Course Outline

Contents

• Course Details
• Course Summary
• Assumed Knowledge
• Student Learning Outcomes
• Teaching Strategies and Rationale
• Student Conduct
• Assessment
• Course Schedule
• Resources for Students
• Course Evaluation and Development

1. Course Details

Course Code	COMP2511
Course Title	The Art of Software Design (OO Design & Programming)
Convenor	Dr Ashesh Mahidadia
Admin	Nick Patrikeos
Class Account	cs2511@cse.unsw.edu.au
Classes	Timetable for all classes
Units of Credit	6
Course Website	COMP2511 Course Website
Handbook Entry	http://www.handbook.unsw.edu.au/undergraduate/courses/current/COMP2511.html

2. Course Summary

This course aims to introduce students to the foundational principles of designing software that is flexible, reusable and maintainable. Students are exposed to the Object-Oriented Programming paradigm and explore how OOP attempts to solve the problem of good software design, while learning of other paradigms such as the functional paradigm. Students explore fundamental Design Patterns in writing and testing of software and their role in architecture of software, applying these solutions to both theoretical and real-world problems. The course teaches an appreciation for elegantly written code, problem solving and finding well-designed solutions to problems that have longevity of software systems in mind.

2.1 Assumed Knowledge

Students are expected to have taken COMP1531 (Software Engineering Fundamentals) and COMP2521 (Data Structures and Algorithms).

It is also assumed that students taking this course are in their second year of study or further, and are comfortable with programming languages and thinking computationally.

More information about specific topics that in both of these courses that are relevant to COMP2511 can be found on this page .

2.2 Student Learning Outcomes

The following are the intended learning outcomes of this course:

1. Develop an appreciation for elegantly written software, and how to create and maintain well-designed systems;
2. Understand different design paradigms and methodologies, their background and application;
3. Understand and apply the principles of Object-Oriented Design to solve problems;
4. Understand the role of and apply widely used Design Patterns to create extensible designs;
5. Develop skills in both creating medium-scale systems from scratch, and working on existing systems as part of the Software Development Life Cycle;
6. Work with an enterprise programming language and IDE.

This course contributes to the development of the following graduate capabilities:

This course contributes to the following UNSW graduate attributes.

• An in-depth engagement with the relevant disciplinary knowledge in its interdisciplinary context. The development of systems suitable for different user groups encourages consideration of the users of technology.
• The capacity for analytical and critical thinking and for creative problem solving. The creation of software applications requires creative approaches to design and implementation and applying best practices.
• The ability to engage in independent and reflective learning. Software design and implementation must be done independently and students benefit by reflecting on their experiences.
• The skills required for collaborative and multidisciplinary work. Through a small team project, students gain experience in working within a collaborative environment.
• The skills of effective communication. Through a small team project, students develop interpersonal communication skills and presentation and writing skills.

How to approach this course .

3. Teaching Strategies and Rationale

3.1 Lectures (4 hours each week)

Lectures will be used to present key concepts and practical examples of design techniques taught in this course. Lectures will be delivered via Blackboard Collaborate during Weeks 1 to 5, and 7-10. Lecture recordings will be made available via Microsoft Stream after the lecture.

In 22T2 Weeks 1 - 5 , Monday lectures (4pm - 6pm) will be delivered in hybrid mode, with an in-person offering on campus (location TBA) as well being available to join online. Wednesday lectures (9am - 11am) will be held entirely online. Monday lectures for Weeks 7 - 10 may be held in person depending on attendance in the first half of the term.

3.2 Tutorials

Every week there is a one hour tutorial, which is scheduled before the lab. Tutorials serve the purpose of:

• Clarifying concepts discussed in lectures;
• Working through practical examples and demonstrations;
• Facilitating discussion and interactive learning;

You should make sure that you use them effectively by examining in advance the material to be covered in each week's tutorial, by asking questions, by offering suggestions and by generally participating.

Tutorials will often involve collaborative and break-out work where you will work with a group of other students to solve or answer problems. This will often be done in your major project group.

Tutorials contribute to your class mark, see the section Class Mark (15%) below.

The tutorial questions will be available the week before each tutorial, and the solutions will be available at the end of the corresponding week.

Online tutorials and labs will be run via MS Teams .

All tutorials start in Week 1.

3.3 Laboratory Classes & Weekly Labs

Following the tutorial class each week, there will be a two-hour laboratory class, during which you will work on a variety of practical exercises that will enable you to apply the concepts taught in the lectures.

Each week, there will be several exercises to work on. The exercises will need to be submitted to GitLab and will be assessed by your tutor. In some lab exercises, you will need to complete a reflective blog post on WebCMS outlining your thought process, approach and learnings.

Lab exercises will constitute a part of the Class Mark, see the section Class Mark (15%) below.

All completed lab exercises must be pushed to GitLab / all blog posts must be posted on WebCMS and submitted prior to being marked by your tutor or lab assistant.

You must then demonstrate your work to your tutor during the following week's lab. The code that you submit by Monday is what will be assessed. You must not make any changes to the completed solution after Monday. Your tutor will check the time-stamp prior to marking the lab.

