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Syllabus

Instructor

Stuart Faulk
Office: 354 Deschutes

Your Responsibilities

Reading

You are expected to do any assigned reading before class, and come to class with questions about what you read. You are expected to take notes on what you read, understand the material, and to look up words that you don't know (the web makes this absurdly easy).

Class Participation

All students are expected to attend all lectures, presentations, and group meetings with the professor, and to take written notes at all classes and meetings. Students are also expected to participate in class presentations, group meetings, and discussions. Your in-class participation may be supplemented by emailing the instructor with questions or comments, which he will try to incorporate into the next class. All students will also be expected to participate in a few in-class group presentations.

Come to class ready to engage the material and to interact face-to-face with the other human beings in the classroom. Leave your 21st-Century distractions behind. Turn off your cell phones, smart phones, and pagers. Cell phones ringing in class is inappropriate, discourteous and disruptive. Activities such as texting, surfing the web, or checking email during class is inappropriate and discourteous. Please do not use laptops or electronic devices during lectures. Please practice your skill of focusing on the intellectual activity occurring in a physical room with real live people.

Mandatory Attendance

In order to maximize the project-based group-learning experience, the course has mandatory attendance. As some will say, "Ninety percent of life is just showing up." You are expected to schedule other events such as trips or job interviews to avoid conflicts with the course. The only acceptable excuses for missing a class are documented medical problems, religious holidays (if cleared in advance), presenting papers at top academic conferences (if cleared in advance), and documented personal emergencies. If you miss a class, you are expected to contact your classmates to learn what you missed. Five unexcused absences will result in an nonpassing grade for the course. Roll will not be taken every day, but conspicuous absences such as missing a group presentation or a quiz will be noted.

Group Projects

There will be two group projects. The first will last four weeks and be assigned by the instructor. The second will last five weeks and will be proposed by the groups. The second project will be due during the final week of classes.

Exams

There will be two midterm exams and no final exam. An unexcused absence at an exam will result in a grade of zero on the exam.

Communication

Students have the responsibility to communicate with the instructor about any questions, concerns, or problems that they have during the course. These might relate to any aspect of the class including lectures, group dynamics, communication breakdowns, or anything. Please visit the instructor during his office hours or set up an appointment to discuss any problem or concerns.

Email

Please contact the instructor with any questions and concerns at all regarding the class, following these guidelines:

Students in CIS 522

Graduate students (enrolled in CIS 522) will have additional responsibilities including reading and responding to academic papers on software engineering. Graduate students will be held to a higher expectation of quality in projects and exams.

Grades

Grades will be determined based on (a) your group's performance on group projects; (b) your performance on two midterms; (c) your teammate's evaluation of your contributions to group projects; and (d) your attendance. Provided that you have fewer than five unexcused absences, which would result in an "F" for the course, individual grades are calculated based on the following criteria:

Project 1: 20%
Project 2: 40%
Midterm One: 15%
Midterm Two: 15%
Class Participation: 10%
Teammate Evaluation: may significantly raise or lower grade

In addition:

  1. Your average grade on the two midterm exams must meet or exceed 65/100 (i.e., cannot be an "F").
  2. Your contribution to the team effort based on the number and quality of artifacts, attendance at team meetings, and peer reviews must (in the instructor's judgement) meet or exceed a C-

Grades for the course will be determined on the following scale:

90-100% = A
80-89% = B
70-79% = C
60-69% = D
59 and below = F

Projects submitted late will be subjected to a full letter grade penalty.  Projects will be accepted no more than two calendar days past the due date.  Exceptions will only be considered if the request is submitted before the due date.

Any grading discrepancies (such as a miscounting of points on an assignment) must be resolved within a week after the assignment is returned.

Assessment of Work

Evaluation Criteria

Projects will be assessed against a set of evaluation criteria that will be made available with each project. Read these criteria carefully because they reflect the aspects of the projects that are important given the pedagogical goals of the class.

Subjective Assessment

While much in the discipline of computer science is objective (such as whether a computer program will compile and produce a specified answer), most of the material that covered in this class will be concepts, ideas, terminology, conventions, and practices that cannot be defined in pure objective language such as that of a computer program. Exams and projects are graded based on the instructor's subjective assessment of the accuracy and completeness of the answers and materials provided by the students.

The instructor will apply an understanding of the material that he has established from over 30 years experience in developing software engineering methodology, working with industry, and teaching professional sofware engineering.

Good Writing

Projects will be evaluated in part based on the instructor's assessment of the quality of the written materials submitted. A modern software engineer must be able to communicate his or her ideas clearly and concisely. Good writing occurs on three levels:

  1. Structure a paper so that the main ideas are clearly accessible. State the main point of the paper in the introduction. Start each paragraph with a topic sentence. Break the paper into sections and give each section a title. Summarize your major findings in a conclusion. A storytelling approach is not a good organizational style.
  2. Communicate individual ideas effectively. Be thorough but concise. The tone of your writing should be serious and direct, as if you were reporting to your boss at a real job. An informal "chatty" style is not appropriate. Every figure (graph, drawing, or screenshot) must be relevant, should have a caption that explains what it is and why it is important, and should be referred to in the main body of the text.
  3. All spelling and grammar must be standard and correct.

If you have any doubts about the quality of your writing, work with your project collaborators to critique each other's drafts. Also, take drafts to the drop-in writing lab at the Teaching and Learning Center in the basement of the PLC, open Monday - Friday from 9:00am to 4:00pm.

Course Policies

Diversity Welcome

The modern technology workplace is diverse, international, and intercultural. This course welcomes and values these differences as an opportunity to increase our awareness of the contemporary global society, how to work better in groups, and how to build better computer systems.

Students with Disabilities

If you have a documented disability and anticipate needing accommodations in this course, during the first two weeks of class please (a) ask the counselor for students with disabilities to send the instructor a letter verifying your disability and (b) arrange to meet with the instructor to discuss your needs.

Corequisite

If you have not completed CIS 315 in a previous term with a grade of C- or better, or if you are not taking CIS 315 this term, you will not receive credit for this course.

Recording

You may not make audio or visual recordings of the class without explicit permission from the instructor.

Academic Honesty

Students who are found to have committed an academically dishonest act in this course will receive an F for the course.

Academic honesty includes the following. You should do all of the following:

Academic dishonesty includes the following. You should not do any of the following:

All evidence of academic dishonesty will be rigorously pursued consistent with the University of Oregon Faculty Guide for Addressing Academic Misconduct.

(this content has been adapted from Prof. Anthony Hornoff)