You are responsible for the information in this document and the complete list of policies on the course website. This document is located at the Syllabus link on the course website at http://www.cs.cornell.edu/courses/cs211/.
In CS211, you are expected to learn the following:
The course topics will be listed along with lecture notes at the Lecture Notes link.
The following is a summary of the staff for CS211. Refer to the Staff link on the course website for an updated and complete listing of names, locations, and office hours:
Refer to http://www.cs.cornell.edu/ugrad/FirstCourse.html for information about other introductory programming courses if you need help in deciding whether or not to take CS211.
CS212 is a 1-credit project course that the computer science major requires. Students may either take CS212 simultaneously with CS211 or afterwards, though we recommend taking CS212 as a CO-requisite. For more information concerning CS212, see its syllabus at http://www.cs.cornell.edu/courses/cs212/.
For students who are unsure on when to take CS212, we offer this advice:
You are expected to attend all lectures. There are two ways to register:
Note that ENGRD 211 and COM S 211 are the same course, so you should not sign up for both! The difference is purely administrative so that the College of Engineering can keep track of how many of its students use this course to fulfill a distribution requirement.
| ENGRD Course ID |
COM S Course ID |
Section | Day | Time | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 700-719 | 645-070 | LEC 01 | TR | 10:10AM-11:00AM | 155 Olin Hall |
We expect the following to improve the effectiveness of lecture for all students:
Generally, we prefer class participation, so please feel free to raise your hand to contribute to the class discussion.
We put most of our files for lecture notes, corresponding readings, and examples at the Lecture Notes link, usually just before or after lecture. Not all material covered in lecture will necessarily be on-line, and sometimes the lectures will leave extra material for you to review.
You are expected to attend section (also called recitation) once per week. Sections will cover some material not covered in lecture and provide an opportunity for questions on recent material, assignments, and exams. You may attend any section, but we prefer that you select one and stay with it.
The current sections are as follows:
| ENGRD Course ID |
COM S Course ID |
Section | Day | Time | Place | Instructor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 700-853 | 645-194 | SEC 01 | T | 1220-0110P | HO 306 | David Schwartz |
| 700-876 | 645-258 | SEC 02 | T | 0125-0215P | TH 203 | Peter Flynn |
| 700-938 | 645-461 | SEC 03 | T | 0230-0320P | TH 203 | A.J. Fink |
| 701-018 | 645-499 | SEC 04 | T | 0335-0425P | PH 203 | Xiangyang Lan |
| 701-063 | 645-549 | SEC 05 | W | 1220-0110P | PH 407 | Wojciech Moczydlowski |
| 701-103 | 645-578 | SEC 06 | W | 0125-0215P | HO 110 | Xiangyang Lan |
| 701-222 | 645-584 | SEC 07 | W | 0230-0320P | HO 110 | Wojciech Moczydlowski |
| 701-449 | 645-601 | SEC 08 | W | 0335-0425P | UP 205 | Benjamin Mathew |
| 701-507 | 645-656 | SEC 09 | M | 0125-0215P | HO 306 | Walter Mor |
| 701-524 | 645-829 | SEC 10 | W | 1220-0110P | PH 403 | Joel Chan |
Occasionally section instructors might temporarily move their section to a computer lab. Pay attention to announcements to keep track of these potential room changes.
Generally, expectations of lecture are the same for section, though each section instructor will indicate their requests in the first few sections.
Occasionally notes and examples are posted in the Section Notes link.
If you haven't programmed in Java, haven't pro grammed in a long time, or feel that your skills are a bit weak, we strongly suggest that you review the bootcamp notes, introductory chapters in the textbooks, and review material in the Java reference books. This section of the syllabus summarizes advice we usually give and explains the resources we have made available.
To take CS211, you must be experienced in programming, preferably in an object-oriented language. For students with limited Java experience, we will hold a Java Bootcamp, which involves about three hours of training in Java. The bootcamp will summarize key issues of Java's syntax that are usually covered in CS100. Both of the following bootcamps are the same:
The Academic Excellence Workshop (AEW) offers an opportunity for students to gain additional experience with course concepts in a cooperative learning environment. Research has shown that cooperative and collaborative methods promote higher grades, greater persistence, and deeper comprehension. The material presented in the workshop is at or above the level of the regular course. We do not require joining the AEW program, but do encourage students to join if they are seeking an exciting and fun way to learn. The AEW carries one S/U credit based on participation and attendance. The time commitment is two hours per week in the lab--no homework will be given. This is a wonderful opportunity for students to seek extra help on course topics in a small-group setting.
Your fellow undergraduate students, who are familiar with the course material, teach the sessions with material that they prepare. The course staff provides guidance and support but do not actually teach the AEW course content or any session. A representative from the AEW program will be speaking about the program and registration procedures in lecture. We have summarized the information, below:
See http://www.engineering.cornell.edu/studentServices/irs/aew.htm for more information.
