Syllabus
[Note: this webpage last modified Friday, 04-Feb-2011 19:59:07 EST]
Table of Contents
General Information
Prerequisite
Announcements
Purpose and Focus of Course
Grading, Assignments, and Expectations
Blackboard
Academic Integrity
Special Needs
Lecture: TR 11:00am-12:15pm, in A008 Root Hall
First class: Tuesday January 11
Last class: Thursday April 28
Office hours: I am generally in my office and available
most MWF's from about 8:30am-4pm. My official office hours are
Wednesdays 9:30-11:30am. My office is A-156 Root Hall
Instructor: Jeff Kinne
Website:
http://cs.indstate.edu/~jkinne/cs695-s1011/ (or
search for Jeff Kinne on google, bing, yahoo, etc.
and find a link to the course website from my personal webpage)
Required text: The New Turing Omnibus by A.K. Dewdney.
Announcements regarding the course will be made both during class and via email to your @indstate.edu email address. You should regularly check this email account or have it forwarded to an account that you check regularly.
This course serves as the "capstone/research/etc." course for the computer science master's degree. Students normally take CS 695 in their final semester before graduating. The main goal of the course is that each student partake an independent project - including learning new material, presenting the material to the class, writing a research paper on their project, etc.
To assist in choosing topics and beginning projects, we will take roughly the first part of the semester covering topics in the required text. The New Turing Omnibus provides overviews of some of the most important and interesting concepts in computer science. Each student will choose a chapter (or chapters) from the book to present in the first part of the semester and will then use the chapter(s) as a springboard for their project for the rest of the semester.
By using The New Turing Omnibus as the required text in this way, we also make sure that some of the fundamental concepts and ideas of computer science are reviewed before students graduate from ISU.
New information, updated after the first day of class. For the student presentations at the beginning of the semester, each student will be responsible for a day of class. You will give the lecture, assign reading, assign a homework problem, assign a quiz question, and give a list of "key concepts" to put on the course webpage. Students may work in pairs on these presentations/lectures, and then the pair would have two classes rather than one class. These lectures will be graded by both myself and the students, and the presenter will receive feedback from both myself and the other students.
We will go through the presentations/lectures until each student has presented once, and this will take roughly the first half of the course. For the second half of the course, the students will be working on their projects and will meet with me each week during the classtime to check in on their project.
New information, updated after the second day of class. Each day that we have lecture, the sequence of events will be roughly the following. At least 48 hours ahead of time, the student in charge for that day sends to me what the required reading is for that day. At least 24 hours ahead of time, the student in charge talks to me (via email or in person) about what they are planning presenting and talking about (so I can offer suggestions and make sure it will be okay). Then the class begins. We will start with a quiz from the previous day's lecture (which is administered by the student in charge of that lecture, but graded by me). Then we will go over one of the homework problems that has already been handed in (that part done by whichever student assigned it). Then the lecture begins. So you will have maybe 50 minutes for your lecture. Sometime that day, the student in charge will send the homework problem to me that is assigned for that day's lecture. And then it all repeats.
Grading, Assignments, and Expectations
The students of this course have the following responsibilities: read assigned chapters of the book before lecture, attend lecture, complete in-class quizzes/mini-tests, complete weekly homeworks, present chapters of the book to class, design quiz questions and homework problems based off of their chapter, answer questions from the class on their chapter, and complete a project. The final grade consists of:
Project: 30% of the final grade.
Prepared content: 10% of the final grade. This includes the lecture(s) you give to the class.
Weekly Homeworks: 30% total. There will be written/oral homework assignments most weeks, and each will be weighted equally in adding up to 30% of the total grade. If you turn in the assignment late, I will grade it so you know how you did, but it will count as a 0. LATE HOMEWORKS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.
In-class Quizzes/mini-tests: 20% total. We will not have any exams in this course, but we will have quizzes/mini-tests on a regular basis. Each will be weighted equally in adding up to 20% of the total grade.
Class Attendance/Participation: 10% total. Attendance will be taken at the beginning of each class. Half of your attendance/participation score will consist solely of whether you were present when attendance was taken each day - the total number of days present divided by the number of lectures in the semester. The other half of your attendance/participation grade will be assigned at the end of the semester based on how attentive you were in class throughout the semester.
The class attendance grade serves the purpose of giving you credit for coming to class. You benefit from coming to class by seeing the material presented, getting to ask questions, interacting with your classmates, keeping up on what is going on in the course, etc.
The quizzes/mini-tests give you motivation for making sure you know the material (to get a good grade), and give feedback on what everyone still needs more work in understanding. The quiz for each day will be over the assigned reading for the day. information).
The homework assignments are designed to solidify your knowledge and give you practice in writing and speaking. For each homework assignment, you will turn in a document with your solutions. Many times, I will grade this assignment based on correctness and exposition. Other times, I will ask that you meet with me outside of class to explain your solutions to me, and I will grade you based on correctness and clarity of presentation.
