Course Syllabus

Most course materials are available from
the companion Harvard College CS51 web site.

PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOU HAVE REVIEWED ALL MATERIALS AVAILABLE ON THE HARVARD COLLEGE CS51 PAGE. 

Please also be sure to join the course's discussion forum at piazza.cs51.io. This is where the teaching staff will post announcements and field your questions. 

Additional policies for extension students

Pre-Lecture Surveys and Lecture Videos

All Extension students will be enrolled in the CS51 FAS/College Canvas page. Extension students will have access to the CS51 FAS/College Canvas page for the entire duration of the course. (Currently there are messages about shopping week on the page, do not worry, that is for College students, just enroll as a shopper. We will ensure that all registered Extension students continue to have access.)

Extension students should submit the reading surveys on the CS51 Canvas page. Don’t worry if you were not able to do so at some point early in the course.

Lecture videos will be available within 24 hours of the lecture taking place on the CSCI E-51 Canvas page.

Lectures will also be live streamed. The live streams will also be accessed from the CS E-51 Canvas page.

Slack

The course will be setting up and administering a Slack team for the use of CS E-51 students.

We hope that it will provide you with an easy platform through which to interact with your classmates and the course staff.

E-51 TFs will monitor Slack during the specified E-51 Lab slots and E-51 office hours (more on Labs and Office Hours below). 

We will send invitations to the Slack team after we receive official enrollments from the DCE. 

Labs

Extension students may complete labs on their own or in pairs.

Labs are graded on the basis of a good faith effort being made to complete them. They are not graded for correctness, only for effort.

Lab distribution code will become available on Vocareum beginning on Thursdays at noon EST.

Extension students should submit each lab by 11:59 p.m. on the day after it is released. This is different from the College/FAS students, who must submit the lab by 11:59 p.m. on the same day.

Lab code will continue to be available for your reference and use throughout the course. However, we will record your submission after 24 hours.

TFs will be available to answer your questions about Lab exercises on Slack and Piazza.

• There will be TFs available during specific scheduled time slots during this time period to provide students with help directly about labs.
• If necessary, they can connect with you via Skype, but the intention is that lack will be sufficient.

Code Review

Code reviews will not start for Extension school until after the first problem set (pset0) is submitted. This is true for both local and distance students.

Code reviews will be led remotely over Adobe Web Connect by an Extension TF if you are not a local student who is able to attend a section on campus.

More logistical details to come in advance of the first code review.

Office Hours

Office hours also will be offered remotely to Extension school students in the upcoming weeks. A schedule will be posted when it is set. Currently office hours are mainly for setup in pset0, and we encourage you to use Piazza if you are experiencing issues.

Problem Sets

Problem sets will work identically for Extension students as for College/FAS students.

They will be released on Fridays at 5 p.m. EST. The specifications will be posted on the College/FAS Canvas page. The source code will be released on Vocareum via Git, per pset0.

They will be due 7 days after their release, on the following Friday, at 5 p.m. EST.

The Extension late day policy is the same as the College/FAS late day policy. You have 5 total late days to use throughout the course, and you may use up to 2 late days on any 1 problem set. You may not use late days on Labs.

Problem sets will be submitted via Git and Vocareum, as described in the Problem Set 0 specification.

As with the college students, you will not have access to Vocareum until after the course enrollment has been finalized later this weekend.

Grading Policy

We recognize that the dynamics described here pose additional complications to the dynamics of taking the course on campus. Please rest assured that we will be cognizant of these complications when assigning final grades.

Credit status

Extension school courses are offered at three  credit levels – undergraduate, graduate, and noncredit – as described here. CS51 can be taken for undergraduate or graduate credit; the coursework is identical. Noncredit enrollment is described in the CS51 course syllabus under "Auditing policy".

Exams for remote students

The course uses the standard extension school policy for exam attendance:

"If your primary residence throughout the term is in the six-state New England area (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont), you are expected to take your exams on campus as scheduled. Call Academic Services, (617) 495-0977, if you have any questions about this policy. If you do not live in New England, you may take exams on campus or arrange to take them with a proctor at a location near your home."

For students outside the defined New England area, you'll be expected to find a local proctor who will receive the exam by email and will proctor the exam for you at around the time of the Cambridge-based exam.

Labs for remote students

Extension students are allowed and encouraged to section for and attend lab sessions in Cambridge. For those extension students who prefer, you can participate in a web-based lab session with a CSCI E-51 TF.

Code review sections for extension students

Extension students participate in web-based code review sections rather than the on-campus sections.