 Welcome to Computer Science 75. All of the material in this course will be available through Canvas. You can get to it from the evc.edu website by clicking Canvas in the Quick Links, then clicking the link next to Go to the Canvas site. Follow the login instructions there. You may want to bookmark this page to make it easier to access. I've logged into the course as a student. Let's take a look at the course syllabus. First, the best way to contact me is via email. You can read the course description, prerequisites, and student learning outcomes on your own. This is a hybrid class. That means that the lecturer will be on campus and the lab portion, programming exercises that you'll do on your own computers, will be online. There are two required texts for this course. Think Java, how to think like a computer scientist's second edition, and an additional book that has exercises and other material to go along with the main book. Both of them are available for free online, and the main book can be bought in a print version if you desire to do so. Most of the lab work will involve programming projects that range from light to moderate complexity. They'll be graded on functionality. Does the program work? After all, if a program doesn't work, nothing else matters. There are different degrees of not working, ranging from minor errors to catastrophic failure, and grading will range accordingly. Organization. Does it look as if the program were planned in advance, or just thrown together? Readability. Does the program follow the Java programming style guide, which gives rules for naming, indenting, and other aspects that help make programs clearer, and appropriate use of programming constructs? If the assignment is about, say, loops, and don't worry if you don't know what those are yet, and you do the assignment without using any loops at all, then you haven't used the appropriate constructs, even though your program may work fine. There are two midterms and one final exam for this course. Here's the grading scale. If you decide to drop the class, that's your responsibility. If I notice that you've missed several assignments in a row, I might drop you, but I'll email you first to check. If some emergency comes up, drop me an email, please. A short one is fine. Just say, an emergency has come up. I'll turn in my assignments when I return. The deadline dates for dropping a class with and without a W are in the EVC schedule of classes. What do I do about late assignments? If an assignment is one week late, I take off 10%, one letter grade. If it's two weeks late, I take off 20%. More than two weeks, it's my option whether I want to grade it or not, but it's still going to be 10% per week late. You can discuss assignments with each other, for example, making a plan on how the problem should be solved. But once that discussion is over, you each have to do your own work. Cheating and plagiarism will be met with an F1 on assignment. For details on the college honesty policy, see the EVC catalog. If you have any learning or physical needs that require accommodations, make an appointment with a disabled student's program, and please notify me in writing via email. The other important part of the syllabus is the course outline, where you'll find the schedule for readings and assignments. If you get ahead of the schedule and turn things in early, that's great, although I can't guarantee that I'll grade them early. And please note this is the first semester that we're using the Think Java book, and that means that the pace at which we cover these subjects may deviate from the printed schedule. We may have to go slower on some sections or faster on others. I do participate in the early alert program. If I see that a student is falling behind, I send out an early alert. Their team gets in contact with students and works with them to provide support services to get them back on track. Back at the home page, there's a link to YouTube that has video lectures. These provide additional information about the Java language and the material that you're working on. Please read module zero, which gives you a general overview of the course. You're viewing the orientation video right now, and I strongly suggest that you do the preliminary exercise. You don't even need a computer to do it, but it gives you some introduction to the idea of what programming is all about. In order to write Java programs, you'll need to install the Java development kit and some sort of development environment. Here are instructions for how to install Java and Genie, which is a lightweight but still very powerful development environment on both Windows and Macintosh. I was talking earlier about the Java programming style guidelines, and here's the link where you'll find those. Finally, the most important part of the orientation, how to succeed in this course. Read the book. If you try to do the assignments without reading the material or viewing the videos, you're setting yourself up for a difficult time. Type the example programs. If all you do is look at the code, nod your head and say, yeah, I got this, then in all probability, no, you don't got this. Instead, as you type each line, ask yourself what the line does and why it's in the program. This makes a connection between the code and its purpose. If you're adventuresome, try modifying the programs. Make them do something different or something extra. And finally, and perhaps most important, plan your programs before you write them. Either write a flowchart or pseudocode, which is part English, part Java. But no matter which method you use, plan. Programs written at the keyboard look like it. And that's not a compliment. A few minutes spent in planning can save you hours of frustration when you're writing your programs. If you do get stuck, ask for assistance. Email me or ask for suggestions in the discussion forum. Now, let's get started.