Syllabus
Course Content
The Senior Seminar (COMP491/492 combined) has two main components:
- A year long project with two options:
- H/FOSS Projects: Students will work in teams to select and engage with a Free and Open Source (FOSS) project or a Humanitarian FOSS (HFOSS) project and work towards meaningful contributions to their chosen project community.
- Research Projects: Students may with approval pursue an independent research project under the supervision of a faculty member. Research projects are most commonly completed by students pursuing departmental honors.
- Readings, in-class exercises, class discussions and reflective writings related to:
- Software engineering (concentrated in 491/fall).
- Social, legal and ethical issues related to computing (concentrated in 492/spring).
Course Schedule
Assignment details including all due dates are given on the Course Home Page:
Instructor’s Schedule
The instructor’s schedule including office hours can be found on his Home Page:
Textbook
Reading materials for COMP491/492 will be provided via links on the course schedule.
Learning Goals
Students will:
- improve their mastery in problem solving applicable to a wide variety of disciplines.
- become more prepared for graduate study in computing or to begin a professional career in computing.
- participate in a year-long project that enhances their technical computing skill set in a way that is applicable, adaptable, and relevant to contemporary computing infrastructure, including large-scale projects and open source projects.
- enhance their ability to work and collaborate in teams.
- expand their understanding of social, legal and ethical issues raised by computing.
- expand their perspectives on the value of computing, including: the role of computing in understanding the physical world, generating commercial value, advancing technology, and driving social change; and the transformational power of computing in service to the greater good.
- [WiD goal] enhance their ability to present technical information to an audience of computing professionals in both written and oral form.
- [WiD goal] develop their ability to write about and express an opinion on a social, legal or ethical issue in computing for a broad technical audience.
- [WiD goal] reflect on their experiences with the computer science major and the relationship of those experiences to their future goals and plans.
Community and Inclusivity
All members of this class are equally valued members of our course community. The instructor aims to create an inclusive atmosphere in which we can listen and speak in ways that are respectful of each other and our diversity of heritages, identities, experiences, knowledge, and views. All questions will be accepted and treated with kindness. Some topics will push us to develop new ideas and opinions about things we may not have thought about before. The instructor aims to promote a generous atmosphere. One where we listen and speak to understand. One where all are given the benefit of the doubt as they try out new and partially formed thoughts and opinions. One where we respond to and critique statements and ideas, not individuals. If you feel at any time that these ideals are not being met or have ways that our course atmosphere can be improved you are encouraged to reach out to the instructor. In cases where talking with the instructor is not comfortable please contact your advisor, the Department Chair or another trusted College official for guidance.
Time Commitment
Courses at Dickinson are equivalent to four credit hours, even though they only meet for 150 minutes a week (or three credit hours). The awarding of the fourth credit hour is predicated on the expectation that every hour spent in class is accompanied by at least three hours of work outside of class. Thus, the expectation is that you will be spending between 7 and 9 hours per week doing work outside of class for this course. That time will be divided between reading and discussion preparation (typically at least 1-2 hours/week) and project work (typically at least 6-8 hours/week).
Grade Determination
Assignment Scores
Every assignment will receive an Assignment Score from 0-10 based on the scale and criteria shown below. The specific requirements for each assignment are provided in the assignment documents linked on the Course Schedule or below in the 491 and 492 Course Components sections.
| Score | Criteria |
|---|---|
| 10 | Exceptional Work |
| 8-9 | Good Work |
| 7 | Sufficient Work |
| 5-6 | Deficient Work |
| 1-4 | Incomplete Work |
| 0 | Missing Work |
Note that comments received on an assignment are provided as constructive feedback and are not intended to be a justification of the assigned score. Students feeling that a score was not fairly assigned may meet with the instructor to discuss the score. If a higher score is being requested, the student should prepare evidence that the work meets the criteria for the higher score.
Exceptional Work
Exceptional work shows an engagement with the assignment that is above and beyond expectations.
Exceptional work is work that in the judgement of the instructor:
- clearly meets all of the assignment requirements.
- is universally clear, correct, logical, well organized, and considerate.
- is universally at a level appropriate to the target audience.
- clearly demonstrates thoughtfulness, engagement and attention to detail.
- leaves no doubt that at least the expected amount of time was invested in its completion.
- is universally neatly presented.
- universally uses correct grammar.
- often reflects research, insight or thoughtfulness beyond what is specified by the assignment.
- may also reflect extremely high quality, an effective extension, a thoughtful insight, a creative connection to other work or content, or a novel interpretation of the assignment.
Good Work
Good work shows a successful completion of the assignment that meets expectations.
