CSCI-A 110: Introduction to
Computers & Computing

Syllabus

Computer Science Department
Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
Spring 2021


Instructor: Charles Pope, Senior Lecturer & Course Coordinator
Office Hours:  4:30pm - 5:30pm MTW, or by appointment
Office Location:  online via zoom (see Canvas site for link)
Email: cepope@iu.edu

(The instructor reserves the right to make additions, changes
or corrections to this document throughout the semester.)

Catalog Description

Credits: 3 cr.
Prerequisite(s): One year of high school algebra or MATH-M 014.
Basic principles of computers and software. Social and lifestyle effects of information technology. Emphasis on problem-solving techniques. Productivity software skills are taught using real-world projects. Lecture and laboratory. Credit given for only one of CSCI-A 106, A 110, or A 111.

Contact Hours

Lecture: (18.75 h)
Lab: (36.25 h)
Final exam: (2.0 h)
Total: 57.0 h

Course Goals

By the end of this course students will be able to identify the impact of computing and the connections between people and computing, including the ethical implications of emerging technology. The course aims to broaden participation in computing and foster a confidence in students as they explore standard computing tools and applications on multiple platforms that allow them to accomplish specific tasks.  Students will learn processes, methods, and computational principles of problem-solving and data organization to analyze data and derive information from it. This also means that students will have created a sound foundation upon which they see themselves using technology in a successful career in general, and in their chosen field of study in particular. 

This approach is consistent with a study commissioned by the National Science Foundation to investigate the relationship between the rapid change within Information Technology and our ability to keep pace. The resulting report by the National Research Council (NRC), Being Fluent with Technology, concluded that the educational "bar needs to be raised." The recommendation, fluency with information technology, was a package of skills, concepts, and capabilities taught with a project-oriented learning approach.*

*Fluency with Information Technology, Snyder, Lawrence. Addison Wesley, 2004.

Course Objectives

Students who successfully complete this course will accomplish the following objectives and demonstrate the following learning outcomes:

CSCI-A110 Course Objectives CSCI-A110 Learning Outcomes
1. Practice using tools of the trade. Students will learn through the course assignments how to manipulate computer software to deliver desired results, gaining competence with contemporary computer applications and tools, and practical experience with the Microsoft Office System of applications (MS-Word, MS-Excel, MS-Access), html5 and css3.
2. Use discipline-specific thinking to create projects of relevance to their discipline. Students will learn to think algorithmically and they will gain proficiency in reasoning, debugging, and other components of fluency.
3. Apply computational thinking to solve complex problems and develop analytic skills. Students will learn how technology can be applied in practice and they will gain experience in doing so through an introduction to problem-solving techniques, increasing their ability to apply reasoning in complex situations.
4. Reflect upon how this course has influenced their professional and academic life. Students will appreciate the value and benefit of computers within their larger context, the world in which they live; they will use their new relationship to computers and computing to impact their expression of ideas in a meaningful way.

Course Mapping

The objectives of this course map to the General Education (N&M) Learning Outcomes3 as below:

CSCI-A110 Course Objectives Natural & Mathematical Sciences Learning Outcomes3
1. Practice using tools of the trade. C, D, E
2. Use discipline-specific thinking to create projects of relevance to their discipline. B
3. Apply computational thinking to solve complex problems and develop analytic skills. C, D, E
4. Experience the complexity and hard work required to deliver a tangible result to a real client. C, D
5. Reflect upon how this course has influenced their professional and academic life. E

[3] Natural and Mathematical Sciences Learning Outcomes

    Students who successfully complete N&M courses will be able to demonstrate:
  1. An understanding of scientific inquiry and the bases for technology.
  2. The ability to model and understand the physical and natural world.
  3. The ability to collect and interpret data, think critically, and conduct theoretically based inquiry.
  4. The ability to solve problems.
  5. Analytical and/or quantitative skills.

Textbooks and Supplies

  1. This courses uses readings and multimedia resources available online.
  2. An IU Network ID (All students should have one of these. Can be obtained at the Information Commons at the Wells Library).

Grade Determination

This course uses a grading scheme based on 797 points. Lecture quizzes and exams are in-class, as are Lab quizzes. Lab assignments 1-7 each require approximately 90 minutes to complete. Lab Skills are completed daily in lab, and take approximately 40 minutes to complete. Each assignment will earn points as follows:

Assignment Description Points Total Points
Lecture Quiz (4) Lecture Topics,
10 questions each
40
Lecture Midterm 66 questions 100
Lecture Final comprehensive
100 questions
100
240
Lab Test 1 spreadsheet
75 minutes
50
Lab Test 2 html, css, ftp
75 minutes
50
Lab Test 3 database/word-processing
75 minutes
50
150
Lab 1 html+css 25
Lab 2 Excel 25
Lab 3 Excel 25
Lab 4 Database 25
Lab 5 Database 25
Lab 6 Word 25
Lab 7 Word 25
Lab Skills varies 232
482
797

By totaling the number of points you earned during the semester, your final letter grade will be determined using the following table:

Total Percentage Earned Letter Grade
98% A+
93% A
90% A-
87% B+
83% B
80% B-
77% C+
73% C
70% C-
67% D+
63% D
60% D-
<60% F

Final grades will not be publicly posted. Please do not email your Lab or Lecture instructors requesting final grade information. Individual grades will NOT be discussed via e-mail.  Please refer to OneStart for your final semester grade.

