Instructor: Dr. Okie, 219 Davis Hall

Phone: Office: 831-5992; Home: 951-7372 (Before 9:00 p.m., please)

Email: nokie (Feel free to send email. I'll reply as quickly as possible.)

Office Hours (Corrected): MWF: 11:00 - 11:55; TuTh: 12:00 - 12:55 MWThF: 11:00 - 11:55; TuTh: 12:00 - 12:55 and by appointment. You are welcome to come by at any time and if not busy I'd be glad to help you. Except for classes and meetings, I'm usually in most of the day. You may want to check my complete schedule to see when my meetings and classes are normally held.

Required Text: Big Java, Third Edition, Cay Horstmann, Addison-Wesley, 2008. If you buy the book then you will get a code that will allow you to access the text web page.

Content: This course is a rigorous, systematic approach to problem solving and programming, and the primary objective for the course is for you to gain the following:

1. the problem solving skills needed for further studies in computer science
2. a working knowledge of a high level programming language (Java)

Semester Schedule: Check the course web page for weekly topics and readings. Exams will be held around weeks 5 and 10.

Course web page: http://www.radford.edu/nokie/classes/120. Please remember that I frequently revise my notes pages, and they can change at any time, including just before and after and even during class. My pages will refer to the ITEC 120 course pages as well as Dr. Barland's ITEC 120 page.

Communication: I will post relevant course information on the course web page as well as send announcements via email.  It is your responsibility to be aware of this information, as well as all information presented in class, of course.

Postrequisite: You must earn a grade of "C" or better in this course before you can continue with any ITEC courses (the next courses are ITEC 220 and 225). If you get a grade of "D" or "F", then you will have to retake this course and earn at least a grade of "C" before you can continue with 220 or 225.

Schedule and Location: The format of this course is three hours of lecture and two hours of lab per week. Lecture days are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Lab days are Tuesday and Thursday, in Davis 225.

Peer Instructor: There is a peer instructor for this course who will be present at the lab sessions to help and who will hold one office hour each week to answer any questions that you might have. You are welcome to attend the Office Hours of any of the Peer Instructors and Peer Tutors.

Evaluation:

Per cent	Activity
50	Programs, labs, homework, quizzes, and in-class activities
30	Two in-class tests
20	Comprehensive final exam (2:45 p.m. - 4:45 p.m., Tuesday, May 5, 2009)
100	Total

Lab grading:

• All or nothing. Checked off by the peer instructor
• If you are not finished with your lab by the end of the lab period, then it may be checked off only during the first 10 minutes of the next scheduled lab period. There will be no help given on that lab during those 10 minutes - labs will only be checked off - so you must complete your lab before that lab period. If you need further help on the lab, you will need to get it from me or from the lab Peer Instructor before the next lab period.

Quiz grading:

• 10 point scale
• Missed quizzes cannot be made up; dates for quizzes will be announced
• You will submit lab quizzes electronically and I will grade them
• The lowest quiz grade will be dropped at the end of the semester.

Program grading:

• 20 points - Compiles
• 50 points - Runs and gives correct output
• 10 points - Documentation: header, name, comments, spacing and indentation
• 10 points - Style: variable names, understandable code, approach to problem
• 10 points - Submission: properly submitted with correct name

Late policy: Unless otherwise specified, late work will not be accepted.

Exams: In exceptional circumstances I may give permission to miss an exam if you contact me in advance. In such cases the weight of your final will be increased. Otherwise a missed exam will be worth 0 points.

Grades:

• Later in the semester you will be able to check your grades for this course online. Please do this regularly in case I make a mistake entering your grade. Please keep your graded work in case there is a question about your grade.
• Please do not modify assignments after you submit them. This will preserve the modification date in case there is a question about a submission. Some students keep a special folder where they keep an archive of submitted assignments.
• Normally I don't curve individual assignments, but I may add a point or two at the end of the semester.
• I don't give extra credit, but if you come to class regularly it can help you if you are on the borderline.
• No grades are given for effort, only for results.

Laptops: During class laptops and lab computers are to be used only for current classroom activities (eg taking notes). If you want to use your laptop during class, please sit in the front of the class so that I and others can easily see what you are doing and use your laptop only for activities that are directly related to the current class activity. Research shows that multitasking hurts learning, and it is also distracting to others. Please remember that experience shows that inappropriate laptop use typically lowers a student's perforance in the course by a full letter grade.

Attendance: Attendance is not required. You will find it much easier to learn and to make a good grade in the course if you come to class. You will not be allowed to make up any in-class activities that you miss. Good attendance and class participation can be to your benefit if you have a borderline final grade!

Thoughts on Success: Many students find this to be a difficult course. For success, you must be strong in the fundamentals:

• Do the reading and homeworks, and come to class and lab, with questions.
• Start your assignments early. Give yourself time to learn new concepts and deal with problems.
• Be willing to get (appropriate) help.
• Don't get behind. The material is cumulative and many find catching up impossible. Stay ahead of the wave!
• Remember the rewards of success.
• In the words of a speech by Winston Churchill in 1941: Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

Honor Code: This class will be conducted in strict observance of the Honor Code. Please refer to your Student Handbook for details of expected behavior.

Of course, all work that you submit for grading must be your own.

• Programming assignments must be your own work.
• Correction: 1/22/09: Homeworks must be done on your own.
• Lab quizzes and in-class quizzes must be your own work.
• Exams, of course, must be your own work.
• You may work together on the labs, but you must still make every effort to make sure you understand the finished product. You are responsible for understanding your work.
• You cannot learn how to program unless you do the programming assignments. You need to be able to understand and explain the code you turn in to me.

If you receive any help of any kind on an assignment (such as using a utility routine that you find in a book or on the web), then the work that you turn in must give credit for that help.

Please be aware that if I suspect that you have violated the Honor Code, then I will not hesitate to file charges with the Dean of Students Office.