Posts

Some notes on the mechanics for Portfolio 4…

To help you practice for the final, we are giving you the 1st mid-term exam from 2022. It has the same 3 part format that we still use:

Portfolio 4 is a “final project” designed to allow you to pick a topic and explore it deeply. It is meant to be flexible in terms of topic and style. However, because of the tight time frame, we need to limit the ambitions and scope.

An update for the first week in April…

Last week was the last of the workbooks. Even though we only looked at one workbook, there was enough material that we could discuss a lot more. (and we’ll probably come back to some topics we didn’t get to).

But this week, our focus is forward looking… to Portfolio 3 and the final project.

Welcome back! Hope everyone had a good break. Here’s a quick reminder what is going on as we move into April…

We are posting P2 “Grades” as Canvas comments. Note that this takes into account what you had turned in by the “deadline”, as well as other things that we saw later. It is all noted. You will get a note in the “Canvas Comment” for Grading Feedback. Alex and I both assessed things independently, and ended up agreeing on everything.

There were some really outstanding portfolios.

Portfolio 3 is a chance for you to show off your skills with 3D Graphics Programming in a creative way: you will make Graphics Town!

What’s happening in class for the rest of March and early April?

We’re now far enough along in the semester that I can give some more specifics on how I intend to give grades in class. Nothing really changes from the original Grading (and late policy) - it’s just that we now have more details, and some experience where there was ambiguity.

We’re now through 7 weeks of the semester. We’ve had the midterm. We’ve had a survey where I got some insight on how things are working. We’ve had a bunch of assignments.

It’s time to “re-plan” for what will happen in the second half. I can’t change too much (I need to fit within existing expectations) but I think we can make some fixes. Here’s both a “status update” and a sense of the plan for the coming weeks.

1. There will be 2 exams, given online. One will be given in the evening of Thursday, March 6. The other one will be given in the official University Final Examination time slot.
2. Each exam will be administered using Canvas Quizzing.
3. Each exam will consist of 3 short segments. You must complete all 3 segments within the exam time window.

The course web has a lot to read. Here is a suggestion as to where to start (and a recommended order you could look at them). We want to dive into the first assignments during the first week - this list will make sure you are ready.

This posting describes my plan / course design for the Accelerated Honors section. It provides a bit of rationale for why I am trying to do things the way that I am planning.

This posting is a mix of plan and rationale. I think it important for students to understand why we are doing things the way we will do them.

This page is a brief overview of what the class is, and a summary of the basic information you need to thrive in it.

This was the original (pre-semester) announcement for the class. It included the enrollment instructions.