Instructor: David Johnson, david.e.johnson@utah.edu, office MEB 3146
Lecture: Mon/Wed 11:50a-1:10p in CTIHB 109 (this is a nice lecture hall past the coffee shop in the Tanner Humanities building, which is part of the loop with the student union, GC, and the humanities building).

Quizzes: Jan. 22, Feb 12, Mar 19, and April 16 during the last part of class.
Midterm: Wed Feb 26 during class.
Final: Mon April 28 at 10:30a.

See topics under Course Resources for office and TA help hours, information on course communication, and other important topics.
Links to an external site.

The goal of this class is to teach you how to develop basic web applications, which means that by the end you will:

• understand the basic front-end and back-end architecture of web applications
• understand how to write HTML and style it with CSS
• understand how to write back-ends using a model-view-controller framework
• understand how to deploy web applications to the cloud
• understand how to set up authentication, authorization, and user roles

This course uses specific popular technologies (Linux, Python, Django, Sqlite, Bootstrap, jQuery, AWS) but the skills you gain are intended to apply more generally.

This course is a basic introduction to web development. It builds a foundation for other professional web development skills taught in CS 3540, CS 4550, CS 4560, and CS 6450.

This course will require you to deploy your web application to a cloud service. This will require the purchase of a domain (although I will be looking at free alternatives). The specific domain will be up to you, and acceptable domains can be purchased for under $10. Contact the instructors if this charge will be a problem for you. Additionally, misuse or misconfiguration of the cloud service may incur charges. We will teach you what steps are required to avoid charges. Follow those steps diligently.

The final course grade will use the following weights to calculate a final course percentage.

Midterm Exam 20%
Final Exam 20%
Assignments 40%
In-Class Quizzes 20%

Your weighted, cumulative course percentage score is turned into letter grades using the following scheme:

[100-94] A
(94-90] A-
(90-87] B+
(87-84] B
(84-80] B-
(80-77] C+
(77-74] C
(74-70] C-
(70-67] D+
(67-64] D
(64-60] D-
(60-0] E

where [ ] means including that number and ( ) means up to but not including. 

Assignments The assignments are cumulative: by the end of the course, you'll have written a small "full-stack" web application. There is a two day late period for each assignment with a 10% penalty per day. Every student gets two late passes to use during the semester. It is not necessary to email the instructor to use a late pass - they just get applied if available. A late pass forgives the one or two day late penalty for one assignment. It does not extend the assignment past the two day late period. Late passes will be automatically applied to late assignments and tracked in the Canvas gradebook. Students cannot decide to shift a late pass from one assignment (for example, where a pass was used on a 24 hour late assignment) to another (a later assignment that was 40 hours late). Assignments later than the two day late period won't be accepted; with cumulative assignments it is imperative that you do not fall behind.

Quizzes There will be four in class quizzes taken during the last part of some lectures. These quizzes are an opportunity for fast feedback about your understanding of course material and the homework. See the dates above. One quiz score will be dropped and that is the default process for handling a missed quiz.

This is an in-person class. Your attendance is assumed. The best way to be successful in this course is to allocate set chunks of time to immerse in this material, and the scheduled lectures are a great place to make that happen.

There will be occasional in class activities that may require a connected device or small group work. Please come prepared to participate.

Disruptive behavior will not be tolerated.

Getting help early is the best way to succeed in this course. There are three ways to get help in this course:

You can ask questions on Piazza. This will typically get you the fastest responses, especially since other students can help you out. Naturally, don't post your homework solutions, but short snippets of code that are not directly from your homework but that illustrate an issue are fine.

You can ask questions after class. This is a good way to get answers to quick questions about your grade or assignment.

You can go to office and help hours. See posted times under Course Resources. You will have the TA's undivided attention during office hours, so this is a great way to get debugging help or ask larger conceptual questions

Do not wait to get help. It's much easier to not fall behind than it is to catch up!

Academic Misconduct. CS 3550 will follow the School of Computing’s academic misconduct policy. Basically, it's OK to discuss the assignment or your approach with other students at a high level, but it is not OK to share code or look at another student's code, or similar code found online. Academic dishonesty results in a failing grade for the course, and two instances of academic dishonestly lead to expulsion from the major.

AI. You must not use AI tools (such as ChatGPT, Copilot, and so on) for any code you submit for an assignment. In an introductory class like this, they work too well, to the extent that they'll keep you from learning skills you'll need in later classes or your career. That said, you are free to use AI tools for other purposes, like answering general questions about web technologies, or providing examples of how to use an API.

Changes. The syllabus can be changed with reasonable in-class notice by the instructor.

Please also familiarize yourself with University policiesLinks to an external site. on the ADA, safety, sexual misconduct, Covid, undocumented students, drop/withdrawal, student mental health, student support, and academic misconduct, as well as the Kahlert School of Computing's academic policiesLinks to an external site. and the College of Engineering policiesLinks to an external site..