ITEC 120 2012fall dbraffitt ibarland

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ITEC120 Course Info

Course Information, 2012.Fall, Barland

ITEC120 is an introduction to programming principles. It approaches programming as problem-solving, emphasizing:

• A methodical procedure for approaching writing programs,
• Writing programs which not only give correct answers, but are also well-designed and clearly written.
• Unit testing, as a technique for understanding the problem better before jumping into coding.

As per the official syllabus, students who successfully complete ITEC120 will be able to:

• Design, implement, test, and debug a program in an object-oriented language that uses each of the following fundamental programming constructs: basic computation, simple I/O, standard conditional and iterative structures, methods and constructors.
• Apply the techniques of structured (functional) decomposition to break a program into smaller pieces, and describe the mechanics of passing parameters by value.
• Choose the appropriate data types (primitive types, strings, objects, and arrays thereof) for modeling a given problem
• Write methods with parameters and return types that are primitive types, strings, objects, or arrays thereof.
• Test and debug programs by: Developing test cases and writing a separate driver class to test the methods of a class; desk-checking individual methods; and inserting relevant print statements to discover program behavior.
• Answer basic questions about professional and ethical considerations of developing software, information privacy, and acceptable use policies for computing in the workplace.

• Fundamental constructs (primitive types, functions, conditionals, variables, loops, I/O)
• Testing and debugging
• Processing strings and arrays of primitive and reference types
• Terminal input and output
• Object oriented programming techniques: methods, fields; getters, setters, mutators; introduction to subclasses
• Algorithmic problem solving including functional decomposition
• Introduction to algorithms (linear search; an example of sorting)

• Time/Place for 120-04: Mo-Fr 11:00-11:50 in Davis225.
  Ostensibly Mo,We,Fr are lectures and Tu,Th are labs, but this distinction may blur.

• Office hours: These hours are subject to change; see the class web page for the most up-to-date times.
  Dr. Ian Barland,
  Davis 230
  

  Mo,We,Th,Fr	09:00-10:15
  Mo,We,Fr	15:00-16:00
  Tu	09:00-09:50
  Th	14:00-15:00
  or by appointment

  In addition, the ITEC department has a number of student tutors with office hours.

  You are encouraged to post (and answer) questions on the D2L discussion board, since you might get another student's ideas within a few minutes, instead of my response perhaps a day or more later. If your question requires giving away part the answer (e.g. part of your solution), feel free to email me; please include “ITEC120” in the subject.

• Text (recommended but optional):

  Author:	Lewis,Loftus
  Title:	Java Software Solutions
  Publisher:	Addison Wesley
  Edition:	(see below)	4th ed (2004)	5th ed	6th ed	7th ed
  ISBN:		978-0321245830	978-0321409492	978-0321532053	978-0132149181

  You are welcome (even encouraged) to get a used copy the textbook for the fall; any edition 4th or later. (Each newer edition is slightly improved, mostly with more examples and self-exercises.)

  Note: We will not be using the on-line MyProgrammingLab for this section, or any accompanying CD-ROM, so do not purchase an access code for that.

• Evaluation:

  Exams (2-3) & Quizzes	55%
  Homework & Lab Assignments	40%
  Attendence	5%	More than one unexcused absence every three weeks results in these points being lost. Perfect attendence earns 1% extra credit.

  Clarity counts in all work for this class (including spelling, grammar, and layout). Your homework hardcopies must be stapled.

  The material in this course is extremely cumulative; nearly every lecture and homework requries understanding previous lectures. Do not fall behind! You are expected to read the indicated sections of the book before coming to each lecture. There will be frequent short quizzes in class; fair game for these quizzes include the book's self-review problems from current or previously assigned sections, as well as any previous homework problems.

• Late Policy No late homework is accepted. All homework is due at the start of class on the due-date. If you know in advance you won't be able to turn in homework on time (e.g. participating in university sports) you must get permission in advance to turn the homework in late. For significant illness or family crisis without advance notice (but with later documentation), notify/email the professor as soon as possible.

  However, you will be able to submit up to two “do-overs” during the semester:

  • You may re-do a homework and re-submit it within one week from when that homework was returned. For example, if hw03 gets passed back on a Wednesday, you can re-submit it through the start of class the following Wednesday. All re-dos are due the last week of class (even if the corresponding hw has not been graded/returned).
  • Do-overs must be clearly labeled as such, and must be personally turned in to me by hand, separate from any other papers due that day.
  • The maximum points possible on a do-over is 85% of the possible. (If you are already getting near 85% on assignments, there is no need to re-do them.)
  • You can submit a do-over even if you didn't originally submit the homework on-time.
  • Do-overs will not be graded until after the semester ends; you won't receive feedback on them.
  • While you can look at your graded assignment the posted solution before starting a do-over, you must write/type the do-over from scratch, without referring to the solution or your previous attempt.
  • You are encouraged to come to office hours before starting a do-over, to make sure you understand why you lost points originally.

• Honor Policy: As with all your RU classes, the university honor code governs all work turned in.

  You are encouraged to discuss and interpret the homeworks and general approaches to solutions with your fellow students. You can freely access all material on any 120 web page, and general web references (for example, Java language features, or Java library documentation). And of course, you can always interact freely with the professor, other faculty, and tutors.

  However, you cannot show your code to other 120 students for help, receive homework code from others (electronically or otherwise), or have others type in any code for you. You must be the direct author of all your submitted work. If you got significant advice which you'd like to credit somebody for, cite them in your work.

  The gray area is when you are stuck with a particular small error which is preventing progress. You can always ask what a compiler message means, including (if needed) the one line causing the problem. (The class discussion board is a particularly good place for this.) You may also show your code to a lab assistant, and receive specific, short advice. Otherwise you should come ask during office hours. If you start your assignments early (just enough to get a feel for exactly what the assignment is asking, and what approach you'll need), you'll have better opportunity to come by office hours for any clarification.

  If you aren't sure whether a certain level of help is acceptable, stop—don't give/receive it until you've clarified it with the instructor.

• Class Courtesy: Out of class courtesy, please refrain from texting during lecture, and use a computer only for taking notes and looking up material related to lecture (e.g. looking up “static variable” on Wikipedia). Please do not: check email, browse other sites, check your phone, etc.. Other students can be distracted by your screen, and your inattentiveness detracts from the class experience for all. In labs—which are more self-paced—these activities are okay, within reason.

• Other University Resources: Radford has many resources to help you in different ways, including the student counseling services (x5226), and the Learning Assistance Resource Center (“LARC”, x7704, www.radford.edu/~larc, ).

  If you need any special accomodations for a class, and have registered with the Disability Resource Office (x6350, Tyler Hall Suite 64), please contact the professor at the start of the semester.

home—info—lects—labs—exams—hws
tutor/PIs—breeze (snow day)
Object120 + its docs—java.lang docs—java.util docs

©2012, Ian Barland, Radford University Last modified 2012.Sep.12 (Wed)

Please mail any suggestions (incl. typos, broken links) to ibarlandradford.edu