Course Syllabus
CSIS-390: Web Application Development
- Lecture 01: Monday & Friday, 8:00 - 9:00am, RB 328
- Lecture 02: Monday & Friday, 9:10 - 10:10am, RB 328
- Lab 6T: Tuesday, 12:25 - 2:24pm, RB 330
- Lab 1W: Wednesday, 8:10 - 10:10am, RB 330
- Lab 3W: Wednesday, 10:30 - 12:30pm, RB 304
Web Programming by zyBooks Signup Here
Enter code SIENACSIS390BreimerSpring2017
The cost to subscribe is $48 and subscriptions will be valid through 06/16/17.Course Learning Goals
Students will...
- learn about the modern framework for implementing web and mobile applications and how it is uniquely different than the framework for traditional "desktop" applications.
- study the fundamental concepts of web application development including synchronous and asynchronous request and response processes, the traditional three-tier web architecture, and techniques for separating an application's content, presentation, and behavior.
- develop skills in how to use a variety of different languages (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and SQL) to implement a single integrated application.
- hone abstracting thinking and programming skills by designing applications that specifically leverage the power of web technologies and mobile devices.
Grading
Letter grades will be assigned based on your numeric final average:
| A | >= 93.0 |
| A- | >= 90.0 |
| B+ | >= 87.0 |
| B | >= 83.0 |
| B- | >= 80.0 |
| C+ | >= 77.0 |
| C | >= 73.0 |
| C- | >= 70.0 |
| D+ | >= 67.0 |
| D | >= 63.0 |
| D- | >= 60.0 |
| F | < 60.0 |
Final grades will be based on the following weights:
| -10% | Penalty for lecture absences/lateness |
| -15% | Penalty for lab absences/lateness |
| 10% | zyBook Reading/Activities |
| 20% | Labs |
| 25% | Projects |
| 20% | Midterm Exam |
| 25% | Cumulative Final Exam |
Lecture Attendance
A student is expected to attend every lecture, arrive on time and stay for the full period. It is the student's responsibility to be aware of this policy.
Students can lose up to 10% on their final average for lack of participation, lateness, absence or disruption during lecture.
Lateness
Students will be given two warnings if they are late to lecture. After the two warnings, any subsequent lateness will be considered an absence and the penalties below will be incurred.
Absences
Students can have two unexcused lecture absence without any penalty. But after two absences, students will be penalized as follows:
| 3 unexcused lecture absences | 1% penalty on final average |
| 4 unexcused lecture absences | 3% penalty on final average |
| 5 unexcused lecture absences | 6% penalty on final average |
| 6 unexcused lecture absences | 10% penalty on final average |
Lab Attendance
A student is expected to attend every lab session, arrive on time and stay for the full period. It is the student's responsibility to be aware of this policy.
Students can lose up to 15% on their final average or fail the course entirely for lack of participation, lateness, absence or disruption during lab.
Lateness
Students will be given two warnings if they are late to lab. After the two warnings, any subsequent lateness will be considered an absence and the penalties below will be incurred.
Absences
Students can have one unexcused lab absence without any penalty. But after one absence, students will be penalized as follows:
| 2 unexcused lab absences | 3% penalty on final average |
| 3 unexcused lab absences | 7% penalty on final average |
| 4 unexcused lab absences | 15% penalty on final average |
| 5 unexcused lab absences | Automatic failure of course |
Lab Makeups
If a student misses lab unexcused, they must do their best to makeup the lab work on their own and submit deliverable before the next lab period. Otherwise, students will receive a zero on the lab in addition to the attendance penalty. If a student's lab absence is officially excused, the instructor will establish a due date to makeup the missed lab.
Projects
There will be up to five web programming projects due during the semester. These projects typically take 10-20 hours of work outside of lecture and lab. Project descriptions will be posted at least two weeks before the due dates. Due dates will be announced and put on the course schedule.
Late projects will not be accepted and will be given a grade of zero. Thus, it is important that you submit work prior to the deadline to get credit. Projects will be submitted though Blackboard and/or published to a private web server. See each project description for the submission details.
zyBook Reading/Activities
Before lectures and labs, students will have to read select chapters in the zyBook and complete the online questions and activities that are integrated into the chapters. See the course schedule for the due dates on assigned reading/activities. Students are required to purchase the zyBook. If you cannot purchase the zyBook, you should contact your instructor immediately to resolve the situation. Students can lose up to 1% each week (10% total for the semester) for failing to complete the assigned reading and online questions/activities.
