This is the archived website of SI 335 from the Spring 2014 semester. Feel free to browse around; you may also find more recent offerings at my teaching page.
Instructor: Dr. Daniel S. Roche, Michelson 322, x36814, .
Course Website: http://www.usna.edu/Users/cs/roche/courses/s14si335/
There will be a short question assigned after each class and distributed by email, to encourage active participation. These will be graded mostly (but not entirely) on an effort basis. Students may collaborate (see my definition of collaboration below), but only with other students in the same section.
More extensive non-programming problems, that require significant time, effort, and care, will be assigned in problem sets due every 4 weeks or so. Problem sets may be completed in groups up to a certain size. Solutions will be presented oraly, in person with the instructor. Each group is also required to hand in a written outline of their solutions. More details on this process are available on the course webpage.
Everyone in each group will receive the same grade for that problem set. No collaboration or discussion is allowed outside of the group. Any outside resources used must be clearly documented.
There will be 3 programming projects in this class, spaced out between the due dates of the problem sets. Details on electronic submission will be published along with the projects and must be followed. Programming projects in this class will require not only coding skills, but also algorithmic development skills, and therefore starting early is extremely important. For problem sets, informal discussion between students is allowed, but not collaboration (see definitions below). All discussion and outside resources must be clearly and specifically documented.
There will be one midterm exam and one final exam. The final exam will be cumulative. Students will be allowed one "crib sheet" for the midterm and two for the final.
Solutions to all daily quizzes, problem sets, and programming projects will be published as soon as they are due, and therefore no work submitted after the deadline will receive credit. Exceptions to this rule will only be made in special circumstances or when requested well in advance.
Each student is responsible to make up the work they miss due to planned absences such as movement orders for sports and extra-curricular activities as well as medical procedures. There will be no blanket exception to the late policy to account for absences. Generally, students should plan ahead and make arrangements with classmates or the instructor to ensure their work is submitted on time.
For the purposes of this class, we make a distinction between:
Discussion is allowed on any daily quiz or programming project, as long as it is clearly documented. However, collaboration is only allowed on the daily quizzes and not on programming projects. The only help permitted on problem sets is within a student's group. At all times, help from any human not currently enrolled in SI 335 is never permitted. This includes other students not in the class, parents, friends, and even online humans (e.g., asking questions in an online forum or discussion board).
Any resources other than those on the course website must also be documented clearly and specifically. For example, if a website is used, the full address of the web page in question must be listed, along with what in the assignment that page was used for. Just saying "Wikipedia" is not enough, but something like "en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_O_notation example used in problem 2" would be good.
The section leader is responsible for:
No food or beverages (except in closable containers) are permitted in the classroom.