Syllabus for CSCI N351 Multimedia Development

Section B371, B372.

A.K.A

CPT 499 Section B493, B494

  date time place
Lecture Tues, Thurs 2:00 - 2:50 pm Glendale Rm 6.
Lab Tues 3:00 - 3:50 pm Glendale Rm. 9
Instructors Andy Harris

Proposed Calendar

Expectations

This course is intended for people who are fluent in basic computing, and who have mastered the skills of CSCI N241. Students are expected to have at least the following skills before entering this course:

Course Objective

This course has a number of major thrusts: The course is driven by a problem-solving paradigm.

Required text

required materials will be posted online or distributed in class.

Additional Reference Materials

It is likely that you will want to start building your reference library as a part of this course. You will probably want to set aside a budget for books based on your own specific interests. We will not be heavily focusing on syntax, as we expect you to be able to look up syntax yourself. We are much more focused on the stylistic and strategic issues that books rarely cover well. You must have a good book or two to help you through syntax issues.

You may of course use online reference materials, but in our experience, you really need paper as well.

Assignments and Projects

Students will generate a number of assignments on a web site hosted on the departmental server (phoenix.cs.iupui.edu). Multimedia design is a skill that can only be learned by practice, so we will practice a lot. There will be roughly one assignment per week. If you fall behind in the assignments, you will not succeed in the class. It's that simple. In addition to these weekly assignments, there will be a larger integrative assignment at the midterm, and a final project which is intended to tie everything together.
While we will give some lab time, you will probably want to spend time outside of class working on your projects. You can do this work on any machine that has some kind of internet capability. As multimedia projects can get quite large, you will probably also want to have access to a zip disk for moving around your programs.

Grading Scheme

The final grade will be based upon the following breakdown:

Late assignments

Lab assignments will be worth 10 points apiece and shall be due one week from the day on which they were assigned. All late assignments will be assessed a 20% penalty. It should be noted that if the instructor is unable to view a file (due to a student's misconfiguration) on the due date, that assignment shall be considered late for grading purposes.

Incompletes

A grade of incomplete is not intended to serve as a drop or withdrawal after the time period for submitting a drop has expired. Incompletes will only be permitted under the following conditions:

  1. The student has satisfactorily completed all course requirements up until the time of the incomplete.
  2. The student demonstrates that being required to complete the course within the semester's time constraints would cause extreme personal hardship.
  3. The student and instructor agree to a plan to complete the remaining coursework in a reasonable time period not unduly burdensome upon the student. In no case will the student be permitted to complete coursework any later than the mid-term examination of the semester following that in which the incomplete was issued.
  4. All paperwork required to issue the incomplete is completed and turned in to the CSCI office staff before final grades are issued.

Academic Misconduct

One of the finest traditions of programming is the concept of openly sharing and refining code written by others. In the forms of work we will do, it will be very easy to use code written by others. In fact, sometimes we will do so as a part of the course. Like in any kind of scholarship, there is a difference between 'standing on the shoulders of giants' and plagiarism. Although you will be encouraged to examine the code of others, you MUST write original code for this course.

When you do borrow from another programmer, you must cite the source in your code. You must also comment how you used the code, and any modifications you made to it. Using code without appropriate citation constitutes plagiarism, and will be dealt with very harshly.

If we are concerned about something you wrote, we will not place a grade on it until we have a chance to talk to you. If we suspect that you have turned in plagiarized work, we will follow the steps outlined in the student code of academic conduct. We will vigorously pursue allegations of suspected plagiarism. Don't plagiarize. It just isn't worth it.

Keeping informed

Since this is an internet course, we will rely heavily on the Internet as a communication medium. You are expected to check your email and the course main page regularly. We will also have a mailing list, which you will be expected to subscribe to.

Reaching us

Here's the best ways to get ahold of us:
Andy Harris
Office SL 280 D  
email aharris@cs.iupui.edu @cs.iupui.edu
web page http://www.cs.iupui.edu/~aharris  

© Andy Harris
Indiana University / Purdue University, Indianapolis
email: aharris@.cs.iupui.edu
homepage: www.cs.iupui.edu/~aharris