ICS101 Policies and Rules
Tools for the information Age
For
questions or comments please e-mail the instructor at blanca@hawaii.edu
This course introduces the fundamental concepts and terms of computer
technology, application software for problem solving, computer technology trends
and impact on individuals and society.
What are the course goals?
- Understand the history and development of computer technologies and how
they affect our world and our professional lives.
- Possess advanced problem solving skills such as abstraction and
information representation and data reduction.
- Be confident and skilled in the advanced features of Microsoft
Office, so that they
will chose to solve problems through the application of these technologies.
- To be able to develop web sites with the use of Microsoft Office tools as
well as UNIX and HTML from scratch.
Why is it worthwhile to study this subject?
This course will give the student computer proficiency in application
software making the student's skills more marketable.
What is the approach to teaching this course?
We will learn all our material from a practical point of view. The main idea will be to implement the concepts learned in a way that we can see how they apply to the real
world almost immediately.
Which skills will be helpful in this course?
Typing skills will reduce time when doing homework. Familiarity with the
use of the Internet will be helpful as well.
What will be expected of you, the student?
Aside from the class time the student will need to dedicate from 3 to 5 hours per week to this class. The reason for this, is that
practice exercises (assignments) will be given. In order to learn new skills,
practice is very important. An advantage is that the skills acquired in this
class can be used in most any other class.
What kind of exams should we expect?
Exams will be practical and will take place in the classroom and will be in
digital format. During exams you should be able to demonstrate proficiency in
the class material. Depending on the exam students may be allowed to bring notes
for consultation (cheat sheets).
What about the quizzes?
Timed quizzes will take place during class, NO cheat sheet allowed. Most
of these quizzes will take place on WebCt.
What about the practice exercises and projects?
- Practice exercises will be due sometime within 48 hours after they are assigned. The exact deadline time will be specified on every homework assignment, but you can safely assume that they will be due
about two days after they are assigned.
- Projects will be due about 20 days after they are assigned. Since they are longer and require more time to develop you will be given more time to work on them.
- Your practice exercises and projects may either need to be attached to an
e-mail for submission or submitted via WebCt
depending on the nature of the work being submitted.
- Please read every assignment carefully for specific instructions.
How will I know that my homework was received?
- You will be required to e-mail all your homework assignments as well as your projects. Exact details will be given on each homework assignment. You should e-mail your finished product to:
tp_211@hawaii.edu, You will get an automated confirmation e-mail back. Keep it as your "receipt".
- Do NOT e-mail the instructor to this address. I will not reply to any e-mail sent to the
tp_211 account. If you have any questions in regards to your homework or projects you should e-mail me at
blanca@hawaii.edu.
Is there a standard time for homework delivery deadlines?
- Deadlines for each assignment will be given in day and time. As an example: If your homework is due on Monday January the 1st of 2000 at 8:00 A.M. your
homework must have been received by that time in the tp_211@hawaii.edu
e-mail address. The time considered here is the uhunix2 time (not your personal computer's time, not the Greenwich time but uhunix2 time). Take into consideration that the time you send an e-mail and the time the e-mail is received may vary by seconds, perhaps minutes. The time taken into consideration here is the time at which we receive the e-mail. That will constitute our timestamp. Make sure that you allow enough time for the e-mail to be received before the deadline.
- In unix type "date" and you will see the exact current uhunix time.
What can you do if you don't receive a confirmation e-mail?
- You may resend your homework. However the only homework that will be taken into consideration for grading will be the last one. So be careful because if you resend your homework a few minutes past the deadline because you didn't trust the network, the latest version is the one that will count and you will get points deducted for late work. So please take your time and try to send your homework at least one hour prior to the deadline.
How many points will I lose for late assignments?
- Practice exercises are given almost every week and have no grace period. If they are late even one second they will not be accepted. So keep that in mind.
No exceptions.
- Large projects are different. Each project is worth 100 points. Each day late will be 20 points deduction. After five days there is no point in turning in your homework because you won't be awarded any points. Since it is "unfair" to take 20 points off if you are late 1 second I have the following policy for the first day: In the first 23 hours and 59 seconds after the deadline, you will lose 0.83 points every hour. So if you are one hour late late (or one minute late) your homework is still worth 99.17 points, and if you are 60.00001 minutes late your homework will be worth 98.34, etc....At 23.9999 hours past the deadline your assignment has a maximum value of 80 points. Once you pass the first 24 hours your deduction will be 20 points per day, on other words: 24.000001 hours late is the same as 2 days late, and the assignment is worth 60% at this point. To figure out your maximum possible grade just do your math and count your time.
course goals are based on the ICS101 course
description from UH Manoa by David Nickles