Syllabus

Morning Session Goals

By the end of the term, students will:

• Employ the Problem Solving Process in computer science,
• Software Engineering Life cycle and time management techniques for software development,
• Give a technical talk, run a technical discussion, as well as give and receive constructive feedback on their work,
• Gain experience with the processes (particularly debugging!) used in the Allen School, and
• Develop three projects
  • A personal About Me web page published on the student servers.
  • An “app” project that will focus on how users interact with apps on handheld devices.
  • A physical computing project

Morning Session Topics

1. Problem Solving Process and Reflection
2. Teach the Class
3. Personal Web Page (HTML/CSS)
4. User Centered App Development
5. Physical Computing

Afternoon Session Goals

• Develop further insight into your academic and career path and how this relates to your own values, life and professional goals.
• Cultivate meaningful connections among peers, staff, and faculty as well as members of the broader computer science field.

Grade Weights

The weighting for your grades will be as follows:

• Project 1: 10%
• Project 2: 20%
• Project 3: 10%
• Teach the Class: 15%
• Assessments: 10%
• Afternoon assignments: 20%
• In class work and participation: 15%

Morning session projects

Your larger projects for the morning will account for a significant portion of your grade. Each will be broken into three parts:

• Design
• Implementation
• Presentation/Reflection

Morning session assessments

The purpose of the assessments is two fold:

• to assess your knowledge of the material being presented
• to give you an opportunity to practice your study and test taking skills.

Some form of assessment will be given every Friday morning and may take one of these forms:

• Resource based quizzes where you will given access to resources such as books, computers, etc.
• One time in class written quizzes (as a check point for your knowledge)
• "Perfect quizzes" where you are given multiple opportunities to get 90% or above on the quiz.

In class work and participation

In class work

CSE 190e will be an active learning class. As such there will be as little direct instructor led lecturing as possible, and even when there is, it will be interspersed with times students are expected to think about and answer questions posed to the class.

Much of the work you will do in this class will be independent, pair, or group work. Much of the time you will be expected to do this work in order to further your own learning, and the product of the work will not be collected. Occasionally it will be as a check for understanding.

You will also be given a LOT of time to do you project work during classtime. We expect that you will use this time effective and appropriately.

Participation

Participation will be both by your attendance and and active engagement in the class and class discussions. (For more details on what it means to be an "active participant" in the class, please see the Participation section.) Additionally, at least one assignment (Teach the Class) will also have a graded component based on your participation in that assignment in particular.

Participation

Your participation grade will mostly include include your active participation in class and in the learning process. The questions below are designed to help you understand what it means to be an active participant in this class.

• Did you come to class with relevant ideas, and questions related to the class topics?
• Do you make at least one excellent contribution (e.g., insight or question) to each class without monopolizing discussion?
• Do you give active nonverbal and verbal feedback?
• Do you refer to other students by name and react to their contributions?
• Are any email or message discussions held to our same class norms?

Participation Balance

In any group there will be those who speak more and those who speak less; this might be because of differences in personality, language fluency, or culture. Some people like to carefully think before they speak and some believe that interaction should be rapid and assertive. Be mindful that others have important things to say too, but they may need a bit more time to speak.

If you often find yourself dominating class discussions, or answering all of the instructors questions, try limiting yourself to 3 really good responses, to give others a chance to participate. Remember, the silence is really ok, and it is sometimes needed for other students to feel comfortable speaking.

References

Some of the text in the Participation section was borrowed from Benjamin Mako Hill's Teaching: Assessment materials

Late Work

Late work is not accepted unless under special circumstances. If you need to turn in an assignment late under special circumstances, please email the instructor to schedule a meeting PRIOR to when the assignment is due in which we can discuss and determine if extra time is needed.

Re-grade Policy

Reflecting on grades is one of the most valuable ways you can learn from your mistakes, and we encourage you to do so. If you have a question about a grade you received or if you feel the grade you received is incorrect please email the instructor for an appointment to discuss the assignment and your grade in detail.

It is also possible for the graders to make mistakes. If that happens we certainly would like to correct the error. Please note the following:

• When you request a regrade, we may look at the entire problem/lab/question/etc. Therefore, while it is possible for your grade to go up or down, though up is more likely.
• Homeworks/projects: Send an email to the grader (find who commented on your assignment submission) and CC the instructor. Include a written summary describing why your work should be looked at again. Regrade requests must be submitted within a week of when the homework grade was returned.
• Assessments: We may use Gradescope to grade quizzes or exams and manage regrade requests. Via Gradescope, you should submit any requests separately for each problem with an explaination of why you want this problem regraded.

