Syllabus  (Page 3/4)

Lab work materials

Lab assignments for all lab sessions are given in Programming Fundamentals in C++ -Laboratory Manual, which is available in the instructor’s web site.

System requirement

This course is designed to be delivered in an environment supporting a C++ compiler. There is supplementary information included about the Visual C++ 6.0 development environment.

Instructional methods

To facilitate the goal of making C++ accessible as a first-level programming course, the following instructional methods are used in this course.

End-of-Chapter Exercises. Every chapter in the Lecture Notes contains several diverse skill-builder and programming exercises. Students are encouraged to do all the exercises after each chapter. Solutions to some of them are provided by instructor or teaching assistants in the class.

Focus on Problem Solving. In the Chapter 2, 3, 4 and 7, each chapter contains a Focus on Problem Solving section with one complete problem per chapter. Each application is used to demonstrate effective problem solving within the context of a complete program solution. Two programming projects – one for structured programming paradigm and one for object-oriented programming paradigm will ask each student to write larger programs in order to help students to enhance their problem-solving skills.

Pseudocode Descriptions. Pseudocode is stressed throughout the course. Flowchart symbols are described, but are only used when visually presenting flow-of-control constructs.

Gentle Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming. In the course, there are two chapters (7and 8) that provide a “mini-course” introduction to basic object-oriented programming concepts and design techniques. Object oriented design techniques are illustrated in details in a Focus on Problem Solving section of Chapter 7 with one complete application. For more advanced features of object-oriented programming in C++, another course named “Object-Oriented Programming” which is offered one semester later will cover.

Evaluation and grading systems

The final grade of each student shall be calculated by means of a weighted average as follows:

Lab works and programming projects : 30%

Midterm examination: 20%

Final examination: 50%

Lab work and project evaluation:

Lab work evaluation is based on lab work performance of all 10 lab sessions. Project evaluation is based on the working of 2 programming projects. Sample topics for programming projects are given in the last pages of Programming Fundamentals in C++ -Laboratory Manual, which is available in the instructor’s web site.

Lab assignments and projects are evaluated using the following grading criteria:

-correctness: 40%

- appropriate use of arrays/structures/pointers/functions and/or classes: 25%

- program structure (including efficiency): 10%

- program style: 10%

- documentation: 10%

- format of output: 5%

Scores are given in the range from 0 to 10 (rounded to 0.5) with the following interpretation:

Exams

Exams are closed-book exams. Exams include one or more of: short answer, multiple choice, trace the given code, debug the given code or given a problem description, produce a solution in the form of a short program or a function(s).