Syllabus for IST-156

 

Rappahannock Community College

Course of study for Beginning C++ Programming

Course IST 156 - 71

Instructor, Robert Lay

KGHS Campus (at CSC)

Spring, 2002

 

Course description

 

This is a comprehensive course in Object Oriented Programming and is targeted to students with some programming experience (e.g.,  Algol, Assembler, Basic, “C”, CMS-2. Cobol, Fortran, Java ,  or Pascal). The programming language will be ANSI/ISO Standard C++, and the course topics will include Functions, Program Flow Control, Data Types, Pointers and Addresses, Memory Allocation, References, The PreProcessor, The Compile and Runtime Environment, C++ Classes, Inheritance, Exception Handling, and Streams.  Computer Laboratory demo’s are included in the formal class activities. This course is designed to teach the student to program for a console mode environment under any operating system that supports an ANSI C++ compiler.

 

Course credit 

Total credits (4).

 

Instructor Accessibility and Office Hours

 

The instructor will hold general office hours after each lecture. The instructor will make every effort to accommodate any requests for one-on-one counseling during office hours. Individual tutoring will not be available, except as is appropriate during office hours to the benefit of all attendees. Requests for assistance may be made informally, at any time. My home telephone number, e-mail address and Web site will be found at the end of this document.

 

Method(s) of instruction:

 

Three instructional methods will be utilized in this class, as follows:

 

1.       Studying the assigned chapters prior to class.

2.       Course lecture, including recitation and question/answer.

3.       Demo exercises from the textbook and instructor’s notes

 

Instructional Materials

 

Textbook: Teach Yourself C++, Al Stevens, IDG Books, (http://www.idgbooks.com) published in 2000, ISBN 0-7645-4634-1. This textbook has been available at amazon.com. It includes a compiler and IDE suitable for the Win32 environment and all of the source code from the textbook.

 

Students who will be working in a Unix or Linux environment must provide their own C++ compiler (those systems invariably have a GNU compiler already available).

 

In addition to the software that is provided with the textbook, the instructor will make the following Win32 compilers available to the students:

Microsoft Visual C++, version 6.0

Borland C++ Builder, Version 5.5

Gnu g++, Version 2.91.66

 

At the discretion of the instructor, additional instructional materials in the form of copyrighted Lecture Notes may be made available to all students.

 

Course Objectives

 

To provide the student with a working knowledge of Object Oriented Programming using the ANSI/ISO Standard C++ Programming Language.

 

Learning Sequence (Schedule of Lecture Topics)

Class Begins promptly at 1700 and ends at 2040 hours, each Wednesday, in accordance with the following schedule:

 

1/9/02 –       Homework assignment, t.b.d.

1/16/02 –      t.b.d.

1/23/02 –      t.b.d.

1/30/02 –      t.b.d.

2/6/02 –       t.b.d.

2/13/02 –      t.b.d.

2/20/02 –      t.b.d.

2/27/02 –      t.b.d. - Mid Term Exam

3/6/02 –       t.b.d.

3/13/02 –      Spring Break – no classes

3/20/02 –      t.b.d.

3/27/02 –      t.b.d.

4/3/02 –       t.b.d.

4/10/02 –      t.b.d.

4/17/02 –      t.b.d.

4/24/02 –      t.b.d.

5/1/02 –       Final Exam

 

Grading/Evaluation

 

Homework Assignments or Lab Assignments are considered the same for purposes of grades. Homework or Lab Assignments may be performed either in the classroom facilities or elsewhere at the student’s discretion.

 

Homework Assignments will be assigned for most sessions of the class but not for the first session of the semester. The Homework Assignment for a given session will be announced at least one week prior to its nominal due date. Each Homework Assignment specifies the questions, exercises, etc., to be submitted for that Homework Assignment. Each Homework Assignment is nominally due at the end of the session for which the Homework Assignment is scheduled.