Lab marking will often take up time in tutorials, and your tutor may not always be able to mark everyone's lab by the end of the 2 hours; any remaining labs to be marked will carry over into the following week. If you would like feedback earlier than this to help with an assessment, you may make a post on the Course Forum and ask for feedback on the lab.

You cannot obtain marks by e-mailing lab work to tutors. Your tutor will provide feedback during a lab session on your approach to the problem and on the design of your solution.

Periodically, the lab sessions will also be used to schedule demonstrations of your ongoing group project. As the implementation of the group project will be based on an agile software development methodology , you will required to demonstrate progress of your project in Milestones. If a student is absent from their Milestone demonstration, they will need to apply for Special Consideration.

As this course has a significant practical component, the weekly labs are important to help you acquire the necessary skills in the relevant tools and frameworks that will be used in the implementation of the group project and also prepare you for the Final Exam. If you do not put a good amount of effort into the weekly labs you risk failing the Assignment, Project and the Final Exam.

Students wishing to obtain an extension to complete a weekly lab must apply for Special Consideration.

Solutions are not released for lab exercises for plagiarism reasons. Instead, more complex labs will have a retrospective 'walkthrough' video released.

3.4 Help Sessions

Help sessions are unprepared drop-in "clinics" where students and groups can go to seek help about course related matters, whether that be the project, tutorials, or labs. Current tutors will supervise each help session.

There will be a mix of online and in-person help sessions each week. The Course Admin will also run an in-person consultation once a week on Mondays from 6:30 - 8pm following the lecture.

Online help sessions will be run via Microsoft Teams and using UNSW Hopper.

3.5 Assignment

There will be one assignment to be completed individually which will be released at the beginning of Week 2 and will be due on Friday of Week 4. This assignment will constitute 15% of the overall course mark.

3.6 Project

There will be one main project ( group of 4-5 students ) which will run through the rest of the teaching period and contributes to 35% of the overall course mark. You are required to form your group for the project by the end of Week 2 .

All group members must be from the same tutorial / lab .

The project consists of three deliverable Milestones. Milestone 1 (5%, Due Week 7) is a formative assessment designed to give groups an opportunity to receive feedback from their tutor on their initial work. Milestone 2 (45%, Due Week 7) and Milestone 3 (50%, Due Week 9) are summative submissions. During the week of the submissions of Milestones 2 and 3, each group will demonstrate their assessment to their tutor during their project check-in time slot.

All groups must satisfactorily complete each Milestone in order to be awarded a mark for the project. Students who fail to contribute to their group will have their individual project mark reduced.

3.6 Final Exam

There will be a centrally timetabled final exam which will in your UNSW exam timetable.

There is no hurdle requirement for the exam.

3.7 Tools Used in Assessments

All work for the assignment, project, and labs will only be considered for assessment if pushed/uploaded to the platform specified in the assessment specification. This includes that only work pushed/uploaded to the correct platform will be considered for determining contribution levels; and the owner of the account pushing/uploading the work will be deemed the sole author of the work.

4. Student Conduct

The Student Code of Conduct ( Information , Policy ) sets out what the University expects from students as members of the UNSW community. As well as the learning, teaching and research environment, the University aims to provide an environment that enables students to achieve their full potential and to provide an experience consistent with the University's values and guiding principles. A condition of enrolment is that students inform themselves of the University's rules and policies affecting them, and conduct themselves accordingly.

In particular, students have the responsibility to observe standards of equity and respect in dealing with every member of the University community. This applies to all activities on UNSW premises and all external activities related to study and research. This includes behaviour in person as well as behaviour on social media, for example Facebook groups set up for the purpose of discussing UNSW courses or course work. Behaviour that is considered in breach of the Student Code Policy as discriminatory, sexually inappropriate, bullying, harassing, invading another's privacy or causing any person to fear for their personal safety is serious misconduct and can lead to severe penalties, including suspension or exclusion from UNSW.

If you have any concerns, you may raise them with your lecturer, or approach the School Ethics Officer , Grievance Officer , or one of the student representatives.

Plagiarism is defined as using the words or ideas of others and presenting them as your own. UNSW and CSE treat plagiarism as academic misconduct, which means that it carries penalties as severe as being excluded from further study at UNSW. There are several on-line sources to help you understand what plagiarism is and how it is dealt with at UNSW:

• Plagiarism and Academic Integrity
• UNSW Plagiarism Procedure

Make sure that you read and understand these. Ignorance is not accepted as an excuse for plagiarism. In particular, you are also responsible that your assignment files are not accessible by anyone but you by setting the correct permissions in your CSE directory and code repository, if you are using these facilities. Note also that plagiarism includes paying or asking another person to do a piece of work for you and then submitting it as your own work.

UNSW has an ongoing commitment to fostering a culture of learning informed by academic integrity. All UNSW staff and students have a responsibility to adhere to this principle of academic integrity. Plagiarism undermines academic integrity and is not tolerated at UNSW. Plagiarism at UNSW is defined as using the words or ideas of others and passing them off as your own.

