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A216 General Course Information.
General Course Goals.
I hope to accomplish several things in this course. While we have been doing this course for several years, and I have a pretty good idea of what needs to be covered and how, things can change as we progress.
In general, there are two areas I want cover: the conceptual/technical and the practical. In many cases, these are related, but not always. The conceptual amounts to the "why" and the technical amounts to the "how" aspect of any class. We want to learn why things work and how to use them.
The practical is the "hands on" component. This is what you will do primarily in the labs, where we will show you how to do use the various software tools to accomplish a variety of tasks.
"Technical" Course Goals.
The conceptual/technical goal of this course is still very practical in nature. We want you to learn about multimedia. This includes hardware, software, operating Systems, and standards, as well as more general issues that may not be obvious at first, like mathematics, biology, human physiology, television and film technologies, etc.
When you complete this course, you will have learned about or worked to some degree with: analog and digital display technologies, image types and image capture, digital and analog audio, audio capture and editing, digital and analog video, video capture and editing, audio and video codecs, streaming audio and video basics, networking fundamentals related to multimedia on the internet, computer hardware fundamentals, etc.
I will try to make this experience as practical as
possible, using what I know about systems currently in place in both
business and education, so that when you are done, you can honestly
say you have some useful multimedia knowledge and experience.
For your information, here is the official course description:
A216 Digital Multimedia Concepts and Technologies (3.0 cr.)
P: A110, A111, or equivalent computing experience. In-depth
introduction to the technologies of digital hardware and software
relevant to efficient multimedia communication methods. Meetings focus
on computational foundations, underlying concepts, and digital
methods. Laboratory provides direct experience with concepts presented
in meeting, using latest available digital tools to create direct and
web-based multimedia content. Meeting and laboratory.
Here is a bit more detailed description the gives some idea of various topics we will cover:
In-depth introduction to the use of mixed-media digital hardware and
software tools for effective communication with focus on computational
foundations, underlying concepts and technologies, and the notion of
"digital convergence." Meeting topics will include: Digital capture
techniques and technologies (CCD, CMOS, GIF, JPEG, MP3), fundamentals
of compression (lossy/lossless), audio and video codecs and their
underlying concepts as well as the import of sensory experience and
human physiology to such codecs, simple spatial and temporal
algorithms, networking fundamentals as related to streaming digital
audio and video, and fundamentals of digital display and digital
storage. Laboratory will provide direct experience with meeting topics
using the latest available tools to create multimedia for both direct
and web-based communications. Strong emphasis on problem solving
techniques.
Grading.
I know this is often the first thing a student wants
to understand. Here's what I have in mind at this point.
Attendance:The
expectation in this course is 100% attendance. Be sure you understand
that any absence, excused or otherwise, could negatively impact your
final grade in this course.
Because I post the meeting outlines in advance, attendance is
mandatory if you want to pass. If you skip meetings on a regular
basis, thinking you can get by on the posted outlines, you will
fail. I know, it's happened many times in my other courses where I
make similar resources available. Attendance
will be taken in every meeting in the form of cards dropped off in
class (you provide the cards), CAT exercises, or other "hardcopy" work
submitted in class. Attendance will be counted separately from your
Participation score, but it is CRUCIAL that you understand if you are
not in class, it is impossible for you to participate.
EFFECTIVE FALL 2019:The Health
Center will no longer issue "notes" simply indicating you went there,
so such notes will no longer be accepted for an "excused" medical
absence. Offical medical notices clearly indicating a medical absence
was required, signed by a physician, will STILL be accepted to excuse
an absence. In light of this new policy, each student will have 2
absences to use during the 16-week (semester long) class period that
can be used without explanation or documentation. All other absences
will be noted in interpreted as laid out on this page.
Attendance will be worth 5% of your Final Grade. ADDITIONAL
NOTE on absences: Please note that, while you can be excused
from class with written confirmation due to illness, interviews, or
similar major events, that excuse applies only to your attendance. If
any work is done and submitted during class (CAT, Quiz, etc.) that is
not excused and cannot be made up. Because these exercises are a small
part of the grade, and because you should not be absent, they are all
considered "you need to be in class to complete them" type
exercises. Be sure you are clear about this policy.Meeting
attendance will be part of your final grade and taken in the form of
attendance cards, explained on the first day of class. This will
represent 5% of the course grade.
Individual Homework:
There will be 4-6 homework assignments that will be graded and
represent 25% of the course grade. The
labs will not be graded, per se, but the 4 assignments will be based
on material presented in lab.
Quizzes/CATs/MINIs/JITs:There will also be 6-8
quizzes, 6-8 MINIs, 6-8 JITs and 6-8 CATs (Classroom Assessment
Techniques ) given over the course of the term. Quizzes will be given
in lab and will not be announced in advance. CATs will be done in the
regular meetings and not announced in advance. Neither Quizzes nor
CATs can be "made up" under any circumstances, even an excused
absence. These are both "current status" exercises and many CATs will
be team-based. Either you are present to particpate (and help your
teammates), or you are not. MINIs and JITs (Just-In-Time) will go
together and you will have 2-4 days to get them submitted. All of
these will be used to evaluate how well you are understanding the
material in both meeting and lab. The quizzes/CATs/MINIs/JITs will be
worth 10% of the course grade.
