Syllabus

Class Time: 12:30-1:45pm MW

     Location: McCool 202

Instructor: Ziyi(Zeek) Niu

email: zn52@msstate.edu

Office: McCool 313D

Phone: 662-312-7832(Text only, include your Netid)

Web site: http://misweb.business.msstate.edu

(Go to your instructor's faculty profile page)

Important Dates:

	Week	Data	Event
M	1	Jan 7	First day of class
W	1	Jan 9	assignment #1a due
M	2	Jan 14	Last day to register or add a course 8:00 a.m.
W	2	Jan 16	assignment #1b due
M	3	Jan 21	Holiday (No class)
W	3	Jan 23	assignment #1c due
W	4	Jan 30	assignment #2a due
M	5	Feb 4	assignment #2b due
W	5	Feb 6	assignment #3a due
W	6	Feb 13	assignment #4 due
M	7	Feb 18	Exam #1
W	7	Feb 20	assignment #5 due
W	8	Mar 6	assignment #6 due
W	9	Mar 11	assignment #7 due
M	10	Mar 11	Spring break (no class)
M	11	Mar 18	Exam #2
W	12	Mar 27	assignment #8a due
W	12	Mar 27	assignment #8b due
W	13	Apr 3	assignment #9
W	14	Apr 10	assignment #10
W	15	Apr 17	assignment #11
M	16	Apr 22	Exam #3
W	16	Apr 24	Exam #4
F	F	Apr26 to May 1	Exam #5
M		May 6	Get Final Grades

Course Description:

This course follows BIS 1523 (Web Development I) and BIS 2523 (Web Development II), adding much more in-depth coverage of object-oriented programming, using the Java programming language. This course assumes a solid background in web development and computer programming and builds on that background. We will write text-based applications that run from the command line. While doing that, we will talk about Java's many built-in classes, and use those classes to instantiate objects for our programs. We will create our own classes. We will also learn how to read Java's documentation. Throughout all of this we will reinforce general programming concepts that you will have already learned in previous classes.

We will write GUI applications, which also run from the command line. Finally, we will write Java servlets, which will remind you of your PHP server-side programming. This is the section of the course which will truly utilize your web development background. During this section, we will read data both from server-based text files and from mysql database tables. We will generate HTML for both entire web pages and for responses to AJAX requests. We will build dynamic, Java-driven web pages.

The focus of our effort will be on business applications of the technologies that we cover.

Hardware and Software Requirements:

You must have full and complete access to a fairly powerful computer for your own practice and homework assignments. There are no Lab computers which are configured with the facilities that you will need in this course.

We will be using several different software packages during the semester. All software used in the course is available, free of charge, on our course web site. In Assignment #1, you will install software from the course web site onto your computer.

You need a flash drive for working in the lab, and for your programming exams.

Study Materials:

(required) Course Packet containing Course Information, day-by-day Course Outline, all assignments for the semester, programs for in-class discussion, and previous years’ exams. Each student must have a copy of this packet. You absolutely must bring it to class each day, as it will be the focus of each day’s in-class discussion. (The Course Packet will be available at Copy Cow)

(totally optional) Java: The Complete Reference, 9th edition, by Herbert Schildt, published by McGraw Hill, ISBN 978-0071808552.

Prerequisites:

This is not an introductory computer course! This course covers a great deal of material, and much of it requires a solid prior understanding of computer concepts. To take BIS 3523, you must meet any one of the following three requirements:

1. completed BIS 1523 (Web Development I) and BIS 2523 (Web Development II_,

2. completed any six hours of university level computer programming, including some experience in web development (ideally, you should be familiar with AJAX programming),

3. have permission of the instructor.

In any case, you must have a desire to learn more about programming.

Preparation for class:

You are responsible for being prepared for each class meeting. The Course Outline shows the subject for each class meeting. If the day's schedule shows a program that we will go over, you should review the program prior to class.

Classroom Etiquette:

Please get to class on time, and remain seated, reasonably quiet, and attentive throughout class if possible. Don't start packing up your belongings until class is over. How would you like to be on a date and see the other person start packing up to go home while you were in the middle of what you thought was scintillating conversation?

If you have a pager or cell phone, please turn it off while you are in class to avoid disruptions. Please don't bring food or drinks to class. As per normal etiquette, caps should not be worn indoors unless the sun is shining so brightly in the room that it's hurting your eyes.

Do not let your cell phone ring during class!

