June 21st, 2020
Introduction to the engineering of computer applications emphasizing modern software engineering principles: program design, decomposition, encapsulation, abstraction, and testing. Emphasis is on good programming style and the built-in facilities of respective languages. Uses the Python programming language. No prior programming experience required.
We will use Canvas in CS 106A this quarter only to post recordings of course videos. The Canvas website for our class is:
https://canvas.stanford.edu/courses/139653
All other information relevant to the class will be posted on the class web page, described below.
The class web page for CS 106A is:
http://www.stanford.edu/class/cs106a-8/
You can also reach that webpage via the simpler URL:
http://cs106a-8.stanford.edu/
You should regularly check the class web site for handouts, announcements and other information, including the most up-to-the-date information on assignments and errata. Please note that the class web page will have links to essential class materials including class handouts and assignment files.
In addition to lecture, you will also be attending a weekly 50-minute section. In order to take CS 106A, you must sign up for a section between 12:00P.M. Sunday, June 20th and 5:00P.M. Tuesday, June 22nd. The signup form will be available on the web at the URL:
https://cs198.stanford.edu/cs198/auth/default.aspx
Section sign-ups are not first-come first-serve, so don’t worry about rushing to fill out your preferences as soon as the form opens. After a matching process, your section assignments will be emailed out to you by the evening of Tuesday, June 22nd. Sections begin the first week of classes (i.e., this week). Note that you should only sign up for sections at the URL indicted previously (you should not sign-up for sections on Axess).
Attendance and participation in section will be graded and will make up 10% of your final grade in the class, so this is a required component of the class.
CS106A provides extensive assistance for students. Section Leaders and Course Helpers are available from Sunday through Thursday evenings each week to help with assignments—we call this the LaIR. Check the web site http://cs198.stanford.edu/ and click on the "Helper Schedule" link for the latest schedule of Helper Hours. More information about how to access the helpers at LaIR will be posted once LaIR hours start.
We will have weekly programming assignments. Usually homework will go out by Wednesday or Thursday and be due the following Tuesday or Wednesday night at 11:55pm PT. The assignments will become slightly more difficult and require more time as the quarter progresses. Thus, the later assignments will be weighed slightly more than the earlier ones. Most assignments are graded during an interactive, one-on-one session with your section leader, who rates it according to the following scale:
| ++ | An absolutely fantastic submission of the sort that will only come along a few times during the quarter. To ensure that this score is given only rarely, any grade of ++ must be approved by the instructor and TA. Since your section leader would almost certainly want to show off any assignment worthy of a ++, this review process should not be too cumbersome. |
| + | A submission that is "perfect" or exceeds our standard expectation for the assignment. To receive this grade, a program often reflects additional work beyond the requirements or gets the job done in a particularly elegant way. |
| ✓+ | A submission that satisfies all the requirements for the assignment, showing solid funtionality as well as good style. It reflects a job well done. |
| ✓ | A submission that meets the requirements for the assignment, possibly with a few small problems. |
| ✓- | A submission that has problems serious enough to fall short of the requirements for the assignment. |
| - | A submission that has extremely serious problems, but nonetheless shows some effort and understanding. |
| -- | A submission that shows little effort and does not represent passing work. |
From past experience, we expect most grades to be check + and check. Dividing the grades into categories means that your section leader can spend more time talking about what you need to learn from the assignment and not have to worry about justifying each point. The overall goal is to maximize the learning experience in doing the assignments, and we have found the "bucket" grading system to work much better for programming assignments than assigning numeric grades from a pedagogical perspective over many quarters of experience.
With Covid, we are switching from big exams to smaller quizzes. Each quiz will be around 30-60 minutes in length, and involve writing code. We score these with an eye towards partial-credit, giving points for the parts that are correct, not grading them all-or-nothing. We will, of course, give out sample problems and instructions as the quizzes approach. The code problems on the quizzes will be similar to the problems on the homeworks.
Quizzes will be during the Friday class time. Even though we never have lecture on Fridays, we will use that time period twice throughout the quarter for quizzes. The quizzes will be Friday, July 9th starting at 1:30pm PT and Monday, August 9th starting at 1:30pm PT.
