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- All assignments are due at 8am before class begins (unless otherwise noted)
- No assignments should include copy and pasted code
- No assignments should include code lifted or
borrowedfrom someone else without proper citation and licensing - Incomplete homework is better than late homework
- Late homework is better than no homework
- Asking for clarify or help on assignments is encouraged
- Turning in code that you do not understand is highly discouraged and should be noted so we can address those issues. We, as developers, need to be able to explain our code to others and we cannot do that if we do not understand it ourselves.
During breaks in the lecture during the first half of the course, you will be given exercises for practicing the content you've just learned. Sometimes I'll give you a set of tests, and you'll be asked to write code to make them pass. Other times you'll be given a blank slate to start from. In most cases, you won't have time to finish the exercises before I ask you to stop and throw away what you've done. This is normal (if not disconcerting) and will be somewhat liberating a few weeks in.
During the second half of the course, we'll have reached a point where the knowledge we accumulated in the first few weeks risks being crowded out by new content. In order to combat this (and to actively prepare for interview questions), lecture will include challenges that cover fundamental Ruby topics. You will have approximately 20 minutes to work on each of these challenges, and you'll do so individually.
After classes on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, you'll be given an assignment. You'll work on these during the lab time that afternoon, and it's expected that you won't finish them by 5pm. You'll be asked to work on these as individuals, and you'll usually be expected to write tests first.
After classes on Thursdays, you'll be given a substantially longer assignment. You'll usually work on these assignments in pairs (which we'll assign for you), and you'll occasionally be working with students from other courses. Lab time on Thursday afternoon and all day Friday will be dedicated to helping you with these. As above, we expect that you won't finish these by 5pm on Friday, and you'll be expected to write tests first.
During the last three weeks of the course, you will be working on your capstone project, putting all you've learned into practice. You will be working with a group of 2-5 people on your project, and these groups CAN include students from the other courses. Projects that span multiple courses typically turn out the best.
During weeks 10, 11, and 12, you'll spend all of your time working on this project (minus some field trips and guest speakers). We will potentially have occasional lecture time, but it will be tailored to what you need to know for your project and will be optional.
This project must use Rails in some fashion, although it will inevitably involve additional technologies. If you are not planning to spend much time on the visual user interface, I highly suggest working with someone from another class to make your project visually appealing.