| Instructor: Mr. Thomas Battles | |
|---|---|
| Availability | See Weekly Schedule |
| E‑mail | tbattles (at mark) @jeffersonstate.edu |
Old Course Number CIS 110 (prior to Fall 2009).
Catalog Course Description This course includes logic, design and problem solving techniques used by programmers and analysts in addressing and solving common programming and computing problems. The most commonly used techniques of flowcharts, structure charts, and pseudocode will be covered and students will be expected to apply the techniques to designated situations and problems.
Prerequisite Basic computer skills (CIS 130 or equivalent background). You should be familiar with fundamental computer concepts such as accessing the Internet, opening files, saving files to a specific storage device or folder, and printing the contents of a file. You do not have to complete CIS 146 prior to taking this course.
Recommended Materials You are advised to have the textbook open when you study the lecture notes on Blackboard, as your instructor may refer to examples that are present in the textbook.
E‑mail your instructor if you are not sure that the textbook you plan to purchase is correct.
If you plan to work on assignments on a public computer (on campus or elsewhere), use a USB flash drive to save your work; it can be a new flash drive dedicated to the course, or it can be one you have had for several years that contains files for other purposes. Do not share your flash drive with another student under any circumstance.
Software You may wish to make use of diagramming / flowcharting software such as Microsoft Visio. Students enrolled in CIS courses at Jefferson State may obtain the software free-of-charge through Azure Dev Tools for Teaching (formerly DreamSpark or Microsoft Imagine); your Jeff State e‑mail address and password should allow you to access this website.
Jefferson State students have access to install Office 365 (including Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Access) on multiple computers and devices: log into Office account settings using your Jefferson State e‑mail address and password, and click the Install Office button. Note that your access to Office 365 continues only for as long as you are actively enrolled.
Your instructor requires you to use LockDown Browser to access examinations. This browser is available for Windows 7 or higher, macOS 10.10 or higher, and iPads running iOS 10.0 or higher; it is not compatible with phones, Chromebooks, or tablets other than iPads. If you do not have access to a compatible device on which you can install this browser, please e‑mail your instructor as soon as possible; the college may be able to provide you with a loaner laptop should your computer not meet the requirements for LockDown Browser. Your instructor does not plan to require you to use a webcam for proctoring.
Course Content This course will deal with good practices for program design in the form of pseudocode, flowcharts, and other documentation forms. Students will become familiar with basic program elements such as user interaction, variables, modules, decision structures, loops, functions, arrays, files, and objects. Quizzes, assignments, and examinations will focus on concepts, the correct ways to express solutions, and the relationship between programs and problem solving.
Schedule The following is a tentative schedule of the availability of chapter materials (see the Tentative Calendar and the Announcements tool for other dates, including deadlines):
Grades Refer to the following table for the contribution of each course item to your grade.
| Item | Number / % each | Total % |
|---|---|---|
| Exams | 4 @ 25% each | 100% |
| Item | Number / % each | Total % |
|---|---|---|
| Quizzes | 13 @ 3.75% each (3 bonus) | 37.5% |
| Codework | 10 @ 6.25% pts. each | 62.5% |
| Non-Exam Total | 100% | |
See the syllabus addendum for details on how your final grade is determined.
Quizzes Attendance verification for all Internet courses requires the completion of a graded activity. For this course, you will need to complete a brief quiz answering questions regarding information in the syllabus, addendum, calendar, and / or initial lecture materials. You may attempt this quiz multiple times to improve your score, but you must make at least one attempt by Wednesday, January 13, at 9:59 p.m. Failure to attempt the quiz by the deadline will likely cause the college to drop you from the course.
Additionally, for each chapter, you will complete a quiz on Blackboard consisting of fifteen questions that range from identifying the proper terms for concepts to applying flowchart symbols or pseudocode statements to solve specific problems. These quizzes will be timed; you must submit your responses within a certain time of starting the quiz. You have one attempt for each quiz, and your submissions are due at 9:59 p.m. on the date of the deadline (the night before that chapter's review day). There are no opportunities to make up missed quizzes; however, the last three quizzes count as bonus.
Codework Ten times during the semester, you will complete an assignment consisting of one of the three following types of problems:
You must place your solution to a Debugging or Writing assignment in a file that you can attach to your assignment submission and that Blackboard can preview after submission, such as a Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) or Portable Document Format (.pdf) file; it must also be legible (not screenshots of work in a web application). You may enter your solution to a Hand Tracing assignment in the Write Submission box on the Blackboard assignment page or attach it in one of the previously-mentioned formats. A student whose assignment solution is not in the required format or is illegible will receive a zero for that assignment.
Codework assignments are due at 9:59 p.m. on the date of the deadline. Any submission after this deadline will be accepted for half credit per the policy in the syllabus addendum.
Examinations After each set of three chapters covered in the lectures, you will take an examination that tests your knowledge of program design principles as well as your ability to apply them to specific problems. The questions on these examinations will be like those from the quizzes, but their contents may not be identical. Because of the cumulative nature of computer programming, you are advised to maintain a thorough understanding of topics covered early in the semester so as not to hinder your performance on examinations covering later chapters. Unless otherwise specified, examinations are closed-book and closed-note; as mentioned earlier, your instructor requires you to use LockDown Browser.
These are the tentative examination availability dates (note that all four examinations have a limit of fifty minutes from the time you begin):
In the event of an excused absence, you may make up one exam if the make-up occurs within one week of the scheduled exam date. If logistics prevent the scheduling of a make-up within one week, your instructor may choose to substitute your final exam grade in place of that exam grade. If you miss more than one examination, you must contact your instructor to determine if, and how, you will be able to recover the points for the other missed examination(s).
Grade Availability Assignment grades are not posted until all submissions have been manually graded by the instructor. Quiz scores are available immediately upon completion, but the full results (questions and answers) will not be available until after the deadline to complete each quiz. Examination scores are available at the deadline to complete each examination; your instructor will not release the full results until after handling any excused absences. If you have completed a quiz, assignment, or examination for which the grade should be visible, but the grade appears blank in the My Grades tool, contact your instructor immediately; do not wait until the end of the semester.
Academic Honesty Students are expected to complete their own work regardless of circumstances. Peer assistance should be limited to the concepts discussed in class. The following activities are violations of the Academic Honesty Code for this course:
Under no circumstances should you post the details of any quiz or assignment on a public discussion board, forum, or newsgroup. Likewise, you should not post any portion of your solution to any quiz or assignment, even in progress, on such a public resource. Making such information available on the Internet will be considered academic misconduct.
Your instructor will follow the procedures outlined in the Academic Honesty Code section of the Catalog and Student Handbook should he perceive a violation of the Code. Unless there is evidence that the violation was not due to any action on the part of a specific student, each student involved in the violation will be penalized.