Course Basics
Instructor:
Name: |
Ivan Avramovic |
Email: |
iavramo2-at-gmu.edu |
Hours: |
Monday/Wednesday 11:30-12:30, or by appointment |
Office: |
4609 Engineering |
Graduate Teaching Assistants:
Xu Han | (xhan21-at-gmu.edu) |
Deep Kumar | (dkumar7-at-gmu.edu) |
Pushkal Reddy | (preddy6-at-gmu.edu) |
Jin Zhou | (jzhou23-at-gmu.edu) |
Undergraduate Teaching Assistants:
Affan Ahmed | Hurmaan Ahmed | Thomas Campbell | Sam Crater | Adrian Crespo |
John Decarlo | Raymond Guo | Joshua Hilbert | Blake Khan | Reza Khoshhal |
Kevin Mankowski | Sarad Pant | Evan Ritchey | Jesse Tran | Minh Duc Vu |
Prerequisites:
CS112 (C or better) and access to a Java-capable computer
Format:
Lecture plus weekly lab
Lectures:
Section | Days | Times | Location |
001 (P02) | Tue/Thu | 10:30-11:45am | 105 Innovation Hall |
003 (P01) | Tue/Thu | 12:00-1:15pm | 105 Innovation Hall |
Textbooks:
Webpage:
https://cs.gmu.edu/~iavramo2/classes/cs211s20.html
Piazza:
Piazza will be used for all
official announcements and online discussion; any information
discussed on Piazza will be assumed to be known to students.
- Course schedule, announcements discussion. GTA/UTA contacts and office hours will be on Piazza too.
- Do not e-mail course staff about programming problems; use the discussion board.
- Use public posts on Piazza to discuss programming project requirements, labs, and other material related to the course.
- When prompted by a TA, use private posts on Piazza to share portions of your code pertaining to your questions. Don't share your project code in public posts.
- Email course staff only for logistical issues such as meeting outside of office hours, missing lab/lecture, grading disputes, medical situations, etc. Email addresses are listed on above and on Piazza.
Blackboard:
Blackboard will be used
for course slides, assignments (including submissions), and grades.
Course Information
Course Description: Thorough treatment of programming according to object-oriented principles. Introduces classes, interfaces, inheritance, polymorphism, and single dispatch as means to decompose problems. Covers intermediate programming techniques including error handling through exceptions, arrangement of source code into packages, and simple data structures. Intermediate debugging techniques and unit testing are covered.
Outcomes
-
An understanding of basic object-oriented programming concepts and principles
-
An ability to apply basic object-oriented principles and techniques in the design and development of software systems using a specific programming language.
-
An ability to effectively use both basic command line tools and sophisticated integrated development environments, and to understand the benefits and limitations of each.
-
An ability to successfully perform debugging operations and techniques.
Coursework
zyBooks:
online textbook with practice problems;
weekly deadlines for completing the practices are checked
automatically.
Labs:
-
Exercise: programming assignment; open resources;
collaboration/group work allowed; several days to submit.
-
Quiz: pencil and paper; closed resources; individual;
due same-day during lab.
-
Task: computer assignment; closed resources; individual;
due same-day during lab.
Projects: programming assignment; individual work;
possibly more than a week to complete.
Exams: individual work; in-class.
Grading Procedures
Grade Distribution
Material | Weight | Drop policy |
zyBooks | 5% | lowest 15 subsections |
Labs (weekly) | 10% | lowest three |
Programming projects (5-6) | 40% | none |
Midterm exams (2) | 20% | - |
Final exam | 25% | - |
Grading Policies
-
Grades within a category (i.e. midterms, projects, labs) are
weighted equally.
- Students must show their Mason ID card when taking exams.
-
By department policy, the student must pass the final or
the weighted average of all three exams must be a
passing grade (≥ 60) in order for a student to pass the course.
-
The final exam is cumulative; a high final exam score dominates
(replaces) lower scores on one or both of the midterms.
-
Challenging of any grade must occur within a week of when the
graded assignment has been returned.
-
Any number of resubmissions are allowed (the most recent is used),
however a resubmission turned in after the deadline will be
considered a late submission.
-
Lab exercise grading is fully automated. Quizzes may be hand-graded.
Lab task and project grading is partially automated. Even when
manually graded, code which does not compile will receive a zero
in most cases.
-
Absences are absorbed by the drop policy - in general, make-ups
are not allowed except on exams (provided a valid excuse).
- Assignments are typically due at midnight on the listed due date.
-
Late work can be mitigated by emergency tokens (see below).
Emergency Tokens
-
Every student begins the semester with a non-replenishing allotment
of three emergency tokens.
-
For every emergency token, a submitted assignment (programming
projects and lab exercises) can be submitted a day (24 hours) late
without penalty. An assignment can be submitted two days late at
the cost of two tokens.
-
No assignment will be accepted more than 2 days late (i.e. if
3 tokens are available, at most 2 of them can be used on the
assignment).
-
Without applying tokens, a one day late assignment can receive
a maximum score of 75%, while a two day late assignment can
receive a maximum score of 50%. Beyond that an assignment receives
a zero, regardless of tokens. The score is a score cap rather than a penalty (a one day late assignment which would have recieved an 85% would still get a 75%).
-
Tokens are applied in the order that assignments are submitted, such that projects have priority over labs (tokens are first applied to projects and then to labs if there are any remainng); a student cannot pick and choose
where to use tokens to maximize impact.
-
Tokens are use-it-or-lost it; if a student has tokens remaining at
the end of the semester, nothing happens with them.
Grading Scale
Grade |
A+ | A | A- |
B+ | B | B- |
C+ | C | C- |
D | F |
max |
↑ | 97 | 91 |
89 | 87 | 81 |
79 | 77 | 71 |
69 | 59 |
min |
98 | 92 | 90 |
88 | 82 | 80 |
78 | 72 | 70 |
60 | ↓ |
Tips
-
Make backups, because the unexpected happens, and cannot be
used as an excuse to get an extension.
-
Submission times are automatically recorded by Blackboard, and
there's no distinction between a tiny bit late and nearly a day
late - plan ahead to make sure that your submission is on time.
-
To receive a grade, the submission must be gradable. This means
submitting
.java
source rather than compiled
.class
files or
word documents containing the source. It also means that the
code must be submitted on Blackboard rather than simply saved.
Honor Code
Unless specific instructions are given to the contrary, programming
assignments are an individual effort, no group work is allowed.
In addition to code, this includes the sharing of test cases,
pseudocode, or approaches, receiving assistance in debugging code,
as well as the use of external Internet sites.
Both the GMU Honor
Code and the CS
Department Honor Code apply in this class. Any use of a direct
contribution on any program, homework, quiz, or exam will be
reported as a violation of the honor code.
Special Accommodations
Students who have a right to accommodations due to disabilities or other
conditions should discuss this with the instructor as soon as possible.
Accommodations will follow the recommendations of the University's
Office of Disability Services.