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


- 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.

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