CS 303E: Spring, 2023
Elements of Computers and Programming

Instructor: Dr. Bill Young

Unique numbers: 51875, 51880, 51885; Class time: online; Location: online
This website: www.cs.utexas.edu/users/byoung/cs303e/syllabus303e.html
Instructor Office: GDC 7.810; Phone: 512-471-9782; Email: byoung at cs.utexas.edu
Instructor Office Hours: TBA and by appointment

These are your TAs: Find office hours (soon) on the Zoom tab on the class Canvas page.
Dewayne Benson; Email: dewayne.benson at utexas.edu
Vanna Chen; Email: vannachen at utexas.edu
Akhil Deshpande; Email: akhildeshpande at utexas.edu
Vineel Reddy Gajjala; Email: gajjala.vineel at gmail.com
Sairaja Kurelli; Email: saikurelli at utexas.edu
Sooyong Lee; Email: sooyonglee1 at gmail.com
Charles Nimo; Email: nimo at utexas.edu
Nikos Mouzakis; Email: ni.mouzakis at gmail.com
Chase Pham; Email: chasepham at utexas.edu
Sharan Tatineni: Email: tatineni.sharan at gmail.com
Yihan Xi; Email: christin124216 at gmail.com
Sam Ziegelbein; Email: samziegelbein at utexas.edu



Important Class Announcements:

Breaking news important to the class will be posted here. Consult this spot often.

I will usually post the work for the week here, but all weekly assignments are down the page: click to jump to homeworks.

The slidesets and accompanying videos are also linked below: click to jump to slides and videos.

Dr. Young's office is in the south wing. You have to take the south elevator, because the two towers don't connect on the 7th floor.

Feel free to email me (Send me an email message).


Course Description:

CS303E is the first course in the Elements of Computing series for non-CS majors. Computing has become an integral part of many disciplines. This is especially true of STEM fields, but being able to think computationally and write programs is useful across the board. This course will introduce basics of programming within the context of a popular and powerful programming langugage, Python. We will study the syntax and special features of Python, develop our own algorithms, and translate them to computer code. We will learn problem solving techniques for a wide variety of problems amenable to computer solution. Despite the name, this is almost entirely a programming class; we won't be covering the structure of computers. No prior programming experience is required or assumed.

However, those who have prior programming experience may find it easier, or may even be bored. Students in this class come from a wide variety of majors and backgrounds. If you have previous significant programming experience in high school classes, other college classes, or on your own, you may get bored in this class. Consider taking the available exam to test-out of this course and begin with CS313E instead. You can find information on testing out of the class here: Testing Out.

Every semester, some students are dismayed to find that this class is rather challenging. If you're expecting a class where you don't have to work, this isn't the class to take.

Here's some advice on how to succeed in this class: How to Succeed in CS303E. I strongly suggest that you read this. It's a bit long, but contains a lot of useful information, and will likely answer most of the questions you'll have about this class, and some you wouldn't think to ask.

This course carries the Quantitative Reasoning flag. Quantitative Reasoning courses are designed to equip you with the skills necessary for understanding the types of quantitative arguments you will regularly encounter in your adult and professional life. You should therefore expect a substantial portion of your grade to come from your use of quantitative skills to analyze real-world problems. We won't assume that you're a math major, but some problems may assume basic arithmetic and logic skills; if you don't know something, just ask, and we'll provide additional explanation.

We will be covering most of the class textbook. Supplemental notes or videos on various topics also may be made available. Make sure to keep up with the readings, lectures, and assignments.

During the height of COVID-19, this class was moved entirely online. I found that it worked very well in that format. Many students love the flexibility, but others don't succeed as well in this format. If you're having trouble, please reach out for help. Don't wait until you are hopelessly behind. We can't help you if we don't know you need help.

Note that there is not a specific class time or location; all course content will be delivered online via the recorded lectures, which you can view at your convenience, as long as you've viewed them by the week for which they're assigned. Videos and the accompanying slides will typically be made available the week before they are due or even earlier. Make sure to keep up. The recorded lectures and associated slides will be made available to you below on this website. Some of them may also be available via Canvas or elsewhere; but this website should be your go-to location.

Despite the asynchronous nature of this class, this is not a self-paced course. You are responsible for having viewed the videos the week they are assigned on the schedule: schedule. There will also be weekly homework assignments that must be completed and submitted on time. They typically rely on material from that week or the week before. If you fall behind, you may not be able to catch up. Also, things start pretty slow, but the tempo picks up over the course of the semester so don't get lulled into complacency.