Class Participation:

You are encouraged to participate in class! Employers sometimes say that communication skills are a problem area for some of our graduates. I encourage you to work on your communication skills in this class. Ask questions. Answer questions. Volunteer. Be bold. Go for it. Many people refuse to speak up for fear of looking stupid. Let me tell you from my own experience, once you have looked stupid enough times, it will no longer bother you. Believe me, I know! And, seriously, it is highly unlikely that your classmates will actually think you are stupid. It would be virtually impossible for a stupid person to make it this far through the BIS curriculum; no, it is more likely that every person in our class is smart, not stupid. But no one knows everything, so we will all sometimes answer questions incorrectly, and we will all sometimes say something that is wrong. We may even ask a silly question. And we may all laugh about it. That will be a growing experience in itself. You are encouraged to participate in this class!

10 points of your final grade depend on class participation. Class participation points will be determined by the teacher, and are not subject to discussion or debate. In general, you will get a participation point only for asking a good, relevant question, during class. Class participation points will be posted after each class meeting. You may receive a maximum of one participation point per class meeting. You will not receive a participation point if you are late for class, or if you leave during class (even if you return later).

Homework:

Completion of programming assignments is required. Assignments will not be accepted late. Programs will be graded, online, at some point after that deadline. You do not need to turn in a printed copy of your program.

Most of your learning in this class will probably come from the hours that you spend working on the homework programming assignments. It is absolutely essential that you do your best to complete and learn from these assignments.

Do your own work on your programming assignments.   The programming assignments are your best preparation for our programming exams. If you can truly write these assignments on your own, and you understand what you are doing, you should do very well on the programming exams. If you use someone else's work on your assignments, or if you blindly type what someone else has written, you will probably do very, very poorly on the programming exams.

Class Attendance:

Class is important. Attendance will be checked at each class meeting. It would be good to develop the habit of getting to class on time (this will help you prepare for upcoming jobs in the workplace). You have the opportunity to either add points to, or subtract points from, your final class average, based on your class attendance. If you have fewer than two absences for the semester, you will get 2-n bonus points added to your final average. If you have more than 2 absences, 2n-2 points will be deducted from your final average. The table below shows your attendance bonus points for various numbers of absences.

Total absences	Bonus points		Total absences	Bonus points
0	2		5	-8
1	1		6	-16
2	0		7	-32
3	-2		8	-64
4	-4		9	-128

Student performance data since Fall 2007 shows the importance of class attendance in BIS 3523. Based on the performance of 339 students who have taken the class during that time, each absence lowers a student's course GPA by .3 grade points (one third of a letter grade). Students understand this, which is why 42% of the students during that time have had no absences in the class. We will cover important material in each and every class, and you really should be here every day.

You are expected to be at class on time. Being late to a class meeting counts as one-half of an absence. Absences and late arrivals will be posted in the misweb attendance manager. You can check your status at any time, via the Online Gradebook.

Grading:

The following table shows the allocation of the weights that will be assigned in calculating the final grade.

Weekly online quizzes 10%

Weekly programming assignments 10%

Class participation 10%

Exam #1-Exam #4 50%

Final Exam 20%

You might want to use a spreadsheet to keep track of your grades. Your spreadsheet would look something like:

Item	my grade	weight	grade * weight
Weekly online quizzes	100	.10	10.0
Weekly programming assignments	100	.10	10.0
Class participation	0	.10	0.0
Exam #1	90	.125	11.25
Exam #2	94	. 125	10.575
Exam #3	96	. 125	10.80
Exam #4	98	. 125	11.025
Final Exam	100	.20	20.0
Final average			83.65

If you ever have a question about a grade, you need to raise that question within seven calendar days of when the grade is posted in the Online Gradebook System (described later in this document). After a grade has been posted for seven days, the grade will not be changed.

Letter Grades:

Your final average will be calculated to one decimal place, with standard rounding, and final letter grades will be calculated on a 10-point scale. This means that 89.94 will round to 89.9, which is a B, and 89.95 will round to 90.0, which is an A.

Your grades will be based on your performance on the various components described elsewhere in this document. Your grade will not be changed for extraneous reasons, such as "if I don't make a B, my dog will dis-own me" or "I HAVE to have a C in this course because I've already made too many D's". If you need a particular grade, be sure to work hard enough to earn the grade; when you do that, you WILL get the grade.

Grading procedures:

You are not competing against other students for grades. Your grade will be based on your work, and the points that you earn. If everyone has a 90+ average, everyone will receive an A.

In grading programs (both assignments and programming exams), virtually all points will be based on whether a feature works or does not work. Very rarely will you receive points for effort, or for something "almost working". Having a few components working correctly is much better (and will earn you some points) than having no components working (which will earn you no points).

Exams:

You need to take your exams as scheduled. If you need to miss an exam, you need to let your instructor know ahead of time, if at all possible. Either call and leave voice mail, or send e-mail.

The exams are scheduled on the course outline. Plan ahead. If you have any type of exam conflict, you need to let your instructor know at least two weeks ahead of time.

