Syllabus
13 University of Maryland Policies for Undergraduate Students |
1 Prerequisites and Description
Prerequisite: none.
Credits: 1.
CMSC 388Q is an introduction to functional programming in Racket. Its major goal is to explore programming within the Racket ecosystem. Throughout the course, students will collaborative design and build a single peice of software using Racket.
It is helpful, but not required, to have some familiarity with a functional programming such as OCaml from CMSC 330.
2 Course Workflow
The course will be a combination of synchronous video meetings, live Q+A sessions, online course notes, and a discussion forum in the form of a Discord server. Students are expected to keep up with the Discord discussion and either attend the video meeting or view a recording in a timely manner.
3 Office Hours
Office hours will consist of the professor’s daily availability on Discord or by email. If you’d like to schedule a video meeting, just ask.
The discord server is there for you to organize as a class, ask questions of each other, and to get help from staff.
There is a channel ‘#course-discussion’ that is meant for discussion/questions/help regarding the material of the course, make sure that you keep that channel free from noise so that other students and course staff can easily see what issues are being brought up.
4 Topics
This course will be intentionally open-ended; we will collectively decide what to explore, but some potential topics include:
Basics of Racket
Modules
Macros
Contracts
Testing
Classes
Types
DSLs
Reactive programming
GUI programming
Systems programming
Distributed programming
5 Grading
Grades will be maintained on ELMS.
You are responsible for all material discussed in lecture and posted on the class web page, including announcements, deadlines, policies, etc.
Your final course grade will be determined according to the following percentages:
Component |
| Percentage |
Participation |
| 30% |
Quizzes & surveys |
| 20% |
Final project |
| 50% |
6 Participation
participate in video meetings
participate in discussions on Discord
submit pull requests on Github
create issues on Github
write code reviews on Github
7 Quizzes & surveys
There will be some quizzes and surveys. Completed surveys receive full credit.
8 Project
A major component of the course will be a course Project that will be assessed during the “final exam” period for the course.
Final Project Assessment: TBD
9 Computing Resources
It’s highly recommended you use your own computing system for development. Racket runs on all major platforms, so there should be no problem running programs on your own machines.
If you don’t have access to your own computing systems, you may using the University’s GRACE cluster.
We will use Github and its continuous integration services to build and test software.
10 Outside-of-class communication with course staff
Course staff will interact with students outside of class electronically via e-mail.
Important announcements will be made in class, on the class web page, or via Discord.
11 Excused Absences
You are not required to attend the video meetings, so there is no need to seek excused absences. Just make sure you participate in other ways.
Missing the final project deadline for reasons such as illness, religious observance, participation in required university activities, or family or personal emergency (such as a serious automobile accident or close relative’s funeral) will be excused so long as the absence is requested in writing at least 2 days in advance and the student includes documentation that shows the absence qualifies as excused; a self-signed note is not sufficient as exams are Major Scheduled Grading Events. For this class, the final project assessment is on the only Major Scheduled Grading Event and it will take place:
Final Project Assessment: TBD
The final time is scheduled according to the University Registrar. You do not need to be present for the assesment; you just need to submit your work prior to the assessment time.
It is the University’s policy to provide accommodations for students with religious observances conflicting with major scheduled grading events, but it is the your responsibility to inform the instructor in advance of intended religious observances. If you have a conflict with one of the planned events, you must inform the instructor prior to the end of the first two weeks of the class.
Besides the policies in this syllabus, the University’s policies apply during the semester. Various policies that may be relevant appear in the Undergraduate Catalog.
If you experience difficulty during the semester keeping up with the academic demands of your courses, you may consider contacting the Learning Assistance Service in 2201 Shoemaker Building at (301) 314-7693. Their educational counselors can help with time management issues, reading, note-taking, and exam preparation skills.
12 Students with Disabilities
Students with disabilities who have been certified by Disability Support Services as needing any type of special accommodations should see the instructor as soon as possible during the schedule adjustment period (the first two weeks of class). Please provide DSS’s letter of accommodation to the instructor at that time.