ACTIVE Course
Engagement: This is the one more or less subjective component
of the final grade. As such, it will be based upon my observations
throughout the duration of the course. Participation doesn't just mean
who asks the most questions or makes the most comments, but who is
clearly prepared and engaged with the material. One thoughtful
question or very salient comment is worth more than hours of "babble."
Many of the other course components are specifically designed to aid
you in being prepared to participate. This also includes my evaluation
of you as an active and reliable teammate throughout the semester. In
other words, I will be evaluating your overall engagement in the
course, both in and out of the classroom. Missed work, chronic
absenteeism, failure to respond to or work with your team, lack of
attention in class, tardiness, and any other information available
will be used to make this evaluation. The rest is up to you. Because
this is such a key part of the course structure, it will represent
10% of your final grade.
Individual Final Project:
You will brain storm, propose, storyboard, and develop a project of
your own choosing. This project will have multiple components with
multiple due dates during the semester. The entire project process
will represent 50% of your final
grade. [Please be sure you are clear about this.]
Overall Grade: So, your overall grade will be based on the following:
Attendance: 5%
Individual Homework: 25%
Quizzes/CATs/MINIs/JITs: 10%
ACTIVE Course Engagement: 10%
Individual Final Project: 50%
Grading Scale:We will begin with the standard 90-80-70-60 grading scale. +/- grades fall in the upper and lower 2.5% of each range, respectively. This scale could drop by the end of the term, but it will never rise. This mean if you earn a 90.00% average, you are guaranteed an A-.
Important Course Policies.
Be absolutely sure you understand the following course
policies, as well as those out-lined on the "Important Course
Guidelines" page. It will be assumed that you have read and accept
these policies before the end of the first week of class.
If you have never been in a CS course before, these
policies may seem inflexible. However, they are similar to those for
other courses in the School of Informatics and they are not unlike the
sort of guidelines or contract stipulations you would find associated
with a job in the "real world." Consult the Important Course Guidelines for a more
complete list.
- You are solely responsible for your performance
in this course. We are here to help you whenever possible, but all of
your choices have logical consequences. Make sure you take interest in
your scores and Final Grade before you earn them.
- No work will be accepted late, period. If I do
not have a homework assignment in my possession before I leave the
meeting hall the day it is due, it will be scored a 0
(zero). Similarly, if you miss the deadline on any material submitted
electronically, even by .01 second, you should expect a score of 0
(zero) there as well. Should this occur with something like one of the
Projects, the result would be at least a full letter grade on your
Final Grade.
- I do not accept work electronically, UNLESS specifically
requested. While there some things, like quizzes and homework
assignments, MUST be submitted electronically, no other work will be
accepted eletronically. If it is due on a certain day/date, I expect
it in legible hard-copy form before the end of the meeting period at
that time. Anything else will probably result in a score of 0. [See #2
above]. The same is true for anything submitted on CD.
- This is an Information Technology course, and we expect
you to use the technology. What this means, specifically, is
we expect you to have an IU Email account and we expect you to use
it. We expect you to check email at least twice daily, under normal
circumstances. IU policy already requires that all faculty, staff and
students check email once daily. We are merely extending that policy
to be "twice daily." If an announcement is made in class regarding a
schedule change, etc., we would expect you to check email at every
opportunity. Additionally, we expect you to monitor the A216 Meeting
OnCourse site relevant to this course. This is an important resource
and you should learn how to use it if you don't already know how. Just
be sure you understand that "I didn't check email" or "I didn't read
OnCourse or check the Course website" will not be acceptable reasons
for not getting work done on time or failing to meet other course
requirments.
- Any requests for an alternative exam time must include
documentation supporting the need for an alternative and be submitted
at least one week in advance. There are
certainly legitimate reasons to request an alternative, such as job
interviews, conferences, etc. However, these are also events you know
about well in advance. Any such request must be made directly to me,
at least a week in advance of the exam, preferably
two weeks.
- Emergencies: I realize emergencies
will arise, but it is still your responsbility to notify me as quickly
as possible should such an emergency occur. NOTE: I
consider an emergency to be something like a death in the immediate
family in the last 24 hours or severe personal injury requiring
hospitalization. In all other circumstances, I think you should be
able to contact me before an exam or other major course event. My
email and voicemail numbers are clearly indicated on the course
HomePage and I am in my office by 7:30am on meeting days. I try not to
be totally unreasonable in this regard, but if you come to me a week
after missing an exam and claim you missed the exam because of car
trouble, I will not be very sympathetic. Again, this is a policy
consistent with other courses in the School of Informatics. [Also
consider, if you missed a project deadline at work and didn't contact
your Supervisor for week, would you expect her/him to be very
sympathetic? If you had a major presentation to a client and failed to
notify your Manager in advance that you could not attend, what would
you expect the consequences to be?] Again, I am in my office on class
days by 7:30am and can be reached via email and my voicemail, both of
which are posted on the HomePage.
Finally ...
Don't let any of the above scare you away. I just wanted to be sure anyone enrolled in the course this semester or interested in this course in the future has a decent amount of information to make an informed decision.
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