CS 131B Programming Fundamentals: Python

CS 131B Python Programming (4)

Lec-70 Credit, Degree Applicable

P/NP Available

ADVISE: CS 110A or 111Ap or 113A or 130A or 160B.

This course covers programming fundamentals using the Python language. Python is interpreted, interactive, and object-oriented. Recommended for general-purpose programming, system administration, or web programming. Topics include classes, objects, inheritance, polymorphism, design and implementation of abstract data types, dictionaries, lists, list comprehensions, files, modules, and mutable and immutable types.

UC/CSU

Before you register for this course, give serious consideration to the following advisories.

• This energetic course is given 100% online, including exams, and covers all of the material of the 4-unit classroom course in a brief seven weeks.
• CS 131B assumes you have at least some basic experience with programming, such as you would acquire in CCSF's CS 110A or 111A or 113A or 130A or 160B courses. If you have never taken a programming language course, you are well-advised to take a introductory programming course such as CCSF's CS 110A Intro to Programming: C++ or CS 111A Intro to programming: Java before taking this course.

• The Quick Python Book, 3^rd edition, Daryl K. Harms, Kenneth McDonald, and Naomi Ceder.
• Think Python (pdf) or (html), Allen Downey. This free online book uses Python 3. It was formerly titled "How to Think Like a Computer Scientist".

Supplemental Resources

• A BYTE of Python
• Dive into Python 3, by Mark Pilgrim
• Dive into Python, by Mark Pilgrim (Python 2)
• Quick Python Book Source Code
• Python Programming
• The Python3 Tutorial
• Learn Python the Hard Way, Zed Shaw. This free HTML book has many instructive exercises for Python 2. Hopefully it will be revised soon to work correctly with Python 3.
• A BYTE of Python

Before you can log in to the CCSF learning management system and some other CCSF online services, you will have to claim your RAM ID. If you have problems with the claiming process, contact the CCSF Helpdesk at 415-239-3711 or call toll-free at 844-693-4357.

The CCSF learning management system (LMS) is where you will find the course weekly readings, assignments, discussions, exams and grades. This system is often referred to as "Canvas". The CCSF Online Learning Team will send you an orientation email with login instructions before the first day of the semester. To log in to the LMS you need a valid CCSF RAM ID.

The course is offered 100% online. There are no face-to-face meetings in this course. Most of your time will be spent reading, doing practice exercises, and writing programs to solve problems as part of assignments. The online readings (organized by weeks) provide a structured learning path. Sometimes you will get stuck. At that point you can receive help from me and your classmates by posting your questions to the class discussion forums.

Although there are no face-to-face meetings in this course and no on-campus office hours, I will maintain contact with you throughout the semester by means of discussion forums, by posting graded questions in the forums, email, and by occasional screencasts. In addition, I'll be making weekly announcements about important academic dates and deadlines, course assignments and quizzes, and other timely matters.

When questions arise about the reading or about a coding assignment, I encourage everyone to post them to the class forums where the entire class can participate in the discussion. I will monitor the forums during the week and answer any unanswered questions.

If you have questions regarding your grades or other private matters, please email me at dputnam (at) ccsf (dot) edu. Monday through Friday I will respond within 24 hours. If you send me an email after 5pm Friday, I will respond first thing Monday when I return.

This course requires the same commitment as a face-to-face class. In some ways an online course is more challenging because you will be working on your own. You will doing the reading, exercises, exams, and the coding assignments just as you would for a classroom course. Expect to spend about from one to three hours of study time for each unit. For example, a 3-unit course might require from 3 to 9 hours study each week.

Summer session courses taught in 7-weeks or short-term courses taught in 8- or 16-weeks will require proportionately more work per week than an 18-week course.

As a registered student, you will have two CCSF accounts: one on https://ccsf.instructure.com, CCSF's Learning Management System (LMS), and one on hills.ccsf.edu (Hills), CCSF's Linux server.

Your CCSF LMS and Hills accounts will be automatically created and activated when you are officially registered for the class. The account creation process may take a day or two from the time you register. These two accounts are not related — you will have different user names and passwords for these accounts. Over time all CCSF accounts will be managed with a single set of credentials.

You are expected to academically active in this course. Being academically engaged means that you turn in assignments on time, take scheduled quizzes and exams on time, and participate in graded discussions. You may be dropped without explanation if you are academically inactive for more than 2 weeks in a row.

If you must become temporarily inactive for a short period, contact me by email before your absence so that I do not drop you. CCSF Attendance Policy

Class participation in this course is implemented with discussion forums. Throughout the semester there will be graded participation assignments that require you to contribute to the class discussion. Class participation is worth 5% or your final grade.

