Course Syllabus

Exams

Testing will consist of two midterms and a final exam. Exams are given in person in the regular classroom (or sometimes in an extra room). You will need to show your university ID to take a test. See the "Important Dates" section at the top of this syllabus for the exam dates. In general, make-up opportunities for exams will not be granted except for cases of a documented medical emergency, official University of Utah excused activities, or extenuating circumstances. In such cases, please email the instructor as soon as possible. 

Midterm Score Replacement: Tests are used to assess your understanding of course material. The test scores form a large portion of the overall grade. To aid in recovering from a poor midterm exam, the final exam will be structured in several parts with some parts covering the material from earlier midterm exams. Students who perform better on any final exam portion corresponding to an earlier midterm will be able to replace the lower midterm score with the score from the portion of the final exam corresponding to that midterm. All the parts of the final are used to compute the final exam score. This is the only form of redo attempts for exams.

During the semester, if you score poorly on a test, do not give up. You should discuss the test with the course staff. Consider if there are things you can do to improve your preparation for future tests. Put effort into preparing for the final exam and you can recover from that earlier midterm score.

Getting Help from Course Staff & Peers

This section was adapted from CSE 123 at the University of Washington, used with permission.

Having questions or getting stuck on something is entirely expected in the learning process. If you find something challenging with your studies, that is a sign you are learning! Learning is not something that you need to do alone, though! In fact, connecting with your peers or asking a member of the course staff for help can add extreme depth to your knowledge.

Synchronous Help (Help/Office Hours): One place to go to get help is our Help/Office Hours hosted throughout the week. This is a great place to go if you want to review a particular course concept, work on a practice problem with the help of a TA or your peers, or get help on a programming assignment if you are running into difficulties.

See the "Getting Help from Course Staff" page under Course Resources for the help/office hour schedules. During TA help hours, use the TA Queue (details on the "Getting Help from Course Staff" page) to alert the TA on duty that you have a question. TA help hours are normally held in the CADE lab - please see the Course Resources page for more information.

💡Tip → A common misconception is that you can only go to help/office hours with specific homework questions. That is not true! If you have any questions about course concepts (e.g., from class that day), you are super encouraged to go work on that concept with a member of the course staff during help/office hours! Getting help with a concept earlier, when you first feel unsure, is much better than saving it until you need it on the homework.

Asynchronous Help (Piazza): With a class of our size, directly emailing a member of the course staff with questions about course concepts or assignments is not recommended. There are many of you and only a few of us, so if you email one person directly, we can’t make a guarantee how quickly we can respond! To alleviate this one-on-one communication via email, we have a course discussion board through Piazza (linked on the Canvas course navigation menu) that will be a much more lively place for discussion and a way to make sure you are helped more quickly. The message board is set up so that all of the course staff can help you, which will make it more likely for you to receive a quicker response! See the "Course Communication" page for more details and tips for using Piazza.

For sensitive matters that you only want to discuss with Professor Brown, you can instead email her if that makes you feel more comfortable. Note that the response time for the instructors’ email is longer than posting on Piazza, and, in general, Professor Brown will respond to emails between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday. Messages received outside of these hours may not receive a response until the next business day. 

Advice for Success

For most of you, this will be your first class in computer science. Here is some advice on how to approach this class such that you will have the best chance for success:

• Concentrate and actively participate in class sessions. The concepts that are presented in class sessions and lab are what are important; you will be able to find the details in the assigned reading. Don't write down everything that is said, and then try to figure it out later. Instead, think about what is being said. Try to answer all the questions that are asked, even if only in your head. Think about why the material is being presented - if you do not see the connection to past materials or assignments, ask for help.
• Participate in the lab sections. You will be working at a computer in a room with at least one TA and a small number of other students. Take advantage of the computer by trying things out. That way, you will discover the things that you do not understand in a setting where there are plenty of other people (TAs, as well as other students) to help you.
• Respect the assignments. Some students expect that if they have done the reading, concentrated in class sessions, and participated in the labs, then the assignments will be straightforward. What these students do not understand is that the assignments are designed to challenge you by requiring that you apply the concepts you have learned to new situations. The assignments will be your most important learning experience in the course; they will rarely be straightforward. You should start each assignment as soon as the specifications are posted. This way, you will have time to take a break when you get stuck.

Programming Assignments: 30%
Midterms: 25%
Final Exam: 20%
Quizzes: 15%
Labs: 5%
Ebook and Participation: 5%

It is important to note that, under this system, it is your work that is assessed as a proxy for your knowledge. This is an imperfect system, but is necessary to manage a course of the size and scale of CS 1400. It is in your best interest to ensure that your work accurately reflects your proficiency by being careful and diligent in following instructions, meeting deadlines, and understanding requirements.

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

Academic Misconduct and Collaboration

Relying on shortcuts in school can hinder your learning, leading to gaps in your understanding and knowledge. A weak foundation can impact your future studies and career, where a solid grasp of the material is crucial.

