Frequently Asked Questions

Contents

Study practices

How can I do well in CITS5501?

Some suggestions on working effectively in Computer Science and Software Engineering are available from the CSSE teaching website – you might like to review those, as well as the UWA Library’s Study support page.

The STUDYSmarter pages and workshops may be useful to you. CITS5501 assessments may ask you to think critically about testing and quality assurance, and to justify a position, so the Academic English workshops (such as “Critical thinking & academic culture” and “Writing justifications”) may prove especially useful.

It’s also useful to remember that active learning has been demonstrated¹ to be a more effective learning approach than passive learning. Some active learning strategies include:

• linking new knowledge to areas you’re already familiar with
• solving problems (for instance, from labs and past exams)
• writing, running and debugging code
• constructing a “mind map” of unit topics.

A good resource containing more information on these strategies and others is the University of Melbourne page on active learning.

How much study time will CITS5501 require?

See the site home page, under “Time required”.

What are the textbooks and recommended readings for the unit?

See “Recommended readings” on the Resources page. This lists the two textbooks, outlines the recommended reading for each week, and contains a link to UWA’s “Unit Readings” site.

Should I buy a copy of the textbooks?

It wouldn’t hurt. The Pressman textbook, in particular, contains useful information on a very wide range of software engineering topics that will prove useful not only in this unit, but also in other units and in your later career. Cheap second-hand copies of both texts are usually available from AbeBooks, Amazon, or Book Depository.

Online access to the texts and recommended readings is also available through UWA’s “Unit Readings” site – see “Recommended readings”.

How can I keep backups of my work?

Take a look at the MIT “Missing Semester of Your CS Education” page on “Backups” for good backup strategies to adopt.

Local backup systems are available for all popular operating systems in use today (e.g. Time Machine for MacOS), but you should ensure you keep offsite copies of your work as well.

Offsite copies of your work can be stored using UWA’s student network storage, or alternatively, backup services can be purchased for less than $5 per month (e.g. from carbonite.com).

Lectures

Where can I find the lecture slides?

On the “Resources” page, under “Lecture slides”. They’ll be published there progressively throughout the semester. For previous years’ lecture slides, see here.

Are lectures recorded?

The lectures are recorded, and will be available via the LMS – usually within an hour of the lecture finishing.

But please note that recordings do sometimes fail – so if you can attend the lecture in person or online, it’s recommended.

Where can I find the lecture recordings?

Sign into the Blackboard LMS, bring up the “CITS5501” unit, and click on “Lecture Recordings” on the left-hand sidebar. Then click on the link marked “Lecture Recording System”; a new page should launch, taking you to the appropriate part of the Echo360 system where the lecture recordings are stored.

Can I attend lectures online?

Currently, it’s the policy of the department of Computer Science and Software Engineering at UWA that units be offered in face-to-face mode only. This is intended to convey to students that they need to engage and interact face-to-face for at least some activities for effective learning, and allows teaching staff to schedule face-to-face assessments such as invigilated tests. See the UWA page on “study modes” for more information.

The department continues to support students with many flexible study options, however, such as recorded lectures and online submission of assessments.

In the event of Covid 19 restrictions, lectures and labs will be conducted completely online (accessible via MS Teams), and any student oral presentations will be done via MS Teams.

Labs

Where can I find lab worksheets?

On the “Resources” page, under “Worksheets”. They’ll be published there progressively throughout the semester. For previous years’ worksheets, see here.

Is attendance recorded for labs?

No – if you don’t want to attend the labs, you do not have to. However, the labs provide the best opportunity for getting feedback and assistance from teaching staff, as a lab facilitator is available at each lab. It’s therefore recommended that you do attend.

Are there online labs?

As at the time of writing (February 2023), there are no online labs: all labs will be delivered face-to-face.

In the event of Covid 19 restrictions, lectures and labs will be conducted completely online (accessible via MS Teams), and any student oral presentations will be done via MS Teams.

Are online labs recorded?

At present, there are no online labs, so the question is moot. In the event that we do hold online labs, by default they are not recorded; the aim is that all lab participants should feel free to ask questions and speak freely, which they may not do if they are being recorded. If all participants in an online lab have agreed beforehand, then the lab facilitator may record the lab.