All exams will be comprehensive. Written exams will be closed book, online multiple choice exams. For programming exams, you will be able to use your textbook, your course packet, and your old programs. You will not be allowed to use any other aids during the programming exams.

Registering for misweb.business.msstate.edu:

This class uses the "misweb system" for course management. Your first step in using misweb is to "register" for the system. To do this, go to:

http://misweb.business.msstate.edu/editor

https://misweb.business.msstate.edu/~COBI/students/editor.html

Enter your Banner net id, such as abc123, and your Banner net password. Click on the Log in button. If you have already registered for misweb, you will go straight to your Edit Routine. If you have not previously registered for misweb, you will go to a short form which will allow you to register. Complete and submit the form.

Register for misweb immediately!

The misweb system gives you a password-protected account that you can use to publish an online student profile page that is accessed through the COBI web site. You need to publish a good page as part of that site, if only to provide your instructor with information about your background. This system is intended to help you provide valuable information to instructors, fellow students, employers, and anyone else who visits COBI’s web site.

To go to the misweb system in the future, go to: http://misweb.business.msstate.edu

Course Web Site:

We have both a Public Course Web Site and a Private Course Web Site. The Public site includes items that we make available to the entire world. The Private site includes everything that is on the Public site, plus links to items that are restricted to students in our class. In general, you will want to access the Private site. To access the Private Course Web Site, check your grades in the Online Gradebook System.

1. Go to http://misweb.business.msstate.edu

2. Go to your teacher's faculty profile page

3. Scroll down to the Courses Taught section

4. Click on any link to Online Grades.

5. Select your class from the list of online gradebooks, enter your net id and your net password, and click on the Continue button..

6. Once you log in, you will see a page which contains various buttons, for various course technology components, including your online grades, the private course web site, and more.

Class Calendar:

All of your assignments and exams are scheduled in the Course Outline at the end of this section of the Course Packet.

Class Communications:

One item that you will maintain as part of your misweb page is your desired email address. Class email will be sent to whatever address you have recorded on your misweb student profile page. Be sure to have your correct email address in your misweb page.

Class email is considered business communication. Please write professionally, not as if you were in a chat room. Write complete sentences, spell correctly, use correct grammar, and capitalize where appropriate. Make sure that your message makes sense. Again, write professionally.

When you send email, be sure to include your name in your message.

Archived EMail:

Many messages that are sent to the class will be saved in a Class EMail Archive. You can read your class's archived messages any time that you check your grades in the Online Gradebook System (when you look at your grades, you will see a button to click for the Class EMail Archive). The EMail Archive has search capabilities, so you can easily find all messages that mention a particular topic.

Class Message Board:

A Class Message Board has been created for your use. This Board is for student use, to allow you to communicate with each other. You can create a new Topic on the Board (also known as a new Thread) asking a question, you can add a message to an existing Topic, or you can just read what other people have to say. You are encouraged to use this tool any time that it might be useful to communicate with your fellow students.

You have several “notification” options relating to the Class Message Board. By default, you will not receive any automatic email when someone posts a new message on the Class Message Board. It is highly recommended that you use the Class Message Board, both to post your own messages, and especially to read what other people post. Access the Class Message Board (via your Online Grades) to change your notification option. You can get an immediate automatic email any time that someone posts a new message (highly recommended! the class message board can be an invaluable tool when you are working on your homework assignments). Alternatively, you can ask for a Daily Summary notification (a once-a-day report of all messages posted the previous day). Be sure to access the Class Message Board, and set your "notification level" to your preferred setting.

The Class Message Board is there for you to use. It will not be monitored, other than by your classmates. Obviously, you should maintain an appropriate level of professionalism and decorum in your participation on the Board. You know what is right, and what is wrong. Don’t do anything wrong!

Online Quizzes:

We will have an online quiz due along with each homework assignment. The link to each quiz is on the Private Course Web Site.

The online quizzes are intended to be useful to you, for review purposes. Your quiz will be pre-graded as soon as you submit it; you will be told how many questions you have correct, and how many you have wrong. You will have the opportunity to correct any answers before submitting your quiz. You really should make 100 on each on-line quiz.

You will have the opportunity to ask for an email confirmation of your quiz. Be sure to get this confirmation, and save the message. If something happens, and your quiz grade is not recorded, or somehow gets lost, your email confirmation message will be your proof that you did indeed submit your quiz. If your grade is lost, and you don't have your confirmation message, you will not get credit for the quiz. Be sure to save your confirmation message!

You also have the option, at the end of each quiz form, to check to see if you have already submitted a quiz. You can use this option at any time (it is at the very bottom of the quiz’s login page) to see if you have successfully submitted a quiz. Online quizzes must be submitted on time.

