Welcome to INFO 102! We’re excited to explore a wide variety of computing concepts with you.
See you in lecture! Attendance does count for this class.
The official description of this course is:
Broad introduction to the nature, capabilities, and limitations of computing. Topics range from the way data is represented and stored, to the way today’s computers work, to the general ideas of algorithms and computational efficiency, to the future of computing. Covers
Great Ideasacross various areas of the field, including, for example, cryptography and internet security, problem solving, modeling and simulation, and artificial intelligence.
Breaking that down:
The first test page provides additional objectives of this course.
Attending lecture is required.
A goal of this course is to prepare you to engage in conversations on computing topics. This is a broader goal than any single assessment can cover, so your presence in our in-class conversations is part of your grade.
Weekly labs will begin the second week of the course (). Each will have you go through several exercises related to recent lecture content and check off your work with the course staff leading the lab.
Some content would sink in until you experience it. The labs help provide that experience.
Weekly homeworks are intended to be practice, and also to keep you on track with the course material. You may re-take each homework as many times as you wish at no grade penalty, but must do so by the homework deadline.
The first homework is a Google form. You must log in with your illinois.edu account; if you’ve not done that with Google before, see this guide from the university CIO.
Other homeworks are hosted on PrairieLearn. The instructor will manually add your PrairieLearn access on the first day of class, or approximately 2 business days after you enroll if you enroll later than that.
There are 3 scheduled in-class quizzes, each with a review day preceding them. These are administered on paper and test your mastery of topics covered in lecture and lab prior to the quiz.
Quizzes are both a chance to review and refresh information learned previously and a chance to demonstrate what you have learned.
On 1 This day and time was schedule by the registrar. we will have a cumulative in-person exam, broadly covering the content of all 3 quizzes.
The final is partly a chance to review and refresh information learned previously.
The final is partly a chance to show you have learned material you missed on the quizzes. Superior performance on the portion of the final the covers missed quiz material will increase prior quiz grades.
The course components will be combined into a single percentage grade (0–100) using the percentages given in the list of course components. That percentage will be converted to a grade point (0–4) by subtracting 56⅔ and dividing by 10, then rounded up to a grade point bucket that campus allows. As special cases, both F+ (0.33) and A+ (4.33) are omitted by campus and will be turned into F (0.00) and A+ (4.00) respectively.
This process, or slight variants of it, are common to many courses and result in 90s getting As, 80s getting Bs, and so on, with pluses and minuses.
| grade point | ||
|---|---|---|
| rounded up | ||
| letter |
If you need to be absent from a lecture or lab, please enter that into this form. These requests are generally approved automatically, with exceptions noted to you in an email from the instructor containing the phrase 102 absence request
in the subject line.
If you need to change a homework deadline, first complete the homework as normal: it will show each question’s score, but have a 0% overall if you miss the deadline. Then enter an absence request for the homework into this form, which the staff will use to prompt a manual update of your grade.
Quiz absences are approved only on a case-by-case basis; if you need one, please email the instructor with 102 quiz absence
in the subject line and include suggested dates and times when a makeup quiz might be possible.
Exam absences require both dean-level approvals and instructor scheduling. If you need to reschedule the exam, let the instructor know as soon as possible.
Labs will start the second week of classes ().
Lecture will not be held on and because the instructor and the likely substitute instructors will all be at The Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. Labs will be held on those days as normal.
You can subscribe to the course calendar in your calendar application of choice using this ICS link.
The course instructor is Luther Tychonievich2 Tychonievich is pronounced like Tie CON of Itch
.
The course teaching assistants are Kamtikar Shivani (leading labs 3, 4, and 5) and Kashinath Ashish (leading labs 1 and 2).
Most interactions with staff should be in-person or directed to the course’s online forum, the tool for which will be selected on the first day of class.
Sensitive information, including information about disabilities and disruptive life events, should be directed to the course instructor via email, or in a meeting with the professor scheduled by sending some times that work for you to the instructor by email. Any email should include 102
in the subject to minimize the chance that it is lost among the many other emails the instructor receives.
Our goal is to foster and measure your internalized understanding of course content. As such, collaboration, both with humans and with AIs, is encouraged when it is helping you learn but discouraged when it is bypassing your need to learn.
You should follow the instructions of lab staff on how to scope collaboration in labs.
You may not collaborate on quizzes or exams.
Significant stress, mood changes, excessive worry, substance/alcohol misuse or interferences in eating or sleep can have an impact on academic performance, social development, and emotional wellbeing. The University of Illinois offers a variety of confidential services including individual and group counseling, crisis intervention, psychiatric services, and specialized screenings which are covered through the Student Health Fee. If you or someone you know experiences any of the above mental health concerns, it is strongly encouraged to contact or visit any of the University’s resources provided below. Getting help is a smart and courageous thing to do for yourself and for those who care about you.
This statement is approved by the University of Illinois Counseling Center
As members of the Illinois community, we each have a responsibility to express care and concern for one another. If you come across a classmate whose behavior concerns you, whether in regards to their well-being or yours, we encourage you to refer this behavior to the Student Assistance Center (217-333-0050 or http://odos.illinois.edu/community-of-care/referral/). Based on your report, the staff in the Student Assistance Center reaches out to students to make sure they have the support they need to be healthy and safe.
Further, we understand the impact that struggles with mental health can have on your experience at Illinois. Significant stress, strained relationships, anxiety, excessive worry, alcohol/drug problems, a loss of motivation, or problems with eating and/or sleeping can all interfere with optimal academic performance. We encourage all students to reach out to talk with someone, and we want to make sure you are aware that you can access mental health support at McKinley Health Center (https://mckinley.illinois.edu/). Or the Counseling Center (https://counselingcenter.illinois.edu/). For urgent matters during business hours, no appointment is needed to contact the Counseling Center. For mental health emergencies, you can call 911.
It is the goal of all course staff to create and maintain a welcoming, safe learning environment for all students. One way you can help with that is to let us know of anything that feels unwelcoming or unsafe. You are welcome to encouraged to share these with any member of the course staff, as we are most likely to be able to correct the situation.
You are also welcome to inform the Bias Assessment and Response Team (BART) (https://bart.illinois.edu/). Based on your report, BART members will follow up and reach out to students to make sure they have the support they need to be healthy and safe. If the reported behavior also violates university policy, staff in the Office for Student Conflict Resolution may respond as well and will take appropriate action.
Any student who has suppressed their directory information pursuant to Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) should self-identify to the instructors to ensure protection of the privacy of their attendance in this course. See https://registrar.illinois.edu/academic-records/ferpa/ for more information on FERPA.