Can I attend lab sessions other than the one I’m allocated to?

Yes – as long as there is room available for you, you are welcome to attend other lab sessions. See under “labs”, on the site home page, for details.

Can I email questions to the lab facilitators?

No – facilitators are not paid to provide student instruction outside of the timetabled labs.

Timetable

Where can I find the unit timetable?

You should have a personal timetable available through CAS (UWA’s Class Allocation System). But you can also get full details of lecture and lab times and venues by visiting UWA’s Timetable site. (If the information for CITS5501 is not visible, then enter “CITS5501” in the box labelled “Unit search”, and then click “Show timetable”.)

Assessments

When are the assessments due?

A list of all assessments (and their due dates) is given on the Assessments page, and due dates are also shown on the Schedule.

(The content for both is generated from a JavaScript source file contained in the GitHub repository.)

Do any of the assessments require (or permit) group work?

No – all assessments are to be completed individually. See also Academic conduct and source citation.

How do I submit an assessment?

Details of how to submit each assessment will be released on the Assessment page. Most of the assessments will be submitted using Moodle. In order to submit an assessment, you’ll need to create an account on the Moodle server by visiting the Moodle signup page. You’ll need to use your UWA email address, select a username (usually, your given name), select a password, and provide your first and last name. (All other details are optional.)

Can I get an extension on the deadline for an assessment?

For quizzes, take-home tests and online tests:

No, in general it’s not possible to get an extension. These should be treated much like face-to-face tests: you need to complete them at the specified date and time. If you’re unable to complete a quiz or test due to illness or for some other valid reason, you should apply for special consideration (see the UWA page on special consideration for details). If you are granted special consideration, then you will be exempted from that assessment, and the remaining components of the unit will be re-weighted to make up 100%. For instance, if you are unable to complete the week 3 quiz (worth 5%), then the weights of all the other components will be multiplied by $\frac{100.0}{100.0 - 5 }$.

If you are granted special consideration, it’s helpful if you can email the Unit Coordinator to let them know – Unit Coordinators aren’t automatically notified when special consideration is granted.

For the purpose of “reasonable adjustments” made for students who require them: quizzes, tests and exams count as “timed assessments” (although the time limit is generous). If you have an Academic Adjust Plan in place from UniAccess (UAAP), you may be entitled to extra time for online assessments – email the Unit Coordinator in accordance with your UAAP to let them know.

For projects:

If you need an extension due to illness or for some other valid reason, you should apply for special consideration (see the UWA page on special consideration for details).

If you are granted special consideration, it’s helpful if you can email the Unit Coordinator to let them know – Unit Coordinators aren’t automatically informed when special consideration is granted.

It’s also possible to submit your assessment late, subject to the standard penalties for late submission.

What is the marking rubric for the assessment items?

Marking rubrics for an assessment item will normally be published with that assessment item. In particular, the unit project will have a breakdown of marks available, and how they can be achieved.

Wherever possible, we adopt a rubric based on the following scheme:

Multiple choice/multiple selection/numeric answer/short answer question

These will normally be worth only a small amount each (e.g. 5 or 10 marks out of a 100-mark quiz or test), and are typically marked automatically. 100% is awarded for a correct answer, and 0% for an incorrect answer.

Make sure to read these questions carefully, and answer exactly as requested. (E.g., if an answer asks for “Only a number”, then answering “20 bytes”, for example, would be marked incorrect.) Misreading the instructions will not be grounds for appealing an assessment decision.

If answering a multiple choice or multiple selection question, you should give the best answer of those offered – if you think multiple answers are correct, but only one is allowed, give the one that’s most correct. (Or, if you think none are correct, give the one that’s least incorrect.)

You can assume that the answer to any short answer question is never more than 5 words long (and most will be only two or three words long). You must always give a single answer – responses which try to “hedge” and give multiple alternatives “this or that” will be marked incorrect.

“Long answer” questions requiring code

These will typically be (partly or wholly) automatically marked.

