Course Syllabus

Course Basics

Course COMP 1020: Programming for All 2
Credits 3
Pre-reqs COMP 1010 or CS 1960 or EAE 1410

Lab sessions Multiple Friday sessions: 9:40-10:30a, 10:45-11:35a, 11:50a-12:40p 12:55p-1:45p 2:00p-2:50p in WEB L208 (the CADE Engman Teaching Lab). Lab attendance at your registered lab session is required and has graded work. 

Instructor David E. Johnson
Instructor Contact Info

• Email  dejohnso@cs.utah.edu
• Office 3146 MEB (along the west face of the MEB 3rd floor)

Course Staff Email We will be using Piazza for staff email contact and class discussions. There is a link in the course menu bar.

Textbook There is no mandatory textbook for this class. There will be selected readings from the internet.

Important Dates In-class tests on Feb. 21 (midterm 1), April 2 (midterm 2) and on the University-specified final exam date of April 25th from 1-3PM.  These dates cannot be missed except for documented emergencies and you should plan around them.

Clicker or audience response device During many lectures, I will have small audience participation questions that you can answer using a smart phone, tablet, or laptop. I have a limited number of tablets available for checkout during lecture if you do not have a device. These audience response questions will be through kahoot.it (Links to an external site.) Links to an external site..

Description This course is part of a two-course sequence designed for non-CS major students who desire a practical course for gaining basic computer programming skills. Like its prequel, this course will use the Python language to develop skills in problem-solving, debugging, acquiring real-world data, processing data, and interacting with and visualizing solutions. The prequel course focused on showing the power of writing small programs that leverage existing code to create interesting applications. This course will build on those fundamentals and introduce object-oriented design principles that help facilitate building more extensive applications.  Examples from a variety of fields will be used to illustrate the utility of computers and programming. Students should leave the course with the confidence and ability to write useful, small-scale programs in their area of interest.

At the end of the course, students will be able to

• write small functions and scripts in Python to accomplish desired tasks
• use external Python code in their own programs to add functionality to their programs
• debug and modify small programs
• use object-oriented constructs within their programs
• take a real-world task and see how to use programs to automate or analyze that task 

Website The class website is the Canvas course available through CIS. It will be updated throughout the semester with the class schedule, lecture notes, laboratory exercises, assignment specifications, and much more. 

Lecture notes The instructor will often make use of slides and other documents during lecture. These documents will be posted on the class website following the lecture; however, such posted documents may not represent completely the material covered in class. Students who must miss class are strongly encouraged to check with a classmate or TA.

New students should create a College of Engineering lab account at: https://webhandin.eng.utah.edu/cade/create_account/index.php

Student Evaluation 

Getting Help 

Instructor office hours See the link at the top of the course website under Course Resources. 

Teaching assistants and consulting hours See the link at the top of the course website under Course Resources for the consulting schedule of the course TAs. During consultation, use the TA Queue (also on the class website) to alert the TA on duty that you have a question. TA hours are held in the CADE lab, please see the link for more information.

Communication For questions outside of class and consulting hours, students are encouraged to use email. 

To send urgent messages to everyone in the class, such as corrections to assignments or changes in due dates, the course staff will make use of the email addresses that the campus CIS system uses. Students are expected to check that email and the class website regularly. 

To ask a question of the course staff, students should use Piazza. More details will be available under the Course Resources module.

In general, we can often provide quick and detailed responses through email and it is an excellent mechanism for getting feedback. See further instructions under the Course Resources module in Canvas.

Course Guidelines 

Behavior in the classroom All students are expected to maintain professional behavior, according to www.regulations.utah.edu/academics/guides/students/studentRights.html (the University of Utah Student Code). Students should read the Code carefully and know that they are responsible for the content. According to Faculty Rules and Regulations, it is the faculty responsibility to enforce responsible classroom behaviors, beginning with verbal warnings and progressing to dismissal from class and a failing grade. Students have the right to appeal such action to the Student Behavior Committee. 

Students are expected to engage with the instructor and classmates during class meetings. Students are permitted to use a laptop or mobile device to take notes or to participate in course questions. Use of a laptop or mobile device for any other purpose is not permitted, and students who do so will be asked to leave the classroom. While you may consider it a right to casually browse the web, engage in social media, or play games during lecture, such activity is very distracting to others (especially in a crowded classroom) and is not permitted.

Working together Students are encouraged to discuss assignments and laboratory exercises with fellow classmates, but each student is responsible for formulating and writing their own answer. Cheating is: sharing written or electronic work either by copying, retyping, looking at, or supplying a copy. Cheating is not: discussing concepts, answering questions about concepts or clarifying ambiguities, or helping someone understand how to use the class tools and software. 

Students may occasionally be required to work on assignments or lab exercises in pairs. Guidelines and rules for working together will be posted with such assignments. 

Cheating is taken very seriously and students must be careful not to collaborate on assignments. 

Submissions are routinely checked by the course staff for signs of unauthorized collaboration. 

There must be no collaboration during tests or the final exam. Please see the University of Utah Student Code for a detailed description of the university policy on cheating.

Any student found cheating will fail the entire course. 

College of Engineering guidelines For information on withdrawing from courses, appealing grades, and more, see the College of Engineering guidelines at http://www.coe.utah.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/COE-Guidelines-Fall-2017-.pdf (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

School of Computing guidelines For information on the SoC repeat policy, the SoC laptop policy and more, see the School of Computing guidelines at the following link: SoC Policy (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Students with disabilities The University of Utah seeks to provide equal access to its programs, services and activities for people with disabilities. If you will need accommodations in the class, reasonable prior notice needs to be given to the Center for Disability and Access (http://disability.utah.edu (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.). CDA will work with you and the instructor to make arrangements for accommodations. Accommodations cannot be given without paperwork from this office.