1. Syllabus Highlights
CSE 1310 – Introduction to Computers and Programming
Alexandra Stefan
University of Texas at Arlington

2. Textbook
Textbook
Hardcopy, ebook, combination

3. About the Course
This course is aimed to be the first course in computer programming.
This course is aimed for students who have NEVER PROGRAMMED BEFORE.
The topic is difficult.
It requires very precise, mathematical thinking.
Unlike other courses, "getting most of the material" will not get you a good grade.
If you have even small gaps in the material, it will be very hard to do well in the class.
For a program to work, it needs to be 100% correct.
Code that is 99% correct is 0% useful.

4. Time Expectations Expected: 10 hours per week outside of class.
programming assignments, will be time consuming.
This is a class where:
Falling behind is easy.
Catching up is hard.
Attention to detail will be crucial.
Code that is 99% correct is 0% useful. (yes, you will be hearing this a lot in this class).

5. Grading (1) hwAvg = average homework score
If a homework is worth 200 points it will count as two homeworks. E.g.: hw_avg = ( )/5
final_score = 0.20 * hw_avg + 0.3*deptExam + .15* (exam_1 + exam_2 + classQuizSc) + .05*BlackBQuizSc
Letter grade assigned based on final score
90,80,70,60 possible thresholds, but most likely will be curved

6. Grading (2)
There will be no extra work to help you improve your grade.
You can help you grades by practicing as much as you can. You should view the homework as a MINIMUM work to do for the class.

7. Grading (3) No homework scores will be dropped.
No exam scores will be dropped.
Grading is based on performance.
Grading criteria do not include:
Effort.
Class participation.
What grade you need in order to qualify for financial aid, for a job, for graduation, etc.
All requests for leniency in grading will be ignored.

8. Assignments You must submit on Blackboard.
Late penalty: 13 points per hour.
No exceptions, except for medical/personal emergencies documented in writing.
Network/computer crashes will not be accepted as an excuse.
Every semester, some students get 0 in an assignment (or more), because they submitted the wrong file on Blackboard.
Then they ask for leniency, because they did all the work, and just made a silly mistake in submitting.
Sorry, there will be no leniency on this issue.
Verify your submission every time.
Submit multiple times.

9. Exams Most questions will ask you to write code.
Some questions will ask you to read code and:
Predict what the code will do.
Fix mistakes.
Exams are closed book and closed notes.
No electronic devices are allowed for ANY exam or quiz in this class:
No calculators, cell phones, laptops, e-books.

10. Attendance Attending exams is mandatory.
Again, exceptions are made only for medical/personal emergencies documented in writing.
Transportation problems, malfunctioning alarms, not accepted as an excuse.
You do not have to attend lectures.
However, if you do not attend lectures, you are still responsible for understanding the material.

11. Class Participation
Class participation is not part of the grading criteria.
However: asking questions, and trying to answer questions, can help you in understanding the material.
If you have questions and you do not ask in class, where are you going to get the answers?
If you do not understand something, always feel free to raise your hand and ask a question.
It may feel like you are the only one not understanding, but most likely many other students will have the same question as you.

12. Course Website “Tentative schedule”
“Lectures, Slides and resources” - Lecture slides, and code written in class.
“Homework”
“1310 Lab page” – TAs hours and departmental exam info

13. Syllabus
You are responsible for reading and understanding what the syllabus says.

14. Getting Help
Tutoring, online tutorials: see “Lectures, Slides and Resources”
Office hours
1310 lab – our TA and TAs from other sections will hold their office hours there. You can see any of the TAs on duty. me
Feel free to send s with your questions.
For long/complex explanations you will be asked to see us in person to explain it.
Do not expect responses in the last minutes before an assignment is due.
Little sympathy will be offered for people who leave assignments for the last minute.