COMP160

COMP160 - Course Information

COMP160, General Programming, runs in the second semester and summer school. It is a prerequisite for all 200 level papers in Computer Science (and some 200 level papers in Information Science).

COMP160 is taught using the Java language. It requires no previous programming experience, but assumes a proficient level of computer use. If you are a hesitant computer user, you should take COMP150, COMP112 or COMP111 before enrolling in COMP160.

Each student must attend 21 of the 25 scheduled labs in his/her streamed lab time in order to pass Terms. If a student fails Terms, he/she is not permitted to sit the final examination.

Programming is a practical skill. You will learn most about programming by writing your own programs in the lab sessions.

Assessment

The assessment weightings are as follows:

Lab based exercises	25%	The lab based exercises are all specified in the lab book.
Mid-semester exam	15%	The mid-semester exam will be 90 minutes long. It is scheduled for Friday January 27th.
Final examination	60%	The final examination will cover material from lecture notes, the text book, and the lab book (including readings). It will be two hours long. You must pass the final exam to pass the course.

Textbook

The textbook for this paper is:

Java Foundations: Introduction to Program Design and Data Structures, 2nd edition
John Lewis, Peter DePasquale, Joseph Chase

Both lectures and labs will use the text book extensively - it is essential.

Workload

This means that you should expect to do roughly 20 hours of work per week for COMP160 during summer school. This includes the 15 scheduled hours (5 hours of lectures and 10 hours of laboratories). In other words you have 5 hours per week for your own work on understanding the concepts and preparation for the laboratory sessions.

The lab book contains background information and exercises that are designed to be read and completed before each actual laboratory session. There are also programming exercises to be done during the lab session itself, although you should think about them in your own time before you sit down in front of the computer. You will find the laboratory time too short to complete the lab work unless you have done some preparation beforehand.

The course material builds quickly on itself. Consequently, it is important that you complete the work for one lab session before going on to the next.

This is a fast moving course - if problems arise it is very important that you ask for help before you fall too far behind. Don't be afraid to ask - we are here to help.

Lab Timetable

Each student will be streamed to a lab at either 12 noon or 3pm daily.
To change a lab time, contact Sandy Garner Email: sandy@cs.otago.ac.nz