Lecture A: Thursday 1:00-1:50 CODE: 11859   Aiken Building, Room 116.

LAB SCHEDULE:  All students are REQUIRED to attend one 2-hour lab per week during the semester.  The two labs are listed below.

Instructors:

GENERAL COURSE GOAL: To prepare students with a solid foundation of information technology skills and knowledge that will be useful at UVM and beyond.

SPECIFIC COURSE OBJECTIVES: Upon satisfactory completion of CALS 85, students will:

1.  Become familiar with information technology hardware including types of computers and telecommunication hardware.
2. Understand the role of Operating Systems and demonstrate knowledge of command-line UNIX, and Windows XP.
3. Demonstrate file and folder management on PC, disk, flash memory stick, and zoo home directory server and backup directory server.
4. Detect and elimination of Computer Viruses & Spyware and protect your PC with Zone Alarm fire-wall software.
5. Demonstrate proficiency with electronic communication: e-mail, etiquette, emoticons, attachments, and signature files.
6. Be familiar with the Blackboard environment and post journal entries.
7. Demonstrate proficiency in presentation graphics applications by giving a PowerPoint presentation in front of a class.
8. Demonstrate proficiency in word processing applications including tab formatting, inserting symbols, hanging indents, and citing references for ideas and images.
9. Demonstrate proficiency in converting between decimal and binary numbers, and understand basic use of binary in coding for text, images, sound, and video.
10. Demonstrate proficiency in spreadsheet and graphing applications including choosing the correct graph type for a specific audience, given a data set.
11. Understand and demonstrate how to present and interpret data in graphic form including basic descriptive statistics.
12. Understand what a peer-reviewed publication is, and the difference between primary, secondary, and tertiary data.
13. Demonstrate finding reliable, credible sources of information on the web, and printed paper sources in the University library stacks.
14. Find useful data on the Internet, be critical of those data, and interpret those data.
15. Demonstrate knowledge of data classification (Nominal, Ordinal, Interval, etc.).
16. Understand and interpret X Y scatter plots, box plots, histograms, population pyramids, and choropleth maps.
17. Create World Wide Web Pages using HTML code and publish on the web using the zoo web server.
18. Understand the history and legacy of computing.
19. Appreciate the utility, benefit and limitations of computers and information technology.
20. Improve writing skills.

Required Text:

GRADE POLICIES: The following categories contribute to your course grade as weighted below:

Grading:  Students begin with no points (0), and earn points.  Students never lose points on an assignment; instead, they earn them.

Exams will cover material from the reading assignments as well as discussion in lecture, and material from lab.  The format of the exams will be multiple choice.  You must be on time for exams.  If you are late for exams, you will lose points.  Cell phones, I-pods, or any electronics with ear buds or screens are not permitted during exams.  See Lecture Syllabus below for schedule.

Exam Reschedule or Make Up Policy: Any requests to take the exam at other than the scheduled time must be discussed with Dr. Leonard at least one week prior to the exam. Only in the case of medical emergency, death in the family, or other extreme circumstance are missed exams excused and re-taken (contact Rose Laba in the CALS Dean's Office, who will contact Prof. Leonard with an official excuse: Rose Laba, rlaba@uvm.edu, 656-0289).  In such extreme circumstances you are to notify Rose and Dr. Leonard within 24 hours of the event.  Keep your old graded exams for one year after the course.

Computer Lab Assignments vary in point value; the Final Lab Project is worth 150 points, the other assignments vary from 10 to 50 points each.  Exceptionally creative work may earn a grade above the point value of the assignment.  Paper lab assignments should be stapled together and handed in at the beginning of scheduled lab time.  YOUR NAME AND LAB SECTION SHOULD APPEAR ON ALL ASSIGNMENTS.  You may re-submit assignments for re-grading WITHIN TWO WEEKS OF THE DUE DATE (not accepted later); please include your old, already graded assignment, along with the re-done work.  The sooner you re-submit, the more generous your lab instructor will be in re-grading.  Save your graded homework assignments for one year after the course. It is your responsibility to find a printer that works and print the assignments BEFORE they are due at the beginning of lab.

LATE PENALTY:  Lab assignments are collected at the beginning of lab.  If the assignment is not ready at the beginning of lab there is a late penalty of 10% off the value of the assignment per week, up to two weeks from the due date.  If the assignment is any later than two weeks from the due date: NO CREDIT.

Attendance:  Unexcused absences or lateness will result in a deduction of 1% of your course grade per unexcused absence or lateness.  Athletes are excused only for Varsity Games (and work is expected to be made up within one week).  If you are late, you will be marked absent. Absences and lateness are excused only in cases of extreme emergency: illness death in the family, or other extreme circumstances (contact Rose Laba in the CALS Dean's Office, who will contact Prof. Leonard with an official excuse: Rose Laba, rlaba@uvm.edu, 656-0289) .  In such circumstances, notify your lecture and lab instructor and Rose Laba in the CALS Dean's Office within 24 hours of missing class.

