CS 239 - Advanced Programming

About the Instructor:

**Nancy Harris information**
Office: ISAT/CS 217	I have taught CS 239 every spring semester since 2003. I enjoy the class and the variety of topics that we cover. I am often challenged by student questions and learn a tremendous amount by working with you. I believe that teaching is collaborative. You bring as much to the table as a learner as I bring as the guide to that learning. I don't believe that most students learn best by passively listening to lecture, but by engaging in material and discussions with your colleagues and me. I challenge you to come to class prepared to question the code, the techniques and one another as you embark on this journey into advanced programming techniques. Welcome
Phone: 540-568-8771
E-mail: harrisnl at the usual jmu.edu extension
Office hours: M/W 2-3:30pm Tue: 5-7pm Others by appointment
Skype: csharrisnl - I will have it on during normal office hours
AIM: csharrisnl@gmail.com - I'll have it on when I am available

About the Course:

General Description:

Students use various advanced problem-solving strategies to develop algorithms using classes and objects. Students also learn how to implement and use elementary data structures, including character strings, files, stacks and queues. developing clear, concise, and correct algorithms to solve problems on a digital computer.

Prerequisites: CS 139 or equivalent with a grade of "C" or better. See the instructor if you fail to meet the prerequisite.

Note: Students planning to continue to CS240 next semester should take CS/Math 227 during this semester. CS 239 and CS 227 are prerequisites to CS 240.

Themes:

Object-Oriented Paradigm—The OO paradigm models computing as the collaboration of objects rather than the decomposition of operations.
UML—The Universal Modeling Language should be used for diagramming.
Coding Practice—Computing professionals are comfortable with code; comfort comes from practice reading, writing, and debugging code.
Software Engineering Approach—programming is part of a disciplined development effort that requires thoughtful design and coding, desk-checking, and thorough unit and integration testing.
Professional Ethics—Intellectual property is owned by its creators and cannot be appropriated without permission. Even when used with permission, its creator must be cited. Turning in someone else’s intellectual property as one’s own is a violation of professional ethics as well as the JMU Honor Code.
Reading Specifications--Precise specification of requirements, designs, and so forth, are basic documents in computing. Students must develop skills in reading specifications carefully and understanding exactly what they state.
Professional Conduct -- Computer scientists must become adept at "figuring stuff out". Passive absorption of "lecture" material is not the way to learn in this fast changing environment. Students should be prepared to spend time engaging with the material in a variety of ways including but not limited to lab work, code walk throughs with fellow students, search for elegant solutions, and practice with programs outside of the class environment.

Goals: At the conclusion of this course, successful students will

use advanced programming techniques to solve computing problems. These include but are not limited to:

inheritance
polymorphism
enumerated data types
exceptions
abstract classes
interfaces
file I/O
recursion
complex data structures such as multi-dimensional arrays, ArrayList, HashTable, linked lists.

use appropriate design techniques to design software applications before implementation.
use appropriate testing techniques to thoroughly test an application during development.
use the Java APIs and tutorials to learn about new classes and techniques and to supplement textbook information.
understand UML diagrams and their relationship to the design process.
read and understand software specifications to implement code that conforms to the specifications and to coding standards in place for the course.

This course meets the CS department objectives of:

Programming: Students can develop computer programs that solve specific problems using an object oriented programming language.(E)
Problem Solving Methods: Students can apply one or more problem solving methods in defining solution requirements and in designing, coding, testing, and documenting a software solution.(I)

Class Format:

Lecture days - The T/Th class sessions will have three purposes:

Review of the prior class period lab - you will work together in groups to review the solutions to the lab exercises. This is an opportunity to make sure that you understand the lab and the concepts behind it. There will be opportunity to share particularly elegant solutions with the class as a whole or to answer questions that the group is struggling with. A "model" solution will be presented.
Present new material - this may be in the form of a short lecture or group activity.
Practice with the new material - this may be in the form of a group or solo activity. This segment may lead into a homework assignment to prepare for the lab the following day.

Lab days - The M/W class sessions have one primary purpose and that is to enable students to practice with new material in exercises directed toward learning one new concept. Labs will generally take longer than a lab period, so be prepared for homework on lab nights. Unless otherwise specified, labs will be due before the lecture day following the lab period at the beginning of class.

Outside of class work - This includes completion of lab assignments, homework assignments, individual reading and practice, and longer term programming assignments. I anticipate 6-7 programming assignments through the semester, about 2 weeks apart.

Communication:

We will use Blackboard and Piazza as a means of communicating. Announcements for class will be made on the Blackboard announcements page or Piazza if Blackboard is unavailable. Any other announcement that you receive through other means (such as e-mail) is suspect unless confirmed by Blackboard or Piazza. If I send an e-mail to the class as a whole, I will also put the text into a Blackboard or web announcement. If school is cancelled due to snow days, be sure to check the announcements for any due date changes or homework assignments.

It has been my experience that students don't take full advantage of the opportunity to get one on one help from the instructor in office hours. Please take advantage of my office hours to get individualized help.

Textbook and Required Material



Java API's: http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/api/
Java Online Tutorial: http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/index.html
JAC Card:: There may be times in lab that you need to print a worksheet, a completed assignment or other work. You must have your JAC card with you and some money on it for printing. Make sure that you have a couple of dollars on the card each day.
Printing:: In addition to any printing required in the lab, you may need to bring a copy of your completed lab assignment with you to class on lecture day. For those with a laptop, that will be sufficient for sharing in the classroom. For those without, you should print a copy of any worksheets or completed code.
Backup Media:: It will be important that you have a backup device available to use in the lab. While you will get some network space, sometimes the network goes down and you need some way to continue working. Lab machines do not provide a permanent save. When the machine is logged out, your work is lost.

