Sergeant's Website Program Design II

Program Design II Syllabus

CSCI 2320 Fall 2025

Instructor Information

Name	:	Terry Sergeant	Office Hours*
E-Mail	:	tsergeant@hsutx.edu	MW	8:30–9:00; 10:00–11:00; 1:30-2:30
Office	:	AH 104	TTh	8:30–10:30; 2:30–3:00
Phone	:	325-660-7802
Web Site	:	https://josephus.sergeantservices.com

NOTE: Office hours and office location are valid for Weeks 1, 2, 3, 9, and 10 of the semester. For the other weeks office hours will be held online by appointment.

Summary

Description	:	Students will continue practice in writing correct programs in a high-level language with emphasis on the object-oriented programming methodology. Topics include: OOP, inheritance, polymorphism, recursion, creating generic structures, sorting, searching, and elementary data structures.
Prerequisite	:	CSCI 1320 with a grade of C or better.
Textbook	:	No textbook is required. Some students find it helpful to have access to an introductory Java programming book.

Course Objectives

Students who satisfactorily complete this course will (hopefully) be able to:

design and construct Java programs according to the object-oriented programming paradigm with mastery of core concepts/techniques such as encapsulation, inheritance, and polymorphism
independently construct Java code that will correctly implement solutions to problems that require the following concepts or techniques: text files, multi-dimensional arrays, classes, linked lists, common sorting techniques, sequential searches in lists and arrays, binary search, arrays of classes, and recursion
represent the object-oriented design of a solution using UML
trace the execution of a program that makes use of any of the features, data structures, or algorithms presented in class
express a solution to a natural language problem in a recursive fashion (when appropriate)

Grading

Your grade in the course will be earned / calculated as follows:

CodeSpiral		8%
lab days		8%
online checkins		4%
homework assignments		14%
first exam		22%
second exam		22%
final exam		22%

A	$\rightarrow$	90	–	100
B	$\rightarrow$	80	–	89
C	$\rightarrow$	70	–	79
D	$\rightarrow$	60	–	69
F	$\rightarrow$	0	–	59

This course has an unusual structure. During the first three weeks of the semester and the two weeks right after fall break, the course will have a face-to-face format. During the other weeks, the course will have an online format. The structure of a typical week will vary accordingly:

Weeks Instructor is On Campus

Sunday 11:59pm homework is due.
Monday 10:00am–10:50am is a lecture period.
Tuesday 11:59pm CodeSpiral module is due.
Wednesday 10:00am–10:50am is a lab day.
Friday 10:00am–10:50am is a lecture period.

Weeks Instructor is Off Campus

Sunday 11:59pm homework is due.
Monday 10:00am–10:50am is an online checkin (see description below). Also, consume online lecture(s) in preparation for lab day.
Tuesday 11:59pm CodeSpiral module is due.
Wednesday 10:00am–10:50am is a lab day.
Thursday to Saturday: consume online lecture(s) and work on homework.

CodeSpiral

You will be given free access to https://codespiral.academy, which is a site that provides customized exercises arranged in modules. The modules will follow the course topics and you will be required to complete a module most weeks. The learning modules will help you devleop proficiency in the topics of this course. For each module you complete entirely prior to the due date you will receive 10 points. If you complete the module within a week of a due date you will receive 8 points. Modules that are not complete or are completed more than a week after the due date will receive 0 points.

Lab Days

Most Wednesday's will be designated as a “lab day” in which we will spend some time working on exercises or homework during the class period. Attendance is mandatory and you will receive a grade out 10 possible points for each lab day evaluated as follows:

3 points	preparation	did you prepare for the lab day in advance?
2 points	attendance	did you show up on time and stay for the entire lab session?
5 points	participation	were you actively engaged in the session without distraction?

If you know in advance you will have to be absent on a lab day you can receive credit by doing the following:

Prior to the start of class on Wednesday leave a comment on the lab day assignment in Canvas announcing you will be absent and do a commit of your prelab assignment and push it to GitHub. If your committed prelab work is on time and correct you will receive 3 points.
Prior to noon on Friday leave a comment on the lab day assignment in Canvas explaining your progress since the first message. Perform a commit and push of your completed lab day work to received up to 7 points.

Even during weeks when the instructor is not campus there will be someone present to conduct the lab days and who will be able to answer questions.

Online Checkins

During weeks when the instructor is not present and there is not an exam scheduled we will use the Monday class meeting times to have an online checkin. The checkins are mandatory and you should be prepared to meet online for the entire session. A typical checkin will involve some announcements, a question and answer time, and an evaluation of homework that was submitted the day before. You will receive up to 5 points for each checkin event. To receive all 5 points at a checkin you must do all of the following:

Connect to the P2 Teams Meeting Room (https://josephus.sergeantservices.com/meeting_room/p2) before the start of the session (9:00am).
Participate appropriately in the session with your camera on and remaining engaged until the session is dismissed by the instructor.

