FIT5041 Component technology for internet applications - Semester 1, 2009

Unit leader

Lecturer(s) :

Tutor(s) :

This subject requires a significant amount of time to be spent on it outside the scheduled lectures and tutorials. Pre-reading specified in the lecture each week should be completed prior to the lecture in the following week. Work uncompleted during a tutorial should be finished before the next scheduled tutorial. It is your responsibility to make sure you collect copies of any notes or exercises handed out in scheduled classes. If you feel you are getting behind in the work, please see your tutor and/or lecturer immediately. Your tutor will help you develop a work plan and assist with problems you may be having with the material.

Communication, participation and feedback

Monash aims to provide a learning environment in which students receive a range of ongoing feedback throughout their studies. You will receive feedback on your work and progress in this unit. This may take the form of group feedback, individual feedback, peer feedback, self-comparison, verbal and written feedback, discussions (on line and in class) as well as more formal feedback related to assignment marks and grades. You are encouraged to draw on a variety of feedback to enhance your learning.

It is essential that you take action immediately if you realise that you have a problem that is affecting your study. Semesters are short, so we can help you best if you let us know as soon as problems arise. Regardless of whether the problem is related directly to your progress in the unit, if it is likely to interfere with your progress you should discuss it with your lecturer or a Community Service counsellor as soon as possible.

Unit Schedule

Week	Topic	Key dates
1	FIT5041 Introduction
2	Distributed Systems
3	.NET Overview
4	.NET Remoting	Fri, 28 March 09: Written Assignment 1 Due
5	.NET Remoting II
6	Distributed System Design Issues
Mid semester break
7	.NET Web Services	Fri, 24 April 09: Practical Assignment 1 Due
8	.NET Web Services II
9	XML Technology
10	Component Programming	Fri, 15 May 09: Written Assignment 2 Due
11	Interoperability with .NET	Presentation in tutorials
12	CORBA	Fri, 29 May 09: Practical Assignment 2 Due

Prescribed text(s) and readings

Text books are available from the Monash University Book Shops. Availability from other suppliers cannot be assured. The Bookshop orders texts in specifically for this unit. You are advised to purchase your text book early.

Recommended text(s) and readings

Required software and/or hardware

You will need access to:

• Visual Studio .NET 2005 or 2008 (2008 is preferred).
• Microsoft Visio or similar modeling / graphical documentation tools.
• Firefox or Internet Explorer browser.

Equipment and consumables required or provided

On-campus students, and those studying at supported study locations may use the facilities available in the computing labs.Information about computer use for students is available from the ITS Student Resource Guide in the Monash University Handbook.You will need to allocate up to 8 hours per week for use of a computer, including time for newsgroups/discussion groups.

Study resources

Study resources we will provide for your study are:

Library access

The Monash University Library site contains details about borrowing rights and catalogue searching.  To learn more about the library and the various resources available, please go to http://www.lib.monash.edu.au.

The Educational Library and Media Resources (LMR) is also a very resourceful place to visit at http://www.education.monash.edu.au/library/

Monash University Studies Online (MUSO)

All unit and lecture materials are available through MUSO (Monash University Studies Online). Blackboard is the primary application used to deliver your unit resources. Some units will be piloted in Moodle. If your unit is piloted in Moodle, you will see a link from your Blackboard unit to Moodle (http://moodle.monash.edu.au) and can bookmark this link to access directly. In Moodle, from the Faculty of Information Technology category, click on the link for your unit.

You can access MUSO and Blackboard via the portal: http://my.monash.edu.au

Click on the Study and enrolment tab, then Blackboard under the MUSO learning systems.

In order for your Blackboard unit(s) to function correctly, your computer needs to be correctly configured.

For example:

• Blackboard supported browser
• Supported Java runtime environment

For more information, please visit: http://www.monash.edu.au/muso/support/students/downloadables-student.html

You can contact the MUSO Support by phone : (+61 3) 9903 1268

For further contact information including operational hours, please visit: http://www.monash.edu.au/muso/support/students/contact.html

Further information can be obtained from the MUSO support site: http://www.monash.edu.au/muso/support/index.html

Unit assessment policy

In order to pass, you must obtain at least 50% of the total marks given for each of the practical, written and tutorial participation components.
You should obtain at least:
- 25 marks for the practical component,
- 20 marks for the written assessment and
- 5 marks for the tutorial participation components.

