Syllabus and Class Information
Com S 227
Fall 2020

This is not an introductory programming course! If you don't have prior coding experience, consider taking Com S 127 instead. See the course content section for details.

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Meeting times

Lectures:

Labs:

Everyone should be registered for one of the numbered lab sections (1 through 14) in addition to one of the lecture sections (A, B, C or E). The lab is scheduled for a two-hour period once per week. In practice there will be sessions altogether.

Instructors

Don Stull (Lecture section C)
ISU email: dstull

Sayantani (June) Ghosh (Lecture section E)
ISU email: ghosh

TA contact information and all office hours are posted here.

Prerequisites

• Placement into Math 143 or Calculus. You'll be expected to understand variables and functions and to do basic algebra.
• SE 185, or Com S 127, or a previous high school programming course, or other programming experience. You should be able to use variables, conditionals, loops, and lists or arrays, and be able to create and use functions or methods, in some programming language. You don't have to know Java.

Course content

Outcomes

• Write, debug, and document well-structured Java applications of up to 500 lines
• Implement Java classes from specifications
• Effectively create and use objects from predefined class libraries
• Understand the behavior of primitive data types, object references, and arrays
• Use decision and iteration control structures to implement algorithms
• Write simple recursive algorithms
• Use interfaces, inheritance, and polymorphism as programming techniques
• Use exceptions

Major topics covered

• Managing files; using an integrated development environment
• Objects, classes, methods, fields, and constructors
• Primitive types and references
• Arithmetic expressions, String operations
• Overview of the software engineering process
• Unit testing with the JUnit framework
• Conditional statements and Boolean expressions
• Iteration
• Basic console and text file I/O
• One-and two-dimensional arrays
• Using a symbolic debugger
• Designing with interfaces
• Inheritance, polymorphism, abstract classes
• Exceptions and exception handling
• Recursion
• Searching and sorting

If you want a more detailed look ahead, check out the archive from a prior semester. In particular, if you think Com S 227 might be too easy for you, e.g., try doing Homework 4.

Textbook

The zyBook service is provided through the ISU bookstore's "early access model", which means that if you are registered for the course, you have already have access to it (and it's on your u-bill). You have 10 days from the start of classes to opt out and get a refund - but don't do it unless you are dropping the class! The CAs and PAs and zyLabs are together worth about 12% of your grade. It's a service, not a physical book, so you need to have your own account - you can't share it, there are no used or free versions, and you can't get it cheaper anywhere else.

The zyBook service is integrated with Canvas, so you don't need to create a separate login with zyBooks to use it: just go into the Modules section on Canvas, open the first module, and click one of the zyBook links.

Supplemental text

Cay Horstmann, Java Concepts (Early Objects), 7th/8th edition OR Cay Horstmann, Big Java, 6th edition
The two books are essentially identical for the first 15 chapters (which include everything we cover in this course). Older editions, back to Big Java 4 or Java Concepts 5, are fine too.

Deadlines and attendance

Instead of taking attendance, we monitor daily class participation through the zyBook participation activities (PAs) and challenge activities (CAs) as well as the checkpoints for the external labs. In general, PAs for assigned sections are due before class, and the CAs (along with any designated zyLabs) are due two days later by midnight. The checkpoints for external labs are due 6 days after your scheduled lab period. (Note: Since the checkpoints must be reviewed with one of the TAs during office hours, the actual deadline for doing so will be the last TA office hour on the 6th day.)

The Equal Opportunity Deadline Policy

To allow time for illness, sloth, or Important Life Events, the policy is as follows:

• For PAs and CAs, 80% completion will be considered full credit
• For external labs, we drop your two lowest scores

The regular homework assignments or miniassignments have their own deadlines and late policies, and have a longer lead time. So start early. If you procrastinate until the deadline and then get sick, no one is going to feel sorry for you.

• Ok, for a serious, extended illness or other unusual circumstances, exceptions may be made; please DO discuss the situation with your instructor.

Grades

Letter grades will be based on an overall weighted average of the three exams, the homework, the labs, and the zyBook PAs and CAs, with the following weighting.

