Hello Everyone, This semester (today) we start with around 550 students enrolled. We'll spend part of the first lecture discussing how the unit will run this year, but first I'll head off some common questions that students are already asking by email: TEACHING MATERIALS: Firstly, we're NOT using LMS for this unit. You'll only need to visit LMS to access the lecture and workshop recordings. All information and teaching materials will be available from: [CITS2002]⬈ - so bookmark it! with most important links (notably the Schedule) in the left-hand margin. LECTURES: We have 45 minute face-to-face lectures each Monday and Wednesday, and their LCS/Echo360 recordings should be available within 2 hours of each lecture finishing. The HTML and PDFs of all lectures will be available to read online or to download (from our Schedule page) well before each lecture. Attendance at lectures is not compulsory. WORKSHOPS: Most weeks we'll hold a workshop on Fridays, to review the week's material by focusing on the design and implementation of a short program addressing a single problem. You'll receive the problem at the beginning of each week, hopefully sketch out a solution, maybe implement it, and we'll implement and discuss it in the Friday workshops. Workshops are recorded, and attendance is not compulsory. LABORATORIES: From week-2, when our two projects are not "running", we will have a laboratory sheet of 3-4 "standard exercises", and a couple of more difficult "chilli exercises", for you to attempt that week. Sample solutions to the standard exercises will be provided. If you can successfully complete the standard exercises, each week, then you're keeping up in the unit. There'll be a lab facilitator in each lab session (face-to-face and online) and you may attend any session - more than one, if you require extra assistance. Laboratory exercises are not assessed, so you are strongly encouraged to discuss them with your colleagues on our help2002 forum. Attendance in laboratories is not compulsory. PROJECTS: 40% of the unit's assessment comes from 2 programming projects. Each project may be undertaken individually or in teams of 2 students. The choice of project partners is up to you - you will not be automatically assigned a project partner. You are strongly advised to work with another student who is around the same level of understanding and motivation as yourself. This will enable you to discuss your initial design together, and to assist each other to develop and debug your joint solution. Work together - do not attempt to split the project into two parts, and plan to meet near the deadline to join your parts together. Half of each project's marks will come from the correctness of your solution; the other half from your programming style and design. I hope that you'll enjoy CITS2002 this semester. Chris McDonald