The size of the class provides a unique challenge to receive a timely answer to email requests during the last week of classes; this is true because of the volume of requests received at this time. As much as is possible, please foresee the end of the semester and make your requests early. Also, it is predictable that you will experience long lines for office hour visits during the last week of classes; to mitigate upset, please either make an appointment, or come early.

Course Schedule

Please refer to the course calendar located under the "Calendar" tab in the A-110 IU website for the lab and lecture schedule.

Course Policies & Procedures

Participation

Attendance Policy

Attendance in lab and lecture is the student's responsibility. You cannot expect to receive the results promised in this Syllabus if you do not attend all lectures and labs.

Talking Policy

Class contributions are welcomed and encouraged. Carrying on conversations in class that do not belong in class is discouraged. You will be invited to leave if this happens.

Electronic Devices in Class Policy

Cell phones, music players, and similar devices should be put away while in lecture and laboratory facilities. Please power off all devices when entering the classroom. Laptop computers may be used in lecture for the purpose of taking notes. If you are not using your laptop for notes, please leave it closed.

Disabilities Policy

In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), all qualified students enrolled in this course are entitled to reasonable accommodations. Please notify the Lecturer and Associate Instructor during the first week of class of any accommodations needed for the course. 

Disability Services for Students

Students with documented disabilities through Disability Services for Students need to contact Professor Pope, A110 Course Coordinator, about testing accommodations within the first two weeks of the semester. A meeting will be arranged to discuss your accommodations. Students must bring supporting documentation to the meeting. Further information may be located at http://www.indiana.edu/~iubdss/

Withdrawal Policy

The official withdrawal policy for CSCI A110 is the policy found at the Registrar's website.  Depending on the date of a withdrawal, you should view the policy at Late Grades or at Final Grades.

Incomplete Policy

An incomplete (I) final grade will be provided only by prior arrangement in exceptional circumstances conforming to departmental policy. The bulk of course work must have been completed in passing fashion. A student's desire to avoid a poor grade is not a satisfactory reason for receiving an incomplete.  To discuss possible arrangements for an Incomplete in the course, you should contact your A110 Lecturer.  Please refer to the IUB Computer Science Department Incomplete Policy at http://www.cs.indiana.edu/dept/incomplete.html for additional information. 

Late or Missing Assignments Policy

For each day that an assignment is turned in late, your grade for that assignment will be dropped 10% off the total points available (e.g. if you earned 100% of the total possible points available for an assignment and you turned it in two days late, you will receive an 80%). In circumstances where turning in an assignment late was unavoidable, you can email your work to your instructor; the datestamp on the file must precede the due date of the assignment in order for the work to be considered for full marks.

Exam Makeup Policy

Lab and Lecture Makeup Exams

Should you notice early in the semester that you have any conflict whatsoever with a test day, please communicate that as early as possible with your instructor. If it is possible, you may be able to make an arrangement to take an exam EARLY, which is so much more preferable than taking an exam LATE. Reasons for requesting to take a test early should be justifiably intelligent and often come with a note from another professor, or a program coach in support of your request.

Lecture makeup tests are not allowed unless pre-arranged with the Lecturer and only when documentation of hospitalization, family death, or emergency is provided. No exceptions. Documentation of the event must be provided to Professor Pope within 48 hours of the missed exam or test. Oversleeping is not an acceptable excuse for missing an exam or test. Students will be required to make-up the exam or test the Monday following the examination date at 2:30 pm in Lindley Hall 201E. ALL quizzes and exams must be made up one Friday plus one week after the original test date or a zero (0) will be given.*


Lab
makeup exams are not allowed unless pre-arranged with the Associate Instructor and only when documentation of hospitalization, family death, or emergency is provided. No exceptions.  Documentation of the event must be provided to your Associate Instructor within 48 hours of the missed exam or test. Oversleeping is not an acceptable excuse for missing an exam or test. Students will be required to make arrangements with their Associate Instructor to make up the missed exam.  ALL exams must be made up one Friday plus one week of the original exam date or a zero (0) will be given.*

*If you believe your circumstances are exceptional, you must contact professor Pope concerning your circumstances, and you must make a request.

Religious Observance Accommodation policy

Indiana University respects the right of all students to observe their religious holidays and will make reasonable accommodation, upon request, for such observances. For a complete policy on religious holidays and accommodations for such, go to http://www.indiana.edu/~deanfac/holidays.html.

Deadline for requesting accommodations for observance of a religious holiday

If you plan on requesting reasonable accommodations to observe a religious holiday, you must submit your request to Professor Pope by the end of the second week of the course. You may locate the form at http://www.indiana.edu/~deanfac/download/holidayreq.pdf.