Labs
There will be at least 10 lab sessions during the semester where students will work with different lab partners to complete tutorials, activities and mini-projects. Each lab is worth approximately 2% towards your final average.
Pre-lab Preparation
Students must prepare for lab by reading assigned zyBook chapters and completing the questions/activities for the assigned chapters, otherwise students will be asked to leave lab and absence penalties will be incurred. Note that this is a terrible way to lose points, so please keep up with the zyBook reading/activities.
In-lab Participation
Lab time allows the instructor to verify that students are completing the lab work themselves and collaborating with their partner appropriately. Thus, students are not allowed to complete in-lab work before the lab period. Students must fully participate by either finishing the lab activity entire in lab or by useing the full lab session to make significant progress. Students who do not participate in lab will incur absence penalties.
Lab Deliverables
Most labs will include specific deliverables completed files and/or answered questions that must be submitted to get full credit. Lab deliverables will be submitted though Blackboard and/or published to a private web server. For labs that do not have deliverables, 100% of the lab grade is based on attendance/participation. Otherwise, the lab grade is weighted 50% on attendance/participation and 50% on the submitted deliverables.
Lab deliverables must be submitted by midnight on the day before the start of the next lab period, otherwise students will receive a zero on the lab deliverable portion.
Lab Partners
Lab partners are allowed to work together in lab and outside of lab but only on lab work. Lab partner pairs should not share lab work with any other individuals. Whenever working collaboratively on deliverables, students should indicate their lab partner in a top comment of all files. A lab partner pair can submit one deliverable. Lab partners can choose to work individually after lab and submit deliverables separately. If a students submits a deliverable and does not indicate their partner's name in the top comment, it is assumed that the submission is individual and the partner will also submit an individual deliverable. Please be sure to coordinate with your partner and appropriately submit deliverables collaboratively or individually. Do not put your lab partner's name at the top of your files if they did not contribute to the completion of the activity.
Midterm Exam
The midterm exam is scheduled during lab (see the course schedule for the exact dates). Students must make every effort possible to attend lab on the date of midterm. If you will be absent, you must inform the instructor immediately. Make-ups will only be given for serious, documented excuses. If your absence is not excused, you will receive a zero.
Final Exam
The final exam will be given during the designated final exam week, which is the week after the last day of class. If you cannot attend the scheduled final exam and do not provide a serious documented excuse, you will receive a zero. The final exam is cumulative but will focus on the material covered after the midterm exam.
Excused Absence
The instructor makes the final decision to excuse or not to excuse an absence. If you are concerned that an absence will not be excused, you should contact the instructor as soon as possible. The following guidelines will be used to make decisions.
Lecture:
Students can be excused (and not penalized) from lecture for illnesses, job interviews, and serious commitments such as athletic or academic trips/competitions. However, students must inform the instructor as soon as possible, provide proof/documentation, and take responsibility to acquire notes and information from other students.
Lab
Labs are important and difficult to makeup so only serious, documented issues will be considered. Students can be excused (not penalized) from lab and allowed to submit late deliverables but the following rules will be strictly enforced:
- Job interviews will NOT be considered a valid excused for missing lab. Do not schedule job interviews during your lab time unless you are willing to accept the penalties.
- Practices (athletics), regularly scheduled extra curricular activities, and weekly obligations in other courses will NOT be considered a valid excuses for missing lab. Students should not register for this class if such activities conflict with the lab session.
- Traveling to athletic games that are documented by the Athletic Department are a valid excuse. However, if you are going to miss more than three labs due to games, it may be difficult to keep up and do well in this course.
- For illness or medical emergencies, students WILL have to show documentation (a doctor's note, release form, receipt or equivalent) that verifies the excuse. If an illness is not serious enough to go to a doctor then it is not serious enough to be accepted by the instructor.
- For family emergencies, funerals, or other serious commitments, students should contact the Academic Affairs (Office of Student Retention and Success) and ask an authorized school official to contact all your instructors regarding your absence. If an excuse is not serious enough to contact someone in Academic Affairs then the excuse is not serious enough to be accepted by the instructor.
