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Joe Zachary
Phone: (801) 581-7079 Office: 3190a MEB E-mail: teach-cs1010@list.eng.utah.edu |
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This course will be taught entirely with the use of an online tutoring system. There will be no lectures, and there is no text. All of the information you need is in the online material, which is organized into eight lessons that are due at weekly intervals.
The tutoring system is available from any web browser. However, you should not expect to complete the course from home. All of the lessons require you to use the workstations in the CADE Lab. The CADE Lab will be staffed approximately 20 hours/week by TAs who will be available to answer your questions. The tutoring system will display the TA schedule upon request.
The CADE Lab is in rooms in 224 and 226 of the Warnock Engineering Building (WEB). These rooms are open 24 hours/day, 7 days/week. Once you have a CADE Lab account, you will be able to use your ID card to open the door lock. It will require approximately 2-3 hours/week to complete the lessons. You can work at any time. You may need to coordinate your schedule with that of the TAs on occasion so that you can ask questions.
Getting help from the TA is easy. By clicking on any of the 'Help' buttons that are displayed along with the online material, you will find directions for using a software utility to summon a TA for help. If a TA is on duty, he or she will be immediately notified of your request. You will not need to raise your hand or otherwise track down a TA. Please note that the TA may be currently assisting another student and it may take a while for the TA to come to your location. Please be patient.
The tutoring system contains lessons on a variety of topics. Upon request, it will display the names of the lessons, and their due dates, in the order in which they should be completed. We expect you to complete them all, on time, and in order. Each lesson contains check off instructions.
You will receive credit for the course only if you complete all of the lessons.
The tutoring system will not disappear at the end of the semester. It will be available on the workstations whenever you need to review a topic. We hope that you will find it a valuable resource.
Once you have your account information, sit down at any unused flat panel display. (There are some older computers without flat panel displays at the western end of 226 WEB that you should not use.) Move the mouse or type a key to deactivate the screen saver if necessary. Enter your login name and your password, both of which are on your account sheet.
The first time that you log in, you will be led through a series of prompts. You will be shown the rules that govern the use of the lab, you will be asked to change your password to something you can remember, and you will be asked to enter the 16-digit number from your UCard. It is important to do this last step accurately, because this is what will allow you to use the card reader to enter the CADE Lab when the door is locked.
Following these preliminary steps, you will be logged in to the computer. Near the upper left corner of the screen will an icon of a computer mouse wrapped around a globe. Click on this icon to bring up the Firefox web browser. Use the browser to view this page, which is http://www.cs.utah.edu/classes/cs1010. From this point on you can simply follow the directions that you see.
The first directions will concern obtaining a password. To log into the course material, you will need to supply your eight-digit UID number and a password (which is not the same as your CADE password). If you have never logged into the course material, you will not have a password. In this case, simply leave the password field blank and you will be asked for your e-mail address, to which a password will be mailed.
You can, of course, access the course material from anywhere in the world, and remotely accessing the course material can be useful for reading through the material. Keep in mind, however, that this course is specifically about using the Linux workstations in the College of Engineering CADE Lab at the University of Utah. You cannot possibly learn how to do this while sitting at a computer elsewhere!
Many of the lessons ask you to try out experiments; you won't be able to do this unless you're using a CADE Lab computer. Furthermore, several of the lessons have checkoff procedures that won't work unless you're using a CADE Lab computer. Please arrange your schedule so that you can spend several hours a week in the CADE Lab working on CS 1010.
If you have problems logging in to the tutoring system, if you have questions about one of the lessons, or if you just need help making progress, contact a member of the course staff. Our contact information is linked into each page of the online lesson material, and it appears at the top of this page.
- Overview
- Communications
- File System
- Web Page Creation
- Unix Shell
- Remote Access
- Applications
- More About the Unix Shell
Each lesson begins with a sequence of pages of reading and exercises and ends with a checkoff page. Each checkoff page contains detailed instructions of what you must do to demonstrate proficiency with the lesson topic. Each checkoff entails submitting something for review by the teaching assistants.
Shortly after you submit your work for a lesson, a teaching assistant will grade it. There are only two possible grades: 1 and 0. If you receive a grade of 0, you must correct the deficiencies and resubmit for regrading, and you must continue doing this until you finally receive a grade of 1. There is a prominent link on the contents page of the course material that will take you to a page where your grades, along with TA comments, are summarized.
CS 1010 is a credit/no-credit class. If you receive a grade of 1 on each of the eight lessons, you will receive credit. Otherwise, you will receive a grade of no-credit.
There will be one lesson due each Friday, beginning with the second Friday of the semester. This means that the last lesson will be due on the ninth Friday of the semester. We encourage you to work ahead and finish the class as quickly as possible. If you work too slowly and miss a due date, don't fret. We are flexible about the due dates. There are limits to our patience, however, so if you miss a due date please catch up as soon as possible.
All written information in this course can be made available in alternative format with prior notification to the Center for Disability Services.