Syllabus

General Course Info

Term: Spring 2026

Department/Prefix: COMP

Course Number: 110

Credit Hours: 3

Course Name: Introduction to Programming

Course Website: https://comp110-26s.github.io/

Sections:

  • 001 - Monday/Wednesday/Friday - 9:05am - 9:55am
  • 002 - Monday/Wednesday/Friday - 11:15am - 12:05pm

Instructor: Isabella (Izzi) Hinks

Due to the large enrollment in this course, we ask that you allow up to two business days (Monday–Friday, excluding university holidays) for a response to an email. If you have not received a reply after two business days, you are welcome to send a polite follow-up message. Please plan accordingly, especially when contacting us about time-sensitive matters.

Instructional Format

Classes will be held with mandatory in-person meetings such that you can be surrounded by peers and Undergraduate Teaching Assistants to collaboratively work through challenges together.

Quizzes and Final Exam

Quizzes and examinations are offered in-person only. The format is pencil and paper. We will provide the quizzes/exams/paper, you only need to bring pencils, a good eraser, and your (physical or virtual) ONECard to quizzes and the final exam.

Quiz and Exam Dates

  • Friday, Jan 23rd - Quiz (QZ) 00
  • Friday, Feb 13th - Quiz (QZ) 01
  • Friday, March 13th - Quiz (QZ) 02
  • Friday, April 17th - Quiz (QZ) 03
  • Thursday, April 30th at 4pm - Final (FN) Exam (Common Hour)

Final Exam Makeup

Students who have 3 exams in 24 hours or a conflicting final exam (at 4pm on Thursday, April 30th) must attend the final exam makeup, which will be at 12pm on Friday, May 1 in Sitterson Hall (SN) 014. If this applies to you, please complete the following forms as soon as possible:

  1. UNC’s Official Final Exam Excuse Form
  2. Our internal form for tracking requests

Office Hours and Tutoring In-person

The most valuable resources in COMP110 are office hours and tutoring; view the Support page on this site for more information. These resources expect in-person, face-to-face attendance and will not be available remotely unless otherwise stated, or if you have relevant accomodations.

Diversity Statement

The instructors and the COMP110 team value the perspectives of individuals from all backgrounds reflecting the diversity of our students. We broadly define diversity to include race, gender identity, national origin, ethnicity, religion, social class, age, sexual orientation, political background, and physical and learning ability. We strive to make this classroom an inclusive space for all students. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to improve; we appreciate suggestions.

Textbooks and Resources

The web page is the primary resource for this course. There is no textbook for COMP110. We will distribute occasional readings, reference material, and tutorials via the course website and Canvas.

Course Description, Target Audience, and Prerequisites

COMP110 introduces students to programming and data science from a computational perspective. With an emphasis on modern applications in society, students gain experience with problem decomposition, algorithms for data analysis, abstraction design, and ethics in computing. No prior programming experience is expected or needed. Foundational concepts include data types, sequences, boolean logic, control flow, functions/methods, classes/objects, input/output, data organization, transformations, and visualizations.

Pre-requisite: A C or better in one of the following courses: MATH 130, 152, 210, 231, 129P, or PHIL 155, or STOR 112, 113, 120, 151, 155.

Goals and Key Learning Objectives

This course is intended to teach basic computer programming skills to students ranging from those with no prior programming experience to those with some prior experience. This course aims to teach general programming language concepts and semantics, problem definition, problem solving, logical and recursive thinking, through algorithm development and writing programs. Additionally, the course offers broad exposure to some of today’s key issues of computing in society.

IDEAs in Action General Education Curriculum

This is an FC-QUANT course in the IDEAs in Action curriculum. The following are the Student Learning Outcomes and Questions for FC-QUANT courses:

Learning Outcomes

These are the learning outcomes that are expected of students after completing a course.

  • Summarize, interpret, and present quantitative data in mathematical forms, such as graphs, diagrams, tables, or mathematical text.
  • Develop or compute representations of data using mathematical forms or equations as models, and use statistical methods to assess their validity.
  • Make and evaluate important assumptions in the estimation, modeling, and analysis of data, and recognize the limitations of the results.
  • Apply mathematical concepts, data, procedures, and solutions to make judgments and draw conclusions.
  • Synthesize and present quantitative data to others to explain findings or to provide quantitative evidence in support of a position.

Questions for Students

These are the types of questions you should be able to answer after completing a course.

