Grading Requirements

The assessment has two components: the practical tasks and the exam components (including quizzes and the final examination).  The final 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.

Practical Assignment Submissions

Submission instructions for practical assignments will be provided on iLearn. The assignments contain differing forms of automatic assessment and feedback tools that will assist you during the assignment.  The automated feedback will help you identify your mistakes, but does not replace your own analysis of the problem, debugging and testing.  The automated assessment contributes strongly to our understanding of your performance in the assignment. 

Each practical assignment will specify a particular due date. The due time will be 5:00pm on the due date unless otherwise specified.

Late submissions

Submissions in assignment 1 are made through the lab command;  submissions in assignment 2 are made automatically as you progress through the task of analysing and executing the "binary bomb" program.  The lab command automatically enforces submission deadlines.  However, there is provision for extensions in appropriate circumstances.

Free Extension Days

Throughout the unit, you can claim up to a total of three free extension days. Free extension days can be used for any purpose, ranging from a single sick day to a sudden realisation of how to improve your solution. A free extension does not require any formal documentation, and you can use one or more of your free days instantly through the lab command - see the lab command documentation in the Lab Notes section on iLearn.

Free extensions are valuable and you are encouraged to meet the deadlines of the practical tasks whenever possible and conserve your free extension days in case you need them later in the semester. If you have free extension days remaining at the end of the semester, you may apply them to your last assignment closing date.

Free extensions can be applied to any due date - assignment closing dates or progress mark due dates.  In the opinion of the convenor, using a free extension for a progress mark due date is probably a waste of the free extension because the remaining progress marks and the final due date for the assignment will not be changed by the extension of a single progress mark deadline.  However, if you believe that extending the progress mark deadline is in your best interests, then please see the lab command documentation for details on how to do this.

Extensions Due to Serious and Unavoidable Difficulties

If you experience serious and unavoidable difficulties that affect your ability to meet the due dates for progress or the closing date of an assignment, you may apply for special consideration as explained at https://students.mq.edu.au/study/my-study-program/special-consideration. If the request is accepted, the action may be to grant an extension of the due date of the assignment, or it may be to require you to submit an alternative assessment item.  Extensions, if granted, are managed through the automated assessment system that you access via the lab command. 

If you apply for special consideration, please note:

• Apply promptly.  Late applications may make it impossible to sensibly offer an extension, and you may risk having to complete a different assessment task which would mean starting from scratch.  For example, if you are ill for two days just before the due date, an extension of two days would be reasonable, but that extension cannot be granted more than two days after the due date since the extension end date would have already passed!
• Email the convenor and unit lecturer to let us know what is happening.  This will make it easier for us to respond in a timely manner.
  • During weeks 1-6, email young.lee@mq.edu.au and also the convenor len.hamey@mq.edu.au
  • During weeks 7-13, email len.hamey@mq.edu.au
• Use free extension days initially.  If you have free extension days available, you can use them to claim a short free extension to enable you to continue working on the assignment and complete it.  At the same time, you can lodge a formal special consideration request asking for the extension that you need.  Send an email as above, letting us know that you have used your free extension days for special consideration.  If the special consideration is granted as an extension, we will convert your free extension into a formal special consideration extension (the lab command calls this an 'authorised' extension) and your free extension days will be returned to you. If the special consideration extension is not granted, your free extension days will have been used.

Combining Special Consideration and Free Extensions

You can claim a free extension on top of a formal special consideration extension - the two extensions will be added together.  If that is not what you want, you should email as discussed above so that if special consideration is granted, your free extension can be converted to an authorised extension.

Text Book

"Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective" 3rd edition, R.E. Bryant and D.R. O'Hallaron, Pearson 2015.

You are required to read set sections of the text book each week.  The text book is available in electronic form in the library, or you can purchase a printed copy from the Coop bookshop or book seller of your choice.

Recommended Text

"The C Programming Language" 2nd edition, Brian W Kernighan and Dennis M Ritchie, Prentice-Hall 1988.

This small book is the classic reference on C programming.

iLearn Web Site

All learning materials will be published on iLearn including lecture slides, practical tasks and tutorial questions.

You are required to check the iLearn website at least once a week to ensure that you are aware of the latest materials available there.

Lectures

Lectures are a core learning experience where we will discuss the theoretical underpinnings and concepts that are essential to this unit. Key ideas for the practical assignments will be discussed from time to time in lectures.  Attendance at lectures is not required but is highly recommended. Lectures will be recorded on echo360 but some lectures will include interactive components that may not be adequately captured by a recording.  Lecture attendance may be recorded.