Grading

All exams are cumulative due to the nature of the material. Each exam will focus on the most recently covered material (since the last exam), but anything covered in the semester is fair game.

Exam 1	15%
Exam 2	15%
Final Exam	25%
Programming Assignments	25%
Lab	10%
Homework, quiz, class participation	10%

NOTE: A student that that does not earn 60% of the points on the final exam will receive a letter grade no higher than a D+ for the course. You must achieve a C- or better grade to continue on to CS 240.

I generally grade exams and programming assignments on a 100 point scale. Letter grades correspond to 10 point ranges...90 - 100 = "A", 80 - 89.999 = "B", etc. "F" is used for work below 60%. Labs will be graded based on completeness and your preparation for review in "lecture". Final grades will be based on the algorithm above and may include + / - grades for extremes within a range.

Attendance

Every semester, there are students who decide to treat this class as an online course. I firmly believe that they do themselves and their colleauges a disservice by not attending. While I know that there may be circumstances that prevent you from coming to class on particular days, a pattern of non-attendance is not acceptable. For this semester, I will take attendance at each lecture period. Every four lecture periods will constitute one lab grade. This will be in addition to any other collected work for the class period. I do drop some lab/homework/class participation grades in calculating the final class grade (usually about 10% or 4 grades).

Lab Partners

Last semester in my classes, we experimented with team programming in lab. While this was generally successful for those that participated, it did not fit all students. So this semester, you will be able to choose a partner with which to work or you may work in solo for labs and programming assignments. You will work in teams of approximately 4 people (including your partner) during the lecture period.

Class Policies and Student Success

See the link above for general instructor policies. Specific policies and items which will insure your success in this class are:

Come to class, come to class, come to class - Students who attend class regularly will keep up with the workload better, will gain insights from talking with classmates or the instructor, and will do better in this class as a result. We use a lot of active learning in class so attendance is mandatory.
Workload -This is a four(4) credit hour class. There is considerable outside work expected beginning with the first week. Be sure to get started on programming assignments early as these may be more difficult than they first appear.
Late assignments - All lab assignments and homework are due at the beginning of class on the day that they are due. No late assignments will be accepted for credit, although I will review late assignments at your request. For programming assignments, late assignments will have a per day penalty associated with them.
Exams - We have two midterms and a final exam. It is expected that all students will take the exams at the normally scheduled time. If an emergency occurs which requires you to be away, let me know as soon as you know about the situation. I may request documentation in order to allow you to take a make-up exam.
Honor Code -Almost every semester I have incidents of students cheating on programming assignments in some fashion. I report ALL incidents of academic dishonesty to the Honor Council. If the violation is severe, I will refer it to the Honor Council for formal resolution. Less severe violations may be handled informally. If you know of cheating in this class, it is your responsibility to let the instructor know as soon as possible. If you are involved in a situation where you are not sure if what you did was right, please see me and we will work through the situation.
MOSS - I use a tool from Stanford called MOSS (Measure of Software Similarity) which will compare all code turned in for a programming assignment against all of the other code from this class. It provides a comparison and the estimate of the degree of similarity. Be aware that this tool is very good and will be able to help me in maintaining the integrity of work turned in for this class.
Extra Credit - I generally do not have extra credit opportunities. One exception (and there may be a few others) are students who find bugs in the submit system are given extra points on that assignment only. There are many opportunities in this class for credit.

Student Success - You will be successful in this class if you:

Attend class and lab each day.
Engage with the material...don't passively listen in class and expect to do well on the application assignments.
Ask for help when you need it. We have TA assistance in the evening, and I have plenty of office hours.
Get started early on assignments.
Think about what you are doing...don't just do. In this course, the why is more important than the what.
Experiment with the language and assignments and talk to your colleagues during lab time. Feel free to explore.
Don't put yourself into a position of providing unauthorized help to another student. Labs are designed for free exploration and that includes working with others. Programming assignments are your way to test what you know and test your problem solving ability. While we may have some programs in which you will be able to work with a partner, most will be individual assignments. If you have a question about what help may be provided, please see me.

If you need additional resources to help you with your learning, let me know. Additional reference books may be placed in the library upon request.

The Fine Print

Students with Disabilities:If you are a student with a documented disability, who will be requesting accommodations in my class, please make sure you are registered with the Office of Disability Services, Wilson Hall, Room 107 (568-6705) and provide me with a copy of your Access Plan letter outlining your accommodations. I will be glad to meet with you privately during my office hours to discuss your special needs. The sooner you can do this, the better I can assist you in meeting your learning goals in this course.

Student Responsibility: Student are responsible for adding and dropping courses via e-campus. Please see the registrar's website for specific dates and policies: www.jmu.edu/registrar.

Religious observance and other planned absences: Students who are unable to attend class due to religious observance, JMU sponsored athletic competition, JMU sponsored academic competion or JMU sponsored academic events may request deadline extensions BEFORE the expected absence. I will do my best to accommodate your special circumstances.

Snow Days: Most spring semesters we have one or more snow days especially in the morning classes. If there is a snow day, first verify it via approved sources such as the JMU web home page. I wil post a note on Blackboard shortly following the announcement of delay or cancellation with how we will make up the day. Generally, if it is a lecture day, make-up will be in the form of a reading assignment and written homework. If it is a lab day, the lab will be available and we will open an elluminate session for questions and class interaction. I will be liberal with deadlines for such missed work as I know in inclement weather not all electronic resources remain open and available to all students.

For clarification of these and other instructor policies please refer to the policies link.

CS 239 - Advanced Programming - Spring 2013

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