Instructor: Todd Dole
Semester: Spring 2025
Course Type: In Person / Project Based
Location: AH 212
First Day of Class:January 13
Holidays / Breaks:January 20 (MLK Day), March 10-14 (Spring Break), April 18 (Easter)
Contact: todd.dole@hsutx.edu, Phone 325-670-1502, Office AH100
Monday and Wednesday: 2:30pm-4:30pm
Tuesday and Thursday: 9:00am-12:00pm
Other times by appointment.
Students, working in a group setting, will draw upon knowledge and skills obtained in earlier CSCI courses to design, implement, and refine a significant project. Emphasis will be placed on critical thinking and on the synthesis of concepts and techniquest in computer science. The course will include a comprehensive exam over CSCI concepts from throughout the degree program.
Students will be placed on a project team. Each team is assigned a project to analyse, design, implement, test and refine. Students may be assigned multiple sub-teams and tasks within a project.
Students will be expected to contribute an average of 10 hours per week of active work (at least 150 hours cumulative over the course of the semester), including meeting attendance. If a student works less than this in one week, the expectation is that the time will be made up in subsequest weeks.
Grading for the project will include individual, team and peer review components. Grading will encompass analysis and design, documentation, code and testing.
The course will include a comprehensive exam covering the entire CSCI curriculum, given during the month of April. This exam must be passed in order to receive a passing grade for the course. Further details will be given in the weeks before the exam.
Weekly progress reports will be turned in on Tuesday of every week, beginning January 20. These progress reports are required to document project progress and participation, to receive a project grade.
Progress Reports should follow the format given in the example at progress_report.html.
| Week | Date | Topic | Reading/Assignment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Week of January 13 | Project Kickoff. Introduction to the Course. Agile and DevOPS Principles. Select Project Leader(s). | Read Devops Handbook Ch 1-4 |
| 2 | Week of January 20 | Design Week 1. Gather User Stories. Form Teams and Assign Roles. | Read Devops Handbook Ch. 9, 11. |
| 3 | Week of January 27 | Design Week 2 Create Initial Design Documents (Project Deliverable 1). Define Tech Stack. Begin Devops setup | Read Devops Handbook Ch. 10,12,13 |
| 4-5 | Weeks of February 3, February 10 | Project Setup. Devops Team:Build CI/CD Pipeline Core, Web, Mobile Teams: Create Project Scaffolds Testing Team: Define Testing Frameworks | Readi gs from SDLM as assigned |
| 6-8 | Weeks of February 17, February 24, March 3 | First Sprint: Minimum Viable Product (Project Deliverable 2). | Readings from SDLM as assigned |
| 9-10 | Weeks of March 17, 24 | Second Sprint: Add advanced Features. Create Second Iteration (Project Deliverable 3) | Readings from SDLM as assigned |
| 11-13 | Weeks of March 31, April 7, 14 | Third Sprint: Finalize Features and Fix Bugs. Address User Feedback. Finalize documentation. Create Final Iteration (Project Deliverable 4). | Readings from SDLM as assigned |
| 14-15 | Weeks of April 21, 28 | Presentation: Prepare and deliver final project presentation. | No readings |
Your grade in the course will be earned / calculated as follows:
For each of the project components, each student's individual grade will consist of a team component and an individual component representing the student's individual contribution to the deliverable.
A: 90-100
B: 80-89
C: 70-79
D: 60-69
F: 0-59
An individual with a disability is defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as a “person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.” Any student with a documented disability may choose to seek accommodations. Eligible students seeking accommodation should contact the Director of Undergraduate Advising and Disabilities as soon as possible in the academic term (preferably during the first two weeks of a long semester) for which they are seeking accommodations. The director will prepare letters to appropriate faculty members concerning specific, reasonable academic adjustments for the student. The student is responsible for delivering accommodation letters and conferring with faculty members. Please refer to the most recent version of the Undergraduate Catalog for the complete policy. (Carol Krueger, Director of Undergraduate Advising and Disabilities, Office: Sandefer Memorial, 1st floor Academic Advising Center, Phone: 670-5867, Email: disabilityservices@hsutx.edu)
Peer-to-peer academic support (tutoring) is available for all undergraduate HSU students. The Academic Center for Enrichment (ACE) is open for virtual tutoring sessions via Zoom. To access instructions or make an appointment, open the ACE course on your Canvas dashboard. For additional information regarding academic support, contact the Advising Center at 325-670-1480 or tutoring@hsutx.edu.
In addition, all full or part-time students are eligible to receive free, confidential, and voluntary counseling services at HSU. Services include consultation, evaluation, counseling, and crisis support services for students facing issues impacting their overall well-being. To obtain any of these services, students may call The Office of Counseling Services at (325) 671-2272, email counseling@hsutx.edu, or begin the intake process by completing our online forms at https://www.hsutx.edu/intake.
Violations of academic integrity have been described to some degree in other sections of this syllabus. Cases of suspected academic dishonesty will be handled in accordance with university policies outlined in the Undergraduate Catalog and in the Student Handbook. The current catalog prescribes that “no student who has violated the Academic Integrity Policy will be allowed to graduate from Hardin-Simmons University with honors.” Penalties will be assigned at the discretion of the instructor and typically range from failure on the assignment to failure of the course. A general rule-of-thumb is that a first offense (if not too major) will result in a zero on the assignment and a second offense will result in an F for the course. The current catalog states that an F earned in this way cannot be replaced by retaking the course.
The use of Artificial Intelligence and Generative AI such as ChatGPT, Code Completion tools etc is welcome and encouraged in this course, as a means of boosting productivity. Students using such technology are responsible to fully understand all code or documentation produced, and must cite the resource(s) used as a formal academic reference. If a student submits work which they do not understand, or fails to cite resources used, it will be considered a violation of the Academic Integrity Policy and addressed accordingly.
Note: This is a privilege which may be rescinded by the Course Instructor for individual students at any time. Team leads should consult with Mr. Dole if concerned that students on their team are relying on these tools inappropriately (for instance, if they submit code to the codebase without understanding it.)
The instructor may occasionally use email to communicate with the class as a whole or with individuals. When contacting you for this course the instructor will use your HSU email account. You are expected to check your HSU email account at least once per day and you will be held responsible for any content distributed in this way.
Regarding class attendance, the Undergraduate Catalog states:
Accordingly, absence from more than 25 percent of class meetings and/or laboratory sessions scheduled for a course (including absences because of athletic participation) is regarded as excessive, and a grade of F may be assigned as deemed appropriate by the professor.