Syllabus

Instructor

Ali Madooei, madooei@jhu.edu
https://www.cs.jhu.edu/faculty/ali-madooei/
Office hours to be posted on the course discussion board.

Teaching Assistant

Staff and their office hours will be posted on the course discussion board.

Meetings

• Section 1: Tuesday, Tursday, 12:00 - 01:15 PM ET, Online
• Section 2: Tuesday, Tursday, 01:30 - 02:45 PM ET, Online

Textbook

For students who prefer a textbook over sporadic resources available on the Internet, the following book is suggested:

• Haverbeke, Marijn. Eloquent JavaScript: A Modern Introduction to Programming. Third edition, No Starch Press, 2019. – The book is available in print, as well as in various digital formats. You can read it for free at https://eloquentjavascript.net/.

Online Resources

The course homepage will serve as the location for all documents (general resources, assignments, lecture notes, …).

Course Information

A full-stack JavaScript developer is a person who can build modern software applications using primarily the JavaScript programming language. Creating a modern software application involves integrating many technologies - from creating the user interface to saving information in a database and everything else in between and beyond. A full-stack developer is not an expert in everything. Rather, s/he is someone who is familiar with various (software application) frameworks and the ability to take a concept and turn it into a finished product.

Prerequisites

Students must have taken EN.601.220 Intermediate Programming or EN.601.226 Data Structures. Students must not have taken or be concurrently enrolled in EN.601.421/621 Object-Oriented Software Engineering.

Course Goals

This course is designed to provide a solid introduction to the JavaScript language. In particular, we will explore the features of JavaScript (such as asynchronous programming) that are not familiar to many students who are introduced to programming with languages such as Java, C++ or python.

This class will give you experience creating Web applications. In the process, you will learn about the engineering of modern software applications, emphasizing: object-oriented design, decomposition, encapsulation, abstraction, testing, and good programming style.

This course will address the following Computer Science BS Program Student Outcomes:

• Analyze a complex computing problem and apply principles of computing and other relevant disciplines to identify solutions. [SO1]
• Design, implement, and evaluate a computing-based solution to meet a given set of computing requirements in the context of the program’s discipline. [SO2]
• Apply computer science theory and software development fundamentals to produce computing-based solutions. [SO6]

Course Topics

After exploring the core programming concepts, the class lectures and homework assignments will introduce how JavaScript is used as a popular technology for software development. In particular we will explore the MERN stack (MongoDB with Mongoose.js, ReactJS, Express.js, Node.js) and several other JavaScript libraries.

Course Expectations & Grading

Course grades will be based on assignments (programming homework) and a quizz according to the proportions below. Each homework assignment will be assigned a point value; the overall homework assignment grade will be computed as your total points earned divided by the total achievable points.

• $80\%$ - Four Assignments (Programming Homework)
• $20\%$ - Quizz

From WSE Deans correspondance:

The fall 2020 academic term and our switch to remote instruction has presented new and significant challenges for our students and faculty, including in the area of student assessment.

In particular, the interrelated and significant issues of equity and integrity, which are routine considerations under normal circumstances, have taken on heightened significance in the context of remote learning.

Our commitment to equity means that, to the best of our ability, we ensure our assessment practices do not unfairly disadvantage certain students relative to others.

Our commitment to integrity means that, to the best of our ability, we ensure students maintain ethical practices during assessment and that individuals whose practices are unethical are held accountable for violating community standards.

In the fall 2020 academic term, assessment will necessarily occur remotely.

Letter grades for the course will be subject to the instructor’s evaluation of your overall class performance, generally based on this standard scale:

The cutoff for assigning $-$/$+$ to each grade letter is further subject to the instructor’s evaluation of your overall class performance. Do not expect a curve in this course.

From WSE Deans correspondance:

The Homewood Academic Council has voted to make S/U grading the default grading for undergraduate courses at Homewood during Fall 2020, but to allow students to opt for letter grades for any number of courses they choose (providing that the course is not set at entirely S/U grading). Students will have until 5:00 pm January 10, 2021 to select the grading for their courses. Faculty will be presented with a roster that includes letter grades, they will enter grades as they normally would, and any conversion to S/U grades will be handled within the registrar’s office.

Logistics

Please refer to the course homepage.

Attendance

All students are generally expected to attend all meetings of this course, and actively participate in all course meetings. If you miss a class meeting for any reason, you are responsible for material presented, and it is your responsibility to obtain any missed handouts or other materials.

Late Days

• All students start the semester with a budget of five late days; however, you can only use at most 2 late days for any particular deadline/assignment.
• Each late day extends the deadline of a grade item by exactly 24 hours.
• Late days cannot be used to delay a midterm/final exam.
• Late days have to be used in their entirety.
• You can only use a late day if you have one left in your budget.

All you need to do in order to use a late day is submit a grade item after the deadline has expired through the regular submission. There is no need to “request” a late day in advance, it’s solely based on when you submit. Of course, you must still have a late day available, otherwise the late submission will result in a score of $0$.

Key Dates

For the Fall 2020 semester:

Ethics

The strength of the university depends on academic and personal integrity. In this course, you must be honest and truthful, abiding by the Computer Science Academic Integrity Policy:

Cheating is wrong. Cheating hurts our community by undermining academic integrity, creating mistrust, and fostering unfair competition. The university will punish cheaters with failure on an assignment, failure in a course, permanent transcript notation, suspension, and/or expulsion. Offenses may be reported to medical, law or other professional or graduate schools when a cheater applies.