Academic honesty reflects the trust (or the lack thereof) between students and teachers. We hope that, when you are struggling, you will take advantage of the resources and policies that we have provided (e.g., consulting course resources, posting on Piazza, attending help/office hours, using your late passes, taking advantage of the point recovery system, and using the midterm score replacement option) rather than taking shortcuts and resorting to dishonest conduct.

Policy

It is expected that students comply with University of Utah policies regarding academic honesty, including but not limited to refraining from cheating, plagiarizing, misrepresenting one’s work, and/or inappropriately collaborating. This includes the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools without citation, documentation, or authorization. Students are expected to adhere to the prescribed professional and ethical standards of the profession/discipline for which they are preparing. Any student who engages in academic dishonesty or who violates the professional and ethical standards for their profession/discipline may be subject to academic sanctions as per the University of Utah’s Student Code: Policy 6-410: Student Academic Performance, Academic Conduct, and Professional and Ethical Conduct.

Plagiarism and cheating are serious offenses and may be punished by failure on an individual assignment, and/or failure in the course. Academic misconduct, according to the University of Utah Student Code:

“...Includes, but is not limited to, cheating, misrepresenting one’s work, inappropriately collaborating, plagiarism, and fabrication or falsification of information…It also includes facilitating academic misconduct by intentionally helping or attempting to help another to commit an act of academic misconduct.”

For details on plagiarism and other important course conduct issues, see the U's Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities and the SoC Academic Misconduct Policy.

Collaboration

Many courses ask you to work independently on code. In this course, you are encouraged to work with a partner on programming assignments, and to work with others on activities like labs and in-class exercises. 

During quizzes and exams, you are not permitted to consult with others or use external resources to ensure that your grades accurately reflect your own understanding and mastery of the course material.

On programming assignments, the work you submit must be predominantly and substantially your own (and your partner's, should you choose to work with one). This means you are expected to:

• Write Your Own Code: You must write code yourself or with your partner. Using AI tools to generate or modify code is not permitted, as this will not help you learn the foundational programming concepts we intend to teach you in the class. However, you may use basic features of your development environment, such as autocompletion for variable names and functions.
• Avoid External Code: You may not copy or refer to code from the internet that is related to the assignments. You may use general tutorial resources to review basic Python statements and concepts. However, you may not search for or use solutions to specific assignment problems.
  • A good rule of thumb for conforming to this policy is that, if you seek out outside resources or help, search for examples or resources that are not directly tied to the course or the assignment. For example, searching for “how to split a string” or “how to add an element to a list” is likely acceptable. Searching for "CS 1400 Assignment 1 solution” or directly copying and searching for the instructions from the assignment is not.
  • In addition, the more code you directly copy, the more likely you are to violate the policy. Utilize outside resources to help you understand the concepts necessary to write your own code rather than directly including outside code in your work.
• No Sharing or Copying: You may not copy or view code from anyone outside your assignment partner. Additionally, you are not allowed to share your code with others to view or copy. Submissions are routinely checked by the course staff for signs of unauthorized collaboration. 
• Collaboration: If you choose to work with a partner on programming assignments, all work must be done collaboratively and together. You cannot claim credit for work on an assignment that you did not substantially contribute to. Every student is responsible for understanding all parts of the submitted work and should be able to explain and discuss the code they submit.

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. When in doubt, we encourage you to contact the course staff proactively for clarification. 

Any student found cheating may fail the entire course and receive a misconduct sanction in the School of Computing. A student with two sanctions will no longer be able to take SoC courses. 

Course Climate & University Resources

Our goal is to support all students to succeed in our course. The University of Utah has a number of offices to help you be successful. Please look over this collection of resources.

Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)

Your experience in this class should not be negatively affected by any disabilities that you may have. The University of Utah seeks to provide equal access to its programs, services, and activities for people with disabilities.

All written information in this course can be made available in an alternative format with prior notification to the Center for Disability & Access (CDA). CDA will work with you and the instructor to make arrangements for accommodations. Prior notice is appreciated. To read the full accommodations policy for the University of Utah, please see Section Q of the Instruction & Evaluation regulations.

In compliance with ADA requirements, some students may need to record course content. Any recordings of course content are for personal use only, should not be shared, and should never be made publicly available. In addition, recordings must be destroyed at the conclusion of the course.

If you will need accommodations in this class, or for more information about what support they provide, contact:

Center for Disability & Access

 801-581-5020
 disability.utah.edu
 162 Union Building
 200 S. Central Campus Dr.
 Salt Lake City, UT 84112

Safety at the U

The University of Utah values the safety of all campus community members. You will receive important emergency alerts and safety messages regarding campus safety via text message. For more safety information and to view available training resources, including helpful videos, visit safeu.utah.edu.

To report suspicious activity or to request a courtesy escort, contact:

Campus Police & Department of Public Safety

 801-585-COPS (801-585-2677)
 dps.utah.edu
 1735 E. S. Campus Dr.
 Salt Lake City, UT 84112