Welcome to CMPE 003 - Personal Computer Concepts

Software and Hardware – Fall 2007

 

 

 

General Class Information

 

Other course materials and communications will be available through the campus WebCT system. If you are having difficulty with WebCT, try the student documentation page. The Create your WebCT account link is particularly useful.

 

New students: Activate your UCSC email account, known as CruzMail, log in to the student portal (my.ucsc.edu) and click the link that says Activate UCSC Account.

 

Continuing students: If you have forgotten your CruzMail password, call the ITS Help Desk at 459-HELP between 8am-5pm, Monday-Friday.

 

Class Number:

13407

Instructor:

Gerald B. Moulds

Use the WebCT Email tool to contact me:

-          Click “Compose Message”

-          Click “Browse” (to the right of the “Send to” box)

-          I’m at the top of the list – Gerald Moulds (CMPE003_Moulds)

-          As a last resort, you may contact me at gmoulds@soe.ucsc.edu, but it may take longer for me to respond to these messages.

 

Office: Engineering-2 Room #237A

 

Instructor Office Hours:

Wednesday 3:30pm-4:30pm, or by appointment.

Office: Engineering-2 Room #237A

 

Lecture times:

Monday and Wednesday, 5:00pm-6:45pm, Jack Baskin Auditorium 101.

 

Teaching Assistants:

Sam Boyarsky – contact through WebCT Email as “sboyarsk”.

Sheldon Logan – contact through WebCT Email as “slogan”.

 

Who is my TA?

  • If you are enrolled in a lab, your TA is whoever is in charge of that lab.
  • If you are not enrolled in a lab, and your last name begins with the letters A-M, your TA is Sam Boyarsky.
  • If you are not enrolled in a lab, and your last name begins with the letters N-Z, your TA is Sheldon Logan.
  • Your TA may change as the quarter progresses – if so, you will be notified via WebCT Email.

 

 

Required text:

 

Tomorrow’s Technology and You, Introductory8th edition, by George Beekman.

Another version of this text, Tomorrow’s Technology and You, Complete 8th edition, covers the same course material.  It is, however, somewhat more expensive and contains five additional chapters that will not be covered in this course.

 

 

Labs:

  • Labs are NOT mandatory. 
    • You only need to attend a lab if you would like some help from one of the course TAs. 
  • You may drop in on ANY of the four labs for help, even if you are not enrolled in that lab. 
    • If the labs are full (which tends to only happen when one of the tougher assignments is due soon) enrolled students have first priority for open computer stations and the TAs’ attention.

 

All labs are held in Ming Ong Computer Lab 108.  Maps to the computer labs can be found here.  (Ming Ong is near Merrill College.)

1A       Monday, 2:00-3:15     -           Ming Ong                    - TA Sam Boyarsky

1B       Tuesday, 3:30-4:40     -           Ming Ong                    - TA Sheldon Logan

1C       Wednesday, 12:00-1:30-         Ming Ong                    - TA Sheldon Logan

1D       Thursday, 5:00-6:10    -           Ming Ong                    - TA Sam Boyarsky

 

Exam times:

            NOTE: THE SECOND MIDTERM WAS PREVIOUSLY SCHEDULED FOR NOVEMBER 12th.  AS THIS IS A HOLIDY, THE DATE HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED FOR NOVEMBER 14th.

Midterm Exams (each worth 15% of your final grade):

·         Monday, October 22nd (Chapters 1-3)

·         Wednesday, November 14th (Chapters 4-6)

·         Wednesday, December 5th (Chapters 7-10)

 

Bring a pink Scantron form (form F-1712, available at the Bay Tree Bookstore) and pencils on exam days.

If you know you cannot make an exam, or need special arrangements, inform me at least a week ahead of the scheduled exam time.  If you miss an exam due to illness or emergency, contact me as soon as possible.

 

Academic Integrity:

Cheating in any part of the course may lead to failing the course and severe academic discipline.

 

Special Accommodations:

If you have special needs, we will accommodate you. Also, the Disability Resource Center offers services which are confidential and free of charge.

 

Course Outline:

This course covers the concepts of hardware and software used in personal computing. The lectures provide a background in terminology and fundamental concepts. The assignments provide hands-on practice using basic office applications and web tools.

 

Credit:

This course is 5.0 credits. The course satisfies an IN requirement. Students cannot repeat this course for credit. Students cannot get credit for both this course and CMPS 2.

 

Grade Evaluation:

 

  • 45% = 3 Exams (15% each) Exams = 1500 points, 1500-1350 A, 1349-1125 B, 1124-900 C
  • 10% = 10 WebCT Quizzes (1% each)
  • 5% = Lecture Attendance (verified by a WebCT quiz question on each quiz)
  • 40% = Best 4  of 5 Homework Assignments submitted on WebCT (10% each)

 

Your grade will be assigned: A=100%-90%, B=89.99%-75%, C=74.99%-60%, Fail=Below 60%

 

Quizzes can NOT be submitted late, for any reason.  This is both a class rule and a limitation of the WebCT software – neither your instructor nor your TA can change this.