Good work is work that in the judgement of the instructor:
- meets all of the assignment requirements, with possible allowance for a few small omissions.
- is consistently clear, correct, logical, well organized, and considerate.
- is consistently at a level appropriate to the target audience.
- demonstrates thoughtfulness, engagement and attention to detail.
- suggests that at least the expected amount of time was invested in its completion.
- is consistently neatly presented.
- uses correct grammar to the extent that any issues do not interfere with understanding.
Sufficient Work
Sufficient work is work that does not fully meet the criteria for Good Work, but exceeds the criteria for Deficient Work.
Deficient Work
Deficient work shows a completion of assignment that does not meet expectations in one or more ways.
Deficient work is work that in the judgement of the instructor:
- meets the most important assignment requirements, but may have significant omissions.
- may contain incorrect, unclear, illogical, disorganized, or inconsiderate content.
- may not consistently be at a level appropriate to the target audience.
- reflects insufficient thought, engagement or attention to detail.
- suggests that much less than the expected amount of time was invested in its completion.
- may be messy making it hard to follow.
- may contain significant grammar issues that interfere with understanding.
Incomplete Work
Incomplete work is work in which essential and/or substantial portions of the assignment are missing.
Missing Work
Missing work is when no work has been submitted for the assignment or the work was submitted after the deadline without prior approval.
Course Grades
Course Grades (Roll Call and Final Grades) will will be determined by weighting each Assignment Score using the associated weight for its Course Component as specified in the 491 and 492 Course Components sections to compute a Course Percentage. The Course Percentage is translated to a letter grade using the scale shown below. In addition, a curve may be applied at the instructor’s discretion when computing Course Grades.
| Course Percentage |
Course Grade |
|---|---|
| >= 93 | A |
| >= 90 | A- |
| >= 88 | B+ |
| >= 83 | B |
| >= 80 | B- |
| etc… |
COMP491 Course Components (Fall)
| Weight | Course Component |
|---|---|
| 20% | RD: Readings and Discussions |
| PA: Project Assignments | |
| 1% | PA01: Course Tools |
| 3% | PA02: Project Exploration |
| 3% | PA03: Project Reviews |
| 5% | PA04: Project Selection |
| 3% | PA05: Technology Spike Preparation |
| 5% | PA06: Project Contributions |
| 15% | PE: Project Effectiveness |
| PP: Project Presentations | |
| 10% | PP01: Technology Spike Presentations |
| 20% | PP02: Final Project Presentation |
| WA: Writing Assignments | |
| 4% | WA01: Blog Post Draft |
| 3% | WA02: Blog Post Peer Reviews |
| 8% | WA03: Blog Post Final Draft |
COMP492 Course Components (Spring)
| Weight | Course Component |
|---|---|
| 20% | RD: Readings and Discussions |
| 30% | PE: Project Effectiveness |
| PP: Project Presentations | |
| 10% | PP03: Demo Day |
| 10% | PP04: Poster Presentation |
| 15% | PP05: Final Project Presentation |
| WA: Writing Assignments | |
| 5% | WA04: Blog Post 2 |
| 10% | WA05: Blog Post 3 |
Attendance
The success of the Senior Seminar is in a large part up to you as its primary participants. Thus, attendance is required for every class period. Each unexcused absence will result in a 2.5% reduction of your final grade. Inattentiveness, and/or leaving the classroom with excessive frequency or for prolonged periods of time may also result in a grade reduction, if improvement is not seen following a discussion of the issue.
Up to two absences may be excused with reasonable advance notice and a valid reason. Valid reasons include illness, job interviews with documentation, religious holidays, and emergencies. If you have another reason that you believe is valid please discuss it with the instructor who will make the determination if the absence is excused or not. Note that leaving early or returning late from breaks or weekends are priority decisions and will not be excused absences. As much advance notice as is possible should be given and documentation may be required depending upon the reasons and circumstances. Absences without reasonable advance notice or appropriate documentation when requested will not be excused regardless of reason.
If advance notice is received and the absence is excused you will have the opportunity to complete an additional assignment to replace and receive credit for the missed experience.
- For discussion days you can receive credit for discussion questions, preparation and engagement by:
- Posting a discussion question and voting others by 8:00am on the due date as normal.
- Adding a new file in your course repo folder containing a 400-500 word essay on a topic related to the readings, linking to it from your
README.mdfile and making a Pull Request for the changes within 1 week of the class meeting in which the discussion occurred. To receive credit, this essay must express careful thought about the topic based on the assigned reading as well as at least one additional source that must be cited.