Workshops

Each week you should prepare your solutions to the set tutorial questions and attend your enrolled workshop. Workshops provide an opportunity to ask specific questions related to any aspect of the unit: the lecture content, the practical tasks and the set tutorial questions.

Workshops provide an opportunity for you to develop your skills in systems programming and your understanding of the key concepts of the unit. Practical work will consist of set assignment tasks, each of approximately 6 weeks duration, which are assessed and contribute to your final mark.  The assessment criteria for each practical assignment will be explained in the assignment specification along with the due date and progress milestone due dates. The assignments will be posted on iLearn.

Your workshop tutor will provide you with individual assistance and may also from time to time address the entire class to provide useful information to assist with the practical assignment.

The practical assignments are set as individual work and each one is personalised for a particular student. The University's academic honesty policy will be enforced. You may assist your fellow students with general concepts, pointers to resources and useful tools or commands. You may not become involved in any way in helping a fellow student to find the solution to their particular assignment, nor may you share with them any aspect of the solution of your particular assignment. Each practical assignment will include specific instructions to help you understand what is acceptable and what is not.

Each practical assignment must be the sole work of the student turning it in. Any cheating will be handled under the University's Academic Honesty Policy.

The following are guidelines on what collaboration is allowed for laboratory exercises and what is not [adapted from CS:APP website]

What is Cheating?

• Sharing code or other electronic files: either by copying, retyping, looking at, or supplying a copy of a file from this or a previous semester. Be sure to store your work in protected directories, and log off when you leave any lab computer, to prevent others from copying your work without your explicit assistance.  Don't use a public repository (such as github) for your assignment files.
• Sharing written assignments, quizzes or exams: Looking at, copying, or supplying an assignment, quiz or exam.
• Using other's code: Using code that you did not write yourself. You may not use code from courses at other institutions, or from any other non-202 source (e.g., software found on the Internet).  You may, however, use Internet and other sources to learn useful concepts, ideas, and programming idioms.  If you find helpful ideas on the Internet or in other sources, you should acknowledge them in comments in your code.  For Internet sources, a URL is sufficient acknowledgement.
• Looking at other's code. Although mentioned above, it bears repeating. Looking at other students' code or allowing others to look at yours is cheating. There is no notion of looking ''too much,'' since no looking is allowed at all.

What is NOT Cheating?

• Clarifying ambiguities or vague points in class handouts or textbooks.
• Helping others use the computer systems, networks, compilers, debuggers, profilers, or other system facilities.
• Helping others with high-level design issues.
• Helping others with high-level (not code-based) debugging techniques.
• Using code from the CS:APP website or from the class Web pages.
• Learning programming idioms and techniques from examples.
• Reading Unix manual pages, forums, etc in order to find out how to perform particular tasks (e.g. set a breakpoint in a debugger) or use programming language/library features (such as printf).
• Asking for help from the practical demonstrator, tutor or lecturer.

Be sure to store your work in protected directories, and log off when you leave any lab computer, to prevent others from copying your work without your explicit assistance.

Unit Forum

A forum for unit discussions is provided on iLearn. Students are free to post questions, comments or hints in relation to any aspect of the unit, except that you should avoid posting any questions, hints, comments or solutions that could be interpreted as cheating (see Workshops, above).

Don't post your code, or anyone else's code, on the forums!

If you see a post from another student that appears to be cheating, please notify the "senior workshop tutor" as soon as possible and we will remove the offending post.

Senior Workshop Tutor

An experienced tutor will be given the role of senior workshop tutor (see the staff list at the start of this document).  This tutor is your primary contact for email enquiries related to unit content, and is the most likely person to respond to posts on the forum.  For enquiries about the administration of the unit, please contact the unit convenor.

The detailed unit schedule will be available on iLearn. The unit is organised into two 6-week periods, with topics approximately as follows.

Week 1-6: C programming, Command line interface, Data representations (integer and float), some system API.

Weeks 7-12: Assembly code and how C programs appear in the machine, Operating System features and implementation.

Revised learning outcomes to add command line control of the computer.  Some revision of unit content.

See also the section General Assessment Information, above.

This unit will be graded Fail, Pass, Credit, Distinction or High Distinction as defined in the Macquarie University Grading Policy.

Detailed achievement levels for each learning outcome are described as follows.