There will be no extensions given for either the practical or written assessable components.

Assignment tasks

• Assignment Task

  Title : First Written Assignment

  Description :

  To help develop the skills necessary to produce high quality academic research papers.
  Specifically, students should concentrate on:
  

  • Finding high quality papers
  • Reading and understanding their contents
  • Paraphrasing and referencing them correctly
  • Adding your own views in a constructive way

  Students can choose the topics. Avoid simplistic topics. Discuss topic with tutors as soon as possible

  Minimum of 2000 words
  Worth 15% of the subject's marks
  

  Weighting : 15%

  Criteria for assessment :

  Due date : Week 4, Friday, 27 March 09, 12 pm

• Assignment Task

  Title : First Practical Assignment

  Description :

  • Gives students an opportunity to build a distributed application
  • To demonstrate aspects of a distributed system via the implementation of a real-life working applications
  • Basis for the Second Practical Assignment
  • Students can choose the application
  • Development Platform and Middleware: .NET Remoting is recommended and supported.
  • Discuss with tutor what is required to achieve each different grade level.
  • Worth 25% of the subject's marks.

  Weighting : 25%

  Criteria for assessment :

  Due date : Week 7, Friday, 24 April 09, 12 pm

• Assignment Task

  Title : Second Written Assignment

  Description :

  • Allow students to research and report in-depth on a specific issue relating to distributed and component technologies.
  • A higher marking standard will be applied to this written assignment.
  • Students must choose a topic found on the web site.
  • Students must register the topic choice with the tutor.
  • Minimum of 3500 words.
  • A 15 minute presentation is also required.
  • Worth 25% of the subject's marks, comprises of 15% from the research paper & 10% from the presentation

  Weighting : 25%

  Criteria for assessment :

  Due date : Week 10, Friday, 15 May 09, 12 pm

• Assignment Task

  Title : Second Practical Assignment

  Description :

  • Gives students an opportunity to build on their existing distributed application
  • Apply XML web service technologies to their distributed application
  • Development Platform and Middleware: .NET Web Services is recommended and supported.
  • Worth 25% of the subject's marks.

  Weighting : 25%

  Criteria for assessment :

  Due date : Week 12, Friday, 29 May 09, 12 pm

• Assignment Task

  Title : Tutorial Attendance and Participation

  Description :

  You need to attend the weekly tutorials and complete the assigned tutorial exercises.

   Worth 10% of the subject's marks.

  Weighting : 10%

  Criteria for assessment :

  Due date :

Assignment submission

Assignments will be submitted by both electronic and paper submission to Caulfield School of IT office (building H level 6). Submit the assignment with the appropriate cover sheet correctly filled out and attached. The due date is the date by which the submission must be received/the date by which the the submission is to be posted.

Due dates and extensions

The due dates for the submission of assignments are given in the previous section. Please make every effort to submit work by the due dates. It is your responsibility to structure your study program around assignment deadlines, family, work and other commitments. Factors such as normal work pressures, vacations, etc. are seldom regarded as appropriate reasons for granting extensions. Students are advised to NOT assume that granting of an extension is a matter of course.

There will be no extensions for assessment items in this subject. If you cannot complete an assignment by the due date you should hand in, on or before the due date, as much of the assessment component as you have completed. You may also hand in any supporting documentation stating why you could not complete the assessment. In the case of unforeseeable and unavoidable circumstances, allowance may be made for uncompleted work but this will be totally at the discretion of the lecturer. Being busy with work or other assignments is not acceptable for incomplete submission.
An assignment is submitted when it is accepted (with both time and date recorded) by the lecturer, tutor or School administrator.

Late assignment

Assignments received after the due date will be subject to a penalty of 10%. Assignments received later than three days after the due date (including weekend) will not be accepted.

