Textbook

The required textbook for the course is Introduction to Computing using Python: An Application Development Focus, Second Edition, Ljubomir Perkovic, John Wiley & Sons, 2015. Make sure you have the electronic version of the text since it contains case studies that we will be using. The electronic text has ISBN 978-1-118-89105-6. You can buy the ebook directly from the publisher if you like: https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Introduction+to+Computing+Using+Python%3A+An+Application+Development+Focus%2C+2nd+Edition-p-9781119159612

Grading policy

Course assessments include lab exercises, programming assignments,  a midterm and a final exam. The course grade will be computed as follows:

An incomplete grade is given only for an exceptional reason such as a death in the family, a serious illness, etc. Any such reason must be documented. Any incomplete request must be made at least two weeks before the final, and approved by the Dean of the College of Computing and Digital Media. Any consequences resulting from a poor grade for the course will not be considered as valid reasons for such a request.

Late Work Policy: Programming Assignments, Lab Exercises, Midterms and Exams

Each programming assignment and lab exercise will have a posted deadline, specified on the assignment. Assignments submitted by the deadline will be graded for full credit. Assignments or labs submitted no later than 12 hours after the deadline automatically will lose 15% of the points. No assignments are accepted more than 12 hours after the deadline for any reason, including submission of the wrong file. 

No late midterms or exam submissions will be accepted for any reason. Make-up exams will not be given. If you wish to petition for a make-up exam, you must notify via email in advance and provide documented evidence of the emergency that will cause you to miss the exam. Failure to contact me in advance of the exam date and time will disqualify you from being allowed to take a make-up exam. If a make-up exam is granted, it will be of a form of my choosing.

Programming Assignments

Each week you will have a programming assignment. You can consult with your homework partners, the teaching assistant, the instructor, and the CDM tutors on the programming assignments, but you may not under any circumstances submit code that you have not helped to write or work written using the assistance of an AI tool. Your lowest programming assignment score will be dropped in the calculation of your course grade.

Lab Exercises

Unless otherwise noted on our schedule, you will have lab exercises available every Monday at 11:50 am that are due at 11:59 pm that same evening. You are highly encouraged to attend the scheduled lab session. Any lab sessions that implement a DePaul approved lab study will be mandatory to attend in person, these dates will be announced at least a week in advance if applicable to the current quarter. If available, you can also log into a Zoom help session conducted by the TA. You can find the link for the Zoom lab sessions in the course calendar on D2L. 

The two lowest lab scores will be dropped in the calculation of your course grade.

Lab Grading Rubric

Each lab session is worth 5 points. To receive full points for the lab exercises, you must submit a file containing a solution to all exercises on the lab assignment by the deadline specified in the exercise set.  A general rubric for each area is given below:

Midterm and Final Exams

The midterm and final exams will be cumulative. The midterm exam will take place on February 8, 2024, and the final exam will take place on March 19, 2024. The exams will take place in a lab. Both exams will require you to write Python code. The details about how the exams will be given will be shared later in the quarter on the midterm and final exam study guides which will be posted to D2L. 

Prerequisites

You must have taken CSC 241: Introduction to Computer Science II or an equivalent course that introduces problem-solving techniques and programming in Python and earned a passing grade (C- or better). I will also assume that:

• You know how to create, debug, compile, and run Python, and you use a reasonable coding style (i.e., your code is easy to read and relatively concise)

• You know Python's basic control structures and types

• You can solve basic computing problems