 Welcome to Computer Science 75. All of the material in this course will be available through Canvas. You can get to Canvas from the evc.edu site by clicking Canvas in the Quick Links. This takes you to the single sign-on page where you enter your My Web ID, which is the first two letters of your first name, the first two letters of your last name, and the last four digits of your college ID at stu.evc.edu, and then your password. This takes you to the dashboard where you can select your course. I've logged into the course as a student. Let's take a look at the detailed course syllabus. If you want to contact me, you can either send me an email, but it's probably easier if you use the Canvas inbox to send me a message. You can read the course description and the student learning outcomes on your own. There are two required texts for this course. Think Java, how to think like a computer scientist, second edition, and an additional required book with exercises and other material. Both of these are available for download for free. Programming assignments will be graded on functionality. 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, which includes proper use of naming and indention. For example, if you have a program that calculates discounts, using a variable name like discount percent is much more understandable than an abbreviation like DP. Appropriate use of programming constructs. If the assignment is about, say, loops, and don't worry if you don't yet know what those are, and you do the assignment without using any loops at all, then you haven't used the appropriate constructs. There are 500 points possible in this course, and here's the grading scale. If you decide to drop the class, it's your responsibility to do so. If I've noticed that you've missed several assignments or class discussions in a row, I might drop you, but I'll contact you before I do that. If there's some emergency, you have to be out of town, or some other circumstances, drop me an email or send me a message via the inbox. A short message is fine. Just say, hello, an emergency came up. I'll turn in my assignments when I return. 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'll take off 10%, one letter grade. If it's two weeks late, I'll take off 20%. More than two weeks, it's my option whether I want to grade it or not, but if I do, it'll still be 10% off per week late. You can discuss assignments among yourselves, but you each have to do your own work. Cheating and plagiarism will be met with an F on an assignment. I realize that sometimes people get stuck on an assignment and the deadline is looming, and there's the temptation to go out to one of those homework helper sites and copy someone else's solution. Please avoid that temptation. If you're totally stuck, contact me. This is my job to help you get past those problems. I would rather see a badly written, half-written program that's your work than a perfect program that you don't understand. The EVC catalog has details on the college honesty policy. If you have any learning or physical needs that require accommodations, make an appointment with the Disabled Students Program, and please notify me in writing via email or Canvas inbox message. 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 I'll grade them early. I do participate in the Early Alert Program. Please read about this. It's fairly important, especially with an all-online class if you're in one of those sections. The best way to go through the course is by using the Modules link in the navigation bar. This will have links to the topics of each module and the assignments. I also have discussion forums. These will be set up so that you can't see or respond to other students' posts until you've posted something yourself. Finally, we have Zoom, which allows video conferencing, and I'll set up at least two Zoom conferences a week where you can join in and ask questions or discuss whatever's on your mind. When you use Zoom, I recommend the Chrome browser for best results. Now the most important part of the orientation. How to succeed in the course. Read the book. If you try to do the assignment without reading the material or viewing the videos, you're setting yourself up for a very difficult time. As you go through the book, when you see an example program, type it in. 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 of the program, ask yourself what that 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. Finally, and perhaps most important, plan your programs before you write them. Either draw a flowchart or write pseudocode, part English, part Java. But no matter what method you use, plan. Programs written at the keyboard look like it. And that is not a compliment. Remember that a few minutes of 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 forums. Now let's get started.