How do I register my clicker?

See the course Clickers page for answers to this and other clicker questions.

Do I have to bring my text to class and lab?

Bring your text (the one with reading assignments that week) to lab. You do not need to bring your text to class.

Can I put a stop to the course email messages?

Course announcements are emailed via the Oncourse site, and archived on the course web home page. If you do not wish to receive these emails, or wish to get them in a daily summary of all Oncourse email, you can request this via Oncourse > My Workspace > Preferences. If you elect not to receive course email, you are responsible for checking the course web daily.

Is A201 the right courses for me?

You must decide that, but here is a comparison with A201 of some other introductory programming courses offered within the School of Informatics:

• CSCI A112, 1.5cr (2nd 8 weeks), uses Javascript
  • easier than A201
• INFO I210, for prospective Informatics majors
  • languaged used has recently been C
• CSCI A321, uses Matlab and C
  • presumes some programming experience
  • especially for Bioinformatics and other science students
  • harder than A201
• CSCI C211, for prospective Computer Science majors, uses Scheme
  • harder than A201

Please see me after class if you're not sure this is the right course for you.

You may also with to consult with advisors in other schools, such as Business, Education, and Telecommunications, which also offer computing courses.

Can I switch lab sections?

If you have a good reason, you can switch labs on one or two occasions if there is room in the lab you want to attend and you inform both your usual and the temporary lab instructors in advance. If the lab's assignment involves pair programming, your partner must be in the lab you attend.

If you wish to permanently switch to another lab, you may do so if you have the permission of the new lab's instructor and inform the original lab's instructor.

Can I get assignment help from others?

Please seek help from the course instructors. And you can ask anyone for help in clarifying an assignment or understanding general programming issues not directly related to the assignment. But assignment submissions shall reflect your work alone (or on pair programming assignments, the work of you and your partner).

You are strongly encouraged to work with others on exercises from the course text and web, and if you like other books and learning materials.

Is attendance and class participation required?

Attendance is expected in class and laboratory.

You get a "participation point" for each class in which your clicker is used, and for each lab in which you make a lab submission that indicates satisfactory effort. There is no penalty for the first three participation points lost without adequate excuse. Inadequate excuses include forgetting your clicker and partying during lab time.

You are responsible for verifying that your clicker is operating properly. Bring it to my attention immediately if there is a problem, but first please be sure you have carefully followed the instructions on the Clicker page.

If you must miss a regular lab session, try switching to another one as indicated in the response to the question above.

For lab participation credit, be sure to make your lab submission before the end of the lab, even if you have not completed it. Only an honest effort is required. (You will be notified if you make a submission that is not satisfactory.)

You may leave lab when you have completed the in-lab portion of an assignment, you may leave the lab, though it is highly recommended you start work on the rest of the assignment in lab where you can get help easily if you need it.

Class participation beyond clicker responses is usually not required, but is highly encouraged and may be rewarded with extra participation points.

Is there some way I can get extra credit?

Some assignments may have extra credit sections (see the grading computation question below).

Extra participation points may be offered for certain activities in class, and also for being the first to notify me of significant errors in the course web or texts.

What if I miss a lab?

If you miss a lab, try to do the lab part of the new assignment on your own, but don't submit it via Oncourse (that's not allowed outside of lab). Be sure to get help from a course instructor as soon as possible if you have difficulty. See the next question if you have a good excuse for missing lab.

What if I have a good excuse for missing a class or lab?

If there is a medical, personal, or professional necessity requiring you to miss a class or lab, including university-sanctioned curricular and extracurricular activities, present your excuse to me (after class is convenient) with supporting documentation any time before the end of the course. If the excuse is satisfactory, you will be excused from the class or lab. Then it is as if any test, participation point, or submission in the missed lab or class never happened (other test or participation points will count a bit more, and in the case of a missed test, another grade will be dropped).

If you are unable to work on an assignment for much of the week for similar reasons, you may also be excused from the week's assignment.

Can I have a makeup test?

You may be excused, as indicated above, but there are no makeups.

When do I have to finish assigned reading?

It is best to give a week's material a first reading before the first class of the week, but don't be concerned if you don't understand some of it until it is explained in class. You won't be able to make the most of lab and get a timely start on assignments if you aren't familiar with the reading material by then.

