Students who have had extensive previous experience in computer programming with the Java programming language may qualify for one or two special accommodations in this course. The department has defined mechanisms to deal with these cases, which are categorized as indicated below.
Case 1: The student has seen some of the material in the CSCI 203 syllabus, but would receive substantial added benefit from taking the course.
The course of action applied in this case is first to have a conference with the student. The instructor of the course may choose to grant the student an excuse from lectures in CSCI 203 for a well-defined number of weeks (to be determined according to the particular circumstances). The student is still responsible for attending and completing laboratories; taking quizes and exams; and for completing programming assignments by their due dates.
Case 2: The student has seen all the material in the CSCI 203 syllabus and reached a good level of proficiency in the required skills. The student would receive little added benefit from taking the course and working through this material for the second time.
The student is recommended to attend simultaneously CSCI 203 and CSCI 204 for the first two weeks (including laboratory sessions). The CSCI 203 instructor assigns the student a project that exercises the main concepts in this class and the student completes this project by an appointed deadline.
The student should note that she or he will be responsible for completing all course assignments, during these two weeks, in the two courses in order to be considered for placement in CSCI 204. (Further accommodations may be prescribed by the instructors of the two courses.) Students should not feel discouraged to attempt this mechanism if it is recommended by the faculty. The added workload is of short duration.
At the end of the two week period, in conference with the student, the faculty analyses the completed project and recommends a course of action. If the student is considered proficient in CSCI 203, the instructor recommends dropping CSCI 203 and adding CSCI 204. Otherwise, the student receives a recommendation to attend CSCI 203 regularly or under the provisions of the mechanism for Case 1, described above.
It is important to highlight that the student receives no credit for CSCI 203, in this case. In order to make up the course requirement for graduation with a Computer Science degree, the student will be required to take a Computer Science elective in addition to those prescribed by the degree program followed.
The placement project for the current semester can be found here. The data file for the project is in bank.dat.
Last modified: Sun Sep 6 07:15:49 EDT 2009