Course Syllabus

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Course Basics

Course COMP 1020: Programming for All 2
Credits 3
Pre-reqs COMP 1010 

Lectures Lectures are Monday and Wednesday 12:55 - 1:45pm

Location WEB L103. You can find WEB on the online campus map. The west side of the building has a courtyard which provides access to the lower level of WEB. If you enter from the east, or street-side, you will be on the upper level of WEB (which also has a first floor) and you will want to descend the stairs on the side overlooking the city down to the lower levels.

 (Links to an external site.)

Lab sessions Multiple Friday sessions: 8:35-9:25a, 9:40-10:30a, 10:45-11:35a, 11:50a-12:40p, 12:55p-1:45p in WEB L208. Lab attendance at your registered lab session is required and has graded work. If attending a different section helps handle a temporary conflict, you can do that, but you cannot just start attending a different section long-term. This lab space is adjacent to a larger room with computers (The Engman lab) and is near the door that exits from the large stairwell leading to all levels of WEB. The lab has machines available but you can also use a personal laptop. 

Instructor David E. Johnson
Instructor Contact Info

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

Textbook There is a free ebook we will be using and other free readings. Information will be posted in Canvas modules as needed.

Important Dates In-class tests on Sept. 20 (midterm 1), Nov. 8th (midterm 2) and on the University-specified final exam date of Wednesday, Dec. 13th 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. 

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, classes, and scripts in Python to accomplish desired tasks
  • debug and modify small programs
  • use tools to manage larger projects, such as version control systems and testing
  • use object-oriented constructs within their programs
  • make a modern application with a GUI toolkit 

Course Materials  

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.

Python All programming in COMP 1020 is in Python, using the PyCharm programming environment. Python is available for your use on the College of Engineering’s lab machines. Instructions for installing these resources on your personal computer is available on the class website in the Class Resources module.

New students should create a College of Engineering lab account at:

https://webhandin.eng.utah.edu/cade/create_account/index.php

Student Evaluation 

Programming assignments The instructions for each assignment and its due date will be posted on the class website. It is the student’s responsibility to ensure the successful and timely submission of each programming assignment — start early and follow the instructions carefully. Corrupted or missing files will not be grounds for extensions. Double-check your submissions, and save a digital copy of all of your work.

Late Assignments Assignments turned in after the due date and time receive an immediate 10% of the possible score deduction per day up to two days. After 48 hours the assignment can no longer be submitted and the assignment score becomes 0%. 

Late Passes 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). 

Lab exercises Students in labs generally work through online instructions with the aid of the lab TA and answer Canvas quiz questions for grading. We will drop the lowest two lab scores, so that helps you manage unexpected (or expected) problems with attendance. You should review the material in the online lab instructions even if you do not attend the lab. Labs are very beneficial for reviewing material covered in lecture and introducing new material -- attendance is expected and graded through the quiz mechanism.

In-Class Exams and Final Exam There will be two in-person tests and an in-person final exam. See the "Important Dates" section above for the dates.

Participation Participation will be measured through a few online quizzes and through participation in the audience response questions. In general, these scores will be converted into more of a participation score than a correctness score. Several audience responses score will be dropped (or excused) automatically. There are other activities that can count towards participation, such as peer review of assignments.

Final course grade:

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

Midterm Exams 25%
Final Exam 18%
Labs 10%
Assignments 40%
Participation 7%.

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. 

Regrades Students who wish to appeal a score on an assignment, a lab, a quiz, or a test must do so within one week of receiving the score. Look under Course Resources for this process.

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. 

Communication For questions outside of class and consulting hours, students are encouraged to use Piazza (available through the tabs on the left of Canvas).  

To send urgent messages to everyone in the class, such as corrections to assignments or changes in due dates, the course staff will make announcements through Canvas. You should make sure you are getting notifications and checking that system 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 Piazza 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. 

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 activities. 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 or small groups. 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.

Please see the detailed policy in the Course Resources module.

Any student found cheating will fail the entire course. 

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 keep you from learning the material. They also often do not work or use approaches that are different or more advanced than is appropriate for this course.

College of Engineering guidelines For information on withdrawing from courses, appealing grades, and more, see the College of Engineering guidelines at https://www.coe.utah.edu/students/current/semester-guidelines/. (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 notification from this office.

Addressing Sexual Misconduct. Title IX makes it clear that violence and harassment based on sex and gender (which includes sexual orientation and gender identity/expression) is a civil rights offense subject to the same kinds of accountability and the same kinds of support applied to offenses against other protected categories such as race, national origin, color, religion, age, status as a person with a disability, veteran’s status or genetic information. If you or someone you know has been harassed or assaulted, you are encouraged to report it to the Title IX Coordinator in the Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action, 135 Park Building, 801-581-8365, or the Office of the Dean of Students, 270 Union Building, 801-581-7066. For support and confidential consultation, contact the Center for Student Wellness, 426 SSB, 801-581-7776. To report to the police, contact the Department of Public Safety, 801-585-2677(COPS).

Student Names & Personal Pronouns Class rosters are provided to the instructor with the student’s legal name as well as “Preferred first name” (if previously entered by you in the Student Profile section of your CIS account). Please advise me of any name or pronoun changes (and update CIS) so I can help create a learning environment in which you, your name, and your pronoun will be respected. If you need assistance getting your preferred name on your UID card, please contact the LGBT Resource Center.

Student Wellness Personal concerns such as stress, anxiety, relationship difficulties, depression, cross-cultural differences, etc., can interfere with a student’s ability to succeed and thrive at the University of Utah. For helpful resources contact the Center for Student Wellness at www.wellness.utah.edu or 801-581-7776.

Veterans Center If you are a student veteran, the U of Utah has a Veterans Support Center located in Room 161 in the Olpin Union Building. Hours: M-F 8-5pm. Please visit their website for more information about what support they offer, a list of ongoing events and links to outside resources: http://veteranscenter.utah.edu/. Please also let me know if you need any additional support in this class for any reason.

Learners of English as an Additional/Second Language If you are an English language learner, please be aware of several resources on campus that will support you with your language and writing development. These resources include: the Writing Center (http://writingcenter.utah.edu/); the Writing Program (http://writing-program.utah.edu/); the English Language Institute (http://continue.utah.edu/eli/). Please let me know if there is any additional support you would like to discuss for this class.

Note: This syllabus is meant to serve as an outline and guide for our course. Please note that I may modify it with reasonable notice to you. I may also modify the Course Schedule to accommodate the needs of our class. Any changes will be announced in class and posted on Canvas under Announcements.

Course Summary:

Date Details Due