- For other types of days, the instructor will provide the exact assignment and its due date if/when an absence is excused.
Late Work
Managing your time, balancing priorities and accepting quality tradeoffs are important skills and dispositions. Thus, with the notable exceptions of excused absences, individual extensions will not be given and late work will not be accepted.
In the event of other unavoidable events, the instructor will determine if due date adjustments are warranted and if so will grant them for the entire class.
Academic Integrity
Please take the time to read the Academic Misconduct section of Dickinson’s Community Standards. Violations of this policy are considered serious transgressions, so you should be especially certain that you understand your rights and responsibilities under it. Students suspected of academic dishonesty will be subject to the process outlined in the Student Conduct pages. The specific collaboration policies for each component of this course are detailed in the assignments. If you are unsure about whether or not certain kinds of collaboration are permissible on an assignment or in this course, ask your instructor
AI Use
The use cases of AI listed below are permissible in this course. Any use of AI other than the listed use cases is not permitted. Any evidence of impermissible use of AI will be treated as a violation of Academic Integrity as described above. If you have any question about whether you can use AI for a particular purpose in the course, please discuss it with the instructor prior to using it.
- Revision of Writing: You may use AI to revise any writing that you have done. Your writing process must begin with your own writing. The AI can then be used to improve the organization, grammar, clarity, etc of the writing. However, all of the facts, concepts, ideas appearing in the submitted assignment must be your own and must appear in the writing before the AI is used for revision. If you use AI for revision, you must maintain a copy of your original writing to present in the event that the instructor has concerns about impermissible AI use.
- Project Work: When working on an H/FOSS project, you may use AI tools for code or documentation that is being contributed to the project (i.e. in a Pull Request), unless it violates the policy of your chosen project. It is your responsibility to ensure that your contributions to the project are in compliance with the project’s policy. For research/Honors projects, the use of AI must be negotiated with the project supervisor.
Intellectual Property Rights
Audio or video recording of class meetings, lectures or discussions is prohibited without explicit permission of the instructor. Photographic records of whiteboards, projected slides or other visual media is also prohibited without explicit permission of the instructor. In any case where permission is given for audio/video/photographic records to be made they are for personal use only. They may not be shared or redistributed and must be destroyed at the end of their usefulness or within one week following the termination of this course, whichever comes first. Similarly, any redistribution of sample code, homework solution sets or provided lab code is prohibited. Please note that all outside materials used in the course (readings/tutorials/assignments/projects/etc) are also be governed by their own licensing agreements.
Accommodations Students with Disabilities
Dickinson values diverse types of learners and is committed to ensuring that each student is afforded equitable access to participate in all learning experiences. If you have (or think you may have) a learning difference or a disability – including a mental health, medical, or physical condition – that would hinder your access to learning or demonstrating knowledge in this class, please contact Access and Disability Services (ADS). They will confidentially explain the accommodation request process and the type of documentation needed to determine your eligibility for reasonable accommodations. To learn more about available supports, go to www.dickinson.edu/ADS, email access@dickinson.edu, call (717)245-1734, or go to the ADS office in Room 005 of Old West, Lower Level (aka “the OWLL”).
If you’ve already been granted accommodations at Dickinson, please follow the guidance at www.dickinson.edu/AccessPlan for disclosing the accommodations for which you are eligible and scheduling a meeting with me as soon as possible so that we can discuss your accommodations and finalize your Access Plan. If you will be using any test-taking accommodations in this class, be sure to enter all test dates into your Access Plan in advance of our meeting. ADS will be happy to provide any assistance you may need.
Accessibility
The room in which this class meets and my office are both located on the second floor of Tome Hall. Tome Hall has an elevator that is located to the left of the stairs inside the main building entrance. If you require the use of an elevator to access our class or my office and are unable to locate it, please let me know. If there is ever a malfunction with the elevator, we will be notified by email, and I will consult with ADS to identify our options for that day.
Life Happens:
Sometimes stuff just happens. Sometimes it is an unexpected sudden event such as an illness or family emergency. Other times it may be an ongoing issue or concern or an accumulation of smaller issues. Any of these things may affect your (or my) ability to focus or perform up to your (or my) potential through no shortcoming or fault of your (my) own.
Dickinson is a kind and caring community and we want to see you achieve at your full potential. So, if you are experiencing life events that are affecting your performance please don’t hesitate to talk to your instructor, your advisor or your class Dean. They will all be willing to talk with you, help to formulate a plan and/or connect you with others that may be able to assist.
All textual materials used in this course are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
All executable code used in this course is licensed under the GNU General Public License Version 3 or later