Assignments submitted late will typically receive a grade of zero.  If you have a valid excuse for a late assignment, contact your TA or the Instructor.

 

Assignments:

 

Note on submitting Assignments 1-5:

  • Submitting is a TWO STAGE process:
    • You must upload the assignment to WebCT.
    • You must then select the checkbox next to the uploaded file(s) and click “submit assignment”.
    • (Some assignments have additional requirements as well.)
  • Assignments #1, #2 and #5 use Microsoft Office 2003 for Windows XP.  This software is installed on most of the PCs available in labs on campus.
    • If you are using a newer version of Office, use “Save as…” and select Office 2003.  Otherwise your TAs may not be able to grade your assignment.
  • Assignments 3 and 4 will require a plain text editor, with files saved in plain ASCII format (I’ll explain this in detail during class.)  This can prove tricky for Mac users – ask the instructor or your TA for help.

 

 

Assignment 0 – EXTRA CREDIT - Send WebCT email to your TA – Due Thursday October 4th– Do this RIGHT AWAY.

 

-If you are in a lab, send email to the TA in charge of that lab. (See above section on Lab Times and TAs)

-If not in a lab, if your last name begins with A-M Sam Boyarsky is your TA.

-If not in a lab, if your last name begins with N-Z, Sheldon Logan is your TA.

-Click "WebCT EMail" from the left menu.

-Click on "Compose Message."

-In the "Send to:" box type in your lab TA email name, either “sboyarsk” (for Sam Boyrski) or “slogan” (for Sheldon Logan).

-In the "Subject" type in "CMPE003 Assignment 0".

-In the message area, type in your favorite color (Red, Blue, etc.).

-Click "Send" in the lower left box.

-Worth 100 points of Extra Credit.

 

Assignment 1 - Word Processing – Due Thursday, October 18th

 

 

-The purpose of this assignment is to demonstrate basic proficiency in creating and formatting a word processing document.

-Create a Word Document, listing the courses required for graduation in your major, or another major of your choosing.

            -(This information can be found listed in the UCSC Course Catalog, or often on the Web Page for your department.)

-Assignment must be saved as a Microsoft Word 2003 document.

-You must submit "assignment1.doc" through WebCT.

-Do not use the Computer Engineering major.

-100 points for indentation depth of 3 or more classes at some point If your major does not have classes with this many prerequisites, at the end of your assignment provide an example of a class that does, to demonstrate you know how to do so.

-100 points for submitting this as a Microsoft Word document titled "assignment1.doc" (-50 for wrong filename)

-100 points for using 2 different font sizes (2 x 50)

-100 points for using normal, bold, italic, and underline (4 x 25)

-100 points for using bullets with at least two levels of indentation (2 x 50)

-100 points for no spelling errors (-10 for each error)

-100 points for correctness to complete the major (-10 per error)

-100 points for use of centering and left justify (2 x 50)

-100 points for including a web link which links to a UCSC department site

-100 points for using 3 different font styles: One serif, One sans-serif, One mono-spaced (examples on pg. 388 of Beekman – page 572 if you have the Complete Edition of the text) (3 x 33)

-Sample page 1 and Sample page 2 are available as a model for your solutions.

-Worth 1000 points total (10%) plus up to a possible 100 points extra credit.  (See Sample page 2 for extra credit description).

 

Assignment 2 – Spreadsheet.  Here are links to the assignment and an example – Due Thursday, November 1st

 

Assignment 3 - Web Page.  Here are links to the assignment and an example - Due Thursday, November 15th

 

Assignment 4 – Programming.  Here are links to the assignment and hello_java.html - Due Thursday, November  29th

 

Assignment 5 – PowerPoint Presentation.  Here is the link to the assignment - Due Monday, December 10th.

 

Quizzes:

 

            All quizzes must be submitted by 11:30pm of their due date.  Quizzes can not be submitted late.  Each quiz is available for the five days previous to its due date.

                        - Note that all quizzes are due on Wednesdays, except Quiz #10 which is due on a Monday.

 

  • Chapter 1 Quiz – Due Wednesday, October 3rd.
  • Chapter 2 Quiz - Due Wednesday, October 10th.
  • Chapter 3 Quiz – Due Wednesday, October 17th.
  • Chapter 4 Quiz – Due Wednesday, October 24th.
  • Chapter 5 Quiz - Due Wednesday, October 31st.
  • Chapter 6 Quiz - Due Wednesday, November 7th.
  • Chapter 7 Quiz – Due Wednesday, November 14th.
  • Chapter 8 Quiz - Due Wednesday, November 21st.
  • Chapter 9 Quiz – Due Wednesday, November 28th.
  • Chapter 10 Quiz – Due Monday, December 3rd.
  • There will also be an Extra Credit Quiz that can be taken any time during the month of November.