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 major assessment in the unit.  The workshops give you a chance to talk over any problems with your tutor.

You will submit five workshop tasks through the semester which will be work that comes out of 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 3.3 . We will use Eclipse 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.

Changes for 2014

The main changes this year is the re-introduction of the portfolio assessment task. This has been used in previous years in a different form; the basic idea is to encourage you to collect together examples of your work through the semester and reflect on the things you've learned.  This year we're trying out the iLearn Blog facility; you will write up your thoughts each week in a blog post and then draw a few of these together at the end of semester into a portfolio document. 

The portfolio task replaces the Workshop Tasks we ran last year which were five small problems that were set through the semester. We hope the portfolio will allow us to give you better feedback through the semester and allow you to show us your progress. 

We've also re-introduced an early diagnostic task which will ask you to do a bit of programming early in the semester. The goal of this is to alert you to the level of programming literacy you will need to get the most out of COMP249.  This isn't a programming unit but we use programs to illustrate and understand the design of web applications. 

The main programming assignment is similar in scope to previous years however we are presenting it a little differently this year.   Last time there were two phases to the project, one where you wrote a backend database interface and another where you wrote the web application proper. This year we will build the web application in more stages, growing in complexity but at each point you will have a working application.  In fact this is much more like a real agile development process and we hope that it will give you a good picture of how the whole application fits together.  As in previous years, you will need to pass this assignment to pass the unit. We will make it clear which point you need to get to to achieve a pass.  

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
4. Forms Processing, Databases
5. Cookies, Web Application Development
6. HTML, CSS, Web Design
7. Javascript, Security on the Web
8. Usability and Accessability
9. Data on the Web
10. Advanced Javascript, AJAX
11. Special Topics
12. Special Topics
13. Review

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:

• make at least five portfolio blog posts;
• achieve a pass in 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. Note that you will need to implement a minimum level of functionality in the Web Application to achieve a pass. If you do not achieve at least a pass for the first submission of this assignment, then you can resubmit this assignment at a new due date, but you are then additionally asked to meet with one of the teaching staff for an oral examination. However, if you take up this "second chance" you cannot get more than a pass grade for this assignment.

If you do not meet the above criteria you will fail the unit irrespective of the sum total of the marks you achieve in other assessment tasks.

Your final grade will be derived by combining the marks from the in-term assessment and the final examination. Your will be given a standard normalised grade (SNG) that reflects your achievment 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 unforseeable circumstances, you will be penalised one mark for every day that you submit late. If you submit portfolio blog posts more than one week late, they will not attract any marks but will be counted towards the minimum five posts required to pass the unit. In the case of the Web Application assignment, if you submit late without prior arrangement you may still be able to pass the assignment (if you met the requirements) but your numerical mark will be reduced.