility and ask the class not to respond to the anonymous version.
Whatever the guidelines say, if you are sick, please STAY HOME!
If health or safety issues force you to miss class for an extended period, contact me. We'll see what we can work out.
If you have health or safety accommodations or concerns that I need to know about, please share those with me promptly.