CSC/ECE 517: Object-Oriented Design and Development

syllabus: homework & tests

• overview
• homework & tests
• academic integrity

Points | Descriptions | Posting of grades

Points

• Homework    400 pts.
• Programs    320 points
• GitHub Project exercise    10 pts.
• Ruby program    30 pts.
• Ruby on Rails program    90 pts.
• OSS project    90 pts.
• Final project    100 pts.
• Writing assignments    80 pts.
• Writeup on OSS project    40 pts.
• Final project design doc.    40 pts.
• Reviews    120 pts.
• Teammate reviews (aggregate)    65 pts.
• Peer reviews    60 pts.
• [2 required for each of 3 peer-reviewed assgts.]
• Exams    360 pts.
• Test 1   60 pts.
• Test 2  120 pts.
• Final exam    180 pts.
• Quizzes (5 pts. each)    70 pts.
• Syllabus quiz
• Fourteen weekly quizzes
(Credit for a maximum of 14 of the above)
• Attendance (5 pts. per class for up to 9 classes)    45 pts.

Cutoffs for As, Bs, Cs, etc. will generally be 900, 800, 700, ... Cutoffs may be adjusted down by a few points if necessary so that students with essentially the same performance receive the same grade.

There will be copious opportunities for extra credit, with the stipulation that all activities for which extra credit is given must help other students to learn the course material--either students in the current CSC/ECE 517 class, or students in later classes. Examples of activities that can earn extra credit include--

• doing extra peer reviews of programming or writing assignments or design documents (up to 6 extra reviews during the semester, up to 10 points per review),
• rating peer reviews that you have received for how helpful they are,
• posting useful suggestions on the use of large language models (LLMs) in doing the programming projects,
and
• making outstanding contributions to answering other students' questions on the Ed message board.

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Descriptions

• GitHub Project Board exercise
A short exercise to familiarize you with how to use GitHub project boards
• Programs
  There will be four programming assignments.
  • 1. A Ruby programming assignment. You may work in a team of up to two students on this project.
  
  
  • 2. A Ruby on Rails programming assignment. You may work in a team of up to three students on this project.
  
  
  • 3. An first assignment on contributing to an open-source software project. These projects will be done in groups of two or three.
  
  
  • 4. The final project, which will usually be a continuation of your first OSS project. This project will also be done in groups of two or three. For the final project, students may choose a different project or switch teams if they desire. Before beginning to code, you will need to submit a design document, which will be peer-reviewed by other members of the class. After the project is complete, you will create a video of it, via screencasting, and answer questions in a live demo.
• Writing assignments
  • During the semester there will be two peer-reviewed writing assignments. These assignments will be--
    
    
  • 1. Writing about the design principles and design patterns used in your OSS project. The goal is to explain your design choices to someone who is not familiar with the code, but is familiar with design principles and patterns. Clarity is the most important quality of this writeup. You should discuss possible bad choices, with code-snippet examples, and show why the choices you made were better.
  
  
  • 2. A design document for your final project.
  
  
• Teaming requirement
  • Each student is required to partner or team with a minimum of 4 other students during the course. Each student who fails to partner with at least 4 other students will lose 20 points for each student short of four with whom (s)he partners. Be careful to partner with a variety of students early in the semester, since you may want to stay on the same team for the last two programming assignments.
• Tests
  • Two 120-minute midterm tests will be given at roughly equal intervals during the semester.
• Exam
  • The 150-minute final exam will be worth 180 points. It will be cumulative, but at least half of the points will be based on material covered after the second test.

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Late or Missed Assignments

Late programs will be penalized at the rate of 10% per day, each day that classes are in session, whether or not our class meets on that day. Exceptions will be made only for medical reasons. Missed assignments and exams will be assigned a score of 0 and cannot be made up without an official university excuse. Contact me as soon as possible if you need to discuss reasons for late or missed assignments or exams.

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Posting of grades

The Webassign gradebook will be used to post grades.

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