CSE 30 Text:

We don't have an official textbook. However, there are several useful links here . In particular, we will use the first part of Programming Abstractions in Python by Luca de Alfaro.

Prerequisites:

The course prerequisites are:
(1) CSE 20 (formerly CMPS 5P) and
(2) Math 3 or 11A or 19A or AM 3 or AM/Econ 11A or 400 or higher on the math placement exam.
Alternatively, you must have passed the CSE 20 testout exam.

Course Description:

Introduction to software development in Python focusing on structuring software in terms of objects endowed with primitive operations. Introduces concepts and techniques via a sequence of concrete case studies. Coursework consists of programming assignments and a final examination.

Learning Objectives:

Learn programming abstractions (aka object oriented programming) using Python. Learn, but also demonstrate OO understanding via, software development using different cases or applications.

Here's the approach I plan to use:
(1) Review mechanics of classes, inheritance, etc.
(2) Play with (use) different classes
(3) Modify/extend some of these classes
(4) Create our own class using different applications

Course Evaluation:

I want to provide a fair and accurate measure of your understanding and mastery of course materials in our new remote online setting. This is somewhat of an experiment but hopefully close enough so we don't need to revise much if any during the course of this quarter.

Evaluation will be based on two items: (1) active learning components, and (2) integration components. I don't plan to give any exams or finals.

Active learning components -- these will be in the form of polls, surveys, short "quizzes" or problems, etc. administered during the remote lecture sessions. These serve 2 purposes: (a) feedback for me to know if class is following along or i need to make adjustments, and (b) reinforcement exercise for you to better retain course materials. Some/most of these will be a short time fuse so that we can continue with our lectures. Also expect to have at least 1 of these in each lecture session. In sum, these components will account for 60% of your course grade. As I don't know how many of these we will end up having, each will have the same weight, and we will just normalize the sum so that it accounts for 60% of your grade. For example, if we end up having 22 such exercises this quarter, then each will have a weight of 60/22 %

Integration components -- these will be in the form of programming assignments where you will have a couple of weeks each to work on. I plan to give 4 such programming assignments with different levels of difficulty but equal weights. Each will account for 10% of your grade for a total of 40%. Note that: late submissions are not accepted. On the other hand, I'd like to encourage students to be creative and add extra features if they can. For significant/cool features that will impress our graders, you can earn bonus points maxing out at 10% That is, you can potentially bump your integration component score from 40% to 50%!

Labs and Tutors:

There will be ample remote support to help you with this course remotely. First, we have 12 TA section hours each week. Secondly, we will have even more additional individual tutor hours as well (wait for announcements/updates on the class web page). Attendance is not required. You are free to zoom in to any of them. You can zoom in to more than 1 TA section if you wish.

Submitting your work:

You can develop your programming assignments on any platform and any IDE you feel most comfortable with. However, make sure that your work can run on any plain python shell. For assignments that explicitly require external packages, you can assume that the graders will have them so you don't need to include those with your submissions.

Each programming and lab assignment should be placed in its own folder. Individual assignments will have specific instructions on file naming if your code needs to be split into multiple files.

Your code should not only be functional and correct, but should also be properly documented and follow good programming styles. If you are adding extra features, be sure to document and highlight these for the graders. A good place to do this is in a README file that you include with your submission folder.

You can re-submit as often as you want. We will only grade the most recent submission. XXX where/how to submit -- tbd

Academic Integrity:

We take academic integrity very seriously! Unless explicitly mentioned, all course work are intended as individual effort and are graded as such. It is okay to discuss general approaches and algorithms with other students, but this should be done without writing, looking, or sharing code. However, if there's any questions, please use our TA and tutor resources instead. Most of the tutors are students from previous CSE 30 offerings so they will understand where most of the difficulties might come from and help guide you through them.

Cheating or plagiarism in any form will not be tolerated! You are cheating yourself, being unfair to the honest students of the class, and more importantly it undermines the integrity of the university. The real world impact is that academic dishonesty undermines the value of your UCSC diploma and makes it harder for you to get a job.

While we treat you as adults and expect you to behave as adults, we will also do due diligence to maintain our standards. I sincerely hope we will not need to visit the following pange on Academic Misconduct Policy for Undergraduates.

Accommodation and Accessibility:

UC Santa Cruz is committed to creating an academic environment that supports its diverse student body. If you are a student with a disability who requires accommodations to achieve equal access in this course, please submit your Accommodation Authorization Letter from the Disability Resource Center (DRC) to me by email, preferably within the first two weeks of the quarter. I would also like us to discuss ways we can ensure your full participation in the course. I encourage all students who may benefit from learning more about DRC services to email the DRC office at drc@ucsc.edu. Additional information is also available from the Disability Resource Center (DRC).

If you are having issues with remote access to our class, please contact the Information Technology Services Additional help may be available through Slug Support.

Last modified Saturday, 28-Mar-2020 09:49:00 PDT.