Performance

Academic Honesty Policy

The standard penalty for any form of academic dishonesty in a course is failure of the course. Providing or receiving help during lecture or lab exams, or submitting the work of someone else as your own work are all examples of academic dishonesty and are prohibited. Generally speaking, what is encouraged:

Every individual should put forth their own scholastic effort. Appropriate credit is to be given to all the participants in collaborative work. In these cases of previously reported research, the original work is to be cited. However, when such collaboration occurs, all of the participants are to be acknowledged (i.e. their names written on the resulting work). Similarly, in a paper that uses ideas developed by another person, the original author is to be cited. When ideas that were invented by another individual are used in a program, the original inventor is to be cited (i.e. in the program documentation).

If there could be any way where we cannot be certain about the file origin or the work contained therein then the work will be considered academic dishonesty. Copying any portion of an assignment from a friend, or copying from a web page does constitute academic misconduct. Please do not do this. The following Academic Misconduct Policy will be rigorously adhered to.

  1. Examples of academic dishonesty, but not limited to:
    A. Cheating:
    • Giving another student access to your computer account, or negligently permitting another student to access your computer account or files constitutes cheating on your part if that other student copies any files that become implicated in a cheating case.
    • Turning in someone else's work as your own, even with the permission of the original author.
    • Facilitating someone else to turn in your work as his or her own.
    • Using course files that were not downloaded by you, under your own login credentials.
    B. Collaborating:
    • Turning in work without proper acknowledgment of the sources of the content contained within the work.
    • Helping each other in a homework session, and then turning in the same file for each student, regardless of whether or not the file name is changed. Each student must turn in his or her own file, which has his or her own individual work.
    C. Citing Sources:
    • Submit work with false or forged information/data
    • Damaging other’s work
    • Obtaining data from unsanctioned sources
    • The work of others that is submitted and appropriately acknowledged is never, of itself, cheating; but it may not earn you any credit for the assignment.
    D. Plagiarism:
    • Sharing files with someone else (enabling, facilitating)
    • Borrowing files from someone else (even just to “look at” the file)
    • Submitting files without crediting
    E. Other:
    • Forging signature on document
    • Offering bribes to gain academic advantage
    • Stealing the exam paper or other course material
    • Altering or interfering with grading
    • Deceiving an instructor or university official, for example, by claiming illness or family emergency
    • Use of deception for the purpose of obtaining credit
  2. Individual Work:
    A. Allowed:
    • Discussion in lab class how a project is to be done (this is similar to peer tutoring)
    B. Not Allowed:
    • Doing someone’s work for them
    • Sharing files, especially by email, flash drive, or remote storage
    • “Borrowing” files from others, even temporarily or just to “look at”
  3. What are the consequences of academic dishonesty?

    The ordinary departmental level penalty for cheating is failure in the course and notification of the department chair, with copies to the student, dean of the School of Informatics and Computing, dean of the student's school, and Dean of Students. University may enforce additional sanctions, especially for repeated offenses. In all cases, the penalty will be more severe than not turning in the assignment. The student may receive a lower grade or an F for the course. There might be other sanctions as well. Students are encouraged to educate themselves about academic dishonesty and to avoid any instances of it. For most students this is never a problem.

    How you can tell if you are a student who is particularly at risk?

    • The due date is rapidly approaching
    • You are “lost” in the homework (ie, don’t know where to begin)
    • You have not sought authorized help from course staff, etc.
    • You have not read the syllabus

    To mitigate this risk: turn in the homework assignment for partial credit. In most cases, you can re-do the homework assignment to make up for what you missed on the first pass.

Grade Appeals Policy

To appeal a lecture exam grade, send an e-mail to your Lecturer's e-mail address within 72 hours of the grade having been received to set up an appointment to discuss the issue face-to-face.

To appeal a lab exam grade, send an e-mail to your Associate Instructor's email address within 72 hours of the grade having been received to set up an appointment to discuss the issue face-to-face. Overdue appeals will not be considered. You may further appeal unsatisfactory lab scores to your Professor Pope within 72 hours of your face-to-face meeting with your lab instructor. Make this appeal by email and substantiate the basis for your appeal with factual information and sound reasoning; you should academically and intellectually justify your appeal. Upon receiving your appeal, your lab instructor will have an opportunity to reply to your argument, and you will have a final opportunity to respond to their reply. Once all of the materials have been received, the appeal will be reviewed and either granted or denied within 72 hours.

Final Grade Disputes

Final grades will not be discussed via email with lab or lecture instructors during official University breaks. You must contact the A110 Course Coordinator at the beginning of the next semester to set up a meeting to discuss any grade discrepancy.  You should make this contact by sending an email to cepope@indiana.edu.

 

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Send questions or comments about this web site to cepope@iu.edu . Please put "A110 web site" in the subject line. (C) Copyright CSCI A110 - Computer Science Department, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN. This page was last revised February 7, 2021.