Course Requirements
EDUC 439/639: Computational Thinking Course Requirements
This course is all about harnessing the power of computational thinking so you can become a thoughtful creator on the Internet. Thus, the course requirements revolve around you and the nature of the project you want to create. Just as the Internet is the world's best example of computational thinking, so also will the project you create be an artifact of your computational thinking on the Internet.
In the sidebar is a list of the specific assignments and how much they count toward your grade in the course. You can think of these assignments as consisting of three major parts, each of which counts for a third of your grade. The first part is class participation. You create a goal statement and share it with your fellow classmates, with whom you communicate in the course discussion forum. The second major part of your grade is determined by your final project, which you submit at the end of the course. The rest of your grade is determined by a lab that immerses you in computational thinking.
Assignment #1: Goal Statement
Your first assignment is to state the reasons why you enrolled in this course. Please tell why you decided to take this course and state briefly what you hope to get out of it. If you have only a general idea, go ahead and describe your goals in general terms. If you have more specific goals in mind, please enumerate them. I will use this information to help advise you and guide you through the appropriate course materials.
Assignment #2: E-mail Registration
In response to the e-mail registration assignment in your online course environment, you tell your course instructor what is your e-mail address. Yes, there is an e-mail address on file for you here at the University of Delaware, but just in case I need to contact you about something related to this course, I want to make sure I have a good working e-mail address. Being able to reach you when I need to is so important that I am giving you four points for telling me: What is your e-mail address?
Assignment #3: Discussion Forum
Every student in this class is required to participate actively in the course discussion forum. To enter the discussion forum, log on to the course and choose the Discussions option. One of the first messages you write in the forum should inform your fellow classmates about the nature of the project you are hoping to create. The forum is an excellent place to network with your fellow students and form teams in which you can work together to create your projects.
Assignment #4: Computational Thinking Lab
This lab immerses you in the process of computational thinking. It unfolds as the course progresses. I will tell you more about it in the first class meeting.
Assignment #5: Web Development Project
Your major project in this course is the Web site that you will have developed while working through Part II of your course textbook. After you have published your pages to your Web site, you should submit them for a grade via the course assignments tool. Make sure you test your pages first, however, to make sure they look good, have no spelling mistakes, and link properly to the various pages in your Web. Remember that your résumé should contain a table of contents with links to targets that make it easy for the user to find the different sections of your résumé and return to the contents. If you substituted some other page instead of creating a résumé, I will be looking for similar features that make your site intuitive to navigate.
Assignment #6: Course Evaluation
Your final assignment in this course is to evaluate it. Toward the end of the course, you will receive an email from the School of Education sent to your udel.edu email address. This email tells you when the course evaluation window is open. You must log on to the course evaluation system within this window of time. The Web address of the course evaluation system is www.udel.edu/course-evals. After you complete the course evaluation, your instructor will give you credit for completing it. The responses you give are completely anonymous. While your instructor will be able to see the ratings and comments, it is impossible for your instructor to identify the person who gave a certain rating or made a given comment. Once you complete the evaluation, your grade on this assignment will be an automatic A.
