Professor Contact Information | Dr. Kinga Dobolyi Office: Engineering Building, room 4440 Email: kdobolyi@gmu.edu (preferred; I typically check my emails 9am through 5pm on weekdays) Phone: 703–993–4198 http://www.cs.gmu.edu/~kdobolyi/sparc/ Office Hours: Thursdays noon - 2pm, or by appointment. Please email the professor at least 48 hours in advance when seeking an appointment. |
DASHBOARD | View your progress in the course |
Course Outcomes |
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Prerequisite | C or better in CS112. |
TA Contact Information | GTA: Lilas Dinh, vdinh3@masonlive.gmu.edu , TBA, Engineering Building 4456UTA: TBA You may visit any TA, not just the one assigned to you. |
Textbook | Required: CS211 class workbook: free chapters are linked as needed Optional: Java Software Solutions: Foundations of Program Design by John Lewis & William Loftus, Pearson Education Optional: There are lots of free online Java tutorials you can google for, including YouTube channels; let us know if you find something you particularly like! |
Class Structure | This class will be very different from your prior high school classes and other university classes in several ways:
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Discussion Board Use | All students will be enrolled in the discussion forum for CS 211 on Piazza. You will receive a free invitation to this resource via your Mason email. We will all use the discussion board throughout the semester to ask and answer questions and to disseminate information. We will make every effort to answer questions within 24 hours, but usually sooner (often two hours during adult working hours). The instructor reserves the right to make any post public, should it benefit the class. |
Practice Assignments | We offer several practice assignments to prepare for each assessment. Practice assignments should be done collaboratively; you can and should work on these assignments during class meetings (where the instructor and TA will be available), at home, or with your classmates at any place and anytime. Although we will track how many practice assignments you are working on and will complete, they will not be graded. If you are struggling with assessments, your best solution is to work more practice assignments. |
Assessment Assignments | Labs will be offered weekly, and used for automated, online student assessments. Please request an appointment for an assessment in lab. Students must attempt at least one assessment a week (until you've passed all assessments). To encourage students to complete the course in a timely fashion, students will have up to 10% of their grade in the class reduced for missing to take an assessment every week. All students must sign up for an assessment slot every week (until you've passed all assessments); if there is room, you will be allowed to take additional assessments each week on a first-come, first-served basis. Out of fairness to other students, you must show up for an assessment slot you schedule; failing to do so will count as failing that assessment (this way we can prevent a handful of students using up all assessment slots without showing up to take them). You may schedule one assessment per week, but you may take more assessments each week, assuming slots are available. In addition, you may take as many assessments in an assessment slot as you like; if for some reason you already know python/programming and you want to finish this course in a week or two, this is entirely possible. We budget 45 minutes for each assessment, but you're free to do them faster, and if there are free assessment slots later in the day (you won't know these until the day-of, however), then you can stay later and take another assessment(s). Assessments will be graded in terms of percentage passing tests/questions. You must score at least a 70% to pass the assessment, and you have up to five chances to pass each assessment. Only the highest scoring assessment will count towards your final grade, and you may not make additional attempts after passing an assessment. All grading is automated so you will receive the score the computer tells you, or you will submit a scantron. We will not grade any assignments by hand, however, we reserve the right to reduce the grade on an assessment if we find evidence of soft-cheating (such as coding so that your answer only passes certain inputs) or hard-cheating (such as copying off your neighbor during an assessment). |
