Covenant

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Student Originated Software
PRELIMINARY Program Covenant, Expectations and Requirements
Fall Quarter 2003-2004

Please carefully read the program syllabus and separate syllabi for each of: OOP, OOAD, Case Study, project and seminar). During the first three class days, ask about any sections of these documents that you don't understand or don't feel comfortable with. We are handing them out and discussing them with you at the beginning of the quarter because we want to proceed on common ground with you about the expectations and procedures of this program. Please sign the Program Covenant Agreement and return it to one of the faculty by Thursday of Week 1. If you stay in the program beyond that day, we will assume that you accept these policies.

We want to be as clear as we can to start with about our expectations, but this doesn't mean we intend to be closed minded about proposed changes. We will all need to reflect on our experiences as we go along, and talk about whether any changes might improve the program. Indeed, the necessity for developers to continually reflect on and discuss the progress of their projects will be one of the program's recurrent motifs.

General expectations of the program are that students will abide by Evergreen's social contract, and participate in every component of the program. We remind you that harassment and intoxication of any kind is forbidden by the social contract. You may not show up intoxicated for any program activities, nor consume drugs or alcohol at any program event.

1. Students can expect faculty to:
2. 1. Prepare and present lectures, workshops and lab assignments to support and expand students' exploration and understandings of the program themes and to enhance their understandings of approaches to and processes of learning.
   2. Convene and prepare for seminars, workshops, lectures and labs.
   3. Read, comment on, and return student papers in a timely manner, usually within one week.
   4. Notify students by the end of the fifth week of each quarter if their work to date does not meet requirement for credit.
   5. Provide written evaluations of each student and each project team at the end of each quarter.
   6. Schedule one office hour per week.
3. Students are expected to:
4. 1. Show respect for program members and support their learning even when disagreements arise.
   2. In collaboration with the faculty, set personal goals that encourage stretching beyond current skills and abilities.
   3. Reflect regularly on what they are learning and how.
   4. Come on time to all seminars, workshops, labs, lectures and other program activities with readings and written work thoughtfully prepared.
   5. Participate actively and intelligently in seminars, workshops, and discussion sessions
   6. Think deeply, creatively, and critically about issues in readings, presentations, and workshops, and discuss these issues in and outside class.
   7. Complete assigned work carefully and by the due date. Faculty cannot provide feedback on work handed in after the due date (or after we have read the other assignments in that batch).
   8. Create a separate portfolio for each program component to be turned in to the faculty member responsible for that component at the designated day and time. Some of these portfolio's are prepared individually (seminar, OOP) and some by your team (OOAD, Case Study, OOP and Project).
   9. Complete a self-evaluation by the end of each quarter and an evaluation of the faculty at the end of the year or when the faculty or student leaves the program.
   10. Incompletes, whether for the year, or for a particular quarter, will be awarded only in the most exceptional circumstances

Some of the above points are further elaborated below.

We expect students to attend all class meetings, complete the reading assigned by the designated class meeting, participate actively in all program activities and arrive on time. This includes small group meetings that your team(s) schedule. We will take roll at each class meeting, and each case study and project team is responsible for maintaining its own attendance record. Though we will try to publish handouts and assignments on the web, if you cannot attend class some day, it is your responsibility to find out what you missed and track down copies of handouts.

One of the reasons we are emphasizing attendance at all program activities is the fact that this program, and software development, is a collaborative endeavor. We are all involved in learning about software, and in developing software. That means we all need to be present and focused.

While many, if not most, of the program activities involve active collaboration with others and using 3rd party sources to the greatest benefit to your learning, academic dishonesty is a violation of the student conduct code. Whenever you copy/paste (or otherwise use) material from sources other than yourself (or your partner or team who is authoring the document with you), you must so specify. A simple footnote or comment with the source (an informal book citation or URL, for example) will do. Similarly, some program activities (tests or essays) are to be individual efforts. This is so that we can help you if you are having problems, and talk about your individual growth in the evaluations. Be assured that if you do the work for the program, you will not lose credit.

We assume that students intend to continue in the program winter and spring, unless they have made previous arrangements with faculty. This is because it is very difficult to bring new students into this program and because every project will depend on each of its team members. We expect further that if a student decides not to continue in the program past fall or winter quarter, that the student will inform the members of her or his project team and the faculty of that decision as soon as possible. Expectations for individual components of the program are described in particular syllabi and will be available during the first week of classes.

By the second week of winter quarter, each project team will develop its own covenant.