If you have some special circumstance that makes internet access difficult or impossible, let me know as soon as possible and I can work with you.

Some of the TAs hold their office hours on Zoom (or equivalent) and others in person. You can access Zoom via the Zoom link on the class Canvas page. We will also communicate via email or, preferably, Piazza. The schedule of the TAs office hours will be available via Canvas.

Class Recordings: Class recordings are reserved only for students in this class for educational purposes and are protected under FERPA. The recordings should not be shared outside the class in any form. Violation of this restriction by a student could lead to a Student Misconduct proceedings.

Questions about Grading:

Weekly homeworks, projects, and exams are graded by the TAs. Each TA grades for a specific alphabetic range of students' last names. You can find your TA in a chart we'll be posting soon. You will establish a connection to this specific TA; but don't hesitate to attend other TAs' office hours as well. If you have questions about the grading, please contact "your" TA. In general, Dr. Young won't have graded your work and won't know why you lost specific points. The TAs have been asked to be understanding and flexible regarding grading issues; but in general, Dr. Young won't override their grading decisions unless the decision was clearly unfair. (If you send him a question about your grade, he'll almost certainly will refer you to your TA. Please don't interpret that as rudeness or being uninterested in your situation. He just literally won't know why you got the grade you did, because it was your TA who assigned it.)

If you have a personal emergency and need additional time on an assignment, contact your TA as soon as possible. Again, the TAs have been asked to be lenient and understanding, but don't abuse this.

To find your TA, see the TA associated with the alphabetic range containing your last name below (to be posted soon).

Using Piazza:

We will be using Piazza for most class communication. You should be enrolled automatically in the class Piazza feed; if you're not, let Dr. Young know as soon as possible. The Piazza system is highly catered to getting you help quickly and efficiently from classmates, TAs, proctors, and the instructor. Rather than emailing questions to the teaching staff, you are strongly encouraged to post your questions on Piazza. However, don't post code and other items on Piazza that give away solutions to homework or projects, unless you post them privately (visible only to yourself and the instructors.)

Students sometimes post messages on Piazza like: "My code isn't working. Why not?" Unless you give us more information, or post your code (privately), there's usually no way we can know what's wrong. Provide enough information so we can help you. On the other hand, don't post your entire program and then say, "What's wrong with my program?" Do enough testing at least to pinpoint the problem. Don't expect us to write or debug your program for you.

Make sure that the email associated with you on Piazza is actually the email you plan to use. This will matter!

If you turn off Piazza notifications and miss an important posting, you are responsible. Yes, there's a lot of traffic; you can customize your Piazza feed to only send updates periodically, but don't turn it off entirely. You can make your posts anonymous to your classmates, but not to the instructors. Posts must be pertinent and respectful. Don't use Piazza as a place to vent or trash anyone. Please don't waste everyone's time posting jokes and other fluff. There will be around 600 people posting, so even a small percentage of junk is too much.

Using Canvas:

You will submit most assignments on Canvas and that's where assignment, quiz and test grades will be posted. You should be enrolled automatically in Canvas for the class; if you're not, let us know ASAP. It is your responsibility to check grades on Canvas and verify their correctness. If you think there is an issue or omission, call it to our attention immediately. A week after they are posted, we'll assume that the grades are OK.

The running averages on Canvas probably will not be correct, and may confuse you. Don't rely on them. It is somewhat difficult for us to get Canvas to compute your course grade correctly, since we might be dropping some things, normalizing scores, giving extra credit, etc. The raw scores on individual assignments, quizzes and tests should be correct. If they are not let us know immediately. But ignore the running averages; they likely won't be correct. Information on how to compute your class average for yourself is given below.

While we're not meeting in person, information regarding tests and quizzes likely will come to you via Canvas mail and via Piazza. That's why it's a very bad idea to turn off notifications for Canvas mail (or Piazza notifications) because you may miss important announcement like that. Also, make sure that the email associated with you on Canvas (and Piazza) is actually the email that you plan to use.

Some of you go by names that are quite different from your official name, i.e., the name on the class roll that I see from the UT registrar's page. This can cause problems at the end of the semester because I may not be able to match the grades on Canvas with the individual for whom I have to submit a semester grade. If your name is William and you go by Bill (as I do), we'll be able to figure that out. But if your name is Susie Jones and you go by Sammy Smith, or if you change names over the course of the semester, that may cause an issue. Please let me know if your name you're using in this class is substantially different than the name by which you are registered with the university.

