CS 302: Introduction to Programming

COURSEWORK:

Course Grading:

Final letter grades are determined from your final cumulative score that is computed using the following breakdown:

10% Labs:
fourteen (14) labs each worth about 0.7% of your final grade.
30% Programming Assignments:
four (4) programming assignments each worth from 6-10% of your final grade.
60% Exams:
three (3) exams, two midterms and a final, each is worth 20% of your final grade.

Letter grades are assigned at the end of the semester. We do not curve individual assignments or exams. At the end of the semester after all of the scores are recorded then thresholds are set given the difficulty of the course work during the semester. Thresholds are raised if the course work was easier or lowered if it was harder. By adjusting and setting thresholds at the end of the semester we can account for varying difficulty among semesters to ensure consistency of grading across semesters. If you have a question about your grades, please meet with your instructor.

Scores for labs, programs, and exams are reported through the Learn@UW System.

Lab Sections:
NO LABS ON 1/22 or 1/23
LAB 1 IS ON 1/29 and 1/30

There will be fourteen labs each worth about 0.7% for a total of 10% of your final grade. Labs grades are based on prompt attendance, preparation, cooperation with your partner, and progress completing the lab. During lab, please turn off cell phones and other personal electronic devices.

All CS302 students are registered for one 75-minute lab, which meets once per week in the CS labs (see the Instructional Computer Labs page for more information). You are to attend the lab for which you enrolled. These labs give you valuable experience using a computer while you work with an assigned partner to solve lab problems. Lab instructors (TAs) guide labs and are there to help you succeed on the lab problems.

Links to lab assignment pages:

Policies for Lab Sections:

Collaboration: Your Lab TA will assign you a lab partner and a machine to use. You'll work with that partner for the first three weeks. You be assigned a new lab partner for weeks 4, 8 and 12 of the semester.
Make-Up Labs: During the semester you can do at most two make-up labs if circumstances prevent you from attending your regularly scheduled lab. After you've used your two make-ups, you will not receive credit for additional missed labs. Make-up labs must be done by Friday of the week after the missed lab (except for the last lab which must be done by the last day of classes). You have two options for doing your two make-up labs:
- You may do the lab in another lab section during the same week the lab is assigned. Check with the Lab TA of the other lab section to ensure there is space available (see schedule below). To receive credit for your make-up lab, you must check in with that Lab TA before beginning, show your work as you do the lab, and check out with the scheduled consultant before you leave.
- You may do the lab when a consultant is on duty (see schedule) later in the same week or following week. To receive credit for your make-up lab, you must check in with the scheduled consultant before beginning, show your work as you do the lab, and check out with them before you leave.

Lab Sections Schedule: SPRING 2013

	TUESDAYS			WEDNESDAYS
TIME/ROOM	1358 CS (24)	1366 CS (32)	1368 CS (24)	1358 CS (24)	1366 CS (32)	1368 CS (24)
9:30 - 10:45		Lab 361 Alicia Raajay	Lab 351 Shree Rohit		Lab 316 Tyler Thomas	Lab 315 Emily Jianqiao
11:00 - 12:15		Lab 381 Emily Rohit	Lab 371 Shree Thomas		Lab 324 Maggie Rohit	Lab 323 Jianqiao Raajay
1:00 - 2:15		Lab 312 Tyler Emily	Lab 311 Shree Deepika		Lab 326 Thomas Tyler	Lab 325 Jun Deepika
2:30 - 3:45		Lab 314 Alicia Deepika	Lab 313 Shree Tyler		Lab 317 Maggie Heemoon	Lab 327 Jun Deepika
4:00 - 5:15		Lab 322 Maggie Soyoun	Lab 321 Rohit Jun		Lab 341 Maggie Soyoun	Lab 331 Emily Heemoon
5:30 - 6:45			Lab 318 Soyoun Thomas			Lab 328 Jianqiao Soyoun

See Lab TA email addresses below.

TAs:

Rob Atlas, ratlas@cs.wisc.edu
Laura Hobbes LeGault, legault@cs.wisc.edu
Steven Brown, sbrown@cs.wisc.edu
Alicia Maxwell, amaxwell@cs.wisc.edu
Seth Pollen, pollen@cs.wisc.edu
Melissa Tress, mtress@cs.wisc.edu

Deepika Muthukumar, deepikam@cs.wisc.edu
Emily Busche, ebusche@cs.wisc.edu
Heemoon Chae, hmchae21@cs.wisc.edu
Jianqiao Zhu, jianqiao@cs.wisc.edu
Jun Huang, junhuang@cs.wisc.edu
Maggie Simon, msimon3@cs.wisc.edu
Raajay Viswanathan, raajay@cs.wisc.edu
Rohit Bhat, rohit@cs.wisc.edu
Shreedhar Hardikar, hardikar@cs.wisc.edu
Soyoun Kim, soyoun@cs.wisc.edu
Thomas Griebel, griebel@cs.wisc.edu
Tyler Adelung, adelungt@cs.wisc.edu

Programming Assignments:

There will be four programming assignments worth 6-10% for a total of 30% of your final grade.

