[Every topic covered by this course will have a course topic page like this one linked from the schedule page. You will refer to this page for information about a course topic.]
Introduction
[This section of each course topic page will introduce the material the topic will cover.]
This lesson will be an overview of the SWEN-261 Introduction to Software Engineering course. It will describe the elements of the course and where students will find information and resources to study the course topics. The lesson will then briefly discuss the discipline of software engineering and what aspects this course will cover.
Learning Outcomes
[Each learning outcome identifies knowledge or skills that you will gain from study of the resources and doing the exercises for the topic. Your instructor will create exam questions based on these learning outcomes.]
List the locations of information for course topics, resources, discussion groups, and the project.
Identify the graded components of the course.
Define software engineering as a discipline.
Describe how this course provides an introduction to software engineering through course topics in four areas.
Study Resources
[There is no required textbook for this course. This section will identify study resources that are public on the Internet, or available through the RIT library. Typically, more resources than you are expected to use will be listed. This gives you the opportunity to study from the ones that work best for you. The topic page may indicate that you are required to study some resources.
There will be resources from a number of sources including videos, webpage reading, or book chapters. You will access resources from Lynda.com => now part of LinkedIn (Note Skillsoft has been removed from RIT but you should let us know if there are still links on this website referring to it, and better yet if you find the link to the content on LinkedIn or elsewhere, let us know that too). Many other resources can be found through the RIT e-library and Database Finder. The particular resource categories that a topic uses will vary with many lessons not using all categories. If you find another resource that you think is particularly good, contribute it in the on-line discussion forum area for participation credit.]
For your study of this topic, use some of these resources.
[These are required exercises that you will do as part of your study of the topic. There are three exercise categories based on when you will do the exercise. Exercises may be done individually, by the project team, or a grouping created just for one activity. Before-Class Exercises entail some study before class and have a deliverable due at the start of the class session when the topic will be covered. Your instructor will give you time in class to complete any In-Class Exercises with most of them due at the end of class. The After-Class Exercises require more extended work and will be introduced in class, and due at the start of a subsequent class. The particular exercise categories that a topic uses will vary with many lessons not using all categories.]
Before-Class Exercises
no pre-class exercise
In-Class Exercises
Course Overview - quiz: Complete the quiz, Course overview, which is in the myCourses Quiz area.
This will be completed during the Course overview class session. For students who do not have access to myCourses during the first class session, the quiz will remain available until the start of the next class session.
After-Class Exercises
(Optional exercise that you might find helpful.) If you use an on-line calendar such as Google Calendar, you can have it receive a feed from your myCourses calendar so that all of your due dates for this, or any of your other courses, appear in your Google calendar. When logged into myCourses, select the Calendar tab, and then click the Settings button on the right side just above the calendar display. Check the Enable Calendar Feeds checkbox. When you save this setting change, a Subscribe button will appear. Click on that. In the Calendar Subscriptions dropdown menu, you can select which courses you want to feed your external calendar. Setup your external calendar using the URL shown to have it receive the feed from your myCourses calendar.
(Not so optional exercise..) Capture all your answers in a readily accessible Google doc. You may be put on the spot during class to share you answers so be ready:
Treasure hunt - individual: We have found that students who do not take the time to understand the structure of the schedule, the location of the information on this website or even the deadlines on myCourses will often end up affecting their grade and that of their teammates. We want you to take charge now and ensure that you learn how to navigate through the course resources to avoid problems in the future. There may be other benefits to this activity besides indirectly giving you grade point advantage and surely reduce headaches in the future.
Note: some of the items below are multi-part quests be sure to answer all. Let's see if you have what it takes to complete the entire "hunting expedition". In order to do so you must accomplish the following:
Read this page in its entirety then go the main course website schedule and find "Sprint Planning" session. What is the other type of Exercise (label) that could be given to an assignment in addition to the three that are described here? (Hint: Before, "during" ... ?). How does it differ from "After-Class Exercise"?
Find out when is the first reading due that requires access to O'Reilly and add the date to your Google Calendar. Access the resource and take a screengrab of the first page of reading as proof that you know how to gain access.
On the Session on "Team Formation" click on the link for the short video on "Manage team forming and storming stages". Can you figure out how to gain access to it? Take a screen grab of the Instructor info including the Course Stars and rating. (Don't get carried away yet.. this isn't TikTok.. the videos are great but are left for another day.)
Can you find the broken link(s) for the first week Sessions? What resource (that is not behind a paywall) can you find to replace it/them?
Which release will be the last chance to code project?
According to the website, what version of Angular and Java will we be using? Is that subject to change?
Search on myCourses to find if you have course assistant(s) and write their name(s). What do you think is their primary responsibility?
If you are looking for the date an assignment or quiz are due by, what places might have the answer? Which of them has the final say?
Sometimes you will have intermediate "draft" work to submit which won't be graded. Why do you think that is so?
For some drafts the final version is not due until "much later". Of course you are responsible for keeping track of it so as not to miss the deadline. For one such example, the "Domain analysis - team" deliverable, the website states the final version is due @ S0. Can you figure out what it means? When is the actual date by which it must be submitted?
What are you allowed to do with Generative AI for this course?
Of all the resources available inside the course website what primary resource should you, in general, be using to find the answers to the quiz questions related to a specific Session?
What might be the some of the outcomes of not completing an assignment labeled *BEFORE CLASS? Are these only applicable to Individual Assignments?
In general, when can you safely assume a Quiz is due?
You better not have be slacking on all of the above questions...
Regardless, this course will be heavily reliant on your understanding of these concepts and particularly on communications over an RIT sanctioned messaging platform. Can you figure out which one that is and how to login and send a message? Be the first to prove it by sending a joint message to your professor and TA(s) with the link to your Google doc containing your questions and answers/screengrabs to the entire quest above.
