CIS 180 Orientation Spring 2010

CIS 180 Orientation – Spring 2010

Welcome to my class! I am pleased that you have chosen me as your instructor.

I have prepared this orientation for both traditional and online section students. I have attempted to put all information that is specific to an online section in the color purple (like this line…).

Traditional and Online Sections

This course is offered in both a traditional and online format.

It is strongly recommended that you take this class in the traditional format.

The online section is intended for those students who have a strong programming background and who may already be at least somewhat familiar with Java. To be successful in an online section you must be motivated, disciplined, and able to read and understand the material in the book without the reinforcement provided by the lecture.

If you are in an online section, after the orientation you will not be required to come to the class again until the final exam. However, all examinations are on compus! You may take examinations with the traditional section or in the Academic Support Center (ASC).

Online Students: You are also always welcome to attend a traditional section (if your schedule does not conflict) to listen to the lecture and participate in class discussions.

Email Address

I must have your email address! (applies to online section only)

If you did not specify an email address when you registered, you need to go back and do this using the My Cerritos student portal. If you want to use a different email address than what you supplied when you registered, use the My Cerritos portal to update your email address.

DO NOT try to contact me using a different email address. If I contact you, it will be using a distribution list that uses the email address you provided the college.

Multiple email addresses are often a source of confusion and/or miscommunication.

Determine what email address you want to use, make sure it is the one provided to the college (or update it if necessary) and always use this same email address for any correspondence.

If you send me a email message, please include the following information in the subject line:

CIS 180, Section info (online or traditional), your name, your student number for example: CIS 180, traditional, Jack Wilson, 0310641

Website / TalonNet

All of the information for this course is on my website or in TalonNet, the Cerritos College Course Management System.

My website was created using Microsoft FrontPage/SharePoint Designer primarily and occasionally also Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. The website was designed to be viewed in Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 or higher.

You will also need to become familiar with TalonNet. There are student tutorials available in TalonNet. You should go through these tutorials to become familiar with how the system works.

1 Here are primary links in TalonNet which you will be using for this course: Syllabus, Assignments, Gradebook, Course Web Site.

Here is the link for my website: http://www.cerritos.edu/jwilson From this page click on the CIS 182 button.

Here is the link for TalonNet: http://talonnet.cerritos.edul

It is recommended that you set the resolution of your monitor to 1024 X 768 when working in TalonNet.

Presentations and Other Materials

The presentations for the book will be used in the traditional section during the lectures. To access the presentations from off campus, you will need either Microsoft Office PowerPoint or a PowerPoint viewer plug-in for your browser. Here is a link to a PowerPoint 2007 viewer: PowerPoint 2007 Viewer. If you are in the Online section, it is a good idea to go through the presentations as part of your preparation for exams.

There are links for the presentations and the source code for the examples in the book among other things on my web site. The link for the examples allows you to download the chapter examples in a ZIP format. This can be done using Windows XP Compressed Folders or using a program such as WinZip.

You may also need Adobe Reader as sometimes I post things as PDF documents. Here is a link to the Adobe download site where you can download reader: http://www.adobe.com/downloads/

There is a copy of a previous edition of the textbook for the class on reserve in the Library. The chapters may be numbered slightly differently than the current version. It may be checked out for 2 hours at a time.

Syllabus

Please be aware that the syllabus posted to the web is TENTATIVE. It is subject to change. As the course progresses, it may become necessary to make some changes to sequence, content and/or dates. The syllabus has the schedule we will be following and when tests are scheduled.

The online section is intended to mirror the traditional section. Any changes to the syllabus will be announced in my traditional section class and the syllbus posted to the web will be updated for the students in the online section. Generally, if I make substantive changes to the syllabus I will also send out an email message using the distribution list to the Online students.

Teaching Schedule & Office Hours

On my website start page www.cerritos.edu/jwilson is a link for my schedule and office hours. You may also visit me in any of my LAB classes if you need additional assistance.

You may always visit me during an office hour. If you are having difficulty I encourage you to come by. I welcome the opportunity to help you during an office hour. If there are personal problems or challenges that are hindering your progress please come by and let me see if I can help you in some way.

End of Chapter Exercises

I will go over some or all of the end of chapter self-review exercises with the traditional section. You should look at these as well.

Assignments

All assignments must be submitted (“attached”) using TalonNet. You access an assignment by clicking the Assignments link in TalonNet. Assignments must be submitted by 10:00 pm on the date they are due (usually Sunday).

2 What you will be submitting is your program source file(s) and any necessary data files. Do not submit any of the other files created by the compiler, just the .cpp file!

Late assignments will be accepted, however they may have points deducted.

TalonNet marks late assignments automatically. I will take off points for any assignments that are more than a few days late.

Always make sure that you have attached everything required for an assignment before submitting it in TalonNet. TalonNet will permit you to upload attachments without submitting an assignment by using the “Save Draft” button. You can keep attaching to an assignment as long as you use the “Save Draft” button. When you are sure you have everything attached and are ready to submit the assignment for grading, click on the “Submit” button.