It is valuable to read material again after it is covered in class to be sure you understand it well.

Can I just sit in (audit) this course?

As long as everyone who has registered for the course has a seat, I do not object to anyone being seated in the classroom. However, if you want to participate in any way you must register for the course (as an auditor if you do not want a grade or college credit). Such participation includes attending labs, urning in assignments, taking tests or exams, going to office hours with course-related questions, or asking questions in class.

Can I email my assignment or lab work?

No, electronic submission is via Oncourse only.

I got off to a bad start. Can I have an incomplete in this course?

Most unlikely. Incomplete (I) final grades are given only in exceptional circumstances conforming to departmental policy in which the bulk of course work has been completed in passing fashion. Generally an incomplete is applicable only in the event of unforeseen hardship occurring after the deadline for withdrawal with a Dean's permission. It is not a way to avoid an unsatisfactory grade if you have gotten behind in the course. If you feel you are getting behind, please see me right away. If you are seriously behind before mid-term, seriously consider droppping the course while you can.

What is the last day I can drop the course?

The last day for dropping from the course with an automatic grade of W is W March 5th (by 4pm). Dean's permission to withdraw after this date is given only in well-documented and exceptional situations. Since the knowledge and skills learned in this course are highly cumulative, if you are not doing well at midterm you may well do worse in the remainder of the course even if you try harder. So if you are not very confident that you will catch up, seriously consider dropping while you can. If in any doubt about whether to drop, please speak to me.

What should I do if I have religious observation or disability concerns?

Religious Observation: In accordance with the Office of the Dean of Faculties, any student who wishes to receive an excused absence from class must submit a separate request form for each absent day. Present this form to me by the end of the second week of the semester. Further information and forms are available from the Office of Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculties religious observances web.

Disabilities: If you require assistance or academic accommodations for a disability, please contact me (after class, during my office hours or by appointment) after you have established your eligibility for disability support services through the Office of Disabled Student Services in 096 Franklin Hall, 855-7578.

Am I welcome to send email to course instructors?

To report things, such as problems with web material, Oncourse, assignments, or your feelings about the course, please do not hesitate to email chaynes@indiana.edu.

Please do not use email to ask questions that do not have simple answers or that involve debugging. I want to be as accessible as possible, but email is just not suitable for many programming and personal questions. I'm available in office hours, in the office at other times by appointment, briefly after class, and even by phone at home if I'm there during business hours. It helps to ask general questions in class so others can benefit from the answer. Assignment questions usually need to be answered in person: please come to any of the instructors office hours or make an appointment to see one of us.

Do I need an appointment to see an instructor in office hours?

No. Just come and we're happy to help you. That's what office hours are for. See the web syllabus page for all our office hours. If those hours don't suite your schedule, please contact us to make an appointment for another time.

Can I submit an assignment late?

Assignments are due on Thursday at 3 pm. Unless otherwise indicated, you may submit an assignment up to two days late with a one-letter-grade late penalty, after which submissions are not accepted (since solutions are posted shortly after that time).

Machine down time (unless it effects most STC labs and is near the deadline), not being able to connect to the IU network from home, and so on, are not excuses for failing to submit assignments on time. Leave enough time to submit from an STC lab if necessary.

When will there be tests, and the final?

Unannounced half-hour tests on Python may be given in class any time except the first four weeks of class and the last week of class.

An Alice "practical test" is given in the first half of the fourth lab and a Python practical test takes all of the last lab.

See the evaluation section of the syllabus for the time and location of the final.

What are the tests and final exam like, and what material do they cover?

Class tests are mostly short programming exercises. They may also include true/false, multiple-choice and short answer questions, including questions asking you what some small program does or how to fix a small program. They are closed book and notes, unless announced otherwise in advance.

In the lab practical tests you can use your lab computer, textbook, and notes.

Tests generally emphasize recent material, but may cover any material covered in class and assigned readings through the preceding week, and assignments due prior to the test. They do not cover material introduced in the week of the test. Alice is covered only in the first in-lab practical test and the first three assignments.

In content, duration, and contribution to the final grade, the final exam is roughly equivalent to three tests. It covers all the course Python material (not Alice), with some emphasis on material since the last test.

