This document is available on the WWW as
http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~cs1711/info.html
It will be updated from time to time. Check web regularly for the latest
version.
Version: 1.2
This subject consists of two strands: programming and general computer-science literacy.
The programming strand is further divided into two parts. For the first half of the subject we cover small scale programming, in the second half we cover programming in the large.
In the literacy strand we will cover Unix, and some topics drawn from: WWW programming, ethics and law, computing history, and other topics of general interest.
The two strands will be covered in an intermingled fashion.
After completing this subject, you should be able to:
Important notices related to this course will be displayed on the subject home page from time to time. It is your responsibility to check this page regularly. In particular you should check it before each lecture, each tutorial, and regularly during the period between assignments being released and being due. The URL is:
http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~cs1711/
Sometimes urgent information might also be sent to you by email. Make sure you pay careful attention to any email you receive.
Any official email will be sent to your cse address. If you prefer to read your mail at some other address (e.g. yahoo), ask your tutor to show you how to access the university machines remotely or redirect your cse mail.
If you are emailing your tutor, the administrator, or the lecturer, then please mail from your cse account (eg not from your yahoo account or your home isp), otherwise we cannot guarantee that you will get a reply.
|
Name |
Role |
Notes |
|
Richard Buckland |
Lecturer |
|
|
Sam Calder |
Administrator |
Responsible for the administration of 1711. Class programmer. |
All students attend one 2.5 hour combined tutorial/lab each week. This is a one hour tutorial followed by a one and a half hour laboratory.
Tutorials were allocated during your enrolment. If you have not been allocated a tutorial or if you wish to change your tutorial follow the links on the subject homepage.
If you have troubles getting a tutorial contact the subject administrator (see below).
If you need to see someone other than your tutor for help then you may attend a consultation. Consultations are run every weekday in the consultation rooms on level 2 of K-17. The timetable is posted on the window of the consultation room, and also on the subject homepage. The timetable may change from week to week to meet changes in demand.
There are two types of consultation: Admin and Teaching. Select the right type for your problem:
Starting Week 2 there are open consultations to help students with any problems in understanding the content of the course. If you have problems or questions which arise after your tute, or if there was not enough time in your tute-lab for your tutor to address all your questions you may attend any teaching consultation and see the tutor on duty.
You can also see Richard immediately after Lectures. I'll stay back as long as needed.
From time to time, various problems may arise in your study of this subject. Below is a list of typical problems, with suggestions for where you might seek help with them:
|
Problem |
Where to get help |
|---|---|
|
Troubles understanding subject |
Your tutor (during tute or by email), OR |
|
Problem installing software on home PC |
|
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Stuck with assignments, lab work |
Your tutor (during tute or by email), and by email to the assignment supervisor. (see below)
|
|
Problem with workstations in Lab |
Help Desk (Mech Eng undercroft) |
|
Problem with your login account |
|
|
Want to change lab-tute class |
See the link on the subject homepage (you cannot change tutorials by email) |
|
General administrative problems |
Subject Administrator |
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Cannot make it to the mid session exam. |
|
|
Problems concerning the subject web pages |
|
|
Been very sick => Assignment late |
|
|
Been very sick => Affected final exam performance |
Student Centre |
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Problem with Dial-Up-Access from home |
UDUS: DIS <> Connect Helpdesk (9385 1777) |
|
Problems with enrolment in subject |
CSE School Office (K17 ground floor), or Student Centre |
|
Problems with your course/degree |
Your Course Coordinator |
|
Problems coping with university generally |
University Counseling Service: extension 5418 (or 9385 5418) |
|
Lost property |
Campus Security: extension 6000 (or 9385 6000) |
|
Emergency |
Campus Security: extension 6666 (or 9385 6666) |
You may also ask questions by email; although given the amount of mail we normally get it may take a while before you get a reply. Since the subject is so large we have created several email addresses you can write to, one for each main area of the subject. Please be careful to send your mail to the correct address (each address goes to a different person). Please do not email Richard or Sam directly at their personal school email addresses or you will not get a reply. Instead use the addresses below.
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Questions about |
who to email |
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Material you don't understand |
Your tutor, or visit a consultation. |
|
Problems with marks or marking |
Your tutor |
|
Task 1 |
|
|
Task 2 |
|
|
The Project |
Your tutor |
|
all other administrative matters |
Cite your student number and login name in all official emails.
We will only respond to email with a sensible and informative subject title. Mails with no subject, or with cryptic subjects like "URGENT" or "COMP1711" will be filtered. Instead use meaningful subjects like "Cannot make it to midsession exam" (note: we have no midsession exam this year)
Students may freely transfer from COMP1711 (higher stream) into COMP1011 (core stream) in the first few weeks of term. We strongly suggest you make your decision by the end of week 4.
To transfer you need to contact the administrator of COMP1011 and ask to transfer into their subject. You may also need to see the CSE Student Office (Ground Floor, K17) to adjust your enrolment.
