Weekly Course Schedule – Fall 2021

IS430 - AO2/AO4 - Foundations of Information Processing

Meets Thursday Evenings Online

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Week 1 (August 23 – August 29)



Thursday, August 26   (6:00 P.M. – 8:00 P.M., Zoom)
Class Session 1
Topics
  • Course Startup
  • Welcome
  • Review Syllabus
  • Review Weekly Schedule
  • Introductions
Required Readings
Required Recordings
Class Discussion Prep
  • Introduce Yourself
    An important activity during this first class will be introducing ourselves. I plan to go through the class in the order that students appear in the Zoom list of attendees. I will ask each of you to speak to us using your headset. I am expecting each of you to speak for 1 - 2 minutes. Here are the things that I would like you to share with us: Your name; The iSchool program in which you are enrolled; Your employment (this includes, full-time, part-time, university, and home care activities); Your previous experience with tools used in this course (Python, Anaconda); Most Important: What you would like to get out of this course. I look forward to meeting each of you during your introductions.


Sunday, August 29   (10:00 A.M. – 11:00 A.M., Zoom)
Optional Session
Lab Session
On Sunday mornings from 10:00 AM till 11:00 AM, I will be holding an optional Lab Session using Zoom. Please drop by to ask a question, to discuss solutions to previous assignments, to get help with the current assignment, to discuss the final project, or just to say hello. Please use a headset while participating.


Sunday, August 29, @  11:55 P.M.
Weekly Assignments Deadline
Computing Setup
  • Send a Greetings post to the Service Desk for this course
    Description: You can earn 10 participation points by sending a Greetings post to the Service Desk for this course within the first 2 weeks of the semester. Regardless of the points earned, getting started using the Service Desk is a best practice.
  • Choose Your Computer
    Description: I recommend that you use a computer that runs Windows 10 or a recent release of macOS. While the software that we will be using for this course does run on Linux, there will be substantially less technical support available for Linux. If you are considering using a Linux computer, please consult with me beforehand.
  • Install Anaconda
    Description: Anaconda is an open data science platform that provides access to a coordinated set of Python tools. We will be using Anaconda to provide our basic Python tools. This will relieve some of the pressure of downloading many Python tools individually. It will also give us some experience in working with Anaconda, which is a valuable skill in its own right.
  • Install PyCharm Professional
    Description: PyCharm Professional is a leading Python Integrated Development Environment (IDE). I will be using PyCharm in my tutorial videos and I will expect you to use PyCharm when completing your assignments. JetBrains, the makers of PyCharm Professional, offer free licenses to this and a number of other products to university students and faculty. You will need to secure one of these free licenses from JetBrains using the link below. Following that, you will need to install PyCharm Professional by following one of the tutorial videos below that will help you through the download and install.