All arrangements for major grading event accommodations as a result of disability must be made and arranged with the instructor at least three business days prior to the event date; later requests (including retroactive ones) will be refused.
13 University of Maryland Policies for Undergraduate Students
Please read the university’s guide on Course Related Policies, which provides you with resources and information relevant to your participation in a UMD course.
14 Academic Integrity
The Campus Senate has adopted a policy asking students to include the following statement on each examination or assignment in every course: "I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on this examination (or assignment)." Consequently, you will be requested to include this pledge on each exam and assignment. Please also carefully read the Office of Information Technology’s policy regarding acceptable use of computer accounts.
Assignments and projects are to be completed individually, therefore cooperation with others or use of unauthorized materials on assignment or projects is a violation of the University’s Code of Academic Integrity. Both the person receiving assistance and the person providing assistance are in violation of the honor code. Any evidence of this, or of unacceptable use of computer accounts, use of unauthorized materials or cooperation on exams or quizzes, or other possible violations of the Honor Code, will be submitted to the Student Honor Council, which could result in an XF for the course, suspension, or expulsion.
For learning the course concepts, students are welcome to study together or to receive help from anyone else. You may discuss with others the assignment or project requirements, the features of the programming languages used, what was discussed in class and in the class web forum, and general syntax errors. Examples of questions that would be allowed are "Does a cond expression always end with an else-clause?" or "What does a ’mismatched parenthesis’ error indicate?", because they convey no information about the contents of an assignment.
When it comes to actually writing an assignment, other than help from the instructional staff, assignments must solely and entirely be your own work. Working with another student or individual, or using anyone else’s work in any way except as noted in this paragraph, is a violation of the code of academic integrity and will be reported to the Honor Council. You may not discuss design of any part of an assignment with anyone except the instructor and teaching assistants. Examples of questions you may not ask others might be "How did you implement this part of the assignment?" or "Please look at my code and help me find my stupid syntax error!". You may not use any disallowed source of information in creating either the design or code. When writing assignment you are free to use ideas or short fragments of code from published textbooks or publicly available information, but the specific source must be cited in a comment in the relevant section of the program.
Violations of the Code of Academic Integrity may include, but are not limited to:
Failing to do all or any of the work on a project by yourself, other than assistance from the instructional staff.
Using any ideas or any part of another person’s project, or copying any other individual’s work in any way.
Giving any parts or ideas from your project, including test data, to another student.
Allowing any other students access to your program on any computer system.
Posting solutions to your projects to publicly-accessible sites, e.g., on github.
Transferring any part of an assignment or project to or from another student or individual by any means, electronic or otherwise.
If you have any question about a particular situation or source then consult with the instructors in advance. Should you have difficulty with a programming assignment you should see the instructional staff in office hours, and not solicit help from anyone else in violation of these rules.
It is the responsibility, under the honor policy, of anyone who suspects an incident of academic dishonesty has occurred to report it to their instructor, or directly to the Honor Council.
Every semester the department has discovered a number of students attempting to cheat on assignments, in violation of academic integrity requirements. Students’ academic careers have been significantly affected by a decision to cheat. Think about whether you want to join them before contemplating cheating, or before helping a friend to cheat.
You may not share, discuss, or compare assignment solutions even after they have been graded since later assignments may build upon earlier solutions.
15 Course Evaluations
If you have a suggestion for improving this class, don’t hesitate to tell the staff during the semester. At the end of the semester, please don’t forget to provide your feedback using the campus-wide CourseEvalUM system. Your comments will help make this class better.
16 Right to Change Information
Although every effort has been made to be complete and accurate, unforeseen circumstances arising during the semester could require the adjustment of any material given here. Consequently, given due notice to students, the instructors reserve the right to change any information on this syllabus or in other course materials. Such changes will be announced and prominently displayed at the top of the syllabus.