Once an assignment is submitted, you may NOT go back and attempt to attach anything more. If you find that despite your best efforts you forgot to attach something, put it in your Drop Box and send me an email message to let me know of the circumstances.

Assignments may also be accessed from by website. The Assignments link on my website has what the assignments are. Due dates are found in TalonNet or on your syllabus.

Assignments generally will be programs. These may be from the book or some which I devise. Assignments may also include written exercises. Please follow the instructions carefully for your assignments. Do not try to do things that are outside the scope of the assignment. Carefully follow the instructions.

Your grade on an assignment will be based on: proper completion of the assigned problem(s), documentation, correct use of indentation, use of appropriate programming conventions, spelling, grammar, and neatness.

Academic Honesty

You are required to do your own work for this class.

All of the following activities are considered cheating:  submitting work done by another student  giving another student a copy of your work  using or copying assignments which may have been left on a computer  helping another student during an exam

Cheating may result in 0 points for an assignment or exam. You may also be dropped from the class. If you are given a zero for cheating on an assignment or exam there will be no makeup. You cheat, you lose.

Working collaboratively with other students on the logic of a program is ok. However… every student is expected to do the assignments individually.

Collaboration does not mean one student sits at the computer and one or more other students watch and make suggestions! I will not accept an assignment submitted by two or more students for which I find the logic to be identical. This includes spouses, siblings, parents/children, coworkers, lovers, etc.. You may not turn in work that has been performed by somebody else! No exceptions!!!

Examinations

All examinations will be on campus. The examinations will be a combination of multiple choice, short answer, and possibly some true/false. You will not need any scantron forms. I will provide all materials necessary for you to take the exam. The tentative schedule for these examinations is on the syllabus. If you are in an online section, as noted at the beginning of this document, you may take the exam with the traditional section or in the ASC.

3 4 Extra Credit

It is not my philosophy to offer extra credit!

Please read the material in your books and any handouts I may provide you, follow all the instructions and do a thorough job on your assignments, and finally make sure you adequately prepare for examinations.

Do not ask for an opportunity to do extra credit to make up for points lost on assignments or exams. This is not a general education class and I expect you are taking this class to learn how to program and/or because you expect to transfer to a 4 year college or university.

Attendance (Schedule page 21)

To meet attendance requirements, I need to periodically hear from you or personally see you. Submitting assignments, sending messages with questions, attending a traditional section lecture, or even just periodically sending an email message telling me you are still in the class and working (especially if you don’t turn in an assignment on time) are all acceptable ways of meeting “attendance” requirements.

Please read the section "Attendance and Grading" in the Spring Schedule on page 24. It explains the requirements for attendance, authorized and excused absences, and grounds for dismissal from a course.

Withdrawals (Schedule page 18)

It is YOUR responsibility to drop this course if it becomes necessary. Withdrawals must be completed by the required withdrawal deadlines. These are listed on the bottom of the syllabus. As the policy states, "Failure to officially withdraw from class(es) may result in an "F" grade for each class."

Please keep in mind that the college has an excessive withdrawal/failure policy. If you take a class and withdraw from it or fail it twice, you will not be permitted to sign up for the class again without permission from the Counseling Department. Permission is not automatically granted!

Student Computer Account

To login in to a computer account on campus, use your student number as your username. This should be a 7 digit number. If your student number has fewer than 7 digits, precede it with a 0. The first time you log in you will use your 6 digit date of birth as your password. You will be prompted to change your password. Once you change your password, use the new password from then on in any of the computer labs on campus.

Computer Labs

You can work on campus in the CIS labs in LA 3, 4, 5 or 6. LA 3 is generally the "open lab" but at times a different room may be made available as open lab. The days/hours the labs are open will be posted outside of the rooms. If you intend to work in the CIS labs, make sure you know what days/hours the labs are available.If you work in one of the big LRC computer labs, you will ;probably not have access to a compiler to compile your programs.

High speed / low speed connections

Most of the content for the class can be downloaded quickly using a slow dial-up connection. I may post some videos which you may not want to try to download using a low-speed connection. These could be downloaded on campus and saved to a jump drive or maybe burned to a CD. Also, some of the presentations are rather large and would be slow to download over a low speed connection.

5 Software

All of the software required for this class can be acquired for free. In the traditional section, we will be using:

 jGRASP 1.8.X as our IDE (integrated development environment) when writing C/C++ programs.  Borland C++ free command line compiler for compiling C/C++ programs.

The compilers / IDE's are for the Windows computing environment. There are compilers and IDE's for Linux and the Macintosh environments that are free as well. If you need some assistance with these environments, let me know.

You will find links for all of the software we will be using on my website. There is also software bundled with the book if you buy it new. These versions may not be as up-to-date as the software I provide links to from my website.

It is important for you to keep on schedule with the reading, submission of assignments, and exams. Most of the time when a student does not successfully complete a class it is because he/she got behind and couldn't catch up. Please don't let this happen to you.

Remember if you are an online section student: You are also always welcome (if your schedule does not conflict) to sit in and listen to the lecture with a traditional class.

Good luck in class. I hope you will find this an enjoyable learning experience.

-- Mr. Wilson

last update: 4/3/2018