• PAs: 4% (80% completion counts as full credit)
• CAs and designated zyLabs: 4% (80% completion counts as full credit)
• External labs: 8% (lowest two are dropped)
• Miniassignments: 4%
• Homework assignments: 30%
• Exam 1: 15%
• Exam 2: 15%
• Final Exam: 20%

Specifically, you can calculate your overall score as follows:

overall = 
pa * .04 +
ca * .04 +
labs * .08 +
minis * .04 +
homework * .30 + 
exam1 * .15 + 
exam2 * .15 + 
final * .20

pa = 100 * min(your pa points, max_pa_points) / max_pa_points
ca = 100 * min(your ca points, max_ca_points) / max_ca_points
labs = 100 * (sum of your points from your best six labs) / 60
minis = 100 * (sum of your miniassignment scores) / (total points for all miniassignments)
homework = 100 * (sum of your homework scores) / (total points for all homework)
exam1 = 100 * (your Exam 1 score) / (Exam 1 total points)
exam2 = 100 * (your Exam 2 score) / (Exam 2 total points)
final = 100 * (your final exam score) / (final exam total points)

max_pa_points = .80 * total points for all participation activities
max_ca_points = .80 * total points for all challenge activities and designated zylabs

(The total points for homework is usually about 900).

Please remember that your "score" as reported by Canvas will be wildly inaccurate at first, since most of the points will be recorded in the latter half of the semester. In addition, you have to be careful how you direct Canvas to treat blank scores.

Letter grades are not assigned until the end of the course. We can promise that your grade, determined by the overall weighted average described above, will be at least the grade given by a standard 10-point scale, that is,

90 and above	A-
80 and above	B-
70 and above	C-
60 and above	D-

In practice the scale above may be "curved" very slightly. An approximate guideline is that the overall median score for students completing the course will be at least a B-.

Piazza and Canvas

For online discussion and help, we will be using a forum called Piazza. For access to Piazza, just log into Canvas, go to the Com S 227 page, and click on "Piazza" in the navigation menu at left. You'll be asked to choose a password that you can then use to log in to Piazza outside of Canvas. If you have previously created a Piazza account using your ISU email address, you should be able to use that same account.

The Piazza Q & A

general	General questions about the course
java	Questions about Java or Eclipse
miniassignment1, miniassignment2, etc.	Questions about the miniassignments
assignment1, assignment2, etc.	Questions about the assignments
exam1, exam2, final	Questions about the exams
other	Anything else...

Turning off Piazza email notifications

1. Find your name in the upper-right corner of the Piazza screen
2. Click the drop-down menu and select "Account/email settings"
3. Under "Class and email settings", find Com S 336
4. Click on the link "Edit email notifications" in the small, blue font
5. Edit as you see fit, e.g. "No Email"

Software

You will almost certainly want to install this software, which is all free, on your own computer. See these instructions for more details.

Java and Eclipse are also available via Remote Desktop using the CS department terminal server. The first lab discusses how to access it.

Exams

You can expect three online exams:

• Exam 1 - week of September 21 (week 6)
• Exam 2 - week of October 26 (week 11)
• Final - MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 7 - 9pm

Homework Assignments

Important note regarding Dead Week (aka Prep Week): The last programming assignment will be due on November 20th, the last day of classes, and may not be submitted late.

See this document for detailed homework submission instructions.

Programming assignments will be posted on Canvas in the Assignments section.

Assignments and Miniassignments

The "regular" assignments are longer and often involve several interacting components. We will read and evaluate your code in addition to running functional tests, so it is possible to assign partial credit even if there are errors.

We expect to have four of the regular assignments and three miniassignments.

The clarification thread

Documentation and style

Early/Late policy

In addition, there is a 5% bonus for turning in an assignment 24 hours early.

Submissions and feedback

All homework scores will be posted for you on Canvas. For the assignments, additional feedback is provided in the form of attached text files indicating where points were taken off and showing the results of whatever functional tests we performed. To see the attached file or files, go to your "Grades" page on Canvas and open the comments.

If you have questions about the grading or if you feel an error has been made in grading your assignment, first contact the TA that graded it, either during office hours or by email. In particular, requests for regrades must be made within one week of the date when the results were made available on Canvas. If you are not satisfied with the response from the TA, please contact your instructor promptly. If necessary, your homework will be regraded. Note that a regrade may result in a lower score.

Correct submission of homework is your responsibility. Remember that when submitting an assignment via Canvas, you can immediately check whether the submission was successful, and you can always download your submission and verify that it is what you intended.

Click here for detailed submission instructions.

Please note that it normally takes about three weeks for the staff to grade all the submissions for an assignment!

Academic Dishonesty Policy

What is academic dishonesty?

If you turn in work that was based on or copied from someone else's work, you have committed plagiarism, which is one form of academic dishonesty. However, you are also responsible for academic dishonesty if you allow someone else to copy your work or otherwise provide information.

Anyone found responsible in an academic dishonesty case will receive an automatic F in this course.