SOS is a full time program and is designed as a standard 16 credit class load. That is, we assume you have set aside at least 40 or more hours per week for your academic work. It has been our experience that some students spend considerably more than 40 hours on the program (with an appropriate payback in education!), but that students who spend less (or who are not focused on the tasks at hand) do not succeed.

We have tried to plan the workload according to the rough time budget below, but realize that individual students may spend less or more time on any particular component because of interest, background, etc. We first figured 2.5 hours per credit. 2.5 multiplied by 16 credits yields a time budget of 40 hours. Weekly class time is between 15 and 17 hours. We figured as a rule of thumb the approximate allocation of time per week given below. Some students will naturally find one part of the program harder or more enjoyable than others and may spend more time on it:

• Seminar (4 credits) = 10 hours - 2 in class = 8 hours
• Project (2 credits) = 5 hours - 2 in class = 3 hours
• Object Oriented Analysis & Design and Case Study (6 credits) = 15 hours - 6.0 in class = 9.0 hours
• Object Oriented Programming (4 credits) = 10 hours - 5 in class = 5 hours

We will try to avoid piling on any more work than this, and would like to hear from you if you find that the program is demanding more. If you find that some piece or pieces of the work are taking you longer than these estimates, consult with the faculty. We may have advice about how to do the work faster or we may need to adjust our estimates and reduce future assignments. "Design to cost" is a software developers' maxim that you might loosely apply here --- try to "design" your assignments to the time allotted.

If you do not have 40 hours of focused time available each week, and can't rearrange your life to obtain them at this particular point, we recommend choosing a different program.

Seminar attendance and participation, and reading the material, is particularly important. If you are a very slow reader, and cannot read the material in the time allotted, read as much as you can but be sure to share this with your seminar faculty (who may be able to offer tips on increasing your reading speed and comprehension). We will assume 100% attendance at seminar, but if you miss a seminar meeting (for some excusable reason), you will be asked to demonstrate your reading of the material to your seminar leader. Any more than two missed seminars will result in loss of credit. Note that this does not imply that you are "entitled" to miss 2 seminar sessions. It will be easier to come to seminar than to demonstrate your reading of the material!

Late Work: Work must be handed in on the due date, and by the designated time. Late work will be accepted and evaluated only in the most extraordinary circumstances. If you hand work in late, the assignment will be noted as late. If you hand in the assignment past the time when the faculty or lab aid has evaluated that assignment, we will record it as completed, but we will not be able to give you feedback on it. Faculty assumes that late work reflects a lack of commitment on the part of the student and students who habitually hand in work late will have such a comment made in their evaluations. Again, please note that we do not expect miracles or 60-hour workweeks from you! If you have made a very honest try at completing the assignment and simply cannot "get it", you should complete as many parts of the assignment as you can do, and write a short note to the faculty about where you are "stuck", and what you think you don't understand.

Attendance: Full participation means regular attendance. We expect you to attend all classes, unless you are sick, or your child is, or you're called away by an emergency. In such cases, please be sure to ask someone what you missed. You are responsible for knowing what went on in all classes. We will place any left-over copies of handouts on the first floor of Lab 1 in a box outside Judy's office (LAB1 1003); please check there, and on-line, if you have to be gone and discover you missed getting something.

Credit: Credit will be awarded at the end of the year for full participation in all program activities and for satisfactory completion of all the work of the program. We assume that everyone will participate fully, actively, and successfully in the program and that as a consequence, the awarding of credit will be a routine matter. If a student appears not to be participating in a satisfactory manner in the program, that student's seminar leader will alert the student and the other faculty to the problem at whatever time that problem becomes visible, and try to assist the student over whatever difficulties may exist. However, if the faculty team agree that an individual's academic work or behavior indicate that there is not a reasonable likelihood that he or she will successfully complete the program, he or she may be asked to stop part-way through, with the award of credit for whatever parts of the program he or she has successfully completed at that point.

Basis for Evaluaton: The quality of your work, the level of your understanding, your software development skills, and the extent of your improvement will be reflected in your formal evaluations at the end of the year. Each part of the program has explicit learning objectives, and the program as a whole its learning goals. Students will be evaluated on the basis of their mastery of these learning objectives, i.e., understanding of the material, improvement in the concepts, skills and abilities that the program teaches, and their team work. It is possible for a person who performs highly on all aspects of the course to have a less-favorable evaluation than someone who initially knows the material less well but makes tremendous improvement during the course of the year.

You will receive a draft written evaluation of your work at the end of fall and winter, with final versions at the end of spring.