If you are in a timezone that makes taking the quizzes during our regular class time impractical or have another class that meets at the same time, we’ll schedule an alternate time on the same day for you. If you need an alternate time for a quiz, please contact the head TA at least one week before the quiz date. In your email please indicate all the alternate times you would be available to take the quiz on the same date as regular quiz. To maintain the integrity of the quizzes, any alternate times must be on the same day as the regular quiz. The quizzes are open-book.
| 50% | Programming assignments (weighted toward the later assignments) |
| 40% | Quizzes |
| 10% | Section participation |
In the spirit of collegial and cooperative learning, you are free to discuss ideas and approaches with other students, and then implement the solution yourself. The key is this: all the code you submit you should type in and get working yourself. In particular, it is not ok to share or paste in someone else's code or get code from a previous quarter. It is not ok to look at someone else's code. You should not be looking at another student's homework code.
For discussion or tying out ideas, the many lecture examples work well and of course it's fine for everyone to look at and experiment with that code.
Web search: it's fine if you search the web to find the right 2 line phrase to solve something, like "sort strings" - programmers do that sort of search all the time, and finding and using short phrases like that is fine. Do not, however, search for a whole homework function and paste in what you find. We want you to write that code.
The Computer Science department produces many honor code cases at Stanford. This is not because CS is a magnet for cheating; it's just that online submissions provide a large body of evidence, and computer science has tools which do an extremely good job of finding cheating.
Each homework submission has a section where you can write notes for the grader. If you think a bit of collaboration may have crossed the line, mention it in your file header comment for that homework. You can never get in honor code trouble for collaboration clearly described in this way.
As mentioned above, CS106A exams will very much resemble the homework problems. So that's an additional reason you need to author and understand your own code.
On a related note, when you are done with a homework - please don't post your code on the internet! That causes problems for us and for people trying to learn the material later.
It's not that people can be divided into cheaters and non-cheaters in some pre-ordained way, though that is an easy way to think about life. It's more that the stress and bad decision making of a particular situation can make a cheater of someone. If you feel you are in that position, contact Juliette or Tara and we promise we'll work something out where you can pass this class vs. making a huge mistake.
As in any programming course, the assignments in CS 106A require extensive hands-on use of a computer. The preferred platform for doing the work is the PyCharm development environment which runs under both Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows. Instructions on obtaining and using the PyCharm environment—which is free to download—will be available on the class website.
As noted in the University’s recording and broadcasting courses policy, students may not audio or video record class meetings without permission from the instructor (and guest speakers, when applicable). If the instructor grants permission or if the teaching team posts videos themselves, students may keep recordings only for personal use and may not post recordings on the Internet, or otherwise distribute them. These policies protect the privacy rights of instructors and students, and the intellectual property and other rights of the university. Students who need lectures recorded for the purposes of an academic accommodation should contact the Office of Accessible Education.
Stanford University and its instructors are committed to ensuring that all courses are financially accessible to all students. If you are an undergraduate who needs assistance with the cost of course textbooks, supplies, materials and/or fees, you are welcome to approach the course staff directly.
If you would prefer not to approach the course staff directly, the Diversity and First Generation Office’s Opportunity Fund is designed to financially assist undergraduate students who are experiencing a temporary financial challenge from a hardship or who are seeking funds for an opportunity related to their academic, professional, and/or social development. Go to https://diversityandfirstgen.stanford.edu/ resources. The Diversity and First-Gen Office is available to connect you with resources and support while ensuring your privacy.
The COVID-19 pandemic is a stressful time for us all. In addition, you may experience a range of other challenges that can cause barriers to learning, such as strained relationships, increased anxiety, alcohol/drug problems, feeling down, difficulty concentrating and/or lack of motivation. These mental health concerns or stressful events may lead to diminished academic performance or reduce your ability to participate in daily life. Stanford is committed to advancing the mental health and well-being of its students. If you or someone you know is feeling overwhelmed, depressed, and/or in need of support, services are available. You can learn more about the broad range of confidential mental health services available on campus here:
https://vaden.stanford.edu/caps-and-wellness/counseling-and-psychological-services-caps
Students who may need an academic accommodation based on the impact of a disability must initiate the request with the Office of Accessible Education (OAE). Professional staff will evaluate the request with required documentation, recommend reasonable accommodations, and prepare an Accommodation Letter for faculty dated in the current quarter in which the request is being made. Students should contact the OAE as soon as possible since timely notice is needed to coordinate accommodations. The OAE has contact information on their web page: http://oae.stanford.edu
As part of our ongoing efforts to make this course an even better experience for students, our teaching team continually conducts research to improve our teaching methods. In this course, new teaching methods may be used and various aspects of student performance may be analyzed on an ongoing basis. Information about you and your personal performance in this course will be held strictly confidential, but aggregate information for the whole class may be reported. If you would like to opt out of participating in any new teaching methods or having your performance analyzed as part of this research, you may do so without penalty. For more information, please contact the instructors.