Instructor:

Carleton (Cam) Moore cmoore@hawaii.edu.
Office: POST 307B.
Hours: Monday and Wednesday 1:30pm - 2:30pm.

TA

Jan Dufek dufek@hawaii.edu
Office: POST 307B.
Hours: Tuesday and Thursday 1:00pm - 2:00pm.

ICS 215 Course Rules

1) Your grade is based upon the Points you earn.

Get 70 Points or more you get a C
Get 85 Points or more you get a B
Get 100 Points or more you get an A

For your final grade, I guarantee an A to all students who earn at least 100 Points, a B to all students with a Points score between 85-99, and a C to all students with a Points score between 70-84^*.

^* Depending upon the way the quizzes actually work out, I reserve the right to adjust the Point ranges downward (so, for example, it may turn out that 88 Points could be enough for an A), but I will never adjust the Point ranges upward. Thus, it is possible for everyone in the class to receive an A if everyone in the class earns at least 100 Points.

2) You earn Points by taking quizzes.

Each of the five modules:

Have:

Five (5) Easy quizzes worth one (1) Point each. These quizzes focus on basics of the module. For the programming languages this means variables, conditionals, looping, method calling, basic data structures, etc. You have 10 minutes to complete Easy quizzes.
Five (5) Medium quizzes worth two (2) Points each. These quizzes focus on more complicated problem solving using the programming language or regular expressions.You have 20 minutes to complete Medium quizzes.
Five (5) Difficult quizzes worth four (4) Points each. These quizzes will require the use of regular expressions to solve a problem. You have 30 minutes to complete Difficult quizzes. Because all the Difficult quizzes involve regular expressions you should start with the Regular Expression module.

There are 15 quizzes in each module worth a total of 35 Points per module.

Each module has an example Easy, Medium, and Difficult quiz so that you can gauge your understanding of the module.

3) You can take up to two (2) quizzes per class period.

This class meets Mondays and Wednesdays 10:30a-11:45p in Holmes 243. After September 3rd each class will have the same structure.

The first 10 minutes of each class period is devoted to answering any questions.
At 10:40 the first quiz period begins.
- If you select an Easy quiz you will have 10 minutes to complete the quiz.
- If you select a Medium quiz you will have 20 minutes to complete the quiz.
- If you select a Difficult quiz you will have 30 minutes to complete the quiz.
At 11:10 the first quiz period ends.
We will have a five minute break.
The second quiz period will begin at 11:15.

There are 28 class periods between September 3rd and the end of the semester on December 10th. This means that you have 56 quiz opportunities. With only 56 opportunities you cannot take all of the 75 available quizzes.

See the Strategies section for ideas on how to approach the course.

4) You cannot retake quizzes that you don’t pass.

The strategy of taking a quiz just to get a look at it and then going home and try to figure out how to do it is not a valid strategy in this class. You only get one shot at each quiz, so take it really seriously and study for it.

5) You don’t have to take a quiz each class period.

You could take a Difficult quiz each class period for 12 1/2 weeks and take a week off. Or you could study a module for a week or two then take all five Difficult quizzes the next week and a half. You have fourteen weeks to earn 100 Points. There are many different strategies for getting 100 Points.

6) You must pass 10 quizzes in the Regular Expression module.

Since regular expressions are such a fundamental part of computer science and scripting I require you to pass 10 quizzes in the regular expression module. The Difficult quizzes in the other modules will require the use of regular expressions so you need to learn them.

You are on the honor system not to share quiz questions.

Sharing quiz information corrupts the learning process;
It’s cheating and will be treated as such if you catch them, and
The class will be more fun if all students take the quizzes on a “level playing field”.

8) There is no cheating.

In general, cheating means presenting the work of somebody else as one’s own, or providing one’s work to somebody else to help them cheat. Cheating includes sharing quiz information.

No Cheating Policy: any cheating will result in a grade of 0 for the quiz the first time it is detected, and a grade of F for the course for any subsequent instance. Any instance of cheating will also be recorded in the student’s ICS department file, and may be reported to the office of the Dean of Students, possibly resulting in disciplinary action against the student.

The Student Conduct Code has more details on both impermissible behavior (see for example section IV.B.1 of the policies, Acts of dishonesty) and possible disciplinary sanctions.

If you have any questions, please contact the instructor or the TA.

9) DIY Practice Quizzes

You can get up to 10 points in this course by designing and implementing one or more medium or hard practice quizzes for any of the modules.

To get these points, you must (a) specify the problem and required time limit, and (b) upload a YouTube video showing how you solved the problem in the time limit.

Your problem specifications and video solutions should be appropriate for this course and add instructional value.

If I choose to use the submission, I will post it for the class to use and you will receive from 1-3 points depending upon the quality of the submission. If the submission fails to meet my standards for quality or utility to the class, then it will not be posted and you will receive no credit. It is recommended that you meet with me to discuss your practice problem idea early on to get my tentative approval and feedback.

One advantage to these points is that they do not require you to “use up” a class period to earn them.

The deadline for submission is November 20. You cannot use this mechanism as a way to earn points at the last minute.