As you explore the Internet and the World Wide Web, you will quite likely encounter documents called FAQs. This is an acronym that stands for Frequently Asked Questions, and, as that name implies, these documents are commonly used to collect answers to questions which are asked often.
For the purposes of our course work, I have decided to start collecting such questions and their answers here for the benefit of my students (past, present, and future). If you have an idea for something that you would like to see on this page, please let me know by e-mail at mike.gildersleeve@unh.edu.
Although I reply to student e-mail using whatever address they used when sending their inquiry, when I need to initiate a conversation with a student I use that student’s address.
If you regularly check and prefer another e-mail account (perhaps at Hotmail or AOL), then you may want to consider having all of your cisunix mail automatically forwarded to your preferred address. Before you do so, however, it is important to understand that this will automatically forward every single message sent to your cisunix address to your other account. You will no longer be able to see any of that mail on cisunix. If that is acceptable, then the process to make the change is relatively simple.
Start by logging into your cisunix account and exit to the command shell. At the command shell enter the following command line:
pico ~/.forward
When the pico editor screen appears, simply type the complete e-mail address that you wish to use as your forwarding address. Be extremely careful that you type it completely and correctly. The pico buffer should contain one and only one line, and that line should contain your forwarding e-mail address. When you are done, exit from pico by holding the Ctrl key and typing an X, and be sure to save your modified buffer when prompted. When it asks you for a name to save the file under, accept the suggested name by pressing Enter.
You should immediately test your forwarding by sending yourself a message at your cisunix address. After a few minutes, this message should be delivered to your preferred address. If it is not, then something is likely wrong and you should disable your forwarding until you figure out what has gone wrong.
To disable your forwarding, use the following command line:
mv ~/.forward ~/hold.forward
Then, to enable the forwarding again later, use the following command line:
mv ~/hold.forward ~/.forward
No, I do not hold specifically allocated review sessions before exams.
There are really two basic types of review sessions. In one, the instructor prepares what amounts to a “Best Of” lecture and just repeats things that have already been covered in lecture. In the other, the instructor sets aside an hour or two of lecture time and allows students to ask whatever questions they might have with regards to the exam material; if there aren’t enough questions to fill the allotted time, everyone goes home early. (And since everyone is fully aware that fewer questions means less time they have to stay in class, there is often a negative peer pressure on those who do ask questions during such a session.)
I don’t really see either approach as a productive use of lecture time. With the former approach, most students inevitably find that the majority of the review material is stuff they already know and regret having wasted their time on the review session. And the latter approach can be much more efficiently handled by simply starting each and every lecture with the query “Does anyone have any questions before I begin?” (Sound familiar?)
So as I see it, every lecture can be a review session if you want it to be. However, I’d rather leave it up to the students to state what they specifically wish me to review when they specifically wish me to review it. It just seems to make more sense that way!
If you wish to use XHTML tools and editors in CS503 to write your XHTML and CSS, that is up to you. Since this course is not about writing XHTML or CSS, you are welcome to use whatever method you find most reliable and efficient to generate your XHTML and CSS code.
However, I would strongly recommend that you not use any JavaScript code generated by tools or editors in completing your work for CS503.
There are three reasons for that recommendation.
First, there’s the simple fact that you won’t have that tool available when you sit down to take an exam. And, if you’ve been writing your JavaScript from scratch all semester, you’re likely to have an easier time writing it from scratch for the exams.
Second, editors tend to over-complicate the JavaScript they produce and (at least some of them) cut corners. I grade all work on an equal footing and according to the rules presented in class, regardless of how it was produced. Hence, if the editor introduces anomolies or errors into your code, you’re still liable for them. And the more complicated things get, the greater the probability that errors will occur. (In other words, I don’t ignore errors because “the editor did it.”)
Third, for the work you will be doing in this course you will need to meet certain minimum technical requirements. Since you often have little or no control over how an editor actually carries out your commands, the only way to guarantee that you meet all of the requirements is to review (and possibly revise) the generated JavaScript manually. And if you’re going to do that, you might as well write the JavaScript yourself.
As long as you understand these potential downsides and are willing to accept them, the ultimate decision is up to you. However, if I determine that significant and/or essential aspects of your work were generated by a software tool, I reserve the right to reduce your grade accordingly (since it does not actually represent your own mastery of the material).
Studying code that others have written can be a very effective tool in learning how to program properly with JavaScript. However, there are several issues to keep in mind if you choose to copy that code into your own work.
First, just because code appears on the Web or in a book does not ensure that it is technically accurate.
Second, most code on the Web and in print is copyrighted. More importantly, at least from an academic perspective, any time you utilize code from a third party source in your coursework, you must cite the source. If the material is from a Web site, you must provide me with the URL of the page on which the code was originally found. You should also retain a hard copy of that page for your own records, in case the original page becomes inaccessible. If the material is from a book, you must provide me with the title, author(s), publisher, copyright date and page number(s) of the source document. Regardless of the source, you must also clearly indicate the precise extent of code that you derived from that source. Failure to meet these requirements amounts to plagiarism and is a violation of academic integrity.
