Notes to get started in CS1604

This is a completely online self-study self-paced Web based course. There will  be no required in-class meetings during the semester. There may be a few optional meetings scheduled during the term. The place, date and time of these meetings will be announced later. Be aware that all the course materials and the grading components (quizzes, assignments, etc.,) are on the Web and students may begin taking them as soon as they are available at the start of the term. (An announcement will be made as soon as they are online).

Online Quiz Information

All students should read through the online WebCT Quiz System tutorial to learn how to take the quizzes. Each quiz is basically a 10 question multiple choice quiz. Quizzes are open-Web, open-note, open-book, (closed friend), tests, (i.e. the Va Tech Honor code is in effect.) Most of the quiz questions are taken from the online notes However, some questions come from the readings and online Web links. Students should work through all of the online course notes and readings preceding a quiz as listed on the course schedule.

Course Grading Information

(See the course Web pages on grading.)

1. 12 online quizzes with 10 questions each.

   Each Quiz has a weight age of 5% to the final grade. An extra quiz or two may be added later during the semester, but the total weight for all the quizzes will remain 60%

2. A personal home page development project is due about 2/3 of the way through the term. This required assignment carries a weight of 10%.
   
3. Pre-course and Post-course surveys completion carries a 5% weight.
   
4. An online final exam carries a 25% weight and may be taken towards the last 2 weeks or so of the course/semester.

Text Book

The text book and CD lsited on the readings page is not required. It is up to the student to decide if they need to purchase the text and accompanying CD.

General course guidelines and student todo list items

1. Students may wish to turn 'on' the underlining option for the links from the Preferences or Internet option section on your Web browser so that the course links are easily visible and underlined.
   
2. The interface to the course Web-site may be changed later during the semester,   please don't get alarmed. Everything else will remain the same.
   
3. One of the first things students starting in CS1604 need to do is to take the pre-course survey before the first weekend ... it also counts towards your final grade !! It will be available shortly after the start of the term.
   
4. A quiz may be started and worked upon any number of times, but can be submitted only once ... so don't worry if the power goes out while you are in the middle of the quiz. You can just restart your Web browser and start over. As long as you did not submit it, you are fine.
   
5. The course schedule is on the Web. Please follow the schedule to access the online notes and stay on track through the course. The schedule is flexible, and may change a bit from time to time. But pretty much it will remain the same.
   
6. The individual learning assignments are optional and may be done as self-study work.
   
7. There is a listserv for the course which is a kind of group email account of all the students enrolled in the course. This may be used for course purposes only to exchange/share information with other students etc. No quiz questions or discussion of quiz questions should be made to the listserv. To do so is a violation of the Va Tech Honor Code. 
   
8. Announcements for the course will be made through the course Web site and listserv. Read through the initial listserv messages dealing with listerv policies and filtering messages.
   
9. Request for a Filebox using the WWW Filebox link from the course web page for about 2MB of space on a VirginiaTech Web server that you may use for your homepage. You will want to do this as soon as possible as it takes from 3 days to over a week for fileboxes to get activated. Instructions for requesting the filebox and using it are linked off of the homepage project description.
   
10. An online chat system will be brought online shortly for the course. The password for the chat system will be sent to everyone through the listserv next week. The instructor may be logged on during  office hours. This will allow students so to discuss things  using the chat system, rather than physically coming to the office.