If you haven't done so yet, please take the time to read the full text of

• UNSW's policy regarding academic honesty and plagiarism

The pages below describe the policies and procedures in more detail:

• Student Code Policy
• Student Misconduct Procedure
• Plagiarism Policy Statement
• Plagiarism Procedure

You should also read the following page which describes your rights and responsibilities in the CSE context:

• Essential Advice for CSE Students

5. Assessment

Item	Due	Weighting
Assignment	Week 4 Friday, 5pm	15%
Project		35%
Project: Milestones 1 + 2	Week 7 Sunday, 5pm	50% of the Project
Project: Milestone 3	Week 9 Sunday, 5pm	50% of the Project
Class Mark	All Weeks	15%
Final Exam	Exam Period	35%

5.1 Class Mark (15%)

Your final class mark will be out of 60 marks . Each week, there will be 8 marks of core activities available in the form of:

• Tutorial attendance and participation (2 marks)
• Design and programming lab exercises (6 marks)

Your class mark for each week will be out of 8. We will take your best seven labs towards your class mark, meaning that you are able to forfeit one week's labs without losing any marks towards the overall Class Mark. The final mark will consist of:

7 * 8 = 56 marks +
2 marks tutorial participation in the week the lab was missed, + 
2 marks tutorial participation in Week 9, when there is no lab. 
= 60 marks.

The Class Mark will be capped at 60 marks.

There are additional choice activities which students may complete if they wish. They are non-assessable.

To receive 2/2 for weekly tutorial participation, you will need to:

• Attend the full tutorial
• Ask good and logical questions throughout the tutorial
• Take initiative to answer questions and be engaged

If a you cannot attend an in-person tutorial due to COVID-19 or other circumstances beyond your control, please email your tutor explaining your situation. Your participation mark for that week will be the average of your other weeks' participation.

In the event of widespread difficulties that prevent students from coming onto campus such as train strikes and floods, the course will provide alternative offerings for in-person tutorials as needed.

5.2 Assignment (15%)

The marking criteria for the assignment will be outlined in the specification which will be released beginning of Week 2.

5.3 Project (35%)

The marking criteria for the project will be outlined in the specification which will be released at the beginning of Week 5.

5.4 Exam (35%)

In 22T2 the COMP2511 exam will be held entirely online.

Students are eligible for a Supplementary Exam if and only if:

• Students cannot attend the final exam due to illness or misadventure. Students must formally apply for a special consideration, and it must be approved by the respective authority.

6. Course Schedule

Please note the following schedule is subject to change.

Week	Topic	Assessments
1	Course Introduction The Object-Oriented Paradigm Introduction to Java Classes & Objects
2	Inheritance & Polymorphism Abstract Classes & Interfaces Encapsulation Domain Modelling	Lab 01 Due - Monday 8am
3	Design by Contract Exceptions JUnit Testing Generics & Collections Design Principles	Lab 02 Due - Monday 8am
4	The Functional Paradigm Refactoring Introduction to Design Patterns Strategy Pattern State Pattern Observer Pattern	Lab 03 Due - Monday 8am Assignment Due - Friday 5pm
5	Programming in the Large Test Design Composite Pattern Creational Patterns	Lab 04 Due - Friday 5pm
6	Flexibility Week
7	Singleton Pattern Introduction to Concurrency Generic Programming Decorator Pattern	Lab 05 Due - Monday 8am Milestones 1 + 2 Due - Sunday 9pm
8	Refactoring Iterator Pattern Template Pattern Abstract Factory Pattern	Lab 07 Due - Friday 8am
9	Visitor Pattern Further Design Patterns	Lab 08 Due - Monday 8am Milestone 3 Due - Sunday 9pm
10	Guest Lecture Course Revision	Lab 10 Due - Sunday 5pm

7. Resources for Students

There is no single text book that covers all of the material in this course at the right level of detail. The lectures should provide sufficient detail to introduce topics, and you will then study them in further depth in the labs and group project.

There are also many online resources available, and we will provide links to the most useful ones. Some are listed below. If you find others, please post links in the Comments section on the Course Outline page.

Some suggestions for books that cover at least some of the topics in this course

• Head First Design Patterns , by Elisabeth Freeman and Kathy Sierra, The State University of New Jersey
• Refactoring: Improving the design of existing code , by Martin Fowler

8. Course Evaluation and Development

This course is evaluated each session using the myExperience system.

However, during the term students are encouraged to provide feedback both during lectures, during tutorials, and generally to course staff via email.

We have taken on feedback from the 21T3 myExperience, and made changes to the course where possible, including but not limited to the following:

• Resolving issues in the project autotests, and changing the structure of the project to enable more detailed testing of students' solutions;
• Decreasing the amount of work required in the project and providing dryruns for basic functionality;
• Reducing the weighting of the final exam to 35%, removing the hurdle requirement and decreasing the difficulty of the exam;
• Providing more guidance in larger open-ended lab exercises;
• Providing more clarity around weightings of sub-tasks within assessments;
• Adding Continuous Integration support for Gitlab repositories;
• Linking course concepts to real-world examples and case studies of software design and demonstrating applications of design patterns.

Students are always welcome to provide feedback at any point in the term on their experience by emailing the course account or completing the feedback form linked in the sidebar.