Grading | Your final grade will be determined as follows: 10% for class participation up to -10% of your final grade for NOT attempting an assessment each week 90% for the assessments Practice assignments do not count towards your grade, and the class has no exams besides the final. Final course grades are calculated as follows: A+ (>= 98.0%) A (>= 92.0%) A– (>= 90.0%) B+ (>= 88.0%) B (>= 82.0%) B– (>= 80.0%) C+ (>= 78.0%) C (>= 72.0%) C– (>= 70.0%) D (>= 60.0%) F (< 60.0%) Please note that you must pass all assessments within five attempts in order to pass the course; failing any assessment will automatically result in a failing grade (F) in the course. |
Honor Code | As with all Mason courses, CS 211 is governed by the GMU Honor Code. Practice assignments may be done collaboratively with any resources, so there are no honor code restrictions. However, graded assessments carry with them an implicit statement that it is the sole work of the student. |
Office Hours | Office hours are times that I commit to being in my office, door open, first come, first served. You do not need an appointment, and no appointments are made. If office hours are very busy, I will limit the amount of time I spend with each student to try and see all students for at least a little bit. If you cannot make my office hours, then I will suggest you visit the office hours of any of our TAs (unless it is a specific question a TA would be unable to answer, such as a course policy question not answered on the syllabus). |
Email Use | I occasionally send important announcements to your Mason email account, so please read it regularly. I also use Piazza to send important announcements through email. General class questions that might be useful or interesting to other students should be posted to the discussion board, not sent through email. |
Learning Disabilities | If you are a student with a disability and you need academic accommodations, please see the instructor and contact the Office of Disability Services (ODS). All academic accommodations must be arranged through ODS. |
Other Useful Campus Resources | Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS): (703) 993-2380 Writing Center: A114 Robinson Hall; (703) 993-1200 Ask a Librarian through the University Libraries |
Tentative Class schedule |
Class Number | Assignments | Labs This Week |
1 | Introduction to class and flipped classroom Syllabus crossword puzzle work on Project 0 | Required assessment: Assessment 0 (start of semester survey) schedule ANY assessment(s) |
2 | Chapter 1: Java Installation and Java Basics
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3 | Chapter 2: Control Flow and Arrays
| Required assessment (if not completed): Assessment 0 (start of semester survey) schedule ANY assessment(s) |
4 | Chapter 3: Classes and Objects
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5 | Chapter 4: Basic Testing with Junit
| Recommended assessment: Assessment 1 (testing) schedule ANY assessment(s) |
6 | Chapter 5: Visibility and Scope
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7 | continue working on chapter 5 problems and reading | Recommended assessment: Assessment 2 (basic classes in Java) schedule ANY assessment(s) |
8 | work on Sample Assessment 2 | |
9 | Chapter 6: Inheritance and Abstract classes
| Recommended assessment: Assessment 3 (Basic Inheritance, visibility, static, and this) schedule ANY assessment(s) |
10 | work on Project 1 | |
11 | continue to work on Project 1 | Recommended assessment: Assessment 4 (Polymorphism and Dynamic Binding through Inheritance) schedule ANY assessment(s) |
12 | Chapter 7: Interfaces
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13 | work on Project 2 | Recommended assessment: none (you may skip this lab if you passed assessments 1-4 only) schedule ANY assessment(s) |
14 | continue to work on Project 2 | |
15 | work on Sample Assessment 5 | Recommended assessment: Assessment 5 (Abstract classes and Interfaces) schedule ANY assessment(s) |
16 | Chapter 8: Exceptions
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17 | Chapter 9: Collections and Generics | Recommended assessment: none (you may skip this lab if you passed assessments 1-5 only) schedule ANY assessment(s) |
18 | work on Project 3 | |
19 | continue to work on Project 3 | Recommended assessment: Assessment 6 (Collections, Generics, and Exceptions) schedule ANY assessment(s) |
20 | work on Sample Assessment 6 | |
21 | Chapter 10: Basic Data Structures | Recommended assessment: none (you may skip this lab if you passed assessments 1-6 only) schedule ANY assessment(s) |
22 | work on Project 4 | |
23 | continue to work on Project 4 | Recommended assessment: Assessment 7 (Data Structures) schedule ANY assessment(s) |
24 | study for Assessment 7 by reviewing Chapter 10 | |
25 | Chapter 11: Recursion | Recommended assessment: none (you may skip this lab if you passed assessments 1-7 only) schedule ANY assessment(s) |
26 | work on Chapter 11 exercises | |
27 | finish Project 4 | Recommended assessment: Assessment 8 (Recursion) schedule ANY assessment(s) |
28 | work on Sample Assessment 8 |