Communication

You, the student, are expected to...

• Check Mattermost announcements daily.
• Check canvas for course assignments daily.
• Use our Mattermost to ask clarifying questions on coursework and for discussions.
• Read emails that are sent to the course list (occasionally).
• Respond to direct emails in a timely manner.
• ASK QUESTIONS!!! particularly if part of an assignment or assessment is unclear.

The instructors will ...

• Do our best to write clear assignments and assessments.
• Do our best to respond to student emails within 24 hours on weekdays, 48 hours on weekends.

Attendance and Punctuality

You are expected to attend all classes this session. Participation is part of your grade, and you can't be graded on participation if you're not physically present. In addition, our goal is to have this class be largely active learning, engaging, giving you the opportunity to interact with peers, and ask questions of the instructors and TAs.

All students are expected to arrive on time to class except for in cases of emergency. If you do arrive late, please respect the learning of other students and take a seat in the back putting forth great effort to reduce distracting other students when you arrive. Do the best to catch up if we are in a direct instruction (lecture) portion, and ask for additional information and help if you need during our work periods or office hours.

Technology

(Portions heavily borrowed from Professor Hacker)

Technology in the classroom

This is a computer science class and somewhat obviously, we'll need to use technology in the classroom. However, it is to be used for adding value to your learning, not as a distraction. I understand that your phones connect you with your friends and family, but the classroom should be a place apart, however briefly, from the outside world. You will learn more, in short, if you can concentrate on the course while you’re in the course.

The following are some guidelines:

• Phones, tablets and other communication devices: This should go without saying: your cell phone and other devices should not be a distraction in this classroom.
  • I am not asking you to turn your phone "off" (no one does when they're told to anyway), but your phone should be set to silent or vibrate before you enter the classroom and put away where it will not distract you (i.e preferably not in your pocket, but rather in your bag).
  • You should not be sending or or receiving any messages (text, Snapchat, Facebook, etc).
  • If we hear your phone ring once during class we’ll ask you to turn it off. If your phone rings again, we’ll need to have a talk. A third time and you will be asked to turn it off and put it away or leave the room to avoid distracting others.
  • If there is a somewhat emergent case where you do need to receive a phone call or text message, please speak with an instructor at the beginning of class to explain why you need an exception to these rules. You will still be expected to keep your phone on vibrate, and as soon as you receive said call or message, you quietly excuse yourself outside to answer it, returning promptly after.
  • The *one* special exception to the Phones Away policy is during work time. If you truly work well listening to music via headphones/earbuds, you may do so. However, if we see that the phone is distracting you in other ways you will be asked to put it away.
• Laptops: I'm sure you've heard all the research (like this, and this, and this) that you should really take notes with pen and paper, but you may use a laptop or tablet to take notes during this class. In fact, we'll be needing our laptops quite a lot to do course work, test out theories, and even look up facts during class. However, in-class laptops also present temptations that many students find irresistible. You should not use a laptop during class to follow a game, use social media, play games, IM/DM, respond to email, etc, or even do work for another class! Such activities not only distract you (meaning you will be less able to participate meaningfully in the class’ conversations), they also distract anyone around or behind you. If you often seem distracted by what’s on your screen, I will ask you to put your laptop away if we are lecturing (and perhaps even during work time).

Technology "woes"

Instructors have heard just about every excuse for why work is not turned in on time. Many of these excuses were technology focused, and even some of them were really out of the students' control. Professor Hacker says it: Let’s face it: technology breaks: servers go down, transfers time out, files become corrupt. The list goes on and on. These are not considered emergencies. They are part of the normal production process. An issue you may have with technology is no excuse for late work. You need to protect yourself by managing your time and backing up your work.

As such you are expected to...

• Have and use anti virus software provided by the university,
• Back up your work regularly using the ample "cloud" resources like Google Drive or Microsoft 365.

and... we expect that if your computer breaks, get lost, has trouble, and so on you will:

1. Look into university resources to get it fixed/replaced (if you need to purchase a new machine check into the University's short term loan program)
2. Use the university lab resources through Odegaard or the Engineering lab to complete your homework for this class.

Honesty in Communications

Individuals are expected to be honest and forthcoming in communications with TAs and the instructors.

