This is a course in concepts in computer science and their application in a series of useful software products.
The course focuses on data: how data may be organized, how useful information may be extracted from data, and how summary information may be calculated.
You will learn how to do simple but very effective computations using tools such as spreadsheets, databases, and statistics packages.
One course cannot cover all aspects of these software tools but you will learn important highlights.
The goals of the course include teaching:
The particular software applications we will be exploring are:
There are two class sessions per week, both held in a computer lab. Class sessions will consist of lecture/discussion of the material, lab exercises and time to work on lab assignments. Homeworks and completed labs will be submitted for grading through the assignments section of BlackBoard for this class. There will be two exams, and three quizzes, and 9 assigned lab homeworks. The quizzes and exams will be based upon the material presented in class and upon the labs.
While you may work on assignments with others, we require that all of your work submitted for grading be your own, not copied in whole or in part from anyone. Students are expected to read and understand the Northeastern University Academic Honesty Policy found at:
www.neu.edu/osccr/academichonesty.html#Cheating
The exams will count for 40% of your overall grade, the quizzes will count for 20%. The assigned labs will count for 40%. You may need to spend more time working on the labs and homeworks than the time available in class. We will be scheduling additional time in our lab, details to be announced, for help sessions, but you can also use the lab in WVH 102 on the first floor or any of the other open labs on campus.
If you work on your own computer, make sure you are using the right software, MS Office, 2007. In particular, Microsoft Works does not work for this purpose. SPSS is a big expensive piece of software, so it is not likely that you will want to put it on your computer (legally). Expect to use it in a school lab on campus.
As previously mentioned, we use BlackBoard to collect lab assignments, to broadcast important messages, and to keep you informed of what of your work we have and what is missing.
We reserve the right to take attendance at any time during class. Students found absent three times when attendance is checked will lose 3 pts from their final grade (for each three missed classes).
20 percentage points will be deducted from assignments which are submitted late. Assignments which are 7 days late or more will not be accepted without valid medical excuse accompanied by a doctor's note.
There is a scheduled final exam for this course during finals week. Students who miss exams during the semester are required to make them up during the regularly scheduled exam during finals week. For all other students, the final exam is optional. Grades earned on parts of the final exam will replace grades on the corresponding exams given during the semester. This gives students another opportunity to demonstrate competency with the material.
These books are exhaustive guides to the various features of their respective software. Not everyone will have an interest in this much information. That is why these books are not required. However, if you decide to become an expert in one of these programs, this is the sort of thing you should work through. All of these books do a good job at covering most of the important material. Copies of the first two books will be made available in the lab in room 102 West Village H.
We maintain a course web site common to all sections of the class at:
www.ccis.neu.edu/course/cs1100Here you will find announcements (especially as they pertain to all sections of the class), access to lab assignments, individual instructor's web sites, and contact information about the TAs.