Policies

Guiding Principles

CS 150: Culture and Coding (AUCC 3B/GT-AH3) is built around the Principles of Community, and we expect students to uphold these principles within our classroom environment, and throughout their careers.

Inclusion

We create and nurture inclusive environments and welcome, value and affirm all members of our community, including their various identities, skills, ideas, talents and contributions.

This manifests in this class in our in class discussions, discussion posts, and our interactions on Slack. You are to be kind to others with various backgrounds and identities, without making assumptions. With that said, this course is considered a ‘Brave Space’. This does not exclude the classroom from being a Safe Space - and know you are welcome - and the classroom is meant to challenge ideals. We will often approach topics that may make you feel uncomfortable and challenge your point of view. We will even ask you to argue the opposite of what you believe. That is the joy of learning.

Learn more about the difference:

Resources - Student Disability Center

We highly encourage students to make use of the SDC, whether they choose to use the provided accommodations or not. Often, we will allow accommodations within our environment, but we need the proper documentation in place to be fair to all students. The choice is always yours as a student to use provided accommodations, but having it already setup is much easier than waiting until later in the semester.

Resources - Counseling Services

We encourage students to make use of the University Counseling Services. Just as one takes care of your physical health, you should also take care of your mental health using all tools and means at your disposal. Your student fees provide access to a wide range of mental health support resources at no additional cost. Visit Counseling Services on the 3rd floor of the Health & Medical Center, and they’ll work together with you to find the resources that are best for you.

Integrity

We are accountable for our actions and will act ethically and honestly in all our interactions.

Within the classroom, that means you do your own work! This is especially true when it comes to programming, as it is easy to copy another’s code. Copying code is cheating and lacks integrity. Such violations of cheating or plagiarism will result in zero to a full negative grade on the assignment and reporting to the appropriate university resources. Further infractions will result in an F given in the course.

CMU provides some nice examples to follow:

For personal assistance, here are some of the things that are appropriate:

Clarifying ambiguities or vague points in class handouts, textbooks, or lectures
Discussing or explaining the general class material
Providing assistance with Java, in using the system facilities, or with editing and debugging tools
Discussing the code that we give out on the assignment
Discussing the assignments to better understand them
Getting help from anyone concerning programming issues which are clearly more general than the specific project (e.g., what does a particular error message mean?)
Suggesting solution strategies
In general, oral collaboration is OK.

Here are some things that are inappropriate:

Copying files or parts of files (such as source code, written text, or unit tests) from another person or source
Copying (or retyping) files or parts of files with minor modifications such as style changes or minor logic modifications
Allowing someone else to copy your code or written assignment, either in draft or final form
Getting help that you do not fully understand, and from someone whom you do not acknowledge on your solution
Writing, using, or submitting a program that attempts to alter or erase grading information or otherwise compromise security
Copying someone else’s files containing draft solutions, even if the file permissions are incorrectly set to allow it
Lying to course staff
Reading the current solution (handed out) if you will be handing in the current assignment late
Copying prose or programs directly
Giving copies of work to others
Coaching others step-by-step

If you do any of these, your should also acknowledge it in what you turn in; but expect to have a conversation with an instructor about it and, at least, suffer some penalty in the grade. If we discover you have done this and not acknowledged it, the penalty will be much more severe. In other words, dishonesty is much worse than stupidity.

Here are some gray areas:

Reading someone’s code for clarity or bugs, after you have completed your own
Helping with debugging
Looking at someone’s prose or program but thinking about them and writing your own
Following someone’s advice or instructions without understanding them
Many others

These, too, should be acknowledged.

A couple resources

Respect

We honor the inherent dignity of all people within an environment where we are committed to freedom of expression, critical discourse, and the advancement of knowledge.

Within this classroom, we give everyone the opportunity to talk during discussions. We are honest and open with everyone. We will also treat the labs and computers with respect, and those in the lab. If you are unable to use the lab resources with respect, you can loose the privilege of the lab and computer use.

Service

We are responsible, individually and collectively, to give of our time, talents, and resources to promote the well-being of each other and the development of our local, regional, and global communities.

Service within the class means giving back to the class. How do you choose to improve the classroom community, and those around you? Computer Science is about using technology to improve the world - and it starts with you.

Additionally, one way you will serve your local community is as a peer grader. Some of our assignments will require peer grading, and all assignments require peer interaction. If you do not follow your peer grading responsibility, you risk receiving a 0 on your assignments.

We have the right to be treated and the responsibility to treat others with fairness and equity, the duty to challenge prejudice, and to uphold the laws, policies and procedures that promote justice in all respects.

There are many topics in this class that have to do with social justice and equity for all those who use technology. These topics are meant to cause us to think about inclusive design, and how we develop applications that actively promote social justice by means of the application following inclusive design principles.

Grading

Activity	Weight (On Campus)	Weight (Distance)
Zybooks (Interactive Textbook)	18%	23%
Labs (In Zybooks)	22%	27%
Peer Instruction & Quizzes	10%	0%
Online Essays / Discussions	17%	17%
Exams	25%	25%
Practical Project/Final Paper	8%	8%

Teaching assistants grade assignments, labs, and quizzes. If you believe you have been graded unfairly, talk with the help desk (assignments) or your teaching assistant (labs) first. If you feel they did not treat you fairly, email the instructor.

Grade complaints will be considered only for two weeks immediately following when the assignment grade appears on Canvas!

Zynate/ZyBooks is an online tool to help you get hands-on practice for the Java Programming topics being discussed in class and Lab.
Lab participation is strongly encouraged. A portion of the class grade comes from successfully finishing the assigned lab work, and our previous students have indicated that labs are the best part of this class.
Peer Instruction At the beginning of every class, we will have a peer instruction time based on the assigned ZyBooks. Peer instruction involves discussion and iClicker answers. Distance Students Have weights adjusted to not include this category.
Online Essays / Discussions You will be asked to post a discussion based on concepts talked about in lecture and additional readings assigned. These will mainly be done through canvas.
Exams Exams will be given in the CS 110 lab during your lab time, or distance students will need to use proctorU if they cannot come to campus. They are all comprehensive.
Practical Project During the last three weeks of the course, you will be given a practical programming project that has both a written and coding portion.

Grade Assignment

The assigment of letter grades will be made as follows:

Letter Grade	Points
A	≥ 90%
B	≥ 80%
C	≥ 70%
D	≥ 60%
F	< 60%

In general, we will not assign lower grades than shown. We reserve the right to change the grading cut lines.

Topic Mastery

As way to track mastery of topics, we reserve the option to add additional assignments based on your performance on previous assignments. The goal of these assignments is to encourage mastery of topics. Grading for the additional assignments will be factored into the total for ZyBooks, thus increasing your overall grade for that area, and reducing the impact of previous performance.

Late Grades / Assignments

As listed in canvas. Only exceptions provided will require documentation.

GT Pathways

The Colorado Commission on Higher Education has approved CS 150 for inclusion in the Guaranteed Transfer (GT) Pathways program in the GT-AH3 category. For transferring students, successful completion with a minimum C- grade guarantees transfer and application of credit in this GT Pathways category. For more information on the GT Pathways program, go to http://highered.colorado.gov/Academics/Transfers/gtPathways/curriculum.html.