Classes

COMP249 is taught through a mixture of traditional lectures and online video presentations.  Each week a number of video presentations will be made available on iLearn, you should watch these and follow up on the topics covered before the lecture on Wednesday. The lecture will recap some of the video content and provide a forum for discussion of the topics of the week. Some new material may be presented in the lecture if that format is more appropriate.  

You will also have a two hour workshop each week in the computer laboratory.  This will be used as a combined tutorial and practical class, with tasks each week to engage you in the topics we are discussing.  It is important that you stay up to date on these tasks so that you will be better prepared for the workshop exams and for the major assessment in the unit.  The workshops give you a chance to talk over any problems with your tutor.

Four of the workshop sessions will include an exam with questions related to the tasks that you carry out in the workshops.

Since your tutor will be keeping track of your marks, you should attend the workshop that you enroll in. If you do need to change, make sure your tutor and the tutor in the new class agree.

Required Texts

There is no required text for COMP249 this semester. 

We have written a set of notes for the unit which will be added to through the semester. You can find them here:

• Python Web Programming

We will also provide notes, slides and links to other resources each week.  It is important that you follow up links provided with the video presentations and in the notes on each topic.   

Required Technology

You will be writing server side programs in Python 3.4 . We will use PyCharm as the recommended development environment although you are free to use your own favourite editor if you wish.  You will be making use of a number of different web browsers (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari, Opera...) to test web pages.  All of this software will run on Windows, Mac or Linux.

The schedule below is the planned topic list for the unit but minor changes may be made in response to student feedback or other factors.  See the iLearn unit page for the definitive and more detailed week by week breakdown.

1. Core Web Technology
2. HTML, CSS, Python
3. Web Servers, Python Web Scripting, Bottle
4. Forms Processing, Databases
5. Cookies, Web Application Development
6. HTML, CSS, Web Design
7. Javascript, Security on the Web
8. Usability and Accessibility
9. Data on the Web
10. Using Data from the Web
11. Advanced Application Architectures
12. Mobile Web Development
13. Review

The main change this year is the introduction of workshop exams rather than weekly submissions from the workshops.  There will be four exams through the semester and they will test your programming knowledge and ability to solve problems.   Questions will be similar to those that you have done in previous weeks workshops.  

The main web application assignment is similar to previous years, however the requirement that you pass this assignment to pass the unit has been removed. This requirement was causing a lot of stress and extra work for students (and staff) and was not really achieving the desired goal.  This is still an important assignment, and we expect everyone to be able to complete it; however you will not now fail the unit if you don't quite meet the requirements.  

We have also introduced a new toolkit for writing web applications this year. Bottle is a simple Python web framework that helps organise your code and removes some of the complexity of WSGI.  We hope that it will allow you to concentrate on the important features of web applications rather than getting stuck on programming complexity. 

Your final grade depends on your performance in each part of the assessment. For each task, you receive a mark that reflects your standard of performance regarding each learning outcome assessed by this task. Then the different component marks are added up to determine your total mark out of 100. Your grade then depends on this total mark and your overall standard of performance.

Pass: in order to pass the unit you must at least:

• attend all workshop exams;
• make a reasonable attempt at the Web Application assignment;
• achieve a pass in the final exam.

Credit: all of the above plus shows a sound understanding of web technology, able to provide full solutions to all set assignment work and demonstrate an appreciation of how everything works together on the web.

Distinction: all of the above plus a demonstrated ability to apply the technologies covered to new problems or in new ways. Assignment solutions are excellent and well presented, implementing extended features or displaying high quality work.

High Distinction: very exceptional students who show a complete mastery of web technologies and are able to demonstrate their thorough understanding of the web at large and the issues involved in building modern web applications.

Criteria for passing the different assessment tasks will be made clear in the guidelines distributed with the task descriptions.

Your final grade will be derived by combining the marks from the in-term assessment and the final examination. You will be given a standard normalised grade (SNG) that reflects your achievement in the unit but this might not be a simple sum of the component marks.

Late Submission

Unless you have made prior arrangements for late submission due to unforeseeable circumstances, you will be penalised one mark for every day that you submit late.  

If you are unable to attend a workshop exam for any reason you must submit a Disruption to Studies notification immediately and attend a supplementary examination as arranged by the unit staff.