CSIS 696 Graduate Directed Projects

Instructor: David Monismith
                    2210 Colden Hall
                    monismi_at_nwmissouri_dot_edu

Classroom: Colden Hall 3250

Time and Dates: June 15 - July 24, MTWR 2:40pm - 4:20pm

Office Hours: MW 1:00pm - 2:40pm, and by appointment

Course Website: http://monismith.info/cs696/

Prerequisite: 15 hours toward the M.S. in Applied Computer Science and approval by graduate advisor.

Course Description: Software development practicum designed to integrate computer-related skills into an intensive project environment (Graduate Academic Catalog, 2013-2015, p. 89). Students enroll in this course for two consecutive semesters, for a total of six credit hours.

Course Goals:

Students will gain experience working on a "real world" project
Students will exercise many, if not all of the skills they have learned as undergraduate and graduate students.
Students will learn to work as a team.

Software:
Students must have access to
Their assigned laptop for each class session
Their VM for each class sesssion
Microsoft Visio
MySQL
NetBeans
BitBucket
Various software development tools as directed by the instructor

Grading Criteria:

Students will receive a grade at the end of each semester. (A - 90-100 points, B - 80 - 89 points, C - 70 - 79 points, D - 60 - 69 points, F - 0 - 59 points). The grading scale will not be raised, but may be lowered (i.e. "curved") at the discretion of the instructor.

Grades will be assessed as follows (Points are estimates and may vary slightly):

The primary factor in determining your grade is the quality of your work. Other factors will, however, may negatively influence your grade, including but not limited to:

• failure to submit required artifacts on time, unless granted an extension - result: dependent upon artifact.
• failure to submit required worksheets on time, unless granted an extension - result: 1/2 letter grade deduction for course.
• failure to be on time or physically present for all required meetings - result: up to 1/2 letter grade deduction per meeting.  See the attendance policy.
• failure to complete tasks assigned by the faculty mentor, such as milestones, presentations, design, and coding - result: dependent upon quality of work completed.
• failure to behave in a professional manner (e.g. harassing the client or your teammates) - result: 1/2 letter grade deduction per incident.

Minimal project implementation, as described by the user requirements will not usually result in a grade of A. Minimal implementation of a complex project may be an exception to this rule.

Each student is expected to spend at least 15 hours a week in addition to class time, every week, contributing to the project. Spending a minimum of 15 hours per week on the project does not guarantee a passing grade. Other class work or exams are not acceptable excuses.

Even though this is a team project, each student is expected to make a substantial individual contribution to the project. Failure to make a substantial contribution may result in a lowered individual grade.

A team is defined as a group of six or fewer students and is identified by an email sent by the instructor to those students at the beginning of the semester. Students will NOT be allowed to select their own teams. Note that more than one team may be assigned to the same project; however, such teams will have different tasks and goals to accomplish.

Teams will be notified of their final project grade (for each semester) after the end-of-term presentation. Grades may be contingent upon students fulfilling various requirements. For example, grades may be lowered if a substantial number of errors are discovered during the client's or mentor's testing procedures.

Standard projects include a user interface (UI), a database (DB), and source code that allows for seamless integration of the UI and DB.  Unless an extension is granted by the mentor, first semester students are expected to meet the following deadlines for standard projects:

• Completion of paper/static prototypes for the UI by the 8th week of classes (3rd week for summer students).
• Start of the DB review by the 9th week of classes (4th week for summer students) and completion of the DB review by the 12th week of classes (5th week for summer students).
• Completion of the UI with stub code for functionality by the 12th week of classes (5th week for summer students).
  

All teams are expected to make use of git version control software, issue tracking tools, and a project wiki unless otherwise directed by the instructor.

Second semester students are expected to have a fully functional software product available to the client for testing by the midterm presentation deadline unless an extension is granted by the mentor.  Failure to meet the aforementioned deadlines will result in a 1/2 letter grade deduction per week the item in question is late.

Disabilities: Students in this course who need accommodations/modifications should present a copy of their official Northwest accommodation letter from the LAP/S Committee to the instructor as early in the term as possible. Additional information can be found at http://www.nwmissouri.edu/swd.

Announcements and email: Announcements are communicated via the Announcements page on the course website and your Northwest Missouri State University e-mail account. It is your responsibility to check each of these sources daily. Note that you must use your Northwest Missouri State University email account on the Northwest Online site. All e-mails in this class will be sent to your Northwest address.

Professionalism: Students are expected to behave in a professional manner in their dealings with each other, the class assistant, and the instructor. E-mails and other electronic communications should be politely written, use proper grammar, and follow the rules of capitalization.

Use of Publicly Available PCs: All code that you store on a hard drive in a public lab or classroom must be moved to your student storage when you leave the PC. Hard drive space is not intended for private storage.

Attendance: This class will have many in-class activities, so attendance is strongly suggested. Some in-class exercises may have points associated with them and may not be announced in advance. A student who misses such an exercise due to an unexcused absence will not be allowed to make it up and will receive a zero. Excused absences include attendance at a university sponsored event (documented with an excuse signed by the university sponsor prior to the event) or by circumstances considered adequately extenuating by the course instructor.

Due dates: Each assigned, graded activity will have a due date posted. Late assignments will not be accepted except in cases of documented illness or family emergencies.

Academic Integrity: All assignments are to be completed individually unless otherwise designated. For the purpose of this course, an individual is defined as the team(s) assigned to one project, its client(s), and mentor. A team is defined above in the syllabus. You may discuss the concepts of a current assignment with another person or individual. Sharing code for a current assignment, handing in a program written by another person or individual, and all other obviously dishonest practices are prohibited.

Students are encouraged to come to office hours for help.

Students are expected to read and understand the CSIS Academic Integrity Policy available at http://www.nwmissouri.edu/mathcsis/pdf/AcademicIntegrityCSI.doc.

The policy stated in the Northwest Missouri State University Undergraduate (or Graduate) Academic Catalog will be followed. The document entitled Academic Integrity in CSIS Classes, posted at the link above, clearly explains those types of behavior that would be considered academic dishonesty. You are responsible for reading this document and also the policy as stated in the Undergraduate (or Graduate) Catalog and abiding by the guidelines described therein.

Disclaimer per http://www.nwmissouri.edu/cite/teach/syllabus.htm: The syllabus is not a contract and is subject to change at the discretion of the instructor to accommodate instructional and/or student needs. It is the sole responsibility of the student to maintain an updated course syllabus.