4002-230-03
Programming for New Media I
Spring 20043 Course Syllabus

The information presented in this syllabus is subject to expansion, change, or adjustment during the quarter.

Instructor:

Name: Christopher A. Egert
Office: Bldg. 70, Room 2515
475 - 4873
cae (*at*) it.rit.edu (or through FirstClass)

Office Hours:

Monday and Wednesday 5:00 - 7:00 PM
and by appointment

Teaching Assistant:

Name: Carlo Costino
Office: Bldg. 70, Room 2503
475 - 4873
cac (*at*) mail.rit.edu (or through FirstClass)

Course Web Page:

For this section:
http://www.it.rit.edu/~cae (follow PNM I link)
For all sections:
http://www.it.rit.edu/~pnm

FirstClass Conference:

Egert_230-03

Course Text and Materials

• Required text 1: ActionScript for Flash MX: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition. Colin Moock, O'Reilly, 2002.
• Required test 2: ssential ActionScript 2.0 Edition. Colin Moock, O'Reilly, 2004.
• Additional readings will be provided as handouts or web URLS.

Important RIT Deadlines

Last day of add/drop is Monday, March 14, 2005. Last day to withdraw with a grade of "W" is Friday, April 15, 2005. The deadline for withdrawing from a course with a W grade is the end of the 6th week of the quarter. Forms may be obtained from your department office and need your instructor's signature. The completed forms should be returned no later than April 15, 2005.

NOTE: IT department policy states that a student has one quarter to challenge any grade. After that, grades cannot be challenged

Course Description

This course is intended as a first programming experience for students of New Media. Students will learn the fundamental strategies of computer programming while creating highly interactive multimedia applications. Projects will range from interactive displays of time-based media and graphics to interactive games. The course will present an event-driven model of interaction and an object-oriented approach to design. Students will be encouraged to design interactive applications that display sensitivity to content and user experience. Programming projects are required as part of the course experience.

Prerequisite Courses

4002-320 Introduction to Multimedia: The Internet and the web
2009-411 Time-based Imaging

Course Goals and Objectives

To provide students with the fundamental programming skills necessary to develop event-driven computer applications in a multimedia environment. At the end of the course, the student should be able to:

1. Understand and use fundamental programming concepts including variables, data types, control structures, functions, and parameters.

2. Plan and develop event-driven programs to control media and to provide a high level of user interactivity.

3. Design, implement, and validate object-oriented solutions to programming problems.

4. Understand the need for and appropriate use of generally accepted programming standards such as naming and documentation conventions.

5. Integrate aesthetic and programmatic considerations in the design of compelling multimedia applications

Prerequisite Skills
1. Design and implement web-based solutions in HTML.

2. Design and implement time-based animations.

3. Deploy time-based animations as a stand-alone application or to the web.

Course Organization

This class is designed to be very hands-on. Class meets twice a week in a studio classroom with computers. In most classes, we will discuss a topic, then give you a brief exercise to complete. We will often go back and forth between lecture and exercise mode.

An important part of your grade is your participation in these classroom activities. Make certain to keep all of the files, as they will serve as references for your later work.

Each week will start with an exercise and/or quiz to help you, and us, make sure you have a basic understanding of the previous week's objectives.

Projects
We will have three major projects during the quarter that will provide opportunities to apply concepts covered in class. They will be completed outside of class time.

Exams
We will have both a midterm and a final exam.

In-Class Exercises
Each class there will be one or more hands-on exercises. We want you to create a record of your progress so we will give you a folder in your course's FirstClass conference where you can save your work at the end of an exercise and at the end of each class. It will also provide a convenient way for you to keep a back-up copy of your work.

Weekly Progress Checks
Each week, we will start with a quick check to see how well you understand major objectives from the previous week. It may be an exercise, a few questions or a combination. It will be short and we'll tell you what we expect in advance so you will be able to do them easily

Participation
Getting actively engaged in classroom activities helps you to learn, and we want to encourage your participation. You can increase the participation portion of your grade by always attending and coming on time, by consistently contributing to classroom discussion, and/or by helping others in class when you've finished your own work.

Grading
For each day late, the maximum obtainable grade for a project or homework will be reduced by a score equivalent to one full letter grade.

Website
The course website is located off of my main web page at http://www.it.rit.edu/~cae. This web site has relevant information for this section of the course. There is also a shared web site located at http://www.it.rit.edu/~pnm. Material on the course website always supercedes material on the shared site.

Computer Accounts
You are required to have both an RIT DCE account and an IT department FirstClass account for this course.

A DCE account. This is where you will store your web pages. If you have taken 4002-320, you should already have this account (this is the account you used to post your web pages). If you do not have this account, you should go to ITS to set it up.

An account on the IT departments's FirstClass system. his is essential for all students, since it is through this system that you will hand in your assignments. Note that IT's FirstClass is a completely different system than RIT's Distance Learning FirstClass system. To get your FirstClass account, go to a lab assistant in one of the IT labs. You will need you RIT ID card and your class schedule.

The FirstClass account is for course communications and for submission of assignments that must be submitted by drop box. Please note that you can install a FirstClass client on your own PC or Mac. Alternately, you can connect to the system in a web browser. The URL is firstclass.it.rit.edu/login.

Course Topics

This list is not intended as a sequential outline. We will spiral through these ideas throughout the entire course, revisiting each one several times:

Event-driven programming
Object-oriented principles
Object-oriented design & validation
Variables & data types
Scoping
Naming conventions & documentation
Properties and methods of objects
Event handling
Conditional statements
Iteration
Text, strings, and chunking
Movie clip properties and methods
Parameters and functions
Debugging and troubleshooting

Grading

The grading scale used along with the grading criteria is as follows:

Component Weight
Projects 60
Exams 20
Weekly Progress Checks 5
Classroom Exercises, HW, Participation 15
Range Grade
>= 90.0% A
>= 80.0% & < 90% B
>= 70.0 % & < 80.0% C
>= 60.0 % & < 70.0% D
< 60.0% F








Services - Tutoring

We want each of you to succeed in this class, and we do our best to provide you with support you may need. There are Multimedia Tutors whose job it is to help you in understanding programming concepts, understanding the statements in the language, understanding the intent of the projects, and locating bugs in your projects. The Multimedia Tutors will not write the code for the projects, but they will help you to figure out how to do it yourself. The tutors are located in the Multimedia Production Lab. The tutors' hours are posted in all of the IT labs.

Academic Integrity:

Academic dishonesty is misrepresenting someone else's work as your own. Academic dishonesty is a serious matter, and can result in an automatic F for the course. Please review the IT department's policy on cheating, located online at http://www.it.rit.edu/policies/dishonesty.html.

If, during the quarter, you ever have any questions about what does or does not constitute academic dishonesty, please come and talk to me.

Finally...

Any or all of the previous information is subject to change or adjustment during the quarter.

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