CS 2110 in Spring 2016 will teach three topics differently than in the past.
Just watching/listening to 50-minute lectures is not the most effective way to learn some topics. One learns by doing much better. Therefore, this semester three topics will be taught in a different manner.
Generally, one watches an instructor lecture and then goes off to study (or not, as the case may be). That study may not be very effective, especially if thee is no required homework. Here, we flip this around. You watch some online lectures and then come to class and participate in doing some homework, with all the students and with the instructor walking around, helping.
Here are our three topics.
1. Program correctness. We ask you to sudy this topic yourself, watching 20 minutes of videos (in total), and then do a homework, which you will hand in and which will be graded.
2. Exception handling. We ask you to study this topic, watching about 30 minutes of videos. Then, in a recitation, the TA will hand out problems for you to do on the topic during the recitation. The TA will walk around, answering questions and offering help when necessary. If an issue appears to stump many students, the TA may give a short (5-minute) presentation on that issue.
Attendance at this recitation is mandatory. Attendance will be factored into your total weighted grade score, in a way to be determined later.
3. Loop invariants and their use in developing algorithms. As with Exception Handling, you watch videos beforehand and then work on a homework set in recitation. Attendance at the recitation is mandatory.