  • What is the role of mathematics in organizing and interpreting measurements of the world?
  • How can mathematical models and quantitative analysis be used to summarize or synthesize data into knowledge and predictions?
  • What methodology can we apply to validate or reject mathematical models or to express our degree of confidence in them?

Course Load Expectation

COMP110 is a rigorous introductory STEM course. Learning how to program is an acquired, practiced skill much like playing a musical instrument or learning a new craft. The amount of time you individually spend practicing programing and working on assignments, outside of any other help, will significantly impact your success in the course. You should expect to spend 3 hours per week on lecture and async lessons in addition to 9 hours per week working on assignments and studying. We DO NOT recommended taking COMP110 in a semester when you are enrolled in 17 or more credit hours.

Course Requirements and Policies

You should attend all lecture days in person and check the course page for announcements and updates. You should complete all programming and reading assignments on time.

Please show up to lectures at least five minutes early so the class can begin at its scheduled start time.

Grading Criteria

To do well in this course, you must come to your own individual mastery of introductory programming concepts and engage with broader intellectual questions of computing in society. Final grades are calculated with the following weights for each course component:

  • 45% - Preparation, Practice, Participation
    • 30% - (EX) Programming Exercises
    • 5% - (LS) Async Lesson Responses on Gradescope (Graded for Correctness)
    • 5% - (CQ) In-class Challenge Questions (Graded for Correctness)
    • 5% - (CL) In-class Participation (Graded for Completion)
  • 55% - Mastery
    • 40% - 4x Quizzes
    • 15% - Final Exam

The fairest way to assess mastery of material is through a combination of timed assessments, excercises with “on your own” sections, and open-ended project work.

Taking at least three of the four quizzes and the final exam is required to be eligible to pass COMP110.

The cumulative final exam is worth 55% of your final grade at the start of the term. Each quiz you take accounts for 10% of your final grade and reduces the weight of your final examination by 10%.

For example: By taking all 4 quizzes, your final exam’s weight is 15% of your final grade. If you must be absent from a quiz (see policy below), then the 3 quizzes you take will account for 30% of your final grade and your final exam will account for 25%.

If, and only if, you take all 4 quizzes and your final examination score exceeds your lowest quiz score, then we will retroactively grant you an absence for the lowest quiz score and your final exam score will be worth 25%.

Quiz Absence Policy

The quizzes will be held during the section you are registered for and are synchronous and in-person. These dates, and the final exam date, are required synchronous dates.

You may be absent for up to one quiz. To request absence from a quiz, you should submit this form before your absence.

To ensure these assessments are fair for all students enrolled in COMP110 this term, we can only offer quiz makeups for officially documented university-approved absences. You must show the instructor proof of a university-approved absence and be available to take the quiz within two business days of the official quiz date. Merely being absent from a quiz that is not university approved results in the quiz’s credit not being drawn down from your final exam score’s weight. As such, this is not a penalty; your mastery of this quiz’ material will be assessed on the cumulative final exam.

We can offer everyone absent from a quiz the same learning experience of sitting for the quiz at some later date and receiving feedback on it, but a quiz taken in this fashion is not for credit and will not count toward nor against your mastery grade to ensure fairness to all students.

Course Passage Policy

In order to pass COMP110, you must accomplish ALL of the following:

  • Have a passing grade given the rubric of weights above and grading scale below
  • Take at least 3 quizzes
  • Score greater than 40% on the final exam

Honor Code and Collaboration Policy

In order to do well in this course, you must come to your own individual understanding of the material. As such, collaboration is prohibited outside of the following policies.

Make sure that you are familiar with The UNC Honor Code. You will be required to sign an Honor Code pledge to hand in with every quiz and the final as well as “sign” the code you submit for grading by filling in your PID in the required __author__ variable. Failing to do so may result in no credit assigned for the assignment.

Collaboration Policy on Ungraded, General Course Concepts

You absolutely may, and are encouraged to, discuss general course concepts (i.e. not assignment-specific) material with anyone, including other current students and tutors. This includes going over lecture slides, documentation, code examples covered in lecture, study guides, etc. The examples you use to discuss general course materials must be from lecture or your own creativity, you cannot use examples directly drawn from any assignments handed in.