Unless specified otherwise:

• answers should be self-contained, and import any necessary packages
• code should be clearly written, well-formatted, and easy for others to understand
• function bodies should not contain excessive inline comments
• code should compile without errors or warnings
• code should follow sound programming practices, including:
  • the use of meaningful comments
  • well chosen identifier names
  • appropriate choice of basic data-structures, data-types, and functions
  • appropriate choice of control-flow constructs
  • proper error-checking of any library functions called, and
  • cleaning up/closing any files or resources used.

“Long answer” questions requiring an answer in English:

These will typically present a fact-based scenario, and require you to answer a question or make a recommendation. The aim of these questions is for you to demonstrate that you can:

• distinguish the relevant from irrelevant facts in the problem description
• identify what topics we have covered which apply in this case, and how
• come up with a clear recommendation or answer
• justify that recommendation (logically, or via evidence covered in classes).

“Identifying relevant facts/topics” and “justifying answers appropriately” are the key things we are looking for in answers to these questions. If an answer is provided with no justification, it will be awarded 0 (even if otherwise correct), as it does not satisfy the criteria for an acceptable answer.

When answering such questions, you should:

• Make sure your answer is comprehensible. If we can’t understand your answer, we can’t give you credit!
• Try to keep your answer concise. But value comprehensibility over concision.
• Make sure your answers are self-contained, and do not refer to your answers to other questions. Different questions may be marked by different people!
• Make sure you answer the question fully. If you only answer part of the question (or do not at all answer the question asked), you cannot be awarded full marks (no matter how relevant the facts you discuss or how good a justification you provide). If you only answer part of a question, you may receive a proportion of the marks for that question.

For each such question:

• 50% of the marks are awarded for correctly identifying the relevant facts or topics or principles to apply, and not discussing irrelevant facts/topics/principles.
• 50% of the marks are awarded for appropriately justifying your answers

Guidance as to how the “relevance” and “justification” components are assessed is given in the following table. A proficient answer will be awarded 70–100% of the marks for that component; a satisfactory answer will be awarded 50–69% of the mark for that component; and a not yet satisfactory answer will be awarded 0–49% of the mark for that component.

What should I do if a question or task in an assessment is ambiguous or contains an error?

For projects:

You will need to clarify the meaning of the question or task in the unit Help forum before submitting the assessment. Before making a new post in the Help forum, do a search to see if someone else has asked the same question already and received an answer.

For “long answer” questions in quizzes, tests or exams:

If the question is ambiguous, or you believe it contains an error or requires you to make assumptions in order to answer it, then you may make whatever reasonable assumptions are required in order to answer it.

Ensure you document these assumptions in your answer.

For “short answer” questions in quizzes, tests or exams:

You should answer to the best of your ability, bearing in mind the rubric and guidelines for short-answer questions. You may be assured that you will not be disadvantaged if there is an error in the question.

Tests will include a zero-mark question at the end where you can include questions or comments about the test and can alert the unit coordinator to any perceived errors. If a question is ambiguous, you may make reasonable assumptions in order to answer it, and should record your assumptions in the answer to this zero-mark question. If applicable, your comments may be considered when marking.

If you need to put a question or comment in this zero-mark question, make sure you paste in the full question text it relates to (as not all students get the questions in the same order) and make sure you give each question a clear, bolded heading.

You may not contact the unit coordinator (or any other person) regarding the content of questions while a test is running – see “Test conduct”.

Academic conduct and source citation

Are assessment submissions checked for plagiarism?

Yes, they are. Your submitted work or answers for any assessment item may be submitted to plagiarism detectors such as JPlag, moss or turnitin to detect plagiarism.

What are the expectations regarding citation of sources/academic conduct?

You must act in accordance with UWA’s academic conduct policy. See the STUDYSmarter team’s Guide to Avoiding Academic Misconduct (PDF) for additional details.

In particular, you must not plagiarize any work. Plagiarism is the unattributed use of someone else’s words, creations, ideas or arguments as one’s own. At UWA, it is extended to include paraphrasing which is too close to the original.

For all assessments – even those that are “open book” – you are expected to:

1. demonstrate an understanding of the answers you write (and you may be asked to later demonstrate that understanding in an oral interview); and
2. ensure any answers you write are in your own words.