 

It is suggested that students provide themselves at least two 3.5" diskettes so that they have one to work with and one that has been submitted for acceptance. Homework diskettes will be returned at the beginning of the following class session. The files to be submitted for grading should include all project files in a folder having the correct project name.  Also to be included are the written answers to any specifically assigned questions or exercises from the text book. Homework Assignments may also be submitted as e-mail attachments, addressed to the instructor’s e-mail address found at the end of this document.

 

The absolute deadline for submitting  any Homework Assignment is one week from the time it was nominally due. No Homework Assignments will be accepted for credit after that deadline.

 

Complete Homework Assignments will be either accepted or rejected – no partial credit will be given. Each Homework Assignment for a given session is treated as a single unit for purpose of acceptance and scoring. The final score to be credited will be based on the number of completed Homework Assignments that are submitted and accepted divided by the total number of Homework Assignments assigned.  No partial credit will be given for the individual questions or exercises within a Homework Assignment. The entire Homework Assignment must be submitted and accepted in order to receive credit for that assignment.

 

When  the instructor finds that the Homework Assignment is not acceptable, he may ask the student to correct any identified deficiencies and re-submit that assignment with a new schedule for completion. The instructor also has the option of declaring an assignment as acceptable with minor deficiencies noted.

 

Accepted Homework Assignments make up 40% of the total grade.

Midterm Exam makes up 30% of the total grade

Final Exam makes up 30% of the total grade

 

For example, assume that 12 Homework Assignments are assigned during the semester and the student submits 10 Homework Assignments, all of which are marked as complete and accepted. The student would receive a Homework score of  83%, which would then be weighted according to the above schedule.

 

Nominal grade scale:

91 – 100%  A

81 –  90%   B

71 –  80%  C

61 –  70%  D

0    60%  F

 

After the Homework and examination scores have  been combined according to the weighting schedule, the final letter grade will be assigned according to the above grade scale.

 

Attendance Policy

 

Class Attendance will be checked at the beginning of each class. Students arriving late to class are responsible for ensuring that their attendance has been noted.

 

80 % attendance is the overall minimum acceptable attendance required for credit (i.e., total unexcused absences of 20%). If any student must be absent for a valid reason (illness, business travel, etc), that student must submit a written request explaining the basis for the absence in order for the instructor to consider excusing the absence. The instructor may then prescribe “make up” work in lieu of attendance or excuse the absence at his discretion.

 

 Basis for Evaluation and Revision of Course

 

Students will be provided with an anonymous survey questionnaire at the end of the course that will ask each student to evaluate the instructor and the course, and make comments and suggestions.  Survey results will be used to revise and improve the course.

 

 Honor Code and Instructor’s Withdrawal Policy (catalog, pp. 32-35)

 

Rappahannock Community College has an Honor System whose purpose is to strengthen the student=s foundations for academic achievement by establishing guidelines for personal conduct.

 

It is the responsibility of students to be aware of the rules (refer to your college catalog) and to monitor the activities of their peers with respect to the Honor Code and report any violations thereof.

 

The instructor has the authority to withdraw any student who misses 20 percent or more of the total class periods through the first nine weeks of the semester (see college catalog).

 

Emergency Evacuation Plan

[Not applicable to the CSC classroom]

 

In each classroom, laboratory or other places where students are assembled for the purpose of instruction, a fire evacuation plan will be posted indicating the direction of travel from the room in the event it becomes necessary to evacuate the building as a result of fire or other emergency.  This plan will be posted in a conspicuous place near the exit from the room.

 

At any time the fire alarm sounds, the building will be evacuated.  The instructor will ensure the fire door is closed upon leaving the area. (doors with automatic closures on them).  Instructors are also responsible for assisting disabled students.

 

If a classroom does not have an evacuation plan posted, the campus director, the KGHS administrator Caroline Mack, or her designee, should be notified.

 

Prohibited Items and Activities

 

Smoking, Cell Phones, Pagers and Beepers are not permitted.

 

 

Communications:

E-mail  w9dmk@crosslink.net

Web Sites: http://www.qsl.net/w9dmk

                 http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/albania/784

Tel: (540) 663-9290

Information Bulletins: See the Web Sites above