A290/A590
Tools for Computing:
Windows Application Interface Design and Programming
with Visual Studio Community, Visual C#, and .NET.

Instructor: Jeff Whitmer

• My Office: Luddy Hall 2050 (IF2050).
  
• Office Hours:
  
  
  • Appointments available.
    
    
    
  • Office Hour Special NOTES:
    • Any changes to my office hours will be posted here.
      
      
      • Monday, October 19, 2020: First day this class meets.
        
        
  • Luddy Hall 2050 (IF2050) Office Phone: 855-3974.
    
  • E-mail: jwhitmer@cs.indiana.edu.

Meeting Times:

Fall Semester 2021:

MEETINGS: Mondays and Wednesdays, 3:15pm - 4:30pm (Sections 13893 and 13892) Luddy Hall IF 1019

Fall Semester 2021 Students:
Please note the following:
[LAST UPDATED: 12/15/21]

• All Averages, Active Course Engagement scores and Final Grades: are now posted on Canvas. Final Grades have been submitted to the Registrar and should be visible to you tomorrow, 12/16/2021.
  
  REMEMBER: I have confirmed that the Canvas Final Averages and corresponding grades are accurate. See below for a few details.
  
  For your Active Course Engagement score, the maximum possible score was 100, and consistent with my comments early in the course, while you didn't have to be asking questions all the time to get a good score here, you did have to attend all class meetings, use the course resources, follow course guidelines, and submit all course work. Those who fell short in any, or many, of these areas were not in a position to do as well on this. As a consequence, the lowest Active Participation score was 0 while quite a few scored 95, which is usually as high as I go. The class average on Participation was 83.44%. It is important to remember, however, that there is no way to completely separate Engagement from attendance, full use of all course resources, completion of all work, and compliance with all course guidelines. If you were not doing all these things, there is no way you could be actively engaged.
  
  Here are a few details on Final Grades. Given the overall high quality of work by the class as a whole, there was a modest adjustment to the original grading scale. Each grading scale was dropped by 2 points. The original scale was 90-80-70-60 while the new scale is 88-78-68-58 with the top and bottom 2.5% still being the +/- grade. Everyone worked hard and I think this adjustment is appropriate under our current circumstances and, for the class as a whole, this is reflected in the overall final averages and overall final grades. I realize the Active Engagement score may be of some concern as it is clearly a subjective judgment by me. Again, I think a vast majority of students were very actively involved and this is reflected in the scores, with those who were very regular and active members of class and who completed all the assigned work for the course being in the 90s.
  
  NOTE ON FINAL AVERAGE: Remember, your final average is not merely adding all the points and dividing by the total possible. The "General Course Information" page that you read during the first week of class laid this out very clearly:
  
  Attendance: 5%
  Active Course Engagement: 10%
  MINI/JIT/CAT Average: 10%
  Regular Homework Projects: 25%
  Final Project: 50%
  
  If you do the math correctly (BASED on the official averages I posted on Canvas and calculated by Canvas), Attend% *.05 + ACTIVE Course Engagement% * .1 + MINI/JIT/CAT% * .1 + HW Projects% * .25 + Final Project * .50 = some number less than 100, you should get the same Final % I did. NOTE: Remember that Canvas may only posted whole number for some averages, so the published score and what you calculate could be off by +/- .01 to .03%. I confirmed this had no impact on any final grade.
  
  NOTE on "borderline" grades. First, keep in mind that a borderline grade in this course is one that is .1% or .2% (tenths of percentage points) from the next grade, not 1, or 2, or 3 whole % points. I went back and looked at any such averages and if you were consistent in your work across all the various course components, you were moved to the next grade. However, if any one of your course components was well below average and, especially, if you failed to submit one or more assignments of any kind for the course, you were not moved to the next grade. Since I have revisited all the grades in this way and because of the adjustment in the final grading scale, there will be no additional changes in any grade for this course.
  
  The final distribution of grades was: 1 A+, 7 A, 2 A-, 1 B+, 2 B, 0 B-, 0 C+, 1 C, 0 C-, 1 D, and 1 D-. Thanks to everyone for their hard work. I hope you found the course interesting and useful. Best of luck in the future to each of you.
  
  
• Final Project Phase 3 and OFFICIAL Final Project Totals posted and emails sent. Remember that Phase 3 was worth 100 points but only 70% of the PROJECT TOTAL. Phase 1 (30 points) and Phase 2 (70 points) combined were the other 30% of the PROJECT TOTAL that is how you get your 100 point Final Project total. There is a separate assignment for the OFFICIAL TOTAL and only that number will be used to calculate your final average and final grade on Canvas. This is why Phase 1, Phase 2, and Phase 3 should now appear as "not counting toward the final grade." Only the official total will be used.
  
  Almost all the projects were very well done even though a few were not able to achieve their full level of functionality. It is clear a great deal of work went into every project and it was again a delight to see all your varied skills and experiences yield such an interesting and eclectic set of applications. The class average on Phase 3 was 90.125. There were 10 scores in the 90s, 5 in the 80s, and 1 in the 70s.
  
  The class average on the Final Project was 85.96. There were 6 in the 90s, 7 in the 80s, and 3 in the 70s.
  
  I realize some of you may concerned about your Final Grade as it is currently displayed on Canvas. Please keep in mind the Active Course Engagement scores have not been posted, nor does this reflect any change in the Final Grading Scale I may choose to make before Final Grades are determined.
  
  Active Course Engagement scores, Final Averages, Final Grading Scale, and Final Grades will be posted no later than Wednesday, 12/15 (tomorrow), at the same time that I will submit the Final Grades to the Registrar. I will post a final message when all that information is available and formally complete.
  
  
• CAT 4 scores posted and MINI/JIT/CAT Averages and Rollcall Attendance Averages on Canvas confirmed accurate. Please note the following: There were 4 JITs, 3 MINIs and 4 CATs. The overall average for the class was 73.85%, which is one of the lower averages I have seen for this class. This is due almost entirely to several students who have been absent from virtually all class meetings and finished with extremely low averages. For the rest of the class, the overall performance was very, very good.
  
  There were a total of 14 meetings for this course. The overall attendance average was 85.46% which is also lower than usual, but again reflects those who were chronically absent and missed many or all CAT exercises. Keep in mind an attendance average below 60% will likely result on an "Active Class Participation" score of 0, given other factors I take into consideration. I very clearly addressed this during our first week of class. PLEASE NOTE: If you had an excused absence it didn't count for or against you. I merely removed it from the record and your average is based on the meetings you could attend. Therefore, 2 excused absences meant your average was based on the other 12 meetings. Also note that all excused absences required documentation and only personal illness, job interviews, and like events were eligible to be excused. Also also note that Canvas rounds the Rollcall average but I do not. So your 88% could actually be an 87.51% and your 66% could actually be 66.49%. I will use the more accurate value in all my calculations.
  
  

Graduate Associate Instructor, Fall 2021:

Isaiah Sherfick

Email: isherfic@iu.edu

• Office Hours/Appointments: Available during official class meeting times. Appointments available and STRONGLY ENCOURAGED.
  PREFERRED Appointment times:
  
• Tuesday: 11:00am - 1:00pm and Friday: 12:00pm - 2:00pm. These are on days we do not have class to give you more options.