Text:

The required text book for this class is Introduction to Programming Using Python by Y. Daniel Liang, Pearson, 2012 or 2013. Notice that this book is ancient in computing years, but also pretty good. You should be able to get it from the Coop or buy it on Amazon or online (see below). Note that you do not need the MyProgrammingLab materials that may or may not come with your textbook. We won't be using that.

A digital version of the textbook is available through the Longhorn Textbook Access (LTA) program, an initiative between UT Austin and the University Co-op to reduce the cost of digital course materials for students. You can access it through the "My Textbooks" tab in Canvas. You are automatically opted into the program but can easily opt-out (and back in) via Canvas through the 12th class day. If you remain opted-in at the end of the 12th class day you will receive a bill through your "What I Owe" page and have until the end of the 18th class day to pay and retain access. If you do not pay by the 18th class day, you will lose access to the materials after the 20th class day and your charge will be removed. More information about the LTA program is available at LTA Program

Class Schedule and Slides:

The class schedule is here: schedule. Please note that this schedule is approximate; some dates may change. Rely on the assignment handouts, not on this schedule for assignment due dates. The dates for exams probably won't change, unless there's some significant event.

All of the class slides will be made available via links below as we cover new material. These are the slides covered in the recorded lectures. However, I tinker with the slides as I find typos or find ways to explain things better. So they may differ in small ways from what you see on the videos. That's nothing to worry about. You'll see a date on each slideset that shows the last time updated; but the changes are typically pretty minor.

You are welcome to print the slides out or view them on-line. Slides are in PDF form (full page or 4-ups). If you do print them, please print the 4-ups to save some trees. I have tried to follow the material in the book pretty closely to give you the best shot at mastering the material. If you don't get it from the book, you'll get a second chance from the lectures, and vice versa.

Below are the class slides along with the associated videos. Note that these videos aren't professional quality; the previous set were, filmed by videographers in CNS. These are just Zoom videos of me going through the slides and explaining things. Occasionally, the sound isn't great or I make a mistake. Sorry about that. My goal is to have an updated set rather than a polished set.

Assignments:

The only way to learn a programming language is to write programs. Programming homeworks will be assigned nearly every week. They're due at the end of the due day (11:59pm). Answers must be submitted on Canvas. You can turn in weekly homeworks and projects up to two days late with a penalty of 10% per day. All assignments must be your own work; do not do team coding, share code or allow others to see your code. You can always get help from the instructors; but make sure you always do your own work. We take cheating very seriously and have very sophisticated tools to detect possible collusion.

Notice that most of the work in writing a program is in the design. So if you and a friend were to write pseudocode together and each then individually code from that, our tools might still flag that as cheating. You're much better off doing your work completely on your own. It's better to get help from the TAs or instructor than from a friend.

You will have three substantive programming projects over the course of the semester. You must work alone on all projects. The due dates will be clearly marked. Projects will be submitted on Canvas.

There will be weeks during the semester where you have an weekly homework due and also an exam or project due. That's just the way it is. You know from the first day of class when your tests fall, and you'll have around two weeks for each project. So plan ahead! If you wait until the last day to study or work on a project, you have no one to blame but yourself.

When you get your project and homework grades, please check them carefully. If there's an error call it to our attention. We expect that after a week the grades will be final, unless there is a real issue.

If you submit an assignment multiple times, Canvas renames your file from Filename.py to Filename-1.py, then Filename-2.py, etc. Don't worry about that; we'll always grade the latest version.

The assignments are designed to build your skills methodically in the use of particular aspects of Python programming. Later in the semester you will learn Python features that would have made some of the earlier assignments quite a bit easier. Some of you have previous programming experience and may know about these features. But don't use constructs on assignments, quizzes, or exams that we haven't covered in class yet. If you have questions about what you can use, just ask (preferably on Piazza so everyone will see the answer).

Weekly Homeworks:

Links to weekly homeworks and projects will appear here and probably also in the Important Class Announcements at the top of this page. Homeworks are always due by 11:59pm on the due date.

All videos and the associated slidesets are below on this page. Each week, you should also do the reading for the week, indicated on the schedule.

Exams and Quizzes:

There will be two exams of approximately two hours each, a midterm and final. See the schedule for dates: schedule. The midterm exam will be taken in person in the evening. Information on when and where will be provided well before the exam date. Exams are cumulative. The final exam will be an in-person exam during finals week at the time and location specified by the registrar for our class.