For the contact details of the COMP1011 administrator, click here.
You will need to change to a 1011 lab/tutorial group once you have transferred. You can arrange this with the 1011 admin.
Students may apply to transfer from COMP1011 (core stream) into COMP1711 (higher stream) in the first few weeks of term.
There is a maximum size on COMP1711 (determined by the lecture theatre), once this is reached no further transfers will be allowed. We are currently (week 1) close to that limit.
To transfer you need to print out the form available from the 1711 homepage and take it to the school office.
Check out the COMP1711 web site (http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~cs1711 ) to find the times of our admin consults.
You will need to change to a 1711 lab/tutorial group once you have transferred. You can either do this online or at a 1711 admin consult.
Part of the final exam is common between the subjects. The assignments are different.
The purpose of lectures is to introduce you to the concepts covered by this subject, show where they fit in the overall scheme of things and provide motivating examples to help you understand them.
Learning research shows that students learn much effectively when they revise and prepare before attending a lecture.
Similar learning improvements occur when students revise material soon after they have attended the lecture.
|
Day |
Time |
Place |
|
Wednesday |
1-2 |
EELG1 |
|
Thursday |
1-2 |
EELG1 |
|
Thursday |
2-3 |
EELG1 This is an OPTIONAL lecture. Just for fun. On non examinable topics. It will not run every week. Details announced in lectures |
|
Thursday |
3-4 |
EELG1 |
The assessable components of the subject are:
|
Tute/Lab mark |
15% |
|
|
Task 1 |
10% |
Due 29 March |
|
Task 2 |
10% |
Due 26 April |
|
The Project |
25% |
Due 24 May * |
|
Final exam |
40% |
Examination period |
|
Total |
100% |
* late submissions not accepted
In cases where the assignment marks are much higher than the exam marks we may scale DOWN the assignment marks.
The final mark will be scaled to ensure that the Pass, Credit, Distinction, and High Distinction standards remain similar from year to year and to ensure consistency with COMP1011.
Practical programming competency is an important objective of this subject. The best way to learn programming skills is to practice programming - you do that in Tute-Labs and with assignments.
Laboratories and tutorials are integrated in this subject. The first hour will be conducted in a tutorial room discussing set tutorial questions and preparing for the lab exercises. This will be followed by 1.5 hours in a laboratory.
The tutorial component will give you a chance to clarify ideas mentioned in lectures and to practice your problem-solving skills in a small, more personal, class with the assistance of a tutor. Tutorials are designed to help you learn. They are your main forum for asking questions and getting personal assistance. You should make sure that you use them effectively by examining in advance the material to be covered, by asking questions, by offering suggestions and by generally participating.
In the laboratory component of the class you will work through set programming exercises. This will give you a chance to develop your programming skills on small, simple examples. The examples have been chosen to highlight particular aspects of programming, and are designed to assist you in your assignments. Your tutor will be there to assist you.
There are marks for tutorial participation and for the completion of the laboratory exercises.
The tutorial questions and laboratory exercises will be placed on the subject web page each week.
The assessment of the laboratory exercises will be done in labs by your tutor. Each week's lab exercises will include a core section and many will include an extension section. Unless otherwise stated all questions are to be completed and marked during the lab in which they are given. Lab exercises must be marked face to face with your tutor during the lab, email submissions will not be accepted. The total lab mark is out of 20, ie 20 marks or greater is full marks.
Extension exercises also score brownie points. Brownie points are quite worthless and do not contribute towards your mark. We will probably use them to compute some sort of honor roll of the top 50 students.
There are 10 marks for tutorial attendance and lab exercises, and 5 marks for a presentation.
Your tutor will explain the presentation and allocate you a presentation partner and day in the first tutorial.
Everyone will do a tutorial presentation once during the session.
This is not supposed to be a hard assesment task. It is designed to help you and your tutorial class learn several of the important things you would otherwise have to learn on your own.
You are not supposed to have done intensive research on the topic, but you are expected to have put some effort into it and to understand the topic yourself.
As a rough guide 30mins to 1 hour preparation should be sufficient but leave yourself a little more time if you are unsure of the topic.
Some students will end up doing the presentation on their own - so be prepared for this possibility. Your partner may be sick, may forget, may drop out of the subject, you may be in a tutorial with an odd number of students and not be given a partner, ...
You will be assessed on how well you explain the topic. Not on how slick the presentation is. You tutor will probably ask your class for their opinion of your presentation.
If you do a satisfactory presentation you will be awarded 5 tutorial marks. Otherwise you will be awarded 0. There are no intermediate marks. If you do a reasonable effort you will have no worries about passing.
Both students have to demonstrate that they understand the topic. If only one student does most of the talking in the presentation then the other should answer most of the questions.
The programming assignments are the most important part of the course.
