Course Website

First, an apology for all the confusion – we’re learning as we go.

Second, thank you to all of the students who figured it out and let me know.

I have gotten the “official” word from Nikki Lemmon, the CS Undergraduate Program Coordinator.

First: As of 10am today, there should be no waiting list for this class. You can just enroll.

Second: After you enroll, you must switch to pass fail. This isn’t intuitive.

The instructions that Nikki recommends are:

https://registrar.wisc.edu/isis_helpdocs/enrollment_demos/V90CourseChangeRequest/V90CourseChangeRequest.htm

She also says:

Undergraduate students in L&S do not need to print out any forms or obtain any signatures. Graduate students or students in other colleges should check with their advisor, as the process may be different.
Undergraduates have until Friday, Sept 25th to apply for pass/fail. Grad students have until Friday, October 30th.

Other students have suggested other web pages for information:

http://saa.ls.wisc.edu/deans-services-pass-fail.htm – has a ton of info on the pass fail rules (I didn’t know all of this). It has instructions.

If you have a problem, I recommend that you either talk with a classmate who has done it successfully, ask Nikki (especially if you’re a CS major), or ask your advisor.

In the event that you dropped the class because some misinformed person (like me) told you to enroll pass fail, you should be able to add the class until the 11th. You have until the 25th to switch to pass fail.

Don’t do anything about course enrollment. There has been some misinformation. I will try to figure it out. Even the instructions below (in this message) might be wrong. New information tomorrow.

Sorry, this is turning out to be more complicated than I thought. You do need to take this class pass/fail or audit. Here are some new things:

1. You must enroll pass fail – so if you enrolled for a grade, drop the class and re-enroll. There is no waiting list anymore. You should just be able to add. Turns out this is wrong. You can switch once you are enrolled. It’s just not easy. Instructions coming.
2. If you are on the waiting list, don’t wait. Just go and enroll (and take yourself off the waiting list)
3. Pass/Fail classes don’t count for much. For example, I have been told that you can’t use it as a CS elective.
4. I am told pass/fail can’t count towards a graduate degree. (This doesn’t make sense because students take research credits, …)
5. New rules that I was unaware of seem to pop up at every turn.

I cannot setup groups for assignment one until the course roster is somewhat stable (otherwise, I’ll need to add each person manually). Which is adding yet another layer to the mess.

I apologize for the hassles for everyone – this was all done last minute, and unintended consequences seem to be everywhere.

I want to give you a little “user’s guide” to the course web and Canvas setup since right now it might be a bit confusing.

You might notice, that the website and Canvas are a little hard to navigate right now. I apologize.

There are two things going on: one is we’re still getting things set up, and two is I made a design choice that we might regret. The good news is that you can see the course structure on the calendar. The bad news is that there are lots of empty pages that might get in the way – unless you know the right way to navigate around them.

After a week or two, we’ll hopefully have the kinks worked out and things will go smoothly.

To Navigate the web page:

The most important things will be made as announcements in the News feed (which appears on the course home page). If something important appears elsewhere (for example the details of an assignment are posted), there will be an announcement telling you where to look. The idea is the News page has short messages that point you towards longer messages elsewhere. You can get an RSS feed or emails about announcements. Look at the right side of the web page.

One piece of news each week will be a “The Week in 638” posting. This will happen at the end of the week and summarize what happened in class, and remind you about things for next week. There is also the “Week in 559” widget in the upper right of the course web. Keep your eye on that, since it will have links to posts that we think are relevant for the week.

Make sure you look at the “Class Calendar” page (you can see it at the top of the page – it’s one of the choices). This can give you an idea of what’s coming up beyond a week. Note that there are links to most (or all) assignments. Often these links will be to “stub” pages until we set the assignments. You don’t need to check this regularly – it won’t change, and any important changes will be announced.

In terms of the Canvas page

I decided to make all the assignments ahead of time – putting empty assignment pages so we get a nice syllabus and home page for the class. You can see what’s coming up. If you go to a page before the assignment is set, there won’t be much there – so don’t bother.

With Canvas, you get a lot of control over what announcements it sends you by email. You might want to go to the settings page and adjust it to your liking.

There was a lot more demand for this class than I expected.

So, I’ve gotten it moved to a bigger room so we can accommodate more people. We’ll be meeting in room 168 Noland (Zoology).

This is an experimental class that we decided to add at the last minute. More information will be posted to the class website soon. The syllabus is a great place to start.

This class is designed to help students who have learned to program in some other language (such as Java, C++ or Python) learn JavaScript. The focus of the class is on the aspects of JavaScript that make it different than other languages, which includes its role in the eco-system of tools used to produce web experiences. Therefore, this class will also touch briefly on other aspects of client-side web development (e.g. developing stuff to work in the web browser), and even a little bit about user experience design.

For the Fall of 2015, this class has a specific objective of helping prepare students for the programming projects in CS559 (Computer Graphics), which will use Javascript and web programming for its assignments. However, the two classes are independent: 559 students who are familiar with Javascript, or are willing to pick it up on their own, should be fine without the 638 class; other students can take 638 without worrying about the graphics material from 559.

Enrollment in the class will be via the waiting list. If you want to take the class, put yourself on the waiting list. We will give priority for class seats to students in CS559. But, given that this class is being added at the last minute and not well advertised, I don’t expect it to fill. (but, in the event that there is surprising demand, we are limited to 75 people by room size and the fact that there is no TA). (whoops – mis-estimated demand. seems a lot of people want to take this class – I’ve gotten a bigger room)

The exact timing of the waiting list process is a little uncertain. If you have a problem putting yourself on the waiting list, contact Jonathan Henkel (jhenkel@cs.wisc.edu). We expect to process the waiting list around September 1st.

This class will only be offered pass/fail.

It will meet once a week on Tuesday afternoons from 2:30-3:20 in room 103 Psychology 168 Noland (zoology).

This class is an experiment. I will be making it up as I go along. I am not an expert on the subject (yet), so I might be learning things alongside you (or just ahead of you, or from you). If you want a properly planned course, wait for a future offering.