How to avoid academic dishonesty

Here are some more specific examples of things you may not do when working on an assignment:

• Look at another student's source code. (*)
• Allow another student to look at your source code. (*)
• Type in a solution with another student and each turn in a copy.
• Write a program on paper with another student and type it up separately.
• Divide the work so that you an another student each write part of a program (for example, 3 methods each), then combine them, and each turn in a copy.
• Discuss the code in detail with another student but type it in separately.
• Get code from the an outside source (such as a web site) and turn it in.
• Get code from the an outside source (such as a web site), modify it, and then turn it in.
• Make available all or part of your code for someone else to see, whether by paper, email, ftp, Piazza discussion, shared network folder, storing on a public machine, letting someone else look at your screen, reading code out loud while someone takes notes, posting in an online forum, etc.
• Give another student your password.

Things you may do when working with another student:

• Talk about, and write down ideas about, how to do an assignment, as long as you do not write actual code or "pseudocode" or specific steps of program logic.
  • In short, you can talk freely about what the program is supposed to do, but not about how to make it work.
• Share test code or test data files that will not be turned in.
• Share and discuss code that was presented as an example in class or the text.
• Share and discuss code for programming assignments after the "late deadline" for the assignment has passed (normally 24 hours after the deadline, not counting weekends and holidays).

A W-W-W-Warning

Disability Accommodation

Prep Week (aka Dead Week)

Harassment and Discrimination

Religious Accommodation

Emergency Awareness

• Call 911 in an emergency. Report suspicious activity or objects to ISU Police at 515-294-4428.
• During a campus emergency, go to www.iastate.edu for additional information.
• Classroom management emergencies
  • Call ISU Police for immediate health/safety classroom concerns at 515-294-4428.
  • For other concerns regarding classroom management, contact the instructor and/or chair of the academic department for guidance.
• Know the following information posted in your building Emergency Map
  • Locate the evacuation routes
  • Locate the severe weather shelter areas
• Keep your contact information up-to-date in the ISU Alert
• Additional emergency information is available at www.ehs.iastate.edu/prep/students.
• ISU PD Facebook (www.facebook.com/ISUPD) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/ISUPD)
• To be better prepared during an act of violence on campus and understand the principles of A-D-D (Avoid Deny Defend), please attend Violent Incident Response Training (VIRT).

Contact Information

Required statement on COVID-19 health and safety requirements

Students are responsible for abiding by the university’s COVID-19 health and safety expectations. All students attending this class in-person are required to follow university policy regarding health, safety, and face coverings:

• wear a cloth face covering in all university classrooms, laboratories, studios, and other in-person instructional settings and learning spaces. Cloth face coverings are additionally required to be worn indoors in all university buildings, and outdoors when other people are or may be present where physical distancing of at least 6 feet from others is not possible. Students with a documented health or medical condition that prevents them from wearing a cloth face covering should consult with Student Accessibility Services in the Dean of Students Office.
• ensure that the cloth face covering completely covers the nose and mouth and fits snugly against the side of the face.
• practice physical distancing to the extent possible.
• assist in maintaining a clean and sanitary environment.
• not attend class if you are sick or experiencing symptoms of COVID-19.
• not attend class if you have been told to self-isolate or quarantine by a health official.
• follow the instructor’s guidance with respect to these requirements. Failure to comply constitutes disruptive classroom conduct. Faculty and teaching assistants have the authority to deny a non-compliant student entry into a classroom, laboratory, studio, conference room, office, or other learning space.

These requirements extend outside of scheduled class time, including coursework in laboratories, studios, and other learning spaces, and to field trips. These requirements may be revised by the university at any time during the semester.

In accordance with university policy, instructors may use a face shield while they are teaching as long as they are able to maintain 8 feet of physical distance between themselves and students during the entire instructional period. Some form of face covering must be worn at all times in learning spaces regardless of the amount of physical distancing.

Faculty may refer matters of non-compliance to the Dean of Students Office for disciplinary action, which can include restrictions on access to, or use of, university facilities; removal from university housing; required transition to remote-only instruction; involuntary disenrollment from one or more in-person courses; and other such measures as necessary to promote the health and safety of campus.

It is important for students to recognize their responsibility in promoting the health and safety of the Iowa State University community, through actions both on- and off-campus. The university’s faculty asks that you personally demonstrate a commitment to our Cyclones Care campaign. Iowa State University’s faculty support the Cyclones Care campaign and ask you personally to demonstrate a commitment to our campaign. Your dedication and contribution to the campaign will also protect your family, classmates, and friends, as well as their friends and families. Our best opportunity for a successful fall semester with in-person learning and extramural activities requires all of us to collaborate and fully participate in the Cyclones Care campaign.