Fall, 2020
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, unfortunately the course will not have any in-person component. The course will be run online/remote.
Each week, the course is focused on a different topic. The topics are listed in the table below, under the Calendar heading. Start by clicking on the name of the topic. There you will find a list of tasks to complete under the Prep heading.
The course content will be filled out as we progress through the term. I will make announcements in OWL when new material is posted to this website and/or when changes/corrections to existing material are made. You will receive the announcements in your Western email account so be sure to check that regularly.
There is one assignment each week, which you will find under the Assignment heading, and also listed in the table below. Assignments are to be submitted on OWL (https://owl.uwo.ca). Assignments will be graded on a 4-point scale: [0,1,2,3] where 3 corresponds to 100%, 2 corresponds to 85%, 1 corresponds to 75% and 0 corresponds to 0%. Your final grade in the course will be determined by the grades on the weekly assignments.
We will have two opportunities each week to get together synchronously as a class (tutorials) or one-to-one (office hours), over Zoom. These are optional, you do not have to attend.
For tutorials the Zoom meeting ID can be found in OWL on the main welcome page.
The first tutorial will be on Tuesday September 15th at 1:00 pm.
For office hours you must sign up for a specific time slot using the “Sign-up” tool in OWL. The Zoom meeting ID for office hours will be shown within OWL.
There are Discussion Forums in OWL, use them to post questions about weekly material, and/or Assignments. I will monitor them and respond to questions. Use the Discussion Forums, as you do, they will build up and represent a useful resource for everyone.
We have a TA for the course, Geetika Gupta ([email protected]). She will monitor the forums as well and she will grade the assignments. She will be your first contact for problems, troubleshooting, etc., after which please feel free to get in touch with me.
This is a graduate course, so progressing through the material will depend on you taking the initiative to complete the readings, play with the practice coding exercises, and complete the assignments on time. You should consider the course materials as a map—pointers to resources to help you learn to program in Python to solve problems—–and me as your tour guide, pointing you in the directions of interesting things to go and learn about. Have fun!
—Paul