You have an Online Quiz due along with each Programming Assignment.

Academic Integrity:

Mississippi State University has an approved Honor Code that applies to all students. The code is as follows:

"As a Mississippi State University student I will conduct myself with honor and integrity at all times. I will not lie, cheat, or steal, nor will I accept the actions of those who do."

Upon accepting admission to Mississippi State University, a student immediately assumes a commitment to uphold the Honor Code, to accept responsibility for learning, and to follow the philosophy and rules of the Honor Code. Students will be required to state their commitment on examinations, research papers, and other academic work. Ignorance of the rules does not exclude any member of the MSU community from the requirements or the processes of the Honor Code. For additional information please visit:

http://students.msstate.edu/honorcode

You are expected to maintain the highest levels of academic integrity in this class. All work that you submit must be your own, original work, done specifically for this class, this semester. That means that you should not copy anyone else's work, you should not use work that you did for another class, you should not use work that you did for this course during a previous attempt in the course, etc. If you ever have any question as to whether something is acceptable or not, please ask your instructor!

Our programming assignments are NOT group assignments. You may talk with other students about your program, you may even let another student look at your program to help you with your program, but you may not look at anyone else’s program for the purpose of using their code as your own. You should never look at another student’s code without that student’s explicit permission.

Academic misconduct will result in an XF in the course, and will be reported to the Dean of Students.

VERY IMPORTANT NOTICE   In our exams, we will program web pages. These pages will be available to the world, including to other students who are taking the exam.   Accessing another student’s web site during an exam is a clear case of academic misconduct. Web servers keep log files of every resource that is ever accessed on that server. The log file indicates the address of the computer that requested the resource, the date and time that the request was submitted, and the name of the resource that was requested. These log files are examined after each of our exams, and provide concrete evidence if a student accesses some other student’s exam. To be very clear: if you access some other student’s web site during an exam, it will be discovered, and it will be considered academic misconduct. If such an incident is found (in the log file), the student will get an XF in the course, and the incident will be reported.   Accessing another student’s exam during the exam time is a very, very serious offense, and it will be taken very, very seriously.

Title IX Compliance:

MSU is committed to complying with Title IX, a federal law that prohibits discrimination, including violence and harassment, based on sex. This means that MSU’s educational programs and activities must be free from sex discrimination, sexual harassment, and other forms of sexual misconduct. If you or someone you know has experienced sex discrimination, sexual violence and/or harassment by any member of the university community, you are encouraged to report the conduct to MSU’s Director of Title IX/EEO Programs at 325-8124 or by e-mail to titleix@msstate.edu.

Additional resources are available at the following web sites:

http://www.msstate.edu/web/security

http://students.msstate.edu/sexualmisconduct

Visit the following page for more details:

http://www.hrm.msstate.edu/aaeeo/titleix

Unconditional Guarantee:

If you attend every class during the semester, pay attention in class, and complete each programming assignment, I give you my personal guarantee that you will become a better programmer. If you fulfill your obligations as herein stated and do not feel that you have become a better programmer by the end of the semester, you may sit in on this class again in the future, as many times as you choose, absolutely free.

 

Programming Assistance during the semester   I (your teacher) will be happy (perhaps even ecstatic) to help you with your programs during the semester. You must request this type of assistance via the class message board. You can email or contact me otherwise about other issues directly, not going through the class message board, but programming requests must go via the class message board, so the entire class can see the entire discussion.   There are some requirements for your programming assistance requests: I will help you pretty much to the same extent that you help me. You can not, for instance, just write and say “my program doesn’t work. what’s wrong with it?”. You must tell me something, indicating:   - symptoms: what is your program doing incorrectly? - effort: what you have done to try to debug the problem? - prognosis: what do you think is wrong?   If you give me some good information, I will be able to help you much more quickly, and much more effectively.   Your program also must be WELL-WRITTEN, following good programming style, before you seek assistance. The program must be DOCUMENTED, you must have used good variable names, it must be neatly indented... you must follow the programming rules of the course (HTML does not have to be documented; Java must be.)   If you do your job, I guarantee you that I will try my very best to help you with your programs.   Finally, I will check the class message board many, many times throughout the day, so it will probably be a good way for you to contact me. I do sometimes go to sleep relatively early (9:00 is early, right?), but I also wake up early, and I will respond to your email first thing in the morning.   One more thing: do not send me copies of your files via email. Upload your files to your mislab account. I will check them there.     Beating the Spam Filter   As mentioned earlier, you can email me directly about items other than programming debugging requests (which must go through the class message board). When you do email me, you should put “BIS 3523" in the subject of your message, because my spam filter should automatically let that message through.