You will lose a point for each minute you are not present (not to exceed 5 deductions in a checkin session).

Homework Assignments

Homework in this course serves as the primary conduit for helping students become proficient programmers. The homework assignments combined with the lab days will serve as anchors for our typical week.

A homework assignment is considered late if it is not submitted at or before the specified due date/time. Late homework assignments will receive a 20% point penalty and must be completed within a week or the original due date. Assignments that miss the one week deadline will receive a grade of 0 (unless there are extenuating circumstances).

A primary goal of this course is for each student to become an independent problem-solver. Achieving this goal requires that each student practice solving problems independently. For that reason, each assignment contains a list of allowed resources. You will be required to complete each assignment using ONLY the allowed resources.

Exams

Exams are comprehensive. The first two exams will be scheduled during the semester and the final exam will take place at the scheduled time during finals week. Exams are to be done without outside help other than the study aids that are expressly allowed by the instructor for that particular exam. Receiving improper help is a violation of the academic integrity policy.

The instructor will be physically present for Exam #2. That exam will be hand-written during the scheduled class session. The instructor will not be present for Exam #1 and Exam #3, so the exams will be administered in an unusual way:

The exam will take place on the specified day during the regularly scheduled class period and in the usual room.
The exam will be presented in online form and will require use of the lock-down browser (instructions for downloading and using the browser will be provided in advance of the first exam).
You will be able to bring (and reference) printouts of the command-sheets (without commentary) that were provided in the first week.
You will be able to bring blank paper and writing utensils in case you find it helpful to jot ideas down before typing them.
The exam is time-limited based on the length of the class period so you will need to work quickly and efficiently.

The Role of AI Tools in this Course

Modern AI tools are very proficient at solving short exercises in well-explored domains. The goal of this course is not to have a program written by any means. The goal is for you to develop the skills necessary to write such programs yourself. For this reason, you MAY NOT, under any circumstances make use of AI Tools when working exams or when working homework assignments. Once you have seen the instructions for a homework assignment, consulting an AI tool for help on any part of that assignment is a violation of the academic integrity policy.

There are, however, times when you can get help from an AI tool. When a topic is introduced on Monday, if there are concepts related to that topic you do not understand you can ask an AI tool to explain the topics to you, give you practice questions to solve, and give you feedback.

So imagine in a typical week:

Monday morning until class on Wednesday: Use your prefered AI tool to help fill in any gaps that were missing from the lecture, CodeSpiral exercises, and lab day exercises.
Wednesday after class until homework is due: Do NOT consult with an AI tool for anything related to this course.

Students with Disabilities

An individual with a disability is defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as a “person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.” Any student with a documented disability may choose to seek accommodations. Eligible students seeking accommodation should contact the Director of Undergraduate Advising and Disabilities as soon as possible in the academic term (preferably during the first two weeks of a long semester) for which they are seeking accommodations. The director will prepare letters to appropriate faculty members concerning specific, reasonable academic adjustments for the student. The student is responsible for delivering accommodation letters and conferring with faculty members. Please refer to the most recent version of the Undergraduate Catalog for the complete policy. (Carol Krueger, Director of Undergraduate Advising and Disabilities, Office: Sandefer Memorial, 1st floor Academic Advising Center, Phone: 325-670-5867, Email: disabilityservices@hsutx.edu)

Student Support

Peer-to-peer academic support (tutoring) is available for all undergraduate HSU students. The Academic Center for Enrichment (ACE) is open for virtual tutoring sessions via Zoom. To access instructions or make an appointment, open the ACE course on your Canvas dashboard. For additional information regarding academic support, contact the Advising Center at 325-670-1480 or tutoring@hsutx.edu.

In addition, all full or part-time students are eligible to receive free, confidential, and voluntary counseling services at HSU. Services include consultation, evaluation, counseling, and crisis support services for students facing issues impacting their overall well-being. To obtain any of these services, students may call The Office of Counseling Services at (325) 671-2272, email counseling@hsutx.edu, or begin the intake process by completing our online forms at:https://www.hsutx.edu/intake.

Computer Account Use

The instructor may occasionally use email to communicate with the class as a whole or with individuals. When contacting you for this course the instructor will use your HSU email account. You are expected to check your HSU email account at least once per day and you will be held responsible for any content distributed in this way.

Attendance

Regarding class attendance, the Undergraduate Catalog states:

Accordingly, absence from more than 25 percent of class meetings and/or laboratory sessions scheduled for a course (including absences because of athletic participation) is regarded as excessive, and a grade of F may be assigned as deemed appropriate by the professor.

Course Calendar and Class Structure

We will utilize Canvas to provide outline for the course. Do take notice of these planned exam dates:

Date	Event
Fri 26 Sep	Exam #1
Fri 31 Oct	Exam #2
Wed 10 Dec	Final Exam (at 8:00am)