Assigned: Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Due: 1:15 p.m., Thursday, January 28, 2010
No extensions!
This assignment is also available in PDF.
Summary: In this assignment, you will gather information
about the structure of the course and then respond to a few basic questions
about the course and about yourself.
Purposes: To encourage you to learn about the structure
of the course and the course web. To give me a bit more information about
you.
Expected Time: One to two hours for parts one and two.
Collaboration: Each student should turn in his or her
own responses to this assignment. However, you may certainly work with other
students as you review the course materials and answer the questions.
You may discuss the assignment with anyone you wish. You may obtain
help from anyone you wish, but you should clearly document that help.
Submitting: Email
me your answers. More details below.
Warning: So that this assignment is a learning experience
for everyone, I may spend class time publicly critiquing your work.
As you might have been able to tell from the first day of class,
I have a wide variety of opinions about learning and teaching in CS
which are reflected in how I run the class. You can (and should) learn
more about these perspectives from the course Web. In this assignment,
you will review the course Web and answer some basic questions.
1. Read
2. Write (well, type) answers to the following questions:
a. Suppose you get everything correct on a homework assignment. What grade
should you expect to receive on that assignment?
b. What happens if you turn in homework late?
c. Explain what an eboard is (or seems to be) and list a few ways one
can get the eboard for a particular class.
d. How can you figure out what assignments you have due?
e. When can you work with other students and when can you not work with
other students (for this class)?
f. How can you obtain help from me?
g. Why do you think I gave you this assignment?
h. What questions about the class do you have that are not answered by
the Web site?
As I start each class, I like to learn a little bit about each student.
Hence, I provide a short survey. I find that knowing more about my
students helps me teach a better class.
a. What is your name?
b. What is your major (or intended major)?
c. Who is your academic advisor?
d. What courses are you taking this term? Please include meeting times.
I prefer course names to course abbreviations, although you should feel
free to include abbreviations in addition to names.
e. What programming languages do you know?
f. Why did you register for this course?
g. What do you hope to learn or gain from this course?
h. What are your biggest concerns for the course?
i. What do you like most about Grinnell?
j. What do you like least about Grinnell (or what do you dislike most about
Grinnell?)
k. Most surveys like this ask you to list your five favorite books, movies,
TV shows, CDs, chia animals, buildings on campus, professors, or whatever.
I'll give you a little more freedom. Pick a category of objects (it can
be one that I listed, it can be one that I didn't list), and list your five
favorite objects in that category.
l. What else should I know about you?
m. Since I'm asking you all of these questions, it is only fair that
you get to ask me some questions. What, if anything, would you
like to know about me?
I will evaluate your work on the seriousness with which you approach
the assignment and your correctness in answering the questions. (And,
yes, particularly clever or amusing answers are likely to earn you a
modicum of extra credit.)
Please submit this work via two separate email messages. The first
should be titled CSC323 Course Details and should contain your
answers to part one of this assignment. The second should be titled CSC323 Survey Answers and should contain your answers to part
two of the assignment.
Please send your work as the body of an email message. I don't like
attachments and prefer not to receive them when they can be
avoided.
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