CS 195: Intro to Object Oriented Programming

Lecture: Friday 2:10-3:30pm – SS362

Optional Lab immediately following class until 4pm 

Instructor: Mark Shwayder

Office: SS 405 (fourth floor of the social science building)

Office Hours: Monday and Thursday 4-5pm

Office Phone: 243-2126

Email: mark.shwayder@umontana.edu

Course Description:

Our goal is to explore the concept of Object Oriented Programming without actually having to write any code!  We will be using a graphical program called Alice to explore fundamental programming concepts with a special focus on Object Oriented Programming.  Alice is a fun, easy-to-learn program that lets us create environments in which we can do almost anything.  We will have a lot of room to play around and our assignments will be fun.  NOTE: this is a one credit course that runs for the first half of the semester only.

Texts:

Learning to Program with Alice, by Dann, Cooper, and Pausch.  Prentice Hall publishing.

Grading:

I will use the following percentages to determine your final grade.  The exact weight of each category is subject to change.

Homework/Projects: 90%

Effort/Attendance: 10%

Ten percent of your grade will be based on your involvement in the class: showing up, participating and putting forth effort on assignments.  The amount of effort you put into your assignments will be evident to me, and I am reserving the right to award extra credit to students who obviously go above and beyond the bare minimum requirements.  If you have and questions about this policy, please come talk to me.

Turning in Homework/Projects:

We will be turning in assignments two ways.  You will be required to bring a hard copy (disk)  into lecture AND to submit a digital copy to BlackBoard.  We will go over BlackBoard on the first day of class, but here is a link if you would like to look ahead: http://www.umt.edu/ce/umonline/students/welcome.htm.

LATE ASSIGNMENTS

Late assignments will be accepted at the cost of one third of a letter grade for each day it is late up to one week.  I will not be accepting any assignments that are more than one week late.  I will use the following grading scheme:

100-93 = A      92-90 = A-     

89-87 = B+      86-83 = B        82-80 = B-

79-77 = C+     76-73 = C        72-70 = C-

69-67 = D+     66-63 = D        62-60 = D-

59-0 = F

If you are taking this course P/NP, 70 or higher is passing and anything below is not.

Course Outline:

First week: Introduction to Alice and Object Oriented Programming

Second week: In-depth look at Alice and basic programming

Third week: Classes, Objects, Methods, and Parameters

Fourth week: More with Classes and Inheritance

Fifth week: Events and Event Handling

Sixth week: Functions and If/Else controll

Seventh week: Definite and Indefinite Loops

Eigth week: Project presentations

Drops/Incompletes:

Please see http://www.umt.edu/catalog/acpolpro.htm#5 for information on drop dates for this semester.  I follow the standard incomplete policy that can be found in the course catalogue. 

Collaboration

Working together on assignments is fine.  You are, however, responsible for understanding the material.  If you cannot reproduce the work you submit when asked to do so, I will assume you simply copied the work.  Copying and plagiarism will not be tolerated.  If you do work with anyone else, please indicate that you did so and include their name(s).   Every student must turn in an assignment.

Disabilities:

Students with DSS certified disabilities should notify me at the beginning of the course

Class Etiquette:

Be respectful of your fellow classmates.  Please do not use profanity or obscenity either in class or on assignments.