Online Blackboard Discussion, Participation, and Attitude:  Five percent of your grade is determined by online discussion on Blackboard, class participation (how you contributed to the class), and your attitude.  You are expected to be on your seat a few minutes before lecture or lab begins.   In order to earn full credit you must attend all the lectures and labs and contribute to the class in a positive way by helping other students and participating in class and online discussions.  A minimum of one discussion posting to your lab per week is expected.  

Religious Holidays:  (University Policy) Students have the right to practice the religion of their choice. Each semester students should submit in writing to their instructors by the end of the second full week of classes their documented religious holiday schedule for the semester.  Students have two weeks to complete the assignments missed due to religious holidays.  If assignments are not completed within the two week time period, students will earn no credit for the assignments missed.

What to post on Blackboard Discussions:  Post information technology related news you hear about.  Post thoughts or questions about our class or other classes or experiences you have had such as: readings, lab or lecture material, and life experiences that were interesting.  Postings about class-related material that is confusing, or makes you think of connections to other courses or experiences in your life, are welcome.  Contact lab mates, or reply to their postings giving your own opinion or suggestions to questions they posted. Organize study sessions or reviews of our class or other class material.  Constructive criticism or suggestions for future lectures and labs is welcome.  To earn full credit, you should post at least once every week during the semester (14 postings minimum).  Replies to other postings count as postings.

What not to post on Blackboard Discussions:  Hurtful, thoughts or strong negative criticism of others in our class, are not welcome.  Whining or excessive complaining about this or any other UVM course is not appropriate.  Do not post about drinking, drugs, or sex.  

Class Behavior  Students are expected to have a positive attitude and to arrive to lecture and lab a few minutes early and be in their seat when class time begins.  Cell phone use or text messaging or emailing during lecture or lab is not permitted.  Only one person should be speaking during class at any time.  If you need to leave class early, notify the instructor BEFORE the class begins.  You will be asked to leave the class and you will loose at least one percent of your course grade each time you: 1. continue to talk while the recognized speaker is talking, 2. fall asleep during class, 3. read the newspaper or do other assignments not related to our class,  4. leave the class early without prior permission of the instructor,  5. talk on your cell phone, text message, or email during class,  6. are late for class. Being late to class, leaving early without notifying the instructor, hurtful or strong negative criticism of others, is not appropriate or welcome.  Whining or excessive complaining about this or any other UVM course is not appropriate in class.
    You are expected to come to class with a pen and notebook and to take notes.   It is appropriate and acceptable to raise your hand and ask questions during class.  You may eat food and drink water during class. 

PLAGIARISM:
It is expected that you will help your fellow students with techniques of computer use, but always hand in original work.  For example, if the assignment for the week was to create a population pyramid, you are expected to help students who are not as familiar as you with the use of the spreadsheet graphing software.  This does not mean that you can copy work or take it off the Internet without crediting the original source.  ALL STUDENTS ARE EXPECTED TO HAND IN THEIR OWN ORIGINAL WORK.  Students have been severely penalized in the past for not following these instructions.  You must cite any information that is not common knowledge in any homework assignment.  See examples of what is plagiarism and what is not, here.

LAB USE POLICY:
Students may use the labs whenever there are no scheduled classes or workshops.  Schedules are posted on lab doors.

LAB ROOM HOURS (Unless posted otherwise):

  http://www.uvm.edu/~jleonard/labsched.html

  http://scripts.uvm.edu/cgi-bin/lab.pl

LAB HELP POLICY:  There will be some lab assistant help available in the lab during most hours.  Lab assistants may not be able to help you with all your problems with the course.  When not in a formal lab, you will be expected to rely on classmates, class notes, online help, and lab assistants when available.  If you need extra help, make an appointment with your lab instructor.  Formal tutoring may be available.

WORK LOAD TO EXPECT:  In order to complete the work in this class you can expect to spend (on average) 6-10 hours per week OUTSIDE OF CLASS AND FORMAL LAB TIME studying and working in lab on CALS 85 assignments.

HINTS ON DOING WELL IN CALS 85:
You don't have to be a "rocket scientist" or "computer wiz" to do well in this class.  This is a course where you will do well if you go to class, follow instructions, complete all your lab assignments on time and spend time reading and studying outside of formal lecture and lab.

This course is designed not only to give you experience on the PC, but also to teach you computing concepts so you will be able to work through any software on any personal computer and many servers and host computers.

Final Lab Project Due Dates:
Early +10% Bonus Due Date: Friday April 18, 4pm
Due: Friday April 25, 4pm.   If late, -5% per day including Saturday and Sunday.
Absolute Deadline: Friday May 2, 4pm (-35%).  Projects will not be accepted after this deadline