You need to know Python syntax, as summarized in the Python Syntax page of the class web. However, you are not expected to know details of specific functions and methods unless they have been used a lot in assignments. Information about them will be provided when generally necessary and if you are not sure, make up a reasonable name and indicate in a comment what it does. That way if you get the name wrong you will lose little if any credit.

FYI (for your information) material in class notes is mentioned because it appears in the text or may be of use beyond this course, but it is not required for tests, the final, or assignments.

Why wasn't my assignment or test returned in lab?

If others got an assignment or test back in lab and you turned it in but didn't get it back, most likely you failed to indicate your lab time in the requested first-line assignment comment or the indicated space at the top of the test. In that case the grader does not know which lab to return it to, so it is returned to me. You can pick it up from me in my office or after the last class.

Should I keep graded assignments and tests?

Yes. Occasionally there may be grading recalls for additional credit, and you might need to prove a grade that was recorded in error.

How are programs graded?

Programs are graded correctness and style.

• Correctness, about 70%: whether the program works as specified. Program correctness is determined by executing your program and inspecting your code.

  You cannot guarantee program correctness by tests alone. Most programs have an essentially infinite number of possible inputs. You cannot test them all. Programs should behave as described in the assignment.

  You may assume that user input conforms with the problem statement unless the assignment specifically states that you should check for bad input.

  If a program cannot be run when graded (bad syntax), the extent of its correctness is guessed by code inspection, but it will not receive more than a C.

• Style, about 30%: Programs should obey the style rules, follow the style guidelines most of the time, and also be nicely formatted, adequately documented, and well organized. The point of good style is to make your program as easy to understand as possible.

Assignment letter grade guidelines:

• E: An A with extra credit (a letter grade above A) A good job on sections marked extra credit could also raise a lower grade, say from a B to an A.
• A: Correct implementation of the program specification, perhaps with a very minor glitch or two, and good style.
• B: All major and most minor functionality implemented, perhaps with a few minor problems, and acceptable style.
• C: Substantial functionality, but some major element missing or substantially buggy, or poor programming style.
• D: Little functionality.
• F: Very little functionality: poor effort.

How can I see all my course grades?

When announced in the week before mid-term and the week before the end of class, and shortly after final course grades are submitted, your grades will be available through the Oncourse Post'Em tool.

The following special grade roster entries are used:

• Z: zero, missing
• L: late, no credit
• X: excused (just as if it never existed, does not count as a dropped grade)
• S: satisfactory
• P: pending
• FN: course grade of F because not attending
• FNN: course grade of F because never attended
• F*: course grade of F because of academic dishonesty
• #: penalty, like an F, but not droppable (used only in cases of academic dishonesty)

The following grade item name abbreviations are used:

• T: test
• L: lab
• A: Assignment
• H: handin (something turned in during class or lab)
• EC: extra credit
• 3 or 4 digits: participation point for this date with format [m]mdd
• Fin: final exam grade
• grade: final course grade or midterm grade

How are grades computed?

Grades are computed via a weighted average, using approximately the following percentages:

• 40%: Tests The lowest practical (in lab) or class test grade is dropped. The dropped grade may be one that was missed without excuse. If you are excused from a test, for you it is as if it didn't happen: another test grade will be dropped and the tests that are counted will count more individually, but make the same contribution to your final grade collectively. If the lowest grade is the Python practical, which counts double, half of it will be dropped.
• 30%: Assignments The lowest assignment grade is dropped (as with tests).
• 20%: Final exam Attendance at the final exam is required. No alternate times are offered.
• 10%: Participation points Up to three participation points may be missed without excuse and still receive full participation credit, and of course points missed due to excused absence do not result in loss of credit. Extra credit points are added to the participation points in some cases.

The final course numeric scores are "curved up" as needed to obtain an appropriate distribution of final letter grades.

Assignments and tests receive a letter grade. In computing averages, letter grades are interpreted in GPA fashion: A=4, B=3, ...

Grades become final two weeks after the material is returned. If you believe that there is a grading problem, show it to me.

A passing final exam score (60%, or less as a fair curve may dictate) is required to pass the course.

Final exams are not returned. You may see your final exam in my office during office hours or by appointment during the first half of the following semester. Final exam and semester grades are final after that time.