CLASSES

Each week of COMP115 has three hours of lectures and a two-hour practical class. For details of days, times and rooms, consult the University timetables webpage (http://www.timetables.mq.edu.au). The Day and Evening streams of COMP115 have the same content. Practical classes commence in Week 1 and are held in the E6A Computer Laboratories.

REQUIRED AND RECOMMENDED TEXTS AND/OR MATERIALS

• Learning Processing: A Beginner's Guide to Programming Images, Animation, and Interaction (2nd edition, 2015, ISBN 978-0123944436), Daniel Shiffman, Morgan Kaufmann
  • eBook version available for Macquarie students via ScienceDirect (must be connected to Macquarie OneNet directly or via VPN). pdf version can be downloaded. Please be aware of copyrights and share responsibly.

We cover a large proportion of the material in this book and it will be extremely difficult to successfully complete this unit without reading the relevant chapters. This text is the primary source of examinable material in this unit. Furthermore, you will find the lecture material much easier to understand if you read the textbook in advance of the lectures. The lecture schedule below lists the relevant sections of the textbook.

The textbook website at http://www.learningprocessing.com/ provides supplementary material that you may find useful, including tutorials on Processing, the complete code for the examples in the book, and related downloads. The Macquarie University library has a number of copies of the textbook, including some in the reserve collection. The library also has many other books on programming that you may find useful if the concepts are not adequately explained by the textbook or class material.

UNIT WEBPAGE AND TECHNOLOGY USED AND REQUIRED

Web Home Page

COMP115 will make extensive use of the iLearn course management system, including for delivery of class materials, discussion boards, online self-tests, submission of work and access to marks and feedback. Students should check the iLearn site (https://ilearn.mq.edu.au) regularly for unit updates.

Questions and general queries regarding the content of this unit, its lectures or practical classes, or its assessments should be posted to the discussion boards on the COMP115 iLearn site. In particular, any questions which are of interest to all students in this unit should be posted to one of these discussion boards, so that everyone can benefit from the answers. Questions of a private nature should be directed to the unit teaching staff.

iLecture

Any audio and screen video recordings of the lectures in the Day and Evening streams will be made available online at iLearn via the echo360 system.

Technology Used and Required

The practical work in this unit involves programming in the Processing language (http://processing.org) which will give students experience with features that are used in many modern programming languages. The Processing software can be downloaded free of charge for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X computers from the Processing web site. It is also installed in the E6A Computer Laboratories.

There are many versions of Processing available. In our teaching and in the laboratories we will be using the latest that is available at the time of writing, namely version 3.011. To increase probability of compatibility with us, you should make sure to install this version, or later, not an older version.

The unit is broken into six modules

• Pixels and Variables (P&V)
• Conditionals (C)
• Loops (L)
• Functions (F)
• Arrays and Strings (A&S)
• Program Design and Problem Solving (PD&PS)

Each of the first 5 module (P&V, C, L, F, A&S) cover one skill which is absolutely necessary to program a computer.  Thus, each student must demonstrate a satisfactory performance in each of these modules to pass the course.  Satisfactory performance in a module is defined in the assessment tasks section.  The final module (PD&PS) synthesises the skills learned in the other modules.  Student performance in this module is important to their final grade and to demonstrate they have reached the level of mastery required to pass, but less than satisfactory performance in this module does not preclude a student from passing (as it does for the other modules).

Changes since S1, 2016:

1. In semester 1, 2016, in-class exercises (worth 12%) were structured as follows:

During semester, on three occasions, you will be selected to present your solution to the current weekly practical exercise. You will be graded on your answer by the practical supervisor.

In semester 3, 2016, students will be required to write a piece of code within the dedicated 30 minutes towards the end of the practical class. Also, the marks for these will be 10.

2. change of weight for assignment 2 from 18 to 20.

COMP115 will be graded according to the following general descriptions of the letter grades as specified by Macquarie University.

• High Distinction (HD, 85-100): provides consistent evidence of deep and critical understanding in relation to the learning outcomes. There is substantial originality and insight in identifying, generating and communicating competing arguments, perspectives or problem solving approaches; critical evaluation of problems, their solutions and their implications; creativity in application as appropriate to the discipline.

• Distinction (D, 75-84): provides evidence of integration and evaluation of critical ideas, principles and theories, distinctive insight and ability in applying relevant skills and concepts in relation to learning outcomes. There is demonstration of frequent originality in defining and analysing issues or problems and providing solutions; and the use of means of communication appropriate to the discipline and the audience.

• Credit (Cr, 65-74): provides evidence of learning that goes beyond replication of content knowledge or skills relevant to the learning outcomes. There is demonstration of substantial understanding of fundamental concepts in the field of study and the ability to apply these concepts in a variety of contexts; convincing argumentation with appropriate coherent justification; communication of ideas fluently and clearly in terms of the conventions of the discipline..

• Pass (P, 50-64): provides sufficient evidence of the achievement of learning outcomes. There is demonstration of understanding and application of fundamental concepts of the field of study; routine argumentation with acceptable justification; communication of information and ideas adequately in terms of the conventions of the discipline. The learning attainment is considered satisfactory or adequate or competent or capable in relation to the specified outcomes.

• Fail (F, 0-49): does not provide evidence of attainment of learning outcomes. There is missing or partial or superficial or faulty understanding and application of the fundamental concepts in the field of study; missing, undeveloped, inappropriate or confusing argumentation; incomplete, confusing or lacking communication of ideas in ways that give little attention to the conventions of the discipline.

The standards of achievement that will be used to assess each of the assessment tasks with respect to the letter grades are as follows.

Learning Outcome 1: Describe the main components of a computer system and the role that different kinds of programming language play in computer software development.

Learning Outcome 5: Identify and describe ethical issues that arise in the application of information technology.

Learning Outcome 2: Apply problem solving skills to develop algorithms that solve small to medium-sized computational problems.

Learning Outcome 3: Design and code implementations of their algorithms in an imperative programming language.

Learning Outcome 4: Use standard software engineering practices to document, debug and test their programs.

These assessment standards will be used to give a numeric mark out of 100 to each assessment submission during marking. The mark will correspond to a letter grade for that task according to the University guidelines. The final raw mark for the unit will be calculated by combining the marks for all assessment tasks according to the percentage weightings shown in the assessment summary. 

We will look at your overall performance on all assessments when determining your final grade. A total raw mark of at least 50% and satisfactory performance in each of the first five modules will be sufficient to pass the unit. Students who do not meet this cut-off will be examined on a case-by-case basis.

On occasion your raw mark for the unit may not be the same as the Standardised Numeric Grade (SNG) which you receive as the final result. Under University Senate guidelines, raw marks may be scaled to ensure that there is a degree of comparability across the university, so that units with the same past performances of their students should achieve similar results.