Course Overview

This course is a self-study web-based course on the basics of software engineering.

What to do, how to pass and other practicalities are discussed in module 1, which will be available on September 6th, 2023 at 08:15 am.

When planning your semester, please note that the course requires ca 8-10h/week of continuous effort. Also note that

  • there are no physical lectures - you are required to reserve time for the course by yourself. Lectures are given as videos that are published weekly
  • the course follows a fixed weekly schedule with assignments due each week
  • you must receive a minimum score on the weekly modules in order to pass the course
  • all deadlines are firm - if you miss one the only way to get additional points is by doing the extra modules (see below).
  • you must pass the final exam to pass the course


Grading

Your course grade will be based on your combined grade from the weekly exercises and the final exam. Please note that you need to pass both the exercises and the exam to pass the course. 

Exercise Points

There are 11 content modules in the course, as shown in the course schedule (modules 2-12)

For these, points are awarded according to the following:

  • Quiz: 4p
  • Written assignment (typically an essay, but can also be e.g., a modeling task): 6p
    • Max 4p for doing your assignment, based upon peer grading
    • Max 2p for peer grading of other students' assignments.
    • You must both submit an assignment of your own as well as grade other students' assignments to be awarded points for the activity
      • if you only do a written assignment but do not grade other student's assignments, your score will be 0
      • if you do not submit any written assignment for a module, you will not be given any written assignments to grade, and your score will be 0. This also applies if you submit an empty essay or any other attempt at circumventing this rule.

This gives a max of 11 x 10 = 110 points for the content modules.

In addition, there are two non-content modules that give

  • 5 points for the introductory module
  • 5 points for the course feedback module

Thus, the theoretical max points for the course are:

Content modules: 110 p

Optional modules: 10 p

Total: 120 points

Grades are determined according to the following table:

Grading Table (Exercises)

Points

Grade

105-120

5

95-104

4

85-94

3

75-84

2

65-74

1

0-64

0

Extra Modules 

If you do not get enough exercise points to pass the course or otherwise want to improve your grade, the course offers two optional modules after the normal ones. You can use these modules as a whole or partly to replace assignments in one content module of your choice per extra module. Since there are two optional modules, you can substitute scores for max two normal modules. You must do Optional module 1 first, and Optional module 2 only after having completed Optional module 1.

The score replacement is based on your indication of which module you want to substitute scores for. The substitution rule is simple: the higher score becomes your final score, i.e., if your score for an assignment in this module is lower than in your selected content module, no substitution will occur. Thus, you cannot lower your score by doing the optional modules - it is a risk free alternative for you.

Exam

Finally, the course has a traditional pen-and-paper exam. You are not allowed to take any materials with you to the exam. The reading material for the exam includes all course materials and exercises included in the weekly modules. Reading guidelines will be posted before the exam. The exam will be graded on a 0-50p scale. The effect of the exam grade on your course grade is as follows:

  • 45-50p: Exercise grade +1 (does not apply to grade 5)
  • 36-44p: No effect on the grade
  • 30-35p: Exercise grade -1 (does apply also to grade 1)
  • 0-30p: Fail the course (regardless of points from exercises)


Last modified: Tuesday, 5 September 2023, 9:36 PM