For your own laptop, I recommend you download and install:
Email and MS Teams time: I am going to try to limit my email time and time spent monitoring MS Teams to:
If you have questions about a lab or assignment, post your question to MS Teams, so that everyone in the class can see the question, and perhaps one of your classmates can answer. If you see a question on MS Teams and you know the answer, please do so. Thanks!
My office hours will be posted on my schedule; however, I am available generally online in Microsoft Teams most of the time on most days.
Attendance is optional. However, you will do poorly if you skip class regularly (this has been proven time and time again). If you will miss class due to illness or some other legitimate reason, you must inform me before class that you will miss class that day.
Note: if you are feeling poorly for any reason, please do not come to class!
Cell phone usage in class is strictly prohibited.
Technology is not neutral, and neither are cell phones. They change the classroom and are distracting not only for
you, but also for your classmates.
Research on college students reveals how
phones can impact learning.
Laptops will be used in class, but only for taking notes, and during POGIL sessions. I ask that you disable WiFi on your laptop when class starts. Again, the purpose is to not distract those around you.
Each week has an assigned reading from the online textbook. Students will be required to complete the readings and associated "Participation Activities" by Monday before class.
The labs most weeks should be completed in pairs. We will usually use "pair programming" in labs, with pairs assigned by Prof. Norman. Links to the labs will be available in moodle. Lab attendance is not optional! Thursday labs will be due Saturday at 23:59:59.
Pair programming in labs will done with headphone/microphone headsets and screen sharing, so that we can maintain physical distancing. If you do not have a headphone/microphone headset, please let Prof. Norman know before the first lab.
The grading rubric will be as follows:
| Reading participation activities | 10% |
| Labs | 15% |
| Assignments | 25% |
| Tests (2) | 20% |
| Final Exam | 20% |
| Final project | 10% |
I retain the right to assign letter grades as I see fit, such that grades reflect the student’s ability and the amount of effort they put in to the course. In general, about one-third of the students typically get As, one-third Bs, and one-third Cs, Ds, and Fs.
Calvin College University will make reasonable accommodations for persons with
documented disabilities. Students should
notify a disability coordinator in the Center for Student Success (located in Spoelhof University Center 360) in
order to arrange accommodations. Then, come and talk to me within the first two weeks of class so we can put
your accommodations in place.
Inside and outside of the classroom, I work to treat every person with equal respect, regardless of racial identity, gender identity, physicality, brain chemistry, nationality, political leanings, and religious background. Whoever you are, you are fearfully and wonderfully made. God delights in diversity and I do, too. We humans need diverse viewpoints because every viewpoint, on its own, has blind spots. That has been proven to be true in technology-related fields, where under-represented minorities are significantly under-represented in the working world. When companies work hard to rectify this, they find their products and services improve. We have found this to be true in Computer Science classrooms as well.
If you or someone else in this class is hurt by something I say or do in class, I would like to know about it so that we can work toward a remedy. This has happened in the past in my classroom -- usually when I'm trying to be "cool" or be funny. If this happens this semester, please know that it was unintentional. Because this kind of feedback can be uncomfortable for all involved, I’ll take it however it comes: in public or in private, on the spot or days later, directly from you or indirectly through another student, another professor, or through my department chair, Keith VanderLinden.