Syllabus - CPSP229D - Webship - Fall 2009

Homeworks

Contact Information

  • Sasha Slutsker, slutsker - at - umd.edu (phone number on request)
  • Adil Bukhari, mbukhari - at - umd.edu (phone number on request)
  • Office Hours
    • Tuesday, 12:30 - 3:00 in Baltimore Room of Stamp
    • Wednesday, 10am - 11am in Baltimore Room of Stamp
    • Thursday, 12:30 - 3:00 in Baltimore Room of Stamp
    • Friday, 10am - 11am in Baltimore Room of Stamp
    • (more on request)

Course Description

This course introduces the student to the fundamental components and practices of web development with XHTML, CSS, JavaScript/jQuery, and some web technology and framework programming. Throughout the course, students will be creating websites and web applications via various technologies. Students are initially expected to know nothing about web development - no specialized knowledge is required going into the class. After the class is over, students will have a basic understanding of programming and web application development. Also, time permitting, we will cover mobile application development.

Projects

Each week (or so) a new project will be given to the student highlighting new coding/design skills learned in lecture. These projects are designed not to be ‘busy work’, but rather thoughtful exercises to engage the student in web programming so that they become more proficient in it. Students may use a basic text editor or Firebug to write these projects.

Projects will all be open-ended: that is, the student will be given great latitude and somewhat loose requirements. The project will be graded on whether the student met the minimum requirements, but anything above the minimum requirements will be liberally rewarded with extra credit.

Submissions

Students will submit projects by committing them to their SVN repository. This SVN repository will be discussed at the first lecture, so be sure to attend. Each student will be given an account with which to connect to the SVN repository, and they will be able to "commit" code changes to their folder in the SVN repository. When the project is due, the instructor will download the latest version of the code from each student's SVN repository and grade that version.

For the first nine weeks, you will be writing code that can be run on your local machine (use Firefox for this.) After that, you will be writing code that will either require you to set up a server locally (which we will discuss in class), or you can use the SDU server for testing by either using SSH or SFTP. You can access your webpage by going to http://www.sdu.umd.edu/~LOGIN, where LOGIN is replaced with your login name.

Submission rules, such as naming of files and directories, will vary from project to project and will be defined on the project assignment sheet given out each week.

Expectations

The Science, Discovery, and the Universe Program requires a minimum of 6 hours of work each week spent on the internship/research/service. This course acts as the student’s internship requirement. Thus, 6 hours of work per week is expected for this class, including in-class time. However, depending on prior experience, your time committment can be less than or greater than this number. Feel free to come into office hours if you need additional help - we will hold liberal amounts of them each week, and we will offer more by appointment.

Webship accounts for 60% of the student’s final grade for CPSP229D, while the general colloquium accounts for 40% of the student’s final grade.

Late Work / Make-ups / Disabilities

Late projects will be accepted, but they must go above and beyond the normal requirements. A late project that merely meets the minimum requirements will get a penalty of 30% of the project grade. Also, late projects cannot be graded in time for the next class (projects will normally be graded such that you will get it back in class.) Also, each class, the best three projects will be presented to the entire class, and late projects will not be included in this presentation regardless of merit.

Make-up exams will only be provided for those students who provide a valid University excuse, which must be provided BEFORE the exam, unless you are hospitalized, in which case you may provide notice once you leave the emergency room.

Students with disabilities that are registered with DSS should contact the instructor as soon as is convenient for accommodations to be made.

Grading

The course will adhere to the following grading policy and breakdown of the weighting of grades:

Assignment % of Total
Projects 50%
Quizzes 16% (2% each)
Mid-Term Exam (November 5th, 2009 in-class) 14%
Final Exam (December 10, 2009 in-class) 20%

Extra credit is available for every project, so grades higher than 100% will be possible. The final grade will be a combination of your grade in the webship and your grade in the colloquium, with the webship accounting for 60% of your final grade.

Academic Integrity

The University’s Academic Integrity Policy will be enforced to its fullest extent under ALL circumstances. This includes cheating, fabrication, facilitating academic dishonesty, and plagiarism. You may work with other students for the projects that allow it, but you can only commit the SVN repository under your own name for code which you yourself wrote.

Forums

You may discuss the project on the forums.