School Appropriateness of Content

Note that one of our course policies is to engender an inclusive environment. As such it is important that you are thoughtful about what you choose to use in your work. Please make sure that the images and text you are using are “school appropriate” and follow the guidelines of expected behavior. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask a TA or your instructors. Inappropriate work submitted may be ineligible for credit on that assignment.

Copyright and Citations

All of the expressions of ideas in this class that are fixed in any tangible medium such as digital and physical documents are protected by copyright law as embodied in title 17 of the United States Code. These expressions include the work product of both: (1) your student colleagues (e.g., any assignments published here in the course environment or statements committed to text in a discussion forum); and, (2) your instructor (e.g., the syllabus, assignments, reading lists, and lectures). Within the constraints of "fair use," you may copy these copyrighted expressions for your personal intellectual use in support of your education here in the UW. Such fair use by you does not include further distribution by any means of copying, performance or presentation beyond the circle of your close acquaintances, student colleagues in this class and your family. If you have any questions regarding whether a use to which you wish to put one of these expressions violates the creator's copyright interests, please feel free to ask the instructor for guidance.

The essence of academic life revolves around respect not only for the ideas of others, but also their rights to those ideas. It is therefore essential that we take the utmost care that the ideas (and the expressions of those ideas) of others always be handled appropriately, and, where necessary, cited. When ideas or materials of others are used (particularly in your creative projects), they must be cited. The citation format is not that important - as long as the source material can be located and the citation verified, it's OK. In any situation, if you have a question, please feel free to ask.

You must have the right to publish any of the images, videos, text, or other media on your creative sites. This means you may use:

• Media you have created or generated yourself (i.e. pictures you have created or taken yourself, text you have written yourself.)
• Images that are in the public domain (something from Wikipedia), or something with a creative commons license that allows for reuse without explicit permission of the owner.
  • Creative Commons Kiwi is a really informative video on Creative Commons licensing.
  • Instructions on how to search for images that are fair use are here.
  • You must cite any works that you use that you did not generate yourself (although technically you only need to cite things that are CC Attribution) A handy site for knowing how to add your citations is here.

Collaboration Policies

As a teacher, it’s not my goal in life to read a class’ worth of programs on a topic that all basically look the same. My goal is to assess whether you understand the material that we’ve taught in class enough, and you demonstrate that to me through the work you do. I can not assess that if you are turning in someone else’s work

- Dr. Tom Butler, Lakeside H.S.

Computer science education is odd in that we expect you to turn in work that you do completely independently when in the "real world" that’s not how it works at all. In the real world, co-workers collaborate, bounce ideas off each other, they look up parts of solutions on the internet. But in the "real world" the people doing the work have years of experience, they have proved themselves to their teachers, co-workers and bosses to where they are at that moment and most importantly, they know how to evaluate which of the solutions they are receiving is an appropriate one to solve the task at hand.

Your instructors need to be able to evaluate your work. Thus, unless otherwise specified (i.e. pair or group work), all work in this and other CS classes must be your own. You may wind up using other people or online resources to learn how to achieve new things, but we expect you to synthesize this work in your own way and learn to write your own code. You should never copy (plagiarize) homework or code from another person in this school (past or present) or that you find online directly and submitting it as your own work.

Specifically, you must abide by the following:

• You may not use code directly from any external sources (including copying lecture/section material in programming assignments)
• You may not post your homework solutions on a publicly accessible (non-password-protected) web server or Git repository, during the course or after it has been completed. Please see the course website for acceptable ways to show your work to others.
• You may not look at or use prior solutions from any source.

Important reading: Some students at Lakeside HS wrote the Collaboration Guidelines for CS document in 2016 (you need to be logged in with your UW NetID to read this). This document has some clear examples of what to do and not to do and will be required reading for Computer Science courses.

Privacy

To support an academic environment of rigorous discussion and open expression of personal thoughts and feelings, we, as members of the academic community, must be committed to the inviolate right of privacy of our student and instructor colleagues. As a result, we must forego sharing personally identifiable information about any member of our community including information about the ideas they express, their families, lifestyles and their political and social affiliations. If you have any questions regarding whether a disclosure you wish to make regarding anyone in this course or in the university community violates that person's privacy interests, please feel free to ask the instructor for guidance.

Knowingly violating any of these principles of academic conduct, privacy or copyright may result in University disciplinary action under the Student Code of Conduct.