There will be a Mock Exam prior to each actual Exam so that you can test your knowledge and get familiar with the platform. The mock exam will count the same as a weekly homework or quiz, and will not have the same time constraints as a regular exam.

Quizzes: There will also be several quizzes over the course of the semester, around every other week. In a normal semester, these would be pop quizzes. But in our asynchronous format, we'll announce them well in advance and you'll have several different times during the day when you can take it (e.g., 8am, noon, 4pm, 8pm). They probably will be given on the online platform GradeScope, and will consist of programming problems. Each will be a different version and they will be autograded. You'll have an opportunity to practice with the platform before the first quiz that counts.

If you miss a quiz, you won't be able to take a makeup. We can't reschedule a quiz even if you have an excellent excuse for not taking it. However, each quiz will count the same as one weekly homework; i.e., it's a very small portion of your grade, so don't freak out if you have to miss one.

Do not take any quiz more than once on penalty of a 0 on the quiz. If you have serious issues during the quiz administration, post a message on Piazza ASAP. Don't send an email because we may not see that in time to help you. If you take it early, do not discuss the content with anyone else in the class who may not have taken it. During a quiz, you may consult the slidesets, your book, any notes you've taken, practice problems, and previous homeworks. You may not consult the internet or any other person.

Several students in past semesters have had difficulties because they used a different email for GradeScope than the one used for Canvas. If you do that, the scores on exams won't be reflected on Canvas. Please ensure that you use the same email for both. If we find that you have multiple accounts on GradeScope, we'll consider that probable evidence of cheating.

Getting help:

It is a good idea to post your questions on Piazza, so that others can comment and also see the answer. But please don't post homework or lab solutions or large code fragments except in private messages to the instructors. The TAs will manage and grade the projects and homeworks and they are your best source of information on those. General questions about class material or tests should be directed to Dr. Young.

If you are struggling for any reason and believe that it might impact their performance in the course, please reach out to Dr. Young or to the TAs, if you feel comfortable doing so. This will allow us to provide any resources or accommodations that we can. If immediate mental health assistance is needed, call the Counseling and Mental Health Center (CMHC) at 512-471-3515. Outside CMHC business hours (8a.m.-5p.m., Monday-Friday), you can contact the CMHC 24/7 Crisis Line at 512-471-2255.

Help from Sanger Learning Center: This course is supported by Supplemental Instruction (SI) sessions from the Sanger Learning Center Flyer. SI Sessions are led by experienced and trained students who develop engaging, structured, small-group activities for you to work through. These sessions are a consistently scheduled time for you and your classmates to tackle difficult content and learn the best approaches to the course! More information on session times and how to access them will be available. You're welcome to attend sessions at any point in the semester but regular participation in SI Sessions has been shown to improve students' performance by an average of one-half to a full letter grade higher than the class mean. It is highly recommended for everyone. The Sanger folks will be posting messages to Canvas before long to tell you how to join.

Computation of Your Grade:

The weighting of the grades for the various aspects of the course are as follows:

Component Percent
Midterm Exam 20%
Final Exam 20%
Homework and Quizzes36%
Projects 24%

Individual homeworks, quizzes, and mock exams each count the same amount, usually 10 points. The total number of points possible depends on how many total items there are. Last semester, there were 22 total items for a possible of 220 points. I added those up and then divided by 180, effectively dropping four items. (But it's actually better than if I had dropped the lowest four, because every point still contributed to the total score, and you could conceivably score more than 100%.) Details may differ this semester, but I'll do something similar. Bottom line: if you miss a quiz or homework, don't freak out. It probably won't hurt you at all. Just don't miss a bunch of them.

Your semester course grade is computed from the raw scores on Canvas using a Python program I have written. Notice that Canvas attempts to compute a running average course grade as individual scores are entered. Ignore that. It's hard for us to get Canvas to compute that properly because of normalizing scores, dropping certain things, extra credit, etc. If you want to know how you're doing in the class, compute the score yourself.

Grades for the entire course tentatively will be averaged using the weighting below:

Course score Grade
[93...100]A
[90... 93)A-
[87... 90)B+
[83... 87)B
[80... 83)B-
[77... 80)C+
[73... 77)C
[70... 73)C-
[67... 70)D+
[63... 67)D
[60... 63)D-
[ 0... 60)F

Note that this is tentative. The grades may be curved and may be a bit more generous than this. They will not be less generous. That is, if you have a 93 you are guaranteed an A; but someone who gets an 92 might also get an A, depending on the final distribution of grades in the class.

