PAC Assignments:  CS 1150 (PEEE)

Fall 2017, J. Philip East

Overview

This course involves a number of programming (or programming-related) activities. For each activity I will request that you comment, hopefully after some reflection, on the experience in a google doc I create and share with all class members.

These assignments serve several purposes. They allow you (and me) to see how much time you are spending on this class. Some classes require a little outside-class activity and some require a lot. The expectation or average is about 2 hours outside of class per week for each hour of credit per week and majors courses typically expect more than that (so perhaps 4-6 hours for this 2-credit course, minor course). If class work is getting done satisfactorily and students are not being substantially overworked, things are good. If neither of those is true, there is a problem and this may help me see the problem. The most important purpose of the PAC assignments is that they encourage reflection on what was learned during the prescribed activity.

Directions/Specifications

Each of the PAC assignments is to be completed individually, preferably not in the presence of your programming partner. At least two comments are expected for each programming (or programming-related) project—the approximate time it took to complete the activity (to the nearest half hour) and some comment on the activity. Some pre-defined comment topics are supplied. You may comment under one (or more) of those topics or you may comment on another student's comment or you may create a new topic to comment on (and supply your comment). As indicated in the syllabus and in reflection document, I hope some reflection will occur before you comment on the activity.

Grading

Grading will begin with checking to see that each person supply the minimal two comments. Your time should be recorded in the suggested place beside your name. Additional comments or insertions under your name will then be examined. Having both the time spent comment and a minimal report/reaction comment will merit a grade of C-. Additional report/reaction comments will increase the grade. Comments that are more reflective will increase the grade to a greater extent. It is possible to get an A with the time report and a single outstanding reflective comment. Comments added after the due-date/time but before I grade the PAC will be accepted with a late penalty. Comments added after grading will not be counted. The syllabus provides additional information about grading.

PAC Assignments

Somehow the previous (before Sept.26) comment files got deleted. I had access to a (hopefully complete) copy of all but the code.org comments file. If you know what your comments were, you might wish to double check that they are all still there. I will not be able to check for lateness on the files I had not yet graded.

It might be advisable for you to type and proofread your comments in a file of your own, then copy and paste them into the google docs file. That way if something happens to the file, you have a copy of what you did.