Assignments give you the chance to practice programming on relatively large problems (compared to the small programs in the laboratory exercises). The aim is for you to practice all stages of the programming process: start by understanding the specification, design a method to solve the problem, refine this design, implement the design as a complete program, and test that the program meets the specification. Assignments are a very important part of this subject; make sure that you attempt them yourself.
A portion of the final exam may relate to the assignment work.
There are two programming "tasks" and one large project. Due dates are shown above.
Past students advise that assignments take far longer to complete than you at first estimate, so make sure you start them early and allow plenty of time. You cannot complete a computing assignment in one week.
Assignment work can be completed on the workstations at Uni or on a PC at home. Your assignment must be able to run on the computers at Uni. Assignments must be submitted on-line from a school terminal via the give command. It is in your best interests to make regular backup copies of your work and (because of machine loads on deadline days, for example) to complete assignments well before their deadlines.
If an assignment uses the "usual" late penalty system then the following applies:
If you wish to submit an assignment late, you may do so but the maximum available mark for late assignments is reduced by 10% per day for the first 4 days. Assignments that are 5 days or more late will be awarded zero marks. So if your assignment is worth 85% and you submit it one day late you would still get 85%, but if you submit it two days late you would get 80%, and so on.
Note: some assignments may not use the "Usual" late penalty system. For some assignments a different late penalty system may apply. For some assignments you may not be permitted to submit late at all. See the assignment specification for the details of which late penalty system applies.
Assignment extensions are only awarded for serious and unforeseeable events. Having the flu for a few days, deleting your assignment by mistake, going on holiday, work commitments, etc do not qualify. Therefore aim to complete your assignments before the due date in case of last minute illness, and make regular backups of your work.
All work submitted for assessment must be entirely your own work. We regard copying of assignments, in whole or part, as a very serious offence.
In this subject submission of work derived from another person, or jointly written with someone else will, at the very least, result in automatic failure for the subject and a mark of zero for the subject.
In this course, even the attempt to obtain code for a lab exercise or assignment from others (e.g., asking for code on a Haskell mailing list or other public forum) will result, at the very least, in 0 marks independent of whether any code has been submitted for assessment or not.
Do not provide or show your assignment work to any other person. Allowing another student to copy from you will, at the very least, result in zero for your assignment. If you knowingly provide or show your assignment work to another person for any reason, and work derived from it is submitted you will be penalized, even if the work was submitted without your knowledge or consent. This will apply even if your work is submitted by a third party unknown to you.
Copying without consent, severe, or second offences will result in automatic failure, exclusion from the university, and possibly other academic discipline.
These are no idle threats, we use plagiarism detection software to search for multiply-submitted work. See also the Unix Primer and the Yellow Form for additional information. If the penalties set out on this page, the Unix Primer, or the Yellow Form differ for any situation, the more severe penalty applies.
Note that we have experienced cases of plagiarism where the code has been copied from printouts or floppy disks that have been lost in the lab or stolen from the computer or printer. Generally, it is your responsibility to prevent other students from accessing your files, but if you loose a printout or floppy disk, please inform your tutor immediately.
In this subject assignment assessment is intended to be formative (to help students learn material) rather than summative (give an objective benchmark measuring what has been learned)
When marking assignments we want tutors to build up an intimate model of what each student is up to, their strengths and weaknesses.
For this reason assignments are not marked anonymously. If you have concerns about non-anonymous assignment marking come to an admin consultation and discuss them with us.
The final examination in this course will be held during the June/July examination period; it will be a closed book exam and examine all material covered in the course. It will cover material from lectures, from lecture notes, from tutorials and labs, and from the assignments.
The exact dates for the exam will be published by the university
on the web closer to June.
Special Consideration
Students whose exam performance is affected by serious and un-foreseeable events outside their control can apply at the student centre for special consideration. Special considerations will only be given where all other components of the course (assignments, tutes, exams, and labs) have been satisfactorily completed.
The "yellow form" sets out the general criteria applied to all special consideration for CSE subjects. Read it carefully. In this subject if you apply to sit a supplimentary final exam I consider the following additional factors:
In particular, make up your mind whether your are ill before the exam. If you have sat the exam, it is very unlikely a supplementary exam will be granted. Depending on student numbers, supplementary exams may be oral. You will be notified by email if you are to sit an oral exam. Oral exams will be conducted on either the day before, the day of, or the day after the date for written supplementary exams. If you are awarded an oral exam you must contact the school office to find the date of the exam.
If you are awarded a supplimentary examination it is your responsibility to check email and contact the school office for details of supplementary examinations and to ensure that you are available at the required time.
Once you have your account, there is a large amount of information stored in the course home page, and further will be added over the session. You should explore the course web site and check back regularly from time to time.
| 1.2: 6-3-03 | Added notes on anonymous assignment marking, made minor corrections, clarified late assignment policy and sup exam policy, updated bibliography. |
| 1.1: 5-3-03 | Corrected lecture times & added some links. |
| 1.0: 5-3-03 | First lecture. |