Lab 0: Syllabus and Questionnaire

CSC 261 - Artificial Intelligence - Weinman

Summary:
You will gather information about the structure of the course and give me a little information about you.
Assigned:
Friday 28 August
Due:
10:30 PM Sunday 30 August
Objectives:
 
Collaboration:
Each student should turn in his/her/zir own version of the assignment. However, you may discuss Parts A-C with anyone you wish and you may obtain help from anyone you wish, but you should clearly document that help.
Submitting:
Use PioneerWeb to submit this assignment (Assignment 0). Use only PDF format. Failure to use a PDF format will result in failing the assignment. (Log in to PWeb, navigate to this course, click on Assignments to the left.)
Part A:
Read the course web site.
Part B:
Write up answers to the following questions about the course.
  1. What does this class assume about your background?
  2. What should you do to prepare for class?
  3. What should you do to prepare for labs?
  4. What mark should you expect for a reading journal entry?
  5. How can you figure out what assignments you have due?
  6. Briefly outline what you need to submit for a programming assignment.
  7. What happens if you turn in an assignment late? reading journal?
  8. When can you work with other students and when can you not work with other students (for this class)?
  9. How can you obtain help from me? From your fellow students?
  10. Include the sentence "I have read and understood the Academic Honesty policy for CSC-261." (Of course, if that statement is not currently true for you, you must ask questions-in advance of the assignment due date-until it is.)
  11. What questions about the class do you have that aren't answered by the Web site?
Part C:
Write up answers to the following questions about yourself.
  1. What name do you prefer to be called?
  2. Who is your advisor? (If not CS, what is your major?)
  3. Where are you from?
  4. What other CS courses you have taken besides 151 and 161?
  5. Which, if any, of the following mathematics courses have you taken?
    • MAT 115
    • MAT 123, MAT 124
    • MAT 131
    • MAT/CSC 208
    • MAT 215
    • MAT 209
    • MAT 335
  6. What other courses are you taking this semester? (Please give course titles as well as numbers.)
  7. Which of my regularly scheduled office hours (if any) are you able to attend? (That is, which do not conflict with a class or other regular obligation.)
  8. What do you expect to learn or gain from this course?
  9. What are your concerns for this course?
  10. Tell me something about yourself that you'd like me to ask you more about later (e.g., your goals, a hobby, a book that made a big impression on you).
  11. What questions do you have for me that have not already been answered?
Part D:
Do some other (pre-course) activities
  1. If you haven't already, sign up for Piazza.
After you turn in this lab, you can go ahead and do the reading for Monday and start your reading journal.

What to turn in

There are several ways to generate a PDF. Your word processor will usually do so quite easily (via the "Save As" option in Word or "Export as PDF" in LibreOffice). Though it produces less attractive results, you can also create a text file (say, questionnaire.txt) and transform it into a PDF using enscript(1) and ps2pdf(1) as follows:
$ enscript -p - -2 -r questionnaire.txt  |  ps2pdf - questionnaire.pdf
If you do so, you must ensure your lines are less than 80 characters wide to ensure none are unattractively wrapped by splitting a word in the middle. (Hint: enscript will warn you if it wraps lines.)

Acknowledgment

This assignment was adapted from a questionnaire by Sam Rebelsky and revised by Janet Davis.