Dear Student,

 

            Welcome to the online version of CSC 155 – C++ Computer Science I. Local students should make arrangements to attend an orientation meeting Thursday evening, January 19 beginning at  7:30 P.M. in room 1862 on the Des Plaines campus. Remote students will receive their information via email during the same time period.  At this meeting, we will be able to meet and you will be given the necessary access to the systems.  Some of the issues that I've spoken to many of you about include 1) the number of required attendance meetings; 2) the access of course materials and examinations and 3) the use of other C++ environments.  I would like to take this opportunity to address these.

 

            The course has a scheduled laboratory meeting in room 1862 DP on Thursday evenings from 7:30 P.M.-8:20 P.M.   The first meeting on Thursday, January 19 is required for local students.  After that, your attendance is not required as long as your assignments are turned in on their due date.  Except for the 3 in-class examinations that are scheduled approximately every 5 weeks, no further attendance is required.  Of course, you are always welcome to attend the scheduled laboratory session throughout the semester.  Exam accommodations for remote students should be arranged with the instructor.  Course instructional materials, including quizzes and exercises, are available at the course web site. Compatible browsers for our web sites are described at the following URL: http://www.oakton.edu/academics/distance_online_learning/student_resources/FAQs/minimum_specs.php

 

            The OCC system used for instruction operates a variant of the UNIX operating system and supports software that is distributed by the Free Software Foundation.  This software is licensed, but there are no fees associated with it.  Consequently, we can offer the system and the software to our students over the Internet free of charge.  To use the OCC system, you will need access to telnet and ftp utilities.  In most cases, these activities can be accomplished through the use of MS Internet Explorer.  If you wish to use your own development environment there are two restrictions.  First of all, your environment must support the ANSI C++ language that is taught in this course.  Secondly, all submitted assignments should be compilable on the OCC academic instructional system.  If your program is developed within the ANSI C++ language, this should not be a problem.  On the other hand, you should avoid the use of any vendor specific commands that are only available to your environment.

 

            Please purchase your textbook, C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, 5th edition, by Malik, Course Technology-Cengage Learning, 2010 at any of http://www.oakton.edu/resource/campserv/bookstor.htm (the online OCC Bookstore site) or  http://www.amazon.com or the OCC bookstore (in person) before the first class meeting.  Also, please send me your email address identifying yourself and your course in a message to somplski@oakton.edu before the first class meeting.  Additional questions can be addressed to me at 847-635-1975 or somplski@oakton.edu.

 

Regards,

 

 

 

Bob Sompolski

Professor of Computer Science & Mathematics