| Prerequisites | Programming Experience in a high-level computer language |
|---|---|
| Time/Place | MWF 10:10-11am, Memorial Hall 110 |
| Course Home Page | http://www.cs.ucsb.edu/~pconrad/ccs/cs130g |
| Instructor Office | CCS Rm 139, and Harold Frank Hall 1113 |
| Office Hours | MW 3:30-4:30 in HFH1113 TBA in CCS (we'll poll the class about possible times) |
ADA Accommodations: If you have a disability that requires special accommodation, please contact me by email (pconrad at cs.ucsb.edu) or in person during office hours within the first week of classes.
Aspects of web application development including:
- Separation of Concerns (Content in HTML, formatting in CSS)
- Client-Side scripting (JavaScript)
- Server-Side computing (e.g. in Java, PHP, Ruby)
- Model-View-Controller design pattern
- Interaction with SQL databases
- XML processing (XML, XSLT, XSL-FO)
- Human Interface concerns (Usability, Accessiblity)
Students will also develop skills in Unit testing (with JUnit),
Revision Control (subversion), and build management (Ant).
Required Texts:
Note that the first two of these are available via UCSB's site license to Safari content, so if you are content with reading these texts online through a web browser, you do not need to purchase them.
The Krug book, you should most definitely buy. It costs less than $30, and is considered a must-read for making web sites easy to use.
Main Focus:
Our main focus will be Java Servlets. By choosing this technology as our focus, we can understand web applications in more depth than if we tried to survey all the various options.
Nevertheless, there will be opportunities to learn about other technologies including JavaScript, PHP, Ruby on Rails, and XML/XSLT. We will not study proprietary technologies such as ASP and ColdFusion (here's why.).
The number of units you earn will be based on successfully completing assignments. Some assignments will be offered to the entire class by the instructor. Students may also propose their own assignments.
Each assignment will be assigned a number of points, where 1000 points equals one unit, and 100 points represents about 2.5 hours of work outside of class. Note that this is a best-effort approximation of the workload—some 100 point assignments might require more than 2.5 hours, and others less. The final unit values will be based on the points you earn.
Note: this is derived from the CCS grading system description, which suggests that "for 3 units, a student is expected to work an additional 6-9 hours a week outside of a 3 unit class". 6-9 hours a week over a 10 week quarter yields 60-90 hours. Divide by three, and we get that a unit should represent about 20-30 hours of work outside class. Taking the midpoint of that range (25 hours), we can divide to get: (1000pts)/(25 hours)=40pts/hr. Thus, 100 pts is about 2.5 hours of work outside of class.
Assigning points based on quality of work: Points for assignments (e.g. 100 pts for a particular assignment) serve as a guideline for work that is of high quality and meets the normal expectations of CCS student work. Work that clearly goes above and beyond those expectations or that falls signficantly short may be assigned a higher or lower number of points. Point values may also be adjusted if a particular assignment is clearly more work than the student and the instructor originally anticipated.
Due dates, Late work: All assignments will have due dates. Failing to meet the due date may result in a reduction of the available points for the assignment. Due dates may be negotiable for large projects requiring creativity and problem solving—they will be less flexible for assignments that have more straightforward deadlines.
In cases where a negotiation is not made in advance, and the due date is missed, the standard penalty is as follows:
| days late | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| percent of total points | 0 | 2% | 4% | 8% | 16% | 32% | 64% | no credit for assignment |
Optional quizzes and exams: There may also be quizzes or exams, at the instructors discretion. Taking them is optional, but they do represent an additional opportunity to earn points towards class units.
Thus there is no downside to missing a quiz or doing poorly on an exam, except for the fact that you'll have to earn more of your points in some other way. Instead, look on the quizzes/exams as alternative opportunities to demonstrate your knowledge, in the event that something goes wrong with your work on the assignments. They are a kind of second chance.
Academic Honesty
(I would hope this would not be an issue in CCS, but for completeness, I need to include this in the syllabus.)
You should read and understand the UCSB policy on academic honesty listed below. You should also understand that I take academic honesty and personal integrity very seriously, and will do my best to uphold and enforce this UCSB policy.
It is expected that students attending the University of California understand and subscribe to the ideal of academic integrity, and are willing to bear individual responsibility for their work. Any work (written or otherwise) submitted to fulfill an academic requirement must represent a student’s original work. Any act of academic dishonesty, such as cheating or plagiarism, will subject a person to University disciplinary action. Using or attempting to use materials, information, study aids, or commercial “research” services not authorized by the instructor of the course constitutes cheating. Representing the words, ideas, or concepts of another person without appropriate attribution is plagiarism. Whenever another person’s written work is utilized, whether it be a single phrase or longer, quotation marks must be used and sources cited. Paraphrasing another’s work, i.e., borrowing the ideas or concepts and putting them into one’s “own” words, must also be acknowledged. Although a person’s state of mind and intention will be considered in determining the University response to an act of academic dishonesty, this in no way lessens the responsibility of the student.
(Section A.2 from: http://www.sa.ucsb.edu/regulations, Student Conduct, General Standards of Conduct)