Academic Integrity
Exams
Students caught cheating on an exam, will receive a zero on the exam, will be penalized a full letter-grade in the course, and a letter describing the student's actions will be sent to Siena's Vice President of Academic Affairs. During an exam period, students cannot share information, look at each other's tests, or use unauthorized materials.
Unless explicit permission is given, assume that exams are closed-book/closed-notes and that cheat sheets and electronic devices are prohibited.
Homework & Projects
It is very easy to copy code (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc.) from classmates and other sources and claim it as your own. This is academically dishonest and considered plagiarism. Students who present other authors' code, documents, images, or designs as their own will receive a grade of zero on the entire project or lab. Students who commit plagiarism a second time will again receive a zero, but will also be penalized a full letter-grade in the course and a letter describing the student's violation will be sent to Siena's Vice President of Academic Affairs.
Exception: In web design, it is considered professionally acceptable to use open source code (HTML, CSS, Javascript, etc.) and non-copyrighted design components (layouts, menus, etc.) as long as such usage is documented by giving the original author credit in the newly published document. Documenting sources should be done by using citations and/or comments in source files. Note that it is very important to cite your sources before you submit your work.
Carefully read the following academic integrity guidelines. It is your responsibility to follow the following guidelines:
Academic Integrity Guidelines
Only use open and public sources:
In this course, integrating code from open sources is considered an acceptable practice as long as the integration is non-trivial and leads to a web page, site or application that is significantly different when compared to the original open/public sources. Students will not be penalized for using other authors' code as long as the source is cited and as long as the code comes from an open source or public domain. In lecture, the instructor will teach students strategies for identifying open and public domain sources vs. protected, commercial and copyrighted sources.
Do not share your code:
While it is natural for students to help each other, students retain more knowledge if they attempt to write and debug code on their own. It is acceptable for students to help each other understand general concepts, but students are prohibited from sharing their code. And, students should never writing code for other students. The only exception is when student are working with lab partners on lab work and project partners on group project work.
Do not seek excessive help:
It is appropriate to ask for or provide help solving a coding problem as long as it is done in a general or abstract way. Appropriate examples include: helping a peer understand an error message, sharing debugging strategies, or explaining a concept related to a specific problem. But, it is inappropriate to have any other students (including tutors) solve your problems directly. Seeking excessive help is a form of cheating. Inappropriate help includes: Asking a peer or tutor to write code for you, looking at another student's working solution, or receiving excessive (step-by-step) help in directly completing individual work.
If you do not cite code, you better understand it:
Integrating code from multiple sources into a new, unique web page, site or application often requires great effort to get all the part to work together properly. However, it is important that you can point to the parts of your code that you wrote yourself and the parts taken from other sources. If a student cannot explain the purpose, function, and details of the code that they claim to have written themselves, the code will be considered plagiarized.
Your goal is to become an independent problem solver:
An important goal in this course is for students to learn strategies for becoming more independent with respect to problem solving, coding, and debugging. Towards end of the course, students should not need excessive help from classmates, tutors, or even the instructor. Requiring excessive help toward the end of this course is an indication of poor performance and students will be penalized if they cannot complete labs independently.
Pandemic/Emergency Preparedness
- Students are instructed to bring all texts and a copy of the syllabus/course schedule home with you in the event of a College Closure. The Academic Calendar will be adjusted upon reopening; so be prepared for the possibility of a short mini-semester; rescheduled class/exam period; and /or rescheduling of the semester, depending on the length of the closure.
- If your situation permits, you should continue with readings and assignments to the best of your ability, per the course schedule.
- You will be given instructions regarding how to deal with paper assignments requiring library or other required research by me, as needed.
- Online office hours will be used by me in order to maintain contact with my students. You will be able to “check-in” with questions that you have. If you do not have internet access available, the instructor will provide phone number and address for course communication. Remember, internet, mail delivery, and telephone services may also be impacted by a pandemic or other emergency event.
- Finally, stay connected with information regarding the status of the College’s status and reopening schedule by monitoring the Siena web site, www.siena.edu.
Pokemon Penalty
Students get a letter grade reduction if they submit any work that mentions or depicts Pokemon. Students automatically fail the course if they include a picture of Ash Ketchum in any submitted work.
