The standard for papers in the graduate program is the APA style. All participants in this course and all graduate INSS, MGMT, PUAD, and ECON courses should have a copy of the style guide:

American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Edition. Washington DC: Author.

Publications of the various professional societies (such as ACM -- the Association for Computing Machinery, the IEEE Computing Society, and the various management professional societies) are strongly recommended.  In addition, there are many trade journals (such as eWEEK) that MIS professionals should become familiar with, many of these being published both weekly and on-line.

Grades for this course will be assigned as follows:

    A     90%

    B     80 – 89%

    C     70 – 79%

    F     Below 70%

Please note that Bowie State University does not use "D" for graduate students. The grade F(a) is used to designate academic failure. F(n) is used to designate failure for non-completion.  Grades of Incomplete or Withdrawal are governed by UMUC-Europe policies. For further details, please refer to the UMUC-Europe Graduate Catalog, available in your local Education Center or online at http://www.ed.umuc.edu/general_info/publications/catalogs.

Graduate school at the masters level focuses on helping students obtain the education needed for success as professionals in their chosen fields. Thus, UMUC-Europe Graduate Programs and Bowie State University share the common goals of promoting excellence in academic scholarship through thoughtful inquiry and the skillful application of knowledge and theory for the betterment of society.

In order to maximize your graduate educational experience in general and this course in particular, you are required to:

15%  -  Complete weekly homework assignments, including review questions, problems and class participation

30%  -  Complete programming assignments, one of which will be a group project

20%  -  Write a graduate level paper as a group assignment

35%  -  Midterm and final examinations(s)

Late Examinations or Assignments. It is expected all examinations and assignments will be turned in on time. I recognize there may be circumstances that prevent you from finishing programs or homework on time. If such circumstances arise, it is YOUR responsibility to coordinate with me PRIOR to missing a deadline. Extensions will only be granted for extreme circumstances, and must be approved by the instructor prior to the due date. Unless you have received an extension from me, grades on the weekly assignments submitted after the due date will be reduced by 25%, and no assignments will be accepted one week after the due date. Grades on a research paper or programming assignment submitted after the due date will be reduced by 50%. Programming assignments and the research paper submitted more than 1 week late will not be accepted for credit.

Participate in classroom discussions: You are expected to engage in all discussions in a professional and informed manner. Usually this requires approximately ten hours of preparation per week for a DE class.

Complete graduate level projects or programming assignments, write graduate level papers or case studies:  You are required to conduct professional-level research, including appropriately citing works of others and avoiding plagiarism. Resubmission of course work from previous classes (whether or not taken at UMUC, UMUC-Europe or BSU), partially or in its entirety, is not acceptable in this course and will result in an automatic failure on the assignment.

Visually present prepared material: You are required to present your results in a professional manner. In a DE class, this means creating a visual/textual presentation for your instructor and classmates.

Complete one or more written examination(s): The examination process in this class will assist you in developing the writing and critical thinking skills necessary for successfully passing the comprehensive exam required of all graduate students. The examination questions used for this course will either be taken directly from past comprehensive exams or written as though to be included on a comprehensive exam.

All work submitted for this course must be your own work. Plagiarized papers, programs, reports, or exams will receive a grade of zero. This would also apply to a student knowingly allowing another student to plagiarize their work.

This schedule presents 16 units or modules, with each unit corresponding to a full week of DE.

Initial week:

               Introductions

               Review of syllabus

               Clarification of goals, objectives and requirements

               Orientation to subject

Second week:

               Intro to Programming Languages

Third week:

               Syntax and Semantics, Lexical and Syntax Analysis

Fourth week:

               Names, Bindings, Type Checking, and Scopes

Fifth week:

               Data Types

Sixth week:

               Expressions and Assignment Statements

               Programming Assignment 1 Due

Seventh week:

               Statement-level Control Structures

               Mid-term Exam

Eighth week:

               BREAK

Ninth week:

               BREAK

Tenth week:

               Subprograms, Implementing Subprograms

Eleventh week:

               Abstract Data Types

               Programming Assignment 2 Due

Twelfth week:

               Support for OO Programming

Thirteenth week:

               Concurrency

Fourteenth week:

               Exception Handling

               Group Research Paper Due

Fifteenth week:

               Functional & Logic Programming Languages

Sixteenth week:

               Final Examination

               Group Programming Assignment Due

               Course evaluations

The University has a license agreement with Turnitin.com, a service that helps prevent plagiarism from internet resources. I may be using this service in this class by either requiring students to submit their papers electronically to Turnitin.com or by submitting questionable text on behalf of a student. If you or I submit part or all of your paper, it will be stored by Turnitin.com in their database throughout the term of the University's contract with Turnitin.com. If you object to this temporary storage of your paper, you must let me know no later than two weeks after the start of this class. Please Note: If you object to the storage of your paper on Turnitin.com, I may utilize other services to check your work for plagiarism