Attendance/Participation:

The grading for participation in the class comes from:

1. Active participation in class ( 3 pts for each class with 30 max counted toward grade). You should read the sections before coming to class and be prepared to join in discussion. Just being present does not constitute active participation.
2. Maintaining course website as a fully operational, complete and interesting site.

   Student Website:

   You will maintain a website that maintains links to:

   1. All your article reviews ( Organized by the date submitted )
   2. All your presentations
   3. Your organization pages This needs to include links to all infomation submitted by the student and organized by the student. In order to obtain full credit for your participation, you must maintain this website with links to all of your submitted URL's (organized by topic) and a page with your article reviews.
      1. Organizing a topic page or a topic organization page (30 pts graded by your peers). Topic page should have 5 or more subsections with 5 or more URL's for each subsection and submitted reviews from students
      2. Reviewing Articles on other students topic pages (5 pts for each submitted html formatted review to be graded by the organizing student, 30 max). Reviews must not be cut and pasted from the article. Your format for reviews will follow the guidelines found in http:./DirectionsForReviewers.html Grading should consist of 1 pt for following directions, 1pt for grammar/spelling, 1pt for interesting conclusion 1pt for good summary, and 1pt for on time submission
      3. Exceptional sites (in comparison to peers) that are interesting, complete, different, and goes beyond the above requirements can garnered up to 10 additional points. (As determined by the instructor)
   4. Your project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, and demonstrations.
   5. You will submit your website link to the class as your first . The links must be accurate and working in order to get full credit for your submission. (You will lose 25% of your submission credit if your website is not in working order by the final exam)
   6. URL's will be sent in the form of "http://host:portnumber/websitedirpath/file" in your email. Also, the title and author of the article must be in the email.

All submissions and volunteering for review must be done via email using the class distribution list. If it is not emailed it does not count as a submission. Please keep the email for future confirmation.

 

You will submit your website assignment page link as part of your submissions in your email. The links must be accurate and working in order to get full credit for your submission. You must also include the title of the article and the author's name. All email submissions must have a subject line that starts with:

 

"CSC8530 Fall 2005:"

 

 

PROJECT :

There will be 1 project with 4 parts for this course

Part 1- Define a distributed problem (20 pts max - peer reviewed) Present the General description, Deployement diagrams and Use case diagrams for your problem to the class This project must implement an algorithm that is required for a distributed system. This is not a website implementation or a use of some technology. You need to identify a service provided via a distributed system, describe the problem, implement a solution or two, and demonstrate that the algorithm provides the function and discuss all that you have done and discuss future improvements. You may choose your underlying technology, but that is not the focus of your project.

Part 2- Define the interfaces, activity diagrams, and important algorithms to be used. ( 50 pts max - peer reviewed).

Part 3- Progress Report (10 pts peer reviewed )

Part 4- Project Presentation (50 pts peer reviewed ) and final report (70 pts )

 

Programming assignments

Code must be mostly your own (the algorithm's must be all your own). If you are using anyone else's code (even the code provided), you must document clearly where it is used and who created it. (Failure to provide this information requires an automatic zero for the project, see academic integrity policy above)

All reports must be submitted in hard copy. I am expecting 5-10 pages of report (not including diagrams, code, screenshots,..) The writing center, at Villanova, has an article about writing college level papers at http://www.writingcenter.villanova.edu/html/college_paper.html.

For full credit your programming assignment reports will as a minimum consist of:

1. Title Sheet (Project name, Student Name, Date, Class Name)
2. Project description including the following diagrams and description of the diagrams
   1. Use case diagrams
   2. Communications diagrams
   3. Activity or sequence diagrams
   4. Class diagrams
   5. Deployment diagrams
3. Description of the tests or of the running of code
4. Results of the tests or runs (screen shots, relevant sample log or textscript ouputs , graphs, etc..)
5. Conclusions: (Lessons learned, difficulties, suggestions, and final evaluation of program).
6. Bibliography/Citations ( You must choose an established format and use it consistently.)
   1. IEEE Computer Society Style Guide http://www.computer.org/author/style/refer.htm
   2. Citation format index at turnitin.com http://www.turnitin.com/research_site/e_citation.html
7. Appendixes
   1. Source Code (Required)
   2. Complete or larger sample of log or textscript
   3. Any supporting figures that are too large to be included in the body of the report

      You will be graded on the following criteria:

• Organization and flow 20%
• Spelling and grammar 20%
• Content and completeness of report 40%
• Interesting conclusion 20%

Final reports must be submitted in hard copy.

Class Presentations:

Each week a number of students will "volunteer" to lead discussions. These discussions should enhance the topic in the textbook section with a topic outside the scope of the current text but related to the week's assignment.
When preparing for your presentation you will be looking for related topics from the internet. Please put the URL's on your website and email to the class mailing list . These presentations will be peer graded using a standardized grading form: Peer Presentation Evaluation Form

A presentation are worth up to 50 pts, calculated using the average peer evaluation. (Maximum of two presentations not including the project report presentation).

Tests

There will be two in class short tests.

Extra Credit

Extra Credit is applied on a linearly diminishing scale. If your final grade is at 70% level then up to 6% can be given for an extra credit assignment. At the 94% grade level, the extra credit is worth 0%.

You may propose your own extra credit assignments. Each will be assigned a maximum possible points before beginning. Extra credit proposals will be accepted up to the mid-term. After the mid-term no more extra credit proposals will be accepted.

Resources

CLASS SCHEDULE :

This class schedule may change depending on the amount of time we spend on each subject and what we choose as topics for discussion.
See web page DS_FALL 05_SCHEDULE