FERPA prohibits instructors from discussing grades with students over email. However, it allows doing so if you provide explicit permission. So, if you ask via email for an update on your grades or how you're doing in the class, please understand that I can't do it unless you explicitly say that you're OK with me providing an email response.

Students with Disabilities:

If you are a student with a disability and need accommodations to better succeed in this class, please contact Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD). You may refer to SSD's website for contact and more information: UT Diversity Office. If you are already registered with SSD, please deliver your Accommodation Letter to me as early as possible in the semester. In several recent semesters, the SSD Office was very slow in issuing letters, so you are advised to apply as early as possible.

In our asynchronous class, most accommodations (recording lectures, copies of the slides, stepping out of class, etc.) are either already available to everyone in the class or not applicable. The accommodation that is typically most relevant in this class is extra time on tests. The most common extension is 1.5 times the regular time and that will be provided, but only if we know that you're entitled to the accommodation in time for us to arrange it. Extra time for quizzes is provide on GradeScope; extra time for exams is providing by administering them in a separate location. If you have questions, ask.

Scholastic Dishonesty:

Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated. See http://www.cs.utexas.edu/academics/conduct for an excellent summary of expectations of a student in a CS class.

All work must be the student's own effort. Work by students in previous semesters or code that you find on-line is not your own effort. Don't even think about turning in such work as your own, or even using it as a basis for your work. We have very sophisticated tools to find such cheating and we use them routinely. It's far better to get a 0 on an assignment (or exam) than to cheat.

By the way, even if you do all of the work yourself, sharing your work with someone else is still cheating. You will both be punished. You may think that you're doing your friend a favor. You're not; you're putting both of your academic futures at risk.

Many students begin every assignment by immediately going to Google, trying to find something that might keep them from having to solve the problem for themselves. That is an incredibly stupid thing to do. For one thing, you won't learn the material. But more importantly, you're starting down a moral slippery slope that's liable to send you over a cliff. Suppose you find something up to and including a complete solution that some idiot has posted on GitHub; it will be too tempting not to use it.

You may naively believe that changing variable names and reordering code will keep you from being caught. Computer science is amazing! We have very sophisticated automated tools that can compare thousands of programs and find copying even if the variable names are different and the code is substantially re-ordered. With very high likelihood, you will be caught if you cheat. Every semester, students learn this the hard way. Last semester, several students were caught cheating in this class and were either forced to drop the class, got an F, and/or were reported to the Dean of Students office. Don't be one of those students. It's not worth it!

Sharing of Course Materials is Prohibited: No materials used in this class, including, but not limited to, lecture hand-outs, videos, assessments (quizzes, exams, projects, homework assignments), in-class materials, review sheets, and additional problem sets, may not be shared online or with anyone outside of the class unless you have my explicit, written permission. Don't post your work on any publicly available site, such as GitHub, Course Hero, or Chegg.com. It's understandable that you're proud of your work, but this just invites copying for students this semester and in subsequent semesters. If someone copies your work, even without your knowledge, you will both be liable to punishment.

Unauthorized sharing of materials promotes cheating. It is a violation of the University's Student Honor Code and an act of academic dishonesty. I am well aware of the sites used for sharing materials, and any materials found online that are associated with you, or any suspected unauthorized sharing of materials, will be reported to Student Conduct and Academic Integrity in the Office of the Dean of Students. These reports can result in sanctions, including failure in the course, and even expulsion from the University.

No deviation from the standards of scholastic honesty or professional integrity will be tolerated. Scholastic dishonesty is a serious violation of UT policy; and will likely result in an automatic F in the course and in further penalties imposed by the department and/or by the university. Don't do it! If you are caught, you will deeply regret it. And even if you're not caught, you're still a cheating low-life.


Some Interesting Links:

As I find items of interest to the class, I will post them here. Newer items are near the top. Some of these links may be stale or broken.

Some interesting material about careers in computing can be found here: Careers in Computing

A career guide for Computing: Career Guide

A student found these online texts to be useful resources: Automate the Boring Stuff with Python, Think Python 2e

Good turtle graphics documentation: Turtle Graphics
Turtle tutorial: Tutorial.
Some issues around floating point: FP issues
Some nice videos on Python from the Khan Academy: Khan Academy Videos.

Sooyong created two videos that shows how to create a file in an editor and run it in Windows and MacOS. If you still aren't able to do that, I suggest you watch either: Windows video.
Mac OS video.

Python Links

Python Tutorials and Books

Miscellaneous Information on Python