You are responsible for the information in this document and the complete list of policies on the course website.
In CS211, you are expected to learn the following:
The course topics will be listed along with lecture notes at the Lecture Notes link.
The following is a summary of the staff for CS211. Refer to the Staff link on the course website for an updated and complete listing of names, locations, and office hours:
Refer to http://www.cs.cornell.edu/ugrad/FirstCourse.html for information about other introductory programming courses if you need help in deciding whether or not to take CS211.
CS212 is a 1-credit project course that the computer science major requires. Students may either take CS212 simultaneously with CS211 or afterwards, though we recommend taking CS212 as a co-requisite. For more information concerning CS212, see its syllabus at http://course.cs.cornell.edu/cs212/.
For students who are unsure on when to take CS212, we offer this advice:
You are expected to attend all lectures. There are two ways to register:
Note that ENGRD 211 and COM S 211 are the same course, so you should not sign up for both! The difference is purely administrative so that the College of Engineering can keep track of how many of its students use this course to fulfill a distribution requirement.
We expect the following to improve the effectiveness of lecture for all students:
Generally, we prefer class participation, so please feel free to raise your hand to contribute to the class discussion.
We put most of our files for lecture notes, corresponding readings, and examples at the Lecture Notes link, usually just before or after lecture. Not all material covered in lecture will necessarily be on-line, and sometimes the lecture notes will contain extra material for you to review outside of class.
You are expected to attend section (also called recitation) once per week. Sections will cover some material not covered in lecture and provide an opportunity for questions on recent material, assignments, and exams. You may attend any section, but we prefer that you select one and stay with it.
The current sections are as follows:
| ENGRD Course ID |
COM S Course ID |
Section | Day | Time | Place | Instructor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 349-315 | 321-126 | SEC 01 | T | 1220-0110P | PH 403 | Tudor Marian |
| 349-364 | 321-175 | SEC 02 | T | 0125-0215P | HO 110 | AJ Fink, Lisa Minich |
| 349-413 | 321-224 | SEC 03 | T | 0230-0320P | HO 110 | Maksim Orlovich |
| 511-708 | 510-049 | SEC 04 | W | 1220-0110P | HO 306 | Tudor Marian |
| 511-757 | 510-098 | SEC 05 | W | 0125-0215P | OH 165 | Hong Tat Tong |
| 511-806 | 510-147 | SEC 06 | W | 0230-0320P | TH 202 | Maksim Orlovich |
| 607-349 | 607-314 | SEC 07 | T | 1220-0110P | OH 145 | Nick Ruozzi & Alvin Law |
| 607-489 | 607-454 | SEC 08 | W | 0125-0215P | OH 145 | Michael George |
Occasionally section instructors might temporarily move their section to a computer lab. Pay attention to announcements to keep track of these potential room changes.
Generally, expectations of lecture are the same for section, though each section instructor will indicate their requests in the first few sections.
Occasionally notes and examples are posted in the Section Notes link.
If you haven't programmed in Java, haven't programmed in a long time, or feel that your skills are a bit weak, we strongly suggest that you review the bootcamp notes, introductory chapters in the textbooks, and review material in the Java reference books. This section of the syllabus summarizes advice we usually give and explains the resources we have made available.
To take CS211, you must be experienced in programming, preferably in an object-oriented language. For students with limited Java experience, we will hold a Java Bootcamp, which involves about three hours of training in Java. The bootcamp will summarize key issues of Java's syntax that are usually covered in CS100. Both of the following bootcamps are the same:
The Academic Excellence Workshop (AEW) offers an opportunity for students to gain additional experience with course concepts in a cooperative learning environment. Research has shown that cooperative and collaborative methods promote higher grades, greater persistence, and deeper comprehension. The material presented in the workshop is at or above the level of the regular course. We do not require joining the AEW program, but do encourage students to join if they are seeking an exciting and fun way to learn. The AEW carries one S/U credit based on participation and attendance. The time commitment is two hours per week in the lab--no homework will be given. This is a wonderful opportunity for students to seek extra help on course topics in a small-group setting.
Your fellow undergraduate students, who are familiar with the course material, teach the sessions with material that they prepare. The course staff provides guidance and support but do not actually teach the AEW course content or any session. A representative from the AEW program will be speaking about the program and registration procedures in lecture. We have summarized the information, below:
See http://www.engineering.cornell.edu/studentServices/irs/aew.htm for more information.
You have the following responsibilities:
To reach a staff member, the best time is in office hours. Please post general questions on the newsgroup so that others can benefit from your question. Note that posts in USENET are subject to the rules of A.I., so you should not post solutions to your work. Generally, we suggest that students post rough algorithms or code "snippets" if they wish to seek help or answer questions.
Concerning e-mail, the instructors try to reserve e-mail for emergencies and urgent matters. Something that is urgent is generally defined as something the instructors would find urgent. If you do need to e-mail the staff, do not use HTML or MIME! Why? See this explanation.
You will have about six mandatory assignments (which some other courses call homework, projects, programs) to complete for the semester. All assignments are posted at the Assignments link.
Occasionally, we might require smaller assignments (sometimes called exercises) to ensure that individuals do not rely completely on their partners to do the work. So, usually exercises will not allow partners. Exercises tend to have binary grading, which means 0/1.
You must follow the rules of Academic Integrity (A.I.) that are posted in this Syallbus. In addition, you must follow these rules concerning partners, unless we post otherwise:
You must submit your assignments on time. We do not accept late submissions, except in cases of serious matters like illness (see Section 13). We may consider increasing the weight your last assignment (with a possible penalty) to account for one missed submission if you have completed all other submissions to a satisfactory degree.