Third, if it appears that significant and/or essential aspects of your work were derived from a third party source, I reserve the right to reduce your grade accordingly (since it does not actually represent your own mastery of the material).
No!
Any use of code taken or derived from that of another student, with or without their permission, will be treated as a violation of academic integrity. This statement applies to any other student, not just your classmates in CS503.
To master the course material without violating academic integrity, your best bet is to write your own JavaScript code at all times.
It is fine to expand your course experience by studying code you find on the Web or in books. Keep in mind, however, that there is a lot of outdated and erroneous material out there. Therefore, if you encounter something that doesn’t look at all familiar, it’s probably best to ask the instructor before relying upon it.
It is also acceptable for you to discuss the course material with friends and/or classmates. It is not fine, however, to study another student’s solution to the same assignment and base your solution on it. When it comes time to actually write the code to solve a problem, do that part yourself. As long as you are writing the code yourself and avoiding work done by other students, you should be in the clear.
One might ask a similar question about using a spell checker before submitting a paper or publishing a book. Why bother correcting the spelling as long as the reader can understand what you’re trying to say? And the answer is pretty much the same.
Let’s imagine that you choose to publish a book without first checking it for spelling, grammar and other typos. For the most part, people who read it are likely to get the gist of it. However, where there are errors, readers are forced to make assumptions about what you are really trying to say. Each time they make an assumption, there’s a chance an individual reader will assume something different than others have. More errors result in more assumptions, and more assumptions lead to a greater likelihood that readers will have differing understandings of your message. So when we write books, papers, letters, memos and whatnot, we do our best to check them for errors before sharing them with others, because doing so enhances their ability to communicate our message clearly.
When you write XHTML or CSS, you’re writing a message to communicate with a browser. When you run a validator on that code, you’re working to clarify that message and reduce (or hopefully even eliminate) the assumptions that the browser is forced to make. Just as some professors grade papers without taking off for spelling and grammar mistakes, some professors who teach this course may choose not to teach the use of validators. However, I prefer to teach my students how to write the clearest, most correct ‘messages’ possible, so that the browsers can better understand their intent. If you settle for what works, you only know that your ‘message’ has been understood by the browser you used for testing. But if you invest the extra effort to validate, you can be confident that your ‘message’ will be understood by all properly functioning browsers (including those that haven’t even been created yet!).
If you have a computer at home or work, you may be able to do a significant part of your course work from there. Just how much of it you can do from there, however, depends upon a couple of different factors.
First, do you have the proper software available? Some of the software we use in class, such as Notepad and Internet Explorer, is part of the Windows and it should be available on all Windows computers; all you need to do it find it on the hard disk. Other software we use, such as SSH Secure Shell Client and Mozilla, is available for download via the World Wide Web (or may already be on your computer). So you can easily obtain your own copies and install them if you don’t already have this software. If you are hesitant about installing this software on your own computer (or your employer will not allow it), you may find it easier in the long run to simply work in the public clusters. Likewise, if you encounter problems using the software on your own computer, you might try the same thing in one of the public clusters to see if it’s something you are doing or a problem with your installation of the software.
Second, do you have some way to connect your computer to the Internet?
Once you are setup with access to the Internet, you will be able to run
a terminal emulator and/or FTP client such as SSH Secure Shell Client
on your computer and use it to access the host named cisunix.unh.edu.
This will allow you to do any UNIX related work, such as working on
your Web pages or accessing pine, from home.
Over several years of teaching, I have noticed that attendance in lectures overwhelmingly correlates to grades; those students who attend lecture regularly tend to get the higher grades, and those who miss lectures frequently tend to get the lower grades, whether I explicitly consider attendance when grading or not.
Therefore, I strongly recommend that you make every effort possible to make it to lecture. However, life is complicated, and I realize that it is not always possible to make it to lecture.
If you must miss a lecture, it certainly doesn’t hurt to drop me a quick note by e-mail letting me know. However, please realize that you are responsible for making up the missed material on your own. It is simply not practical for me to repeat an entire lecture for one individual, regardless of their reason for having missed it.
When you must miss a lecture, your primary concern should be to fill in the gap in your understanding of the course material. Certainly, the fact that the PowerPoint slides are available gives you a headstart. However, since many students will find it helpful to annotate those slides as I lecture, you may find it helpful to get annotations from someone else in the class. Since every student's perspective of a lecture is different, you may even find it helpful to get annotations from several of your classmates and combine them.
I also strongly recommend that you pay particular attention to any reading associated with the missed lecture in the schedule. Doing, or redoing, this reading especially carefully will likely be helpful.
If, after you have made a good faith effort to help yourself by reviewing the slides, classmates’ annotations, and any reading assignments, you have questions about the material you have missed, I will be happy to meet with you to provide the answers you are lacking.
There are two things you need to know to answer this question, and both are incorporated into other parts of this presentation. First, you need to know the weightings applied to the various tasks you will be assigned throughout the semester. And second, if you have reason to be concerned about your standing in the class, you should come to see me so I can explain how I determine final letter grades.