All exams and quizzes will take place on the CCSF LMS, including the midterm and final exams.

This is a skill-building course with weekly ungraded coding exercises and/or graded assignments. Turning in work on time is a gradable component of the exercises and assignments. Definitive due dates for the coursework are always available on the class calendar.

• You can develop your programs on any computer.
• If you are in a programming course that uses Ruby, Python, Perl, or PHP course, your code must run correctly on Hills.
• If you are in a Rails or WordPress/Drupal course, your code will run on your own computer or on a cloud hosting services specified in the assignments.

All students must do their own work. If you turn in plagiarized work, or simply turn in the solutions I publish after the assignment due date, be prepared to receive a zero for the assignment, and a code review and grade revision of all of your course work, at the instructor's discretion. See CCSF's Rules of Student Conduct for more information.

Unless instructed otherwise, collaboration is encouraged on specific components of the coursework. When you collaborate on a graded assignment, you must explicitly credit work done by others.

Not all academic coursework can be collaborative: there are activities that you alone are responsible for. The lists below clarify what coursework can be done in collaboration and what cannot.

Work you can do with others

• Exercises, homework, and labs.
• Discussions with others about general concepts and materials in each course.
• Presenting ideas and written work to classmates or others for comment or criticism.
• All participants in a collaboration must be listed when you turn in your work.
• The class forums cannot be used for collaboration.

Work you have to do on your own

• Exams. Exams must be your own work. You cannot submit the work of any other person.
• You cannot allow anyone else use your user name and/or password to access course material.
• You cannot engage in any activity that would dishonestly improve your results, or improve or hurt the results of others.
• You cannot post answers to discussion forums for problems that are being used to assess student performance. You can post your lab solutions on the class forums after the due date has passed.
• You cannot discuss any currently open exams. If you have questions or comments about the exams, send me an email at dputnam@ccsf.edu.
• You can discuss exams on the forums once their due date has passed.
• Do not post solutions for open assignments.
• Do not use the forums to ask for help with exercises or graded assignments

Since there are no face-to-face meetings in this course, all class discussion is through the LMS discussion forums. When you have questions about the reading or about a coding assignment, post your questions to the class discussion forums where your classmates can join in the discussion. I will monitor the forum discussions during the weeks and respond when necessary.

If you have a personal question regarding your grade or other matters, please send it to dputnam (at) ccsf (dot) edu.

If you decide to withdraw from the course, it is your responsibility to submit the drop order yourself. You can log into your CCSF Web4 account to submit the drop order.

CCSF provides tutoring for students enrolled in Computer Science courses. Follow the instructions on the Learning Assistance Center's Online Tutoring page to create your account. CCSF students get up to 20 hours assistance free per semester.

Student conduct must conform to College rules and regulations as outlined in CCSF Student Code of Conduct.

The CCSF Internship and Job Board is a free service where registered students and alumni can post resumes and search for internships and jobs and take work experience classes. Students can register for these classes and earn college credit for what they learn while working at paid jobs or internships. For more information contact CCSF&rsquo;s employment and training specialist Steve Nelson <snelson@ccsf.edu>.

The San Francisco Community College District is committed to the principles of equal opportunity, and the prevention of discrimination and harassment in any program or activity of the District on the basis of race, color, ancestry, national origin, ethnic group identification, religion, age, gender, gender identity, marital status, domestic partner status, sexual orientation, disability or AIDS/HIV status, medical conditions, or status as Vietnam-era veteran, or on the basis of these perceived characteristics, or based on association with a person or group with one or more of these actual or perceived characteristics.

If you believe you have been subject to discrimination, please contact Dr. Leilani Battiste, Title 5/EEO/ ADA/Title IX Compliance Officer at (415) 452-5053 or lbattiste@ccsf.edu.

If there are technical problems with the CCSF LMS or Hills that prevent you from taking an exam or submitting your assignment, I will extend the deadlines for effected quizzes and assignments. Deadlines will not be extended for technical problems with your personal hardware or network. Problems such as a your hard drive failing, a flaky wi-fi connection at the coffee shop, your computer catching a virus, etc. do not qualify for extensions.

Got Questions? If you have any questions about this syllabus, please send them in an email to dputnam@ccsf.edu.

This is a tentative schedule for the coursework we will cover during the summer session.

There are no dates in this schedule. However, each assignment and quiz has an explicit due data assigned to it in Canvas, the course home base. You should log in to the class regularly to always be aware of the course due dates. Due dates of all assignments and quizzes are available in the "To Do" sidebar on the course's Canvas home page. It is your responsibility to be aware of assignment due dates.

All readings listed here are in The Quick Python Book, 3^rd edition.

Got Questions? If you have any questions about this syllabus, please post them on the class discussion forums.