# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # General Announcement Emails Sent to CIS 101 Students # Winter Semester, 2012, Professor Don Colton # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2012 20:50:00 -1000 (HST) Today's exam (#9) has been graded and the scores copied into the grade book. Please check your work and see whether you think it was graded fairly. (If someone else has the same answer but got credit and you did not, then let me know so I can fix it.) Now, on a much more serious note, I have been struggling for about two weeks with what to do about the test scores from the first half of the semester. As you will recall I discovered that students were submitting answers that they did not understand, largely based on cram-style memorizing of old answers, and were in some cases getting credit. To evaluate the scope of this problem, I asked you to each redo the problems from the first half of the semester. Most of you did. Thank you. After reviewing the situation, my decision is to cancel all the scores from tests 2 through 7, and only count scores from tests 8 through 13. There is one exception: there is one student has already finished all the exam questions and was essentially first to do each problem. I will let his scores stand. The semester grade book has already been updated to cancel the early scores. Please don't give up. Please just go back at your next opportunity and complete a few more of the early questions. I am sure most of you can do it. I know each question takes time, but the farther we get through the semester, the easier the early questions should be. Still, I know each question takes time. I hope you will realize that this is the only way I could come up with to truly correct the grades from issues earlier in the semester. For those of you that understand the material, I trust that you can do it again with little pain. For the rest of you, please give it your best shot. I realize that I had a substantial role in creating this problem by making the review questions available right up until the moment the exam was started. I am sure this made it seem reasonable to students that they could try to memorize one or two answers and then modify them to suit the new question. That was not my intention, but I can see how it happened. I am not going to say this was an honor code violation by those students. But I am going to require the work to be done over. I am sorry that by casting such a large net I will inconvenience nearly everyone. I hope you will forgive the inconvenience. My hope is that this change is coming early enough that you can get all the old work redone before we get to finals week, so the inconvenience will be minimal. Thanks for your patience as we work through this problem. Sincerely, Bro Colton # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # Date: Wed, 07 Mar 2012 20:50:00 -1000 (HST) This is a follow-up to the email I sent last Friday after the exam. You will remember that I commented on the fact that you could review right up until the moment you started the new test, and that there was evidence that I was enabling some students to just memorize answers without understanding them. At this point the situation seems to be a bit worse than what I thought last week. For the exam this Friday (March 9), I therefore request that you redo all the problems you have already earned. (Maybe not the story problems.) In most cases this should be easy. Once you learn it, you build on it for future activities. Please give it your best shot. Just start from problem 1 and work your way through all of them. Based on how that goes, I am trying to decide whether to cancel all the old exam scores because of the reviewing memorization issue. On Friday, I will be turning off the review of old exams probably about an hour before class starts. I will turn the review back on after the test is over. So if you are planning to do some review, take this into account. Thanks for your patience as we work through this. Bro Colton # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # Date: Fri, 02 Mar 2012 11:15:00 -1000 (HST) I wrote a couple of comments on the board during the exam. Here they are again with perhaps more detail. (a) Learning from Old Examples. When a student earns a score of 10 on their work, it means that the program works and was acceptable at that time, but it also means that it is NOT a good example of how to do the work. Maybe it has a style error. Maybe it is something worse. If you are studying, please study what they did and how it works, but do NOT do your program that way. It is not a good example. When a student earns a score of 11 on their work, it means the program works and was considered to be a good example at that time. In some cases, a program that earned an 11 several weeks ago would only earn a 10 now. The text book is your best source for reliable examples. (b) Extra Lines in your Program. The following paragraph appears in the exam rules for all exams: After testing your program, remove or comment out any scaffolding so the program you submit is exactly the program that was requested. Do not say things like "$wait = " unless the program actually calls for it. If I specify certain wording, use it. Submit EXACTLY what was requested. The point here is to show that you can follow instructions. This is an important skill to develop. Before today I have not been enforcing this strictly, but ... Because of the large number of extra lines people have been including, I have decided that I need to start cracking down on this. When you throw in a line that does not contribute to the operation of the program, I conclude that you do not understand what you are doing. You are just throwing in something in hopes that it will be useful. If I see a line that does not support the requested program, I will mark the program as being wrong. Sorry that I had to come down hard on this, but frankly I was just seeing too much work that looked almost exactly like some bad example that I had accepted on a previous exam, but that I never would have taught that way. (c) Review Lockout Currently you are able to review past exams right up until the moment you start the new exam. That will change effective next week. There will be a lockout, maybe 20 minutes, from the time you reviewed a previous exam until the time you are allowed to start the new exam. The idea here is to avoid having students memorize a few problems and then type them in quickly before they forget them, but they don't really understand them. I have clear evidence that some of that is going on. I consider it to be an honor code violation, and going forward I will treat it as such. Thanks! Bro Colton # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:00:00 -1000 (HST) I am writing to the 13 students that are not totally caught up in the CIS 101 class. You are missing one or more of the following points. The other 29 students have these points already. The class website is http://byuh.doncolton.com/cis101/ where you can find links to various things including the syllabus and textbook. r1: I did not hear from you that you had completed the readings that were due today. Please check the syllabus for information. If you *did* do the readings, please let me know by sending an email and saying so. The next readings are due in 10 days, on Jan 23, and include chapters 7 through 10. If you added the class just in the last couple of days, you probably did not know about the r1 assignment. If that is your situation, you can still get credit for doing the readings. Please do them by Jan 18 (next Wednesday) and let me know. oS: I did not find a static web page when I checked recently. For everyone else, this was created in class on Wednesday, Jan 11. You will have another opportunity to earn this point. In the mean time, you can ask another class member or a tutor how to set up your web page. oP: Like the oS point, it was done Jan 11. And like the oS point, you will have another chance. And like the oS point, you can ask another class member or a tutor how to include a picture in your web page. Thanks! Bro Colton # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # Date: Fri, 16 Dec 2011 23:10:00 -1000 (HST) Welcome to the CIS 101 class for which you are enrolled this coming semester. I am pleased to announce that a preliminary syllabus is available. You can find it at http://byuh.doncolton.com/cis101/2121/syl.pdf Good news. The textbook is free. You can download it from http://ipup.doncolton.com/ Bad news. There is a reading assignment before the first day of class. It is chapters 1 and 2 of the textbook. Good news. It's only seven pages. It would be great if you could reply to me with two pieces of information. (a) I have your preferred name as (something). Please let me know if that is the name I should use for you, and if not please let me know the name you would prefer. (b) Please indicate whether you are willing to be called upon to say a prayer in class. I generally do this by assignment, and each person that is willing is usually called upon once or twice during the semester. I look forward to meeting you and having a great semester together! Thanks! Bro Colton P.S. You will probably get more of these emails from me. They will generally have CIS 101 at the start of the subject line. # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # end of emails