Accounts are provided on the CS lab computers for you to do your programming work. See the Instructional Computer Labs page for more information.

Links to programming assignment pages:

Policies for Programming Assignments:

Collaboration: Programs can be done in pairs but you must follow the rules below.
Piazza: Piazza is a free tool that we are utilizing for managing questions regarding programming projects. Please search the programming assignment pages first, and then Piazza for answers to your question before posting your own new question. Piazza works best when we all work together to avoid duplicate question entries.
Late Programs: are not accepted for a grade without prior approval from your instructor. Contact your instructor at least three (3) days in advance of the due date if circumstances beyond your control will prevent you from completing an assignment by the due date/time. We will ask you to submit the work you've completed, which we will review and then may give you an extension to the due date.
Regrades: may be requested if you believe there was an error in the grading of your program. You may request a regrade once per programming assignment. Regrades are for when you believe your program was incorrectly graded or for circumstances when a minor error results in a disproportionate deduction. Regrades are not for making a few changes to get a few points back or for re-writing your code. You should verify that your code works in advance of the due date by comparing your results to the posted results. To make a regrade request, send an email to the TA listed in your Grade Report within one week after the graded program is returned.

Grade Reports

A grade report with comments about the grading of your work is accessed through the CS302 Forms Page (introduced in your first lab). To see your grade report: log into the CS302 Forms Page, click on the particular program, and then click on "Grade Report".

Rules of Pair Programming:

Both team members must register the partnership using the CS302 Forms Page BEFORE you begin the programming assignment assignment together.
REMINDER: Both teammates must log in to Forms and complete the Team Information section. One teammate will create the team and the other teammate will join the team. Only when both teammates have certified their intent to work together is the team considered registered.
You may have only one partner for each programming assignment.
You may have a different partner on different programming assignments.
You may not pair program with multiple partners on the same assignment.
Your partner must be currently enrolled in a CS302 lecture.
You may partner with someone from a lecture other than your own.
You must list your partner as a collaborator in the header comments of each of your source files (see Commenting Guide).
You must follow the principles of pair programming summarized below.
You may cancel your team membership up until the team due date, but you will not be permitted to join a new team for that programming assignment.

Submitting someone else's work as your own is academic misconduct, which will be dealt with in accordance with University Academic Misconduct procedures. It is also Academic Misconduct to help another student commit Academic Misconduct. Do not show your solution or share your files with anyone other than your programming pair partner.

Principles of Pair Programming:

The following is a summary of successful pair programming principles taken from a paper by Williams and Kessler:

Pair programming involves two people working together at one computer, continuously collaborating on design, coding, and testing. One person types; the other either provides directions ("Now we need to write a new method that does ..., Now we need a loop to do ...") or constantly reviews what the typer is doing, and provides comments.
Pair programming has proved successful both in classes and in industry. Programmers usually report having more confidence in their solutions and enjoying programming more when working in pairs.
It is important to switch roles often (slide the keyboard back and forth). Because pair programming can be quite intense, it is also a good idea to take breaks (to check e-mail, go for a walk, have a snack).
It is important to provide honest but friendly feedback. To be effective, there needs to be some healthy disagreement and debate, but pairs also need to be respectful of each other, and try to avoid becoming defensive when receiving criticism.
Inevitably, programmers do some independent thinking/working. For best results, that work should be reviewed by both partners (and perhaps revised) when they start working together again.
To be successful, pair programmers must realize that the benefits of working together outweigh their usual preference for working alone, they must confidently share their work, accepting instruction and suggestions for improvement in order to improve their own skills and the code they are writing, and they must accept ownership of their partner's work and thus be willing to constructively express criticism and suggest improvements.

Exams:

There are three exams each worth 20% for a total of 60% of your final grade. Exams are a primary tool we use to evaluate your performance in this course.

