PAC Assignments:  CS 1150 (PEEE)

Spring 2018, J. Philip East

Overview

This course involves a number of programming (or programming-related) activities. For each activity I will request that you comment on the experience in a google doc I create that is shared with all class members. These PAC (programming activity commenting) assignments will count one-fourth of your course grade. Hopefully, the comments will be made after reflection and communicate the reflection. All the PAC assignments are to be completed in partnership.

These assignments serve several purposes. They allow you (and me) to see how much time is being spent on this class. Some classes require a little outside-class activity and some require a lot. The expectation or average is about 2 hours outside of class per week for each hour of credit per week and majors courses typically expect more than that (so spending 4-6 hours for this 2-credit course that counts toward a minor seems reasonable). If class work is getting done satisfactorily and students are not being substantially overworked, things are good. If neither of those is true, there is a problem and this may help me see the problem. The most important purpose of the PAC assignments is that they encourage reflection on what was learned during the prescribed activity.

Directions/Specifications

Each of the PAC assignments is to be completed with your partner. Each PAC assignment will require recordings of time spent to the nearest quarter hour (15 minutes) on the current programming activity and at least one comment on a specified topic. That required comment should result from interaction with your partner and will hopefully include both reporting and reflection. Each such comment should be preceded by the names of both students, address the specified reporting, and include reflections of the pair. (See the syllabus and reflection document for some insight into the nature of reflection.) Comments beyond those required may be made and may enhance the grade.

Grading

Grading will begin with checking to see that time spent was reported and that each pair responded to prescribed topics. Meeting the basic requirements of the particular PAC assignment will merit a grade of C. Reflective elements in the comments will raise the assessed grade. Optional comments can also raise the grade if they are reflective--agreeing or disagreeing with a comment is not reflective.

There has been at least one example of lost data in the past. I recommend you type and proofread your comments in an application of your own, then copy and paste them into the google docs file. That way if something happens in google docs, you have a copy of what you did.

PAC Assignments