Ifyou have official documentation concerning special needs for assignments, you must provide a copy of official documentation to one of the instructors or the course administrator as soon as possible, but no later than one week before a due date. You only need to submit the documentation once. Refer to Section 20 for more information.
The main assignments receive scores out of 100 points. At the least, all of your code must compile without warnings or exceptions. You may receive a grade of zero, otherwise. We also expect you to follow the submission format requirements that the CMS Info link summarizes. We try to grade each assignment on the day after the due date. We strongly recommend that you review the grading comments, which are posted on CMS. Each time you get something wrong, we label the mistake with a code. The codes are posted on the Assignments in files with names, like "a3ggcs211fas04.txt" (Assignment 3 Grading Guide for CS211 Fall 2004). You always have an opportunity to request a regrade, which is a request to clarify or fix mistakes we might have made. Refer to Section 14, below, for further details on how to make regrade requests. If you receive any bonus points, those points are added to separate "hopper," which holds all bonus points for the semester. Refer to Course Grades, below, for an explanation of bonus points can influence your grade.
You are required to take two prelims and a final exam:
See the Prelims and Final Exam links for locations, review session information, topics, and practice problems, and solutions.
We distribute prelims in 363C Upson (M-F, 2-4:30pm) usually the day after your prelim. Bring your student ID card. Final exams may be reviewed the following semester, but may not be taken from the room.
What if you have a known university-excused conflict, like a prelim scheduled at the same time? You must first try rescheduling the event conflicting with the CS211 exam. If you have exhausted other means for rescheduling your conflict, you must contact the course administrator two weeks before the exam. You must explain the nature of the conflict and provide documentation. You might be eligible to take an early prelim offering at 5:45-7:15 PM. We do not usually offer exams at any other time. If you miss an exam because of a serious matter like illness, see Section 13, below.
Exams are graded out of 100 points. As with assignments, you may request a regrade. If we assign any bonus points, those points are added to the total number of bonus points for the semester.
Ifyou have official documentation concerning special needs for assignments, you must provide a copy of official documentation to one of the instructors or the course administrator as soon as possible, but no later than one week before a due date. You only need to submit the documentation once. Refer to Section 20 for more information.
If you miss any coursework due to illness or another university-excused conflict, you must contact the instructor ASAP and provide formal documentation. If you miss a significant amount of coursework, you are strongly encouraged to drop the course. In cases in which you miss an exam due to documented illness, you must contact the instructors ASAP to review the matter.
For all graded work, you always have an opportunity to request a regrade, which is a request to clarify or fix mistakes we might have made. To make a regrade request, you need to explain in words what you feel is wrong about the grading. You may also simply ask for a clarification. The assignment/exam supervisor (see Assignments, Prelims, and Final Exam) will process the requests after the regrade deadline has passed. For more details, see below.
For assignments, use CMS. On CMS, view the Help screen to find information on the system. In the regrade box, you need to type your request, which means you may have to refer to specific portions of your code and the grading guide. If you need to submit a file, or if you feel CMS's textbox will not suffice, you still need to write that you need to communicate with the assignment supervisor. The assignment supervisor will contact you when they are processing the regrades. If the issue is time sensitive, you should contact the assignment supervisor directly.
All students must follow the Code of Academic Integrity (A.I.) at all times. Each assignment will specify whether or not you may work with others and, if so, how many. For assignments that allow partners, only one assignment with all names must be submitted. Exams must always be done individually. The penalty for any violation of the code is severe. Refer to the rules, below, for more detail.
Your final numerical grade will be based on all of the required points for the following course work:
The weights of individual assignments are usually about the same, though we reserve to change this policy.
We will determine your letter grade using your final numerical grade from the weighted scores in Section 16.1 and pre-determined guaranteed grade minimums. A guaranteed grade minimum is a numerical score that will earn you at least a certain letter grade, regardless of how the rest of the class performs. Here are the initial cut-offs for grades for final numerical grades:
We may choose to lower the minimums for a letter grade based on the overall class performance on all course work. For instance, during one semester a 60 or better guaranteed at least a C. However, we will not raise the minimums, which would be unfair to you! Bonus points can influence some students' grades after all letter grades are set. In general, letter grades tend to split approximately into thirds for As, Bs, and Cs. But, if everyone receives a final numerical grade of 93 or better this semester, everyone would get at least an A. Who knows? It might happen some day.
Reading assignments are posted along with the lecture notes and examples in Lecture Notes.
This semester we will use different books than has been used in other semesters. If you have a copy of an older book, you are welcome to use it, but you will be responsible for determining the reading assignments and reviewing any material that is not covered therein. Note that the course books will be on reserve in the Engineering Library in Carpenter Hall.
We require that students use Java SDK 1.4.2. Older versions of the "JDK" will likely work, but we strongly suggest that you test your code on a public machine or with the command-line JDK if you are using an IDE that does not support the version 1.4.
Do not use version 1.5 for assignments or exams! Because this version is still beta, we have decided to wait to shift, which will happen in Spring 2005. We do realize that there are some very nice features of the upgraded language. So, we may occasionally provide bonus opportunities to encourage your exploration of these new features.
If you do not wish to use the public labs, you can download download Java for free. You may also need to go through this process for some development environments:
You may use any development environment that you wish. We provide some links, below:
For public access to CodeWarrior and Java, refer to the Labs link for more details.
In compliance with the Cornell University policy and equal access laws, we are available to discuss appropriate academic accommodations that may be required for students with disabilities. Requests for academic accommodations are to be made during the first three weeks of the semester, except for unusual circumstances, so arrangements can be made. Students are encouraged to register with Student Disability Services in 420 CCC to verify their eligibility for appropriate accommodations.