Midterm 1 (Topics): Thursday, March 7th, 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM
Midterm 2 (Topics): Thursday, April 11th, 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM
Final (Topics): Wednesday, May 15th, 12:25 PM to 2:25 PM

The first exam will be multiple choice questions, the second exam will be entirely written, and the final exam will be multiple choice and might have written questions. You are responsible for:

lectures (including topics covered in lecture that are not covered in the textbook),
readings (including topics covered in the textbook that are not covered in lecture),
labs, and
Programming Assignments.

For the location of the buildings,
click on the building name below or check out the campus map.

Please be sure to attend the correct exam for your lecture and lab.

Exam Policies:

Exam Materials: No textbooks, electronic devices, or help from neighbors are allowed during the exams.
Exam Conflicts: must be brought to the course coordinator's attention using the CS302 Forms Page during the first three weeks of class.
Make-Up Exams: are given only with your instructor's permission when you are unable to take the regular exam due to extenuating circumstances. Requests for make-ups after an exam are rarely approved and only for verifiable emergencies.
Regrades: may be requested if you believe there was an error in the grading of your exam. You must contact your instructor within one week after the graded exam is returned. Note that we sometimes photocopy written exams to ensure that students cannot benefit from a re-grade by making changes to their answer (such attempts are academic misconduct).

Extra Credit:

You may earn up to 5% extra credit, which will be combined with your cumulative score at the end of the semester when letter grades are determined. Extra credit can improve your grade directly by increasing your final cumulative average, and also by improving your programming skills, which will likely result in better exam scores. There are a few ways to earn extra credit:

See The Wisconsin Idea: Create content to help the greater community learn about Computers Science and programming and earn extra credit in the process. Successfully creating a unique work that demonstrates some Computer Science topic and sharing it on the Internet will earn you the full 5%. Partial extra credit is possible and you can work in groups of your choosing.
See CodeLab: A web-based interactive programming exercise system for learning and practicing Java programming. This system is provided by Turing's Craft at a nominal cost. Successfully completing 90% of the assigned exercises on or before the due date will earn you the full 5% extra credit. Partial extra credit will be given. Work must be completed individually.
Programming Assignments: Some programming assignments will have an extra credit component that challenges you to extend your program to solve an additional problem or two. Partial extra credit will be awarded, but regrades are allowed only when you believe the grading was done incorrectly. See the programming assignment pages for specific information.

You may combine ways to earn the 5% maximum. For example, if you achieve 3.5% for The Wisconsin Idea, 1.75% for CodeLab and 0.5% for programs, that would equal 5.75% total, which results in your earning the 5% maximum extra credit. If you achieve 2.1% for CodeLab and 0.5% for programs, that would equal 2.6% total, which results in 2.6% extra credit being earned.

Studying Tips:

Attend lectures and take notes. Taking your own notes on the material covered in class requires you to organize your thoughts and think about the topics in ways that simply listening does not. Reread your notes soon after lecture to find points that are not clear.
Participate in class. Do in-class exercises and answer questions posed. These exercises give you additional practice on skills that you will need for labs, programming assignments and exams. Even more importantly, they help you identify which topics you do not understand. This will help you efficiently use your study time.
Do the labs and programming assignments. This is obvious, but some students mistakenly believe that the purpose of labs and programming assignments is to evaluate student's skills. That is not the case, their purpose is to provide opportunities for you to practice the programming concepts taught in lecture. This practice is vital for learning how to program and for performing well on the midterm and final exams.
Prioritize your studying. First focus on your lecture notes, then review the assignments, and finally go over the readings in the textbook.
Study by re-organizing your notes. Successful studying requires you to be actively thinking about the material. An effective way to study is to re-organize and rewrite notes succinctly in terms that you understand.
Avoid getting bogged down on specific points. If you can't figure something out, move on to other material and wait to ask your instructor or TA for clarification.
You'll need to do some memorizing. Memorizing is a practical way to learn the definitions of terminology and concepts. A good way to memorize information is through repeated exposure to the material.
Form a study group. Often it is easier and more motivating to work with others when studying for an exam. You can distribute the work by having each group member come up with a few questions on a topic and then going over the solutions collectively. If you run into a concept that causes confusion often others in the group will feel similarly while some will have explanations. Working together will help you learn things by providing multiple perspectives and insights into the material. Try to find a study group that provides you with ample opportunity to communicate your understanding. It is your effort to express information that will be of the most benefit to your learning.
Finally, avoid cramming! We all know this, but often we find ourselves waiting until it is too late. This habit is worth breaking! Research has shown that studying in half hour to hour intervals followed by half hour breaks is far more effective than non-stop cramming.

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