The prepared content is the content that you will prepare for the chapter(s) you have chosen to present to the class. You will be graded on the lecture itself as well as the quiz and homework problems you assign (higher grade for assigning good, high quality homework problems - not too easy and not too difficult).
The final project will be discussed further after the first few weeks of the semester.
Expectations. My expectation is that an average student will spend 6-12 hours OUTSIDE of class each week WORKING PRODUCTIVELY/EFFICIENTLY (not just starring at the computer) to complete their coursework for this class.
Classroom conduct. You may not use cell phones, iPods/music players, etc. during class. You should be civil and respectful to both the instructor and your classmates, and you should arrive to class a few minutes before the scheduled lecture so you are ready for lecture to begin on time. All laptops MUST BE CLOSED and all computer screens of the computers in the classroom MUST BE TURNED OFF. Although some students may want to take notes on their computer, this is very distracting to some (including myself), and I believe the harm of taking notes on a laptop outweighs the benefit.
Important Note. If you wait until the last minute to begin your homework assignments, you likely will not succeed in this course. This is a "deep thinking" course. It takes "time on the calendar" in addition to "time on the clock" to solve the homework problems. I suggest you look at the problems as soon as possible after they are handed out and think about them for a while. After you have exhausted your efforts, you can set them aside and come back to them in another day or so. Then repeat this process. If you come to office hours and have not thought about the homework problems at all, I can be of little assistance to you. If you come with meaningful questions and have thought about the problems, I will be better able to help you. I will not be available the day before a homework assignment is due. If you wait until the last minute to start the homework, you will be on your own. Working on the homework problems will be much less stressful if you start early!
I STRONGLY encourage you to get off to a good start to the course. It can be difficult to begin the course with a poor grade and end the course with a good grade.
Grade cutoffs
I make no promise ahead of time what the exact cutoff will be in terms of the number of points to achieve an A+, A, A-, etc. These will depend on how the course goes. I will use the guidelines below in assigning letter grades. After the first few weeks, I will include a "letter grade if the semester ended today" in your grades. You can keep track of how you are doing in the course with the grades on the blackboard site for this course.
The following is roughly what I would expect by the end of the semester to earn a particular grade.
A+/A Superior. You have a good understanding of all of the concepts we have covered. You consistently do well on the assignments and do an excellent job in presenting your chapter(s). You have done a high quality project, with good writing style and explanations.
A-/B+ Excellent. Similar to superior, but there may have been a few concepts that you did not fully grasp. Or your writing and communication skills could still use work.
B/B- Good. You have demonstrated basic understanding of the concepts, and you can often solve problems on your. But just as often, you are not able to solve more complicated problems on your own. Or perhaps your project and prepared lectures are not of the best quality.
C+/C Adequate. You have demonstrated basic understanding of most concepts, but you routinely are unable to solve problems on your own, and your project and prepared lectures definitely need more work.
F Failing. You do not even show basic understanding of many of the concepts, or have missed so many assignments/quizzes that a passing grade is not possible.
The course has a blackboard site. Click here to go to blackboard. You should see CS 695 listed under your courses for the current term. The blackboard site is used only for giving you your grades. All course content, schedule, etc. is kept on the instructor's webpage (which you are currently viewing).
Please follow these guidelines to avoid problems with academic misconduct in this course:
Weekly Homeworks:
Do NOT share electronically. You must type your own solutions. You can discuss the problems with each other, but you may only discuss them. You may not write out solutions together.
You MAY NOT search the Internet, textbooks, etc. for solutions to the problems. The following are the ONLY sources of information that you may use in solving the problems: the textbook for this course and assigned reading, and wikipedia articles on basic CS/math/etc. You may discuss the problems with each other and with myself, but must obey the previous item in doing so.
If you do find the solution in one of these sources, you still MUST cite the source in your document.
You may use NOTHING ELSE that is online or other textbooks.
You MAY NOT copy word-for-word from any source, even the sources you are allowed to consult. If you feel it is necessary, you should put the quotation in quotes and provide a reference/citation.
Quizzes/mini-tests: This should be clear - no cheating during quizzes. The quizzes will be closed-book, closed-notes, no computer, and no calculator.
Project: You should not copy from the internet or anywhere else. The project should be your own work. It will be fairly obvious to me if you do copy from the internet or elsewhere, and the consequences will be at the least a 0 on the project.
If cheating is observed, you will at the least receive a 0 for the assignment, and I will file a Notification of Academic Integrity Violation Report with Student Judicial Programs, as required by the university's policy on Academic Integrity. A student who is caught cheating twice (whether in a single course or in different courses) is likely to be brought before the All-University Court hearing panel, which can impose sanctions up to and including suspension/expulsion. See the Student Code of Conduct and Academic Integrity Resources for more information.
Please ask the instructor if you have doubts about what is considered cheating in this course.
If you have special needs for the classroom environment, homeworks, or quizzes, please inform the instructor during the first week of classes. If you have any such needs, you should go to the Student Academic Services Center to coordinate this. See Student Academic Services Center - Disabled Student Services for more information.