Collaboration on Graded Work

No collaboration with peers inside the course, or anyone outside the course, with the exception of our course TAs while they are working as a TA, is allowed on exercises, lecture assignments, quizzes, and exams. Your ability to complete each individually is critical for your ability to do well in this course. Illegal collaboration is easily detected in COMP110 because Gradescope has built-in support for Stanford’s MOSS program (Measures of Software Similarity), as well as other machine learning techniques. Every year, a number of violations are caught and prosecuted in the Honor Court, so far always resulting in guilty convictions and sanctions. Avoiding any fears here is simple: work on assignments and assessments on your own and come to office hours when you have questions. Please note that if you know someone who is a UTA, you are only permitted to receive help from them while they are working in their official capacity. Receiving help from a UTA outside of their working hours is considered an unfair advantage for academic gain and is an honor code violation.

Permitted Resources on Graded Work

  • Materials on the course website and any linked resources
  • Instruction received from UTAs
  • Official programming language documentation
  • Online documentation for specific errors you encounter

The following are not permitted resources on coursework handed in for credit and are considered honor code violations:

  • Asking for help on an assignment or assessment on GroupMe, or any other mobile or web application, groupchat, or forum.
  • Talking about specific assignments with peers in the course, or anyone outside the course, with the exception of UTAs in Office Hours or Tutoring.
  • Looking at someone else’s screen, whether in person or shared remotely, while working on an assignment. Letting someone else look at or share your screen.
  • Copying code found on any website or community such as StackOverflow, Github, Chegg, CourseHero, or any generative AI model (e.g., ChatGPT).
  • Sharing or reusing code with any peer currently in the course or anyone who has previously taken the course.

When in doubt, ask the instructor.

Tutors and Informal Help from COMP Friends

Tutors, tutoring organizations, and COMP friends are not allowed to help you with any assignments handed in for credit. They may help you with general course concept questions, however we encourage you to rely on TA assistance foremost.

Code Review Test

I reserve the right to, at any time, ask you to submit to a “code review” test with me or a head TA. We may ask you to meet to explain any line of code or decision made in your program that we deem suspicious or confusing. Thus, you should be able to comfortably explain why you (and you alone) wrote any single line of code in an assignment handed in for credit. Should you be unable to do so, your grade will be a zero for the assignment in question and you may be taken to honor court depending on the severity of the infraction.

Autograding and Resubmissions

Grades on programming assignments have two components: autograded points and manually graded points. You should take note of how many autograded vs. manually graded points there are ahead of submission. You are permitted, and encouraged, to resubmit your programming assignments as many times as you need in order to earn full credit on the autograded points of an assignment. There is no penalty for resubmission. The autograder will run and assign a score within a few minutes of submission. We will not go back and manually assign any credit for autograder points you didn’t earn, so you can know and be aware of your autograded points as soon as the autograder has finished testing your code. If you do not understand the error output of some autograded point deduction, please come see us in office hours!

Early submission of programming assignments

Programming assignments (exercises and projects) whose final submission is made 48 hours, or more, before their deadline will receive a 5% early hand-in bonus on the assignment’s autograded score. Submissions that fall within the early window of 24-48 hours before the deadline will receive a 3% early hand-in bonus. Submissions made within 24 hours of the deadline are not subject to any bonus. The early hand-in bonus does not apply to manually graded points on projects.

Regrade Requests

Regrade requests for quizzes and other manually graded assignments are open for one week following the release of the grade. If you missed any of the points on a given assignment, you should review work as soon as grades are posted to be sure you understand why you missed something. This will help bring your understanding of concepts closer to comprehension faster. In the event we graded something improperly, select the specific question on gradescope and click the “Regrade Request” button at the bottom. If there are multiple questions, submit multiple requests one per question, rather than batching them together. Do not use regrade requests to ask why something is wrong, come work with us in tutoring or office hours to understand the problem at hand.

Late policies and Drops

All assignments, outside of assessments such as quizzes and the final exam, will have an 11:59pm deadline on their due date.

Lesson responses and programming exercises will all have deadlines and late periods. The following policies apply:

Lesson and Challenge Question responses on Gradescope are assigned on lecture days and must be completed before 11:59pm the same day unless noted otherwise. To ensure fairness to everyone, as emergencies may arise, we will drop the 2 lowest lesson scores and the 1 lowest challenge question score, including zeros.

For all assignments, submissions made after the deadline will have a 15% late penalty applied.