Violations can include cheating on exams, plagiarism, reuse of assignments without permission, improper use of the Internet and electronic devices, unauthorized collaboration, alteration of graded assignments, forgery and falsification, lying, facilitating academic dishonesty, and unfair competition. Ignorance of these rules is not an excuse.

Academic honesty is required in all work you submit to be graded. Except where the instructor specifies group work, you must solve all homework and programming assignments without the help of others. For example, you must not look at anyone else’s solutions (including program code) to your homework problems. However, you may discuss assignment specifications (not solutions) with others to be sure you understand what is required by the assignment.

If your instructor permits using fragments of source code from outside sources, such as your textbook or on-line resources, you must properly cite the source. Not citing it constitutes plagiarism. Similarly, your group projects must list everyone who participated.

Falsifying program output or results is prohibited.

Your instructor is free to override parts of this policy for particular assignments. To protect yourself: (1) Ask the instructor if you are not sure what is permissible. (2) Seek help from the instructor, TA or CAs, as you are always encouraged to do, rather than from other students. (3) Cite any questionable sources of help you may have received.

On every exam, you will sign the following pledge: “I agree to complete this exam without unauthorized assistance from any person, materials or device. [Signed and dated]”. Your course instructors will let you know where to find copies of old exams, if they are available.

Report any violations you witness to the instructor.

Personal Wellbeing

• All students with disabilities who require accommodations for this course should contact me at their earliest convenience to discuss their specific needs. If you have a documented disability, you must be registered with the JHU Office for Student Disability Services (Shaffer 101; 410-516-4720; http://web.jhu.edu/disabilities/) to receive accommodations.
• If you are struggling with anxiety, stress, depression or other mental health related concerns, please consider visiting the JHU Counseling Center. If you are concerned about a friend, please encourage that person to seek out our services. The Counseling Center is located at 3003 North Charles Street in Suite S-200 and can be reached at 410-516-8278 and online at http://studentaffairs.jhu.edu/counselingcenter/

Classroom Climate

I am committed to creating a classroom environment that values the diversity of experiences and perspectives that all students bring. Everyone here has the right to be treated with dignity and respect. I believe fostering an inclusive climate is important because research and my experience show that students who interact with peers who are different from themselves learn new things and experience tangible educational outcomes. Please join me in creating a welcoming and vibrant classroom climate. Note that you should expect to be challenged intellectually by me, the TAs, and your peers, and at times this may feel uncomfortable. Indeed, it can be helpful to be pushed sometimes in order to learn and grow. But at no time in this learning process should someone be singled out or treated unequally on the basis of any seen or unseen part of their identity.

If you ever have concerns in this course about harassment, discrimination, or any unequal treatment, or if you seek accommodations or resources, I invite you to share directly with me or the TAs. I promise that we will take your communication seriously and to seek mutually acceptable resolutions and accommodations. Reporting will never impact your course grade. You may also share concerns with the Department Head (Randal Burns, randal@cs.jhu.edu), the Director of Undergraduate Studies (Joanne Selinski, joanne@cs.jhu.edu), the Assistant Dean for Diversity and Inclusion (Darlene Saporu, dsaporu@jhu.edu), or the Office of Institutional Equity (oie@jhu.edu). In handling reports, people will protect your privacy as much as possible, but faculty and staff are required to officially report information for some cases (e.g. sexual harassment).

Family Accommodations Policy

You are welcome to bring a family member to class on occasional days when your responsibilities require it (for example, if emergency child care is unavailable, or for health needs of a relative). Please be sensitive to the classroom environment, and if your family member becomes uncomfortably disruptive, you may leave the classroom and return as needed.

Religious Holidays

From WSE Deans correspondance:

Religious holidays are valid reasons to be excused from class. Students who must miss a class or an examination because of a religious holiday must inform the instructor as early in the semester as possible in order to be excused from class or to make up any work that is missed.

For homework assignments, you must plan on using your late days towards religious holidays. If a holiday is longer than 2 days permitted late day per homework, we can make an exception for you to use more days subject to having late days left in your budget. You must inform the instructor as early in the semester as possible about your intention on using (more than two) late days for a specific homework during a religious holiday.

University Policy on Incompletes

From WSE Deans correspondance:

The university recognizes that the Fall 2020 semester is surrounded with uncertainty and many students may find themselves in unexpected situations where study is difficult if not impossible. Students who are confronted with extraordinary circumstances that interfere with their ability perform their academic work may request an incomplete grade from the instructor. While approval of such a request is not automatic, it is expected that faculty will make every effort to accommodate students dealing with illness in the family and other pandemic-related hardships. The instructor and student must establish a timetable for submitting the unfinished work with a final deadline no later than the end of the third week of the Spring 2021 semester (February 12, 2021). Exceptions to this deadline require a petition from the instructor to the student’s academic advising office by February 12, 2021. When entering an Incomplete grade in SIS, faculty must include a reversion grade which represents the grade the student will receive if s/he does not complete the missing work by the agreed-upon deadline.

Deadlines for Adding, Dropping and Withdrawing from Courses

• Students may add a course up to September 11, 2020.
• They may drop courses up to October 12, 2020 provided they remain registered for a minimum of 12 credits.