CS 2541: Course Requirements and Grading

Course Requirements and Grading:

• In-class Exams: 22.5%. There will be  one midterm exam
  
• What about final exam: The final exam is the final project demos.  
  
• Assignments: 30%These consist of
  
• Homeworks:  Goal of the homeworks is to improve your learning of the concepts covered in the class. There be some theory homeworks and some programming homeworks (based on tools you learn in the lab).  You must work on the homeworks individually -- collaboration, of any kind, will be treated as a violation of academic integrity. You will receive a grade of zero on the assignment, and further sanctions may be levied.
  
• In-class and In-Lab exercises/quizzes and discussions: There are several in-class activities -- from discussions, problem solving, to programming -- some of these may also involved teamwork. Some lab sessions will require you to complete and submit the exercise within the allotted time. Some of the lab exercisess may  require demonstrating your solution to the instruction team.
  
• Team (term) Project: 47.5%. There will be a term project. The project will involve working in teams to design and implement a database Information System consisting of a web front end and a relational database. The project will be broken into two phases, with clear deadlines for each phase. The score on each phase will be added to get your total score on the project.  Teamwork will constitute up to 7.5% of this total.
  
• The project will require considerable programming and testing and require at least 15-20 hours of design, programming and testing. Distributing the workload amongst the team will play a crucial role in managing your time. 
• Each student will be assigned to a team during Phase 1 of the project. Team compositions will be changed during Phase 2. 
• Teams will be required to present a demo of their project -- the grade on the demo is part of your overall project grade. 
• We expect the project must meet all requirements and must work without failing during the demo. Points will be deducted if your project does not work OR if it does not meet all the specifications.
• For the projects, the material required to complete the projects will be covered in both the lab and lecture sections. 
• Late Submission policy: There are no late submissions allowed in this course. The only exception to this rule is if you have a medical or family emergency or professional conference, and proper documentation is required in order to get an extension.
• Grades will be posted on Blackboard -- make sure you check and inform the instructors if you see any disparity between what is posted on blackboard and what you think your grades are. You have one week after the grades are posted to request a correction or regrade; after that we will not regrade your submission.