You will only occasionally need to cite sources in this unit, but if you do, you need to make sure that you

3. properly cite any sources you make use of
4. ensure your source is reliable (see “evaluating sources”), and
5. provide full bibliographic details for each source cited (usually in a “References” section within your answer).

See also “What referencing/citation style should I use?”.

(For (c), note that you need not cite lecture slides or worksheets provided for this unit as being a source of ideas. Your answer must still be in your own words, and you may not reproduce the content of them directly – copying and pasting in the text of a slide from the lecture slides as one of your answers is still plagiarism – but you need not cite them as a source of ideas. It’s assumed they are a common source of ideas for all answers.)

The penalties for misconduct in an exam are very severe. So don’t do it.

What referencing/citation style should I use?

If scholarly references are included in submitted work, then students may use any standard citation style they wish (e.g. Harvard, APA, MLA, IEEE), as long as it is applied consistently. One recommended style is the “AMS short alpha-numeric” style (see the AMS style guide (PDF), sec 10.3).

If citing code found on the Internet or from other sources, follow the MIT guide for citing code: https://integrity.mit.edu/handbook/writing-code.

For further advice on referencing sources, refer to the UWA Library webpage on referencing at https://guides.library.uwa.edu.au/referencinguwa.

How do I evaluate the reliability of an information source?

For a quick guide, see the UWA Library page on “evaluating information”.

For more information, you might want to attend the UWA Library’s academic skills workshops – in particular, the workshops entitled “Critical thinking & academic culture” and “Using sources and paraphrasing”.

Tests, quizzes and exams

What topics are examinable in a quiz, test or exam?

For any test, quiz or exam, you may assume that the following are examinable:

• the contents of the lecture slides
• the spoken content of the lectures
• any recommended reading for the lecture
• any reading linked to from the lecture slides
• the lab sheets
• any recommended reading for the labs
• material contained in the solutions or model answers for lab worksheets or assessments
• applying any technique covered in the previous items
• any information that can reasonably be deduced from the previous items

for all weeks up to and including the week prior to the test, quiz or exam. That said, the lab exercises are usually a good guide to the sort of questions that may be asked.

What happens if a submit a test, quiz or exam late?

Online quizzes, tests and exams must be submitted by the due date and time – this will be enforced strictly (just as it is for face-to-face tests and exams), and late submissions will receive a mark of 0. It is your responsibility to ensure you submit by the due date and time – even if you think a website such as Moodle or the LMS might permit you to make a late submission.

What if I think there’s a mistake in a test, quiz or exam question?

You should answer to the best of your ability, and record any assumptions made: see “Errors in questions”.

You may not contact the unit coordinator (or any other person) regarding the content of questions while a test is running – see “Test conduct”.

Are the quizzes/tests/exams open book? (Test conduct)

Unless specified otherwise, all quizzes, tests and exams are “take-home” and open-book. You may look at any book, website or software you like, but the answers must be your own work (not that of anyone else) and in your own words, and you must not distribute the questions or your answers to any other person.

The tests are not invigilated but – as with all open assessments – any statistical anomalies will be investigated, and anybody may be asked to (orally) explain their thought process in coming up with their answers.

Checking your answers

You should:

• check your answers for spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors before submitting
• where relevant, feel free to check your answers by writing and compiling code
• consult appropriate reference sites for whatever languages or libraries you are using

Contacting other people

You may contact the unit coordinator if you are unable to access the quiz/test/exam or have difficulties submitting it. Make sure to include a screenshot of the problem.

However, other than that, you may not contact any other person (student, staffmember or anyone else) during the test.

If you have a question or comment about the test, or would like to alert the unit coordinator to a perceived error, include a comment in your working, if appropriate, to indicate how you interpreted the question. If applicable, your comments may be considered when marking. No action can be taken during the test. You are advised to answer to the best of your ability and are assured that you will not be disadvantaged if there is an error on the question paper. [Source: UWA rules for online exams] See also, “Errors in questions”.

Projects

What are the formatting expectations for project reports?