You have the following responsibilities:
To reach a staff member, the best time is in office hours. Please post general questions on the newsgroup so that others can benefit from your question. Note that posts in USENET are subject to the rules of A.I., so you should not post solutions to your work. Generally, we suggest that students post rough algorithms or code "snippets" if they wish to seek help or answer questions.
Concerning e-mail, the instructors try to reserve e-mail for emergencies and urgent matters. Something that is urgent is generally defined as something the instructors would find urgent.
You will have six mandatory assignments (which some other courses call homework, projects, programs) to complete for the semester. All assignments are posted at the Assignments link. In addition, we will provide a comprehensive makeup assignment at the end of the semester. Students may replace any assignment with the makeup. We do recommend doing all six of the regular assignments.
Occasionally, we might require smaller assignments called exercises to ensure that individuals do not rely completely on their partners to do the work. So, usually exercises will not allow partners. Exercises tend to have binary grading, which means 0/1.
You must follow the rules of Academic Integrity (A.I.) that are posted on the website. In addition, you must follow these rules concerning partners, unless we post otherwise:
If you miss an assignment for any reason, you may replace that assignment with the comprehensive makeup assignment at the end of the semester. Because we will count only the six highest assignment grades, you may effectively drop one assignment if you do the makeup. If you miss more than one assignments, you should consider dropping the course.
Refer to the late policy, above, on replacing a missed assignment with the comprehensive makeup assignment. Section 13 lists general policies.
If you have official documentation concerning special needs for assignments, you must provide a copy of the documentation to the instructors or the course administrator at the beginning of the semester.
See Section 14, below, for our policies on all coursework.
For each assignment, you must follow the specifications that we list in Instructions in Course Management.
You are required to take two prelims and a final exam:
See the Prelims and Final Exam links for locations, practice problems, and solutions.
We distribute prelims in Upson 304 usually the day after your prelim. Final exams may be reviewed the following semester, but may not be taken from the room.
What if you have a known university-excused conflict, like a prelim scheduled at the same time? You must first try rescheduling the event conflicting with the CS211 exam. If you have exhausted other means for rescheduling your conflict, you must contact the course administrator two weeks before the exam. In the e-mail, you must explain the nature of the conflict and provide documentation. You might be eligible to take an early prelim offering at 5:45-7:15 PM. We do not offer exams at any other time.
See Section 13, below, for our policies.
See Section 14, below for our policies.
If you have official documentation concerning special needs for exams, you must provide a copy of the documentation to the instructor or course administrator at the beginning of the semester.
If you miss any coursework due to illness or another university-excused conflict, you must contact the instructor ASAP and provide formal documentation. If you miss a significant amount of coursework, you are strongly encouraged to drop the course. In cases in which you miss an exam due to documented illness, you must contact the instructors ASAP to review the matter.
For assignments, use the on-line regrade system.
UPDATE: if CMS cannot handle your request, you may file the request in the consulting office (304 Upson).
All students must follow the Code of Academic Integrity (A.I.) at all times. Each assignment will specify whether or not you may work with others and, if so, how many. For assignments that allow partners, only one assignment with all names must be submitted. Exams must always be done individually. The penalty for any violation of the code is severe. Refer to the rules for A.I. that are posted on the website.
Your final numerical grade will be based on all of the required points for the following course work:
The weights of individual assignments are usually about the same, though we reserve to change this policy.
We will determine your letter grade using your final numerical grade from the weighted scores in Section 16.1 and pre-determined guaranteed grade minimums. A guaranteed grade minimum is a numerical score that will earn you at least a certain letter grade, regardless of how the rest of the class performs. Here are the initial cut-offs for grades for final numerical grades:
We may choose to lower the minimums for a letter grade based on the overall class performance on all course work. For instance, last semester a 60 or better guaranteed at least a C. However, we will not raise the minimums, which would be unfair to you! So, if everyone receives a final numerical grade of 93 or better this semester, everyone would get at least an A. Who knows? It might happen some day. In general, letter grades tend to split approximately into thirds for As, Bs, and Cs.
This semester we will use different books than has been used in past semesters. If you have a copy of an older book, you are welcome to use it, but you will be responsible for determining the reading assignments and reviewing any material that is not covered therein. Note that the course books will be on reserve in the Engineering Library in Carpenter Hall.
We require that students use Java SDK 1.4 or higher. Older versions of the "JDK" will likely work, but we strongly suggest that you test your code on a public machine or with the command-line JDK if you are using an IDE that does not support the version 1.4. You may use any development environment that you wish. See the CodeWarrior and More Java! links for help on CodeWarrior and links to other IDEs.
For public access to CodeWarrior and Java, refer to the Labs link for more details.
In compliance with the Cornell University policy and equal access laws, we are available to discuss appropriate academic accommodations that may be required for students with disabilities. Requests for academic accommodations are to be made during the first three weeks of the semester, except for unusual circumstances, so arrangements can be made. Students are encouraged to register with Student Disability Services in 420 CCC to verify their eligibility for appropriate accommodations.