CPSC 520 501, Fall 2026 Syllabus

General Information

Instructor:: Dr. Dylan Schwesinger
Office:: Old Main 250; Phone: (484) 646 - 4389
email:: schwesin@kutztown.edu
Web URL:: https://faculty.kutztown.edu/schwesin
Office Hours:: MoWe 10:00am – 11:30am, TuTh 4:30pm – 5:30m

Meeting Time & Place:
Section 501: Th 6:00pm – 8:50pm, OM 158

Course Description:

This course introduces the concepts of object-oriented programming languages, object-oriented analysis and design, and design patterns, and demonstrates their use in the development of an object-oriented implementation of a major project. The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is used to develop the project’s design and implementation. A current programming language is used throughout the course to illustrate major concepts and implement the project.

Prerequisite: Unconditional acceptance to the graduate program.

Course Objectives

Analyze a substantial problem
Identify use cases and design patterns applicable to their solution
Create UML diagrams to guide the analysis and design throughout the duration of creating the working software.
Design an initial system based upon their analysis
Implement their initial system in a structured, coherent manner
Use subsequent iterations of development to modify and improve their design and the resulting system
Produce a well-designed, efficient system that represents a complete solution to the problem

Course Organization

Your participation in the course will involve the following activities:

Attending the lectures
Doing assignments

Regular attendance and class participation are expected. Students are responsible for all material covered in class.

Policies

Assignments

All assignments are due by the specified day and time. Late assignments will not be accepted. All assignments must include the following information: your name, the course (CPSC 520), semester, year, and assignment number. Programming assignments must follow the Computer Science Documentation Standards. Failure to meet these expectations will result in a 10% penalty for that assignment.

Final Grade Assignment

Each student will receive a numeric score for the course based on a weighted average of the following:

Assignments (100%): There will be several assignments which combined will count for 100% of the course grade. Assignments may have different weights based on the perception of the relative effort required.

The letter grade cutoff points are 93 (A), 90 (A-), 87 (B+), 83 (B), 80 (B-), 77 (C+), 70 (C).

Bonus Points: The instructor will selectively consider raising individual grades for students just below the cutoffs based on factors such as attendance, class participation, improvement throughout the course, and special circumstances.

Academic Dishonesty

All students should familiarize themselves with the Computer Science Academic Integrity Policy

Assignments will be closely monitored for plagiarism. All infractions will be reported to the department chair. The penalty for cheating will be determined on a case-by-case basis, but it will always be worse than having not turned in the assignment.

Email Correspondence

The preferred method of course communication is email. When sending email, please indicate the course number in the subject line by placing it within square brackets, for example, “[CPSC 520] Need help on Assignment 1”. All email correspondence must sent from your Kutztown University email address. You can expect a response to an email with a properly formatted subject line within 24 hours. An email with an improperly formatted subject line may get no response at all.

Classroom Etiquette

Consideration for your classmates, instructor, and class is expected. Please come to class on time and prepared to learn. There should be no classroom conversations, sleeping, cell phone usage, or other disruptions to the class.

Accreditation

Any course work submitted to the instructor (including but not limited to assignments, tests, and projects) may be photocopied and retained for the purpose of assessment, accreditation and quality improvement, after removal of any information identifying the student.

Kutztown University Class Handout Information

Supplemental information from university offices for class handouts and syllabi is located here: Class Handout Information

Note: This syllabus is subject to change at the discretion of the instructor.