Late Point Forgiveness Insurance

As “insurance” against illness, computer crashes, sporting events, conflicts with other coursework, and waves arms around in the air life, every student in the course is automatically forgiven the following points worth of late penalties on assignments at the end of the term:

  • Lessons: forgiven up to 2 late lesson penalties
  • Challenge Questions: forgiven up to 2 late CQ penalties
  • Exercises: forgiven up to 2 late exercise penalties

Like real insurance, there is no reward for not needing to use these points and you should try to avoid using them outside of unpredictable, emergency situations like a computer needing repair.

Grading Scale Breakdown

  • A: 93-100
  • A-: 90-92
  • B+: 87-89
  • B: 83-86
  • B-: 80-82
  • C+: 77-79
  • C: 73-76
  • C-: 70-72
  • D: 60-69
  • F: 59 or below

In cases of fractional points, grades will be rounded up if greater than 0.4999999999…

Course Schedule and Assignment Due Dates

See the course itinerary on the home page of the web site for the course schedule and assignment release and due dates.

Feedback

If you have suggestions on how to improve the course or just want to leave some positive, encouraging feedback for the TAs or me, please give us feedback. If you make a suggestion we’re able to act on, while we still have time to, we’re more than happy to!

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Use Policy

Carolina students are expected to follow these AI guidelines:

  1. AI should help you think, not think for you. You may be able to use these tools to brainstorm ideas, research topics, and analyze problems, but you must decide what’s appropriate and accurate.
  2. Engage responsibly with AI. You must evaluate AI-generated outputs for potential biases, limitations, inaccuracies, false output, and ethical implications. Do not put personal or confidential data into these tools.
  3. The use of AI must be open and documented. You should declare, explain, and cite any use of AI in the creation of your work using applicable standards (e.g., APA, MLA, course guidelines). Understand that you are ultimately 100% responsible for your final product.
  4. Follow specific AI guidelines in this syllabus. If you are unsure, check with me. Guidance offered in this syllabus would be referenced should an issue be referred to Student Conduct for alleged academic misconduct.

Attendance Policy

University Policy: As stated in the University’s Class Attendance Policy, no right or privilege exists that permits a student to be absent from any class meetings, except for these University Approved Absences:

  1. Authorized University activities: University Approved Absence Office (UAAO) website provides information and FAQs for students and FAQs for faculty related to University Approved Absences
  2. Disability/religious observance/pregnancy/short-term military service, as required by law and approved by the University Compliance Office , or in the case of short-term military service, the Dean of Students
  3. Significant health condition and/or personal/family emergency as approved by the Office of the Dean of Students, Gender Violence Service Coordinators, and/or the University Compliance Office.

University Compliance Office (formerly Equal Opportunity and Compliance) - Accommodations

University Compliance Office (UCO) Accommodations Team (Accommodations - UNC Compliance) receives requests for accommodations for disability, pregnancy and related conditions, and sincerely held religious beliefs and practices through the University’s Policy on Accommodations. UCO Accommodations team determines eligibility and reasonable accommodations consistent with state and federal laws.

Code of Conduct

All students are expected to adhere to University policy and follow the guidelines of the UNC Student Code of Conduct. Additional information can be found at https://studentconduct.unc.edu/.

Any student who is impacted by discrimination, harassment, interpersonal (relationship) violence, sexual violence, sexual exploitation, or stalking is encouraged to seek resources on campus or in the community. Reports can be made online to the UCO or by contacting the University’s Title IX Coordinator, Elizabeth Hall, or the Report and Response Managers in the University Compliance Office (UCO) (formerly the Equal Opportunity and Compliance Office). Please note that I am designated as a Responsible Employee, which means I must report to the UCO any information I receive about the forms of misconduct listed in this paragraph. If you’d like to speak with a confidential resource, those include Counseling and Psychological Services, the University’s Ombuds Office, and the Gender Violence Services Coordinators. Additional resources are available at safe.unc.edu.

Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS)

UNC-Chapel Hill is strongly committed to addressing the mental health needs of a diverse student body. The Heels Care Network website is a place to access the many mental health resources at Carolina. CAPS is the primary mental health provider for students, offering timely access to consultation and connection to clinically appropriate services. Go to the CAPS website or visit their facilities on the third floor of the Campus Health building for an initial evaluation to learn more. Students can also call CAPS 24/7 at 919-966-3658 for immediate assistance.

Disclaimer: Syllabus Changes

The instructor reserves the right to make changes to the syllabus including project due dates and test dates. These changes will be announced as early as possible.

Check the course site regularly for updates and announcements!

Contributor(s): Kris Jordan, Izzi Hinks