The unit project will usually contain a written component. The project specification will explain how this is to be submitted. Usually, the written component will be submitted as either:

• a PDF (or at your option, a Markdown file), or
• a text input field, available on the Blackboard LMS or Moodle

Formatting expectations for these are as follows:

PDF reports

• Your PDF report should use A4 size pages.
• The font for body text should be between 9 and 12 points.
• Do not double-space lines.
• The report should contain numbered headings, with informative heading titles.
• Each question should be answered on a new page.
• Any diagrams, charts or tables used must be legible and large enough to be easily read when viewed on-screen at 100% magnification.
• All pages (except the cover, if you have one) should be numbered.
• Cover sheets, diagrams, charts, tables, bibliographies and reference lists do not count towards any page-count maximums.
• You are not required to include a cover sheet.

Markdown file

As an alternative to submitting a PDF, you may submit your report in neatly formatted (max. 72 characters per line) Markdown, and we will either read it directly or generate a report from it. In that case:

• It should either adhere to the CommonMark spec or be Pandoc-compliant Markdown
• It should be easily readable as plain text, and contain no diagrams, charts or raw LaTeX
• If present, a bibliography should appear as a plain bulleted list at the end of the report (do not use citation keys (@), BibTex, or similar features). “AMS short alpha-numeric” would be a good citation style – see the AMS style guide (PDF), sec 10.3.

Text input field

The input field should have instructions regarding appropriate format.

See also:

• Source citation and academic conduct
• Marking rubrics

Exams

Are past exams available?

Some are, yes – refer to the Assessment page, under “Past exam papers”.

Are solutions to past exams available?

No – see the Assessment page, under “Past exam papers”. The main reason for this is that providing students with exam solutions usually does not lead to them studying effectively for the exam. Studying effectively requires active learning, but students who have access to past exam solutions often simply passively read those solutions and believe they have studied effectively.

A better approach is to attempt the questions, under close-to-exam-conditions (for instance, timing yourself), and to compare your answers with those of a fellow student. If you’ve done so and still have queries, you can also make an appointment with me to discuss your answers and remaining questions.

Be sure to start your revision and formulate your questions early! If you try to make an appointment to discuss the exam less than three working days before the exam, I may be either not at UWA or busy with exam preparations myself, and unable to schedule an appointment for you.

Unit content

Can I see previous years’ content?

The unit website is archived periodically by the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine at http://web.archive.org/web/*/https://cits5501.github.io/. You can use the Wayback Machine interface to view previous versions of the lectures and labs.

The source code for the unit website is also versioned on GitHub at https://github.com/cits5501/cits5501.github.io/, so you can use GitHub’s interface to look through older versions of the material as well. The directories you want are probably assets/lectures and assets/workshops.

Note that the content of the unit does change slightly from year to year, so previous years’ content will not be a perfect guide to what is covered in the current year.

Why is the unit content on GitHub and Moodle? Why not use UWA’s Blackboard LMS?

Because Blackboard is a very terrible LMS.²

In addition

• Blackboard LMS doesn’t allow for (complete or partial) automatic marking of coding-based questions, but Moodle does.
• Blackboard LMS content isn’t publicly published, but GitHub sites are, and this content might be useful even to someone not doing the unit.

Discussion forum (help5501)

Can I post questions about the unit content to the discussion forum?

Please do! But before posting, you might want to

1. search the forum (and this page) to see if an answer to your question has already been posted, and
2. review the page “How do I ask a good question?”

Note that any posts on the discussion forum need to comply with UWA’s Code of Conduct and academic conduct policy. That means you should

• endeavour to treat everyone with respect and courtesy and without harassment, and
• not post your solutions to an assessment (as this can breach the policy against collusion).

How do I subscribe to posts from the discussion forum?

You can set up an email subscription to the discussion forum as follows:

1. Ensure you’re logged in to help5501.
2. Under the left-hand menu (“help5501”), select “edit preferences”.
3. Select “yes” to one (or both) of the options “email me a copy of every new article immediately” and “email me a daily digest of new articles”.
4. Click “Save these preferences”.

You should now receive regular updates by email when new posts are made on the forum.

Questions about this page

Why is this page so long?

• J. Matthews, “Every Rule Has a Story…” in IEEE Communications Standards Magazine, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 4-4, March 2022, doi: 10.1109/MCOMSTD.2022.9762870

See also r/AskReddit, “What rule exists because of you?”.