Return dates

Students can expect assignments to be returned within two weeks of the submission date or after receipt, whichever is later.

Assessment for the unit as a whole is in accordance with the provisions of the Monash University Education Policy at http://www.policy.monash.edu/policy-bank/academic/education/assessment/

We will aim to have assignment results made available to you within two weeks after assignment receipt.

Plagiarism, cheating and collusion

Plagiarism and cheating are regarded as very serious offences. In cases where cheating  has been confirmed, students have been severely penalised, from losing all marks for an assignment, to facing disciplinary action at the Faculty level. While we would wish that all our students adhere to sound ethical conduct and honesty, I will ask you to acquaint yourself with the University Plagiarism policy and procedure (http://www.policy.monash.edu/policy-bank/academic/education/conduct/plagiarism-procedures.html) which applies to students detected plagiarising.

In this University, cheating means seeking to obtain an unfair advantage in any examination or any other written or practical work to be submitted or completed by a student for assessment. It includes the use, or attempted use, of any means to gain an unfair advantage for any assessable work in the unit, where the means is contrary to the instructions for such work. 

When you submit an individual assessment item, such as a program, a report, an essay, assignment or other piece of work, under your name you are understood to be stating that this is your own work. If a submission is identical with, or similar to, someone else's work, an assumption of cheating may arise. If you are planning on working with another student, it is acceptable to undertake research together, and discuss problems, but it is not acceptable to jointly develop or share solutions unless this is specified by your lecturer. 

Intentionally providing students with your solutions to assignments is classified as "assisting to cheat" and students who do this may be subject to disciplinary action. You should take reasonable care that your solution is not accidentally or deliberately obtained by other students. For example, do not leave copies of your work in progress on the hard drives of shared computers, and do not show your work to other students. If you believe this may have happened, please be sure to contact your lecturer as soon as possible.

Cheating also includes taking into an examination any material contrary to the regulations, including any bilingual dictionary, whether or not with the intention of using it to obtain an advantage.

Plagiarism involves the false representation of another person's ideas, or findings, as your own by either copying material or paraphrasing without citing sources. It is both professional and ethical to reference clearly the ideas and information that you have used from another writer. If the source is not identified, then you have plagiarised work of the other author. Plagiarism is a form of dishonesty that is insulting to the reader and grossly unfair to your student colleagues.

Register of counselling about plagiarism

The university requires faculties to keep a simple and confidential register to record counselling to students about plagiarism (e.g. warnings). The register is accessible to Associate Deans Teaching (or nominees) and, where requested, students concerned have access to their own details in the register. The register is to serve as a record of counselling about the nature of plagiarism, not as a record of allegations; and no provision of appeals in relation to the register is necessary or applicable.

Non-discriminatory language

The Faculty of Information Technology is committed to the use of non-discriminatory language in all forms of communication. Discriminatory language is that which refers in abusive terms to gender, race, age, sexual orientation, citizenship or nationality, ethnic or language background, physical or mental ability, or political or religious views, or which stereotypes groups in an adverse manner. This is not meant to preclude or inhibit legitimate academic debate on any issue; however, the language used in such debate should be non-discriminatory and sensitive to these matters. It is important to avoid the use of discriminatory language in your communications and written work. The most common form of discriminatory language in academic work tends to be in the area of gender inclusiveness. You are, therefore, requested to check for this and to ensure your work and communications are non-discriminatory in all respects.

Students with disabilities

Students with disabilities that may disadvantage them in assessment should seek advice from one of the following before completing assessment tasks and examinations:

• Faculty of Information Technology Student Service staff, and / or
• your Unit Coordinator, or
• Disabilities Liaison Unit

Deferred assessment and special consideration

Deferred assessment (not to be confused with an extension for submission of an assignment) may be granted in cases of extenuating personal circumstances such as serious personal illness or bereavement. Information and forms for Special Consideration and deferred assessment applications are available at http://www.monash.edu.au/exams/special-consideration.html. Contact the Faculty's Student Services staff at your campus for further information and advice.