Syllabus

CSCI 490 - Fall 2026

Section 01

This is a hybrid course that meets on Wednesdays from 1:00 - 1:50 PM in Penny Hall room 311.

There is NO final exam in this course.

Important Dates

DateSummaryDescription
8/19/2026 First day of class Begin working on the Group Formation
8/26/2026 Preparation Phase ends Group Formation submission closes at 11:59 PM ET
8/27/2026 Census Date Reported absent if Group Formation is missing
9/7/2026 Labor Day No class
9/16/2026 Sprint 1 Ends Submission for Sprint 1 is DUE at 11:59 PM ET
9/30/2026 Sprint 2 Ends Submission for Sprint 2 is DUE at 11:59 PM ET
10/9/2026 Student Holiday No class
10/14/2026 Sprint 3 Ends Submission for Sprint 3 is DUE at 11:59 PM ET
10/28/2026 Sprint 4 Ends Submission for Sprint 4 is DUE at 11:59 PM ET
11/3/2026 Election Day No class
11/11/2026 Sprint 5 Ends Submission for Sprint 5 is DUE at 11:59 PM ET
11/17/2026 Discovery Phase ends Sprint 5 extended submission closes at 11:59 PM ET
11/18/2026 Last Day to Drop Last day to drop a Fall/Fall II course with a W
11/23/2026 - 11/28/2026 Thanksgiving Break No class
12/3/2026 Reflection Phase ends Course Reflection submission closes at 11:59 PM ET

Instructor Information

Dr. Mike Murphy
Email: mmurphy2@coastal.edu
Office: Penny Hall 238

Office Hours

Please see my schedule page for current office hour information. Office hours may change during the semester.

Student Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, you should be able to:

  1. Demonstrate an understanding of the software development life cycle.
  2. Implement a complex software system using advanced object-oriented concepts that meets requirements based on the constraints set forth in an advanced technological environment.
  3. Apply software engineering testing procedures.
  4. Demonstrate effective version control.
  5. Work in a team-based environment.
  6. Present and discuss a software development project in front of a group.

ABET Assessment

The above student learning outcomes support the following ABET performance indicators:

Texts and Materials

Technology Requirements

Grading

This course uses ungrading, which means that there are NO grades for individual activities in this course. Nor are there any tests, quizzes, or exams. Instead of earning points on individual assignments, I will provide you with written feedback on each submitted activity. At the end of the semester, you will propose your own course grade based upon your self-assessment of how well you did and how much you improved over the course of the semester.

Course Phases

We will have three distinct phases in this course:

  1. The Preparation Phase begins on the first day of the course and runs until the day before the Census Date. There will be a short activity in this phase to count first week attendance and help you prepare for the rest of the course.
  2. The Discovery Phase comprises the bulk of the course. During this time, you will be working on learning activities to gain new knowledge and skills in the subject area.
  3. Finally, the Reflection Phase comprises the final part of the course. During this phase, you will analyze your Discovery Phase results and propose your course grade.

Final Grading

Although we have no grades during the semester, University policy requires a final grade to be assigned to this course using the established A-F letter scale. You will propose your final grade in the Reflection Phase. I may agree or disagree with your self-assessment and may ultimately assign a higher or lower grade than what you propose. This approach to final grading is designed to reduce the amount of grade-related stress in this course, giving you more time and mental energy to focus on the material.

The Software Engineering Project

CSCI 490 is a project-oriented course. You will be working in a small team to test, debug, and develop new features for existing open-source CCU software projects. Project options will be announced in class at the beginning of the semester, and the class will divide into teams of 2-3 people based on individual interest.

Although you will be working with 1 or 2 other people, your final course grade will depend on your individual contributions. In particular, measurable metrics such as the amount of new code that you write, the number of bugs that you identify and fix, the complexity of the problems that you solve, and the number of meaningful git commits that you make over the course of the semester will be important. Your ultimate grade will not depend upon the contributions of your team members, so a bad teammate cannot ruin the whole team's grade. On the flip side, it is not possible to pass this course without doing a substantial amount of your own work.

Sprints

The project is divided into 5 milestones, each of which runs for 2 weeks during the discovery phase. Borrowing from Agile software development terminology, these milestones are called Sprints. Each sprint will begin with a scrum meeting to discuss the problems to be solved and potential approaches to finding a solution. At the end of each sprint, you will submit a short status report describing the work you have completed during the prior two weeks.

At each mid-Sprint class meeting, you will briefly present your work to the rest of the class. These presentations will be informal and will simply discuss what you're doing and what problems you're encountering. Other members of the class, including people on other teams, might be able to provide you with some ideas that could be useful as you work on the project.

Significant participation is expected on each Sprint. You should plan to spend 8-10 hours per week on the course project. I expect you to have documented, measurable results for each Sprint. Remember that you are practicing skills that your future employer will expect you to demonstrate.

Late Work

There is an automatic grace period of 6 or 7 days for each Discovery Phase activity submission. However, you should always try to submit by the posted DUE date, since unexpected situations could arise between the DUE date and the activity closing date. Due to semester time constraints, there is no grace period for either the Preparation Phase or the Reflection Phase. For all phases, late work will not be accepted after the activity closing date.

If you become so sick that you're unable to do your work, or if some other significant hardship arises, please let me know immediately. You need to notify me before the DUE date unless you are hospitalized or otherwise incapacitated.

Submission Requirements

In order to ensure fairness and maintain accurate class records, all work in this course must be submitted via the campus learning management system. I cannot accept submissions via email, printed paper, Teams, or by any other means unless an accommodation has been granted by Accessibility and Disability Services. Computer problems and life events are certainly possible during the semester, so I encourage you to submit as early as you can.

Course Policies

Academic Integrity

We're all required to follow the CCU Academic Integrity Code, which is part of the Code of Student Conduct. I prefer not to have to engage in the Academic Integrity process, but I'm required to do so if these rules are broken.

Prohibited Acts

The following acts are examples of academic integrity violations:

Sanctions

In general, any academic integrity violation in this course will result in a course grade of FX. Reduced sanctions, such as a reduced but non-failing course grade, are possible only in exceptional circumstances for relatively minor violations.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a multi-edged sword. On one hand, you most definitely need to be able to use AI tools to be competitive in the marketplace. At the same time, AI tools have a number of risks.

Risks and Limitations of AI

Before using an AI tool, particularly one that employs generative AI, you should understand the downsides of these tools.

Hallucination

Generative AI tools are prone to hallucination, a phenomenon in which the tool produces an answer that is blatantly wrong or wildly misleading. These AI systems are not capable of detecting their own hallucinations, nor are they programmed to convey the level of uncertainty in their responses. Instead, the output of a generative AI system is designed to sound confident and reassuring, even when it is completely wrong! For this reason, it is necessary to verify the results obtained from any AI system.

AI Cannot Reason

The most popular AI systems at the time of this writing are based on artificial neural networks, which are complex algorithms that essentially learn associations between words and produce output based upon a statistically common set of these associations. They are not actually intelligent, since they are still algorithms and are therefore subject to the same limitations that apply to all algorithms. You should not expect an AI system to reason or be creative.

Copyright Infringement

The large-language models (LLMs) behind popular generative AI services have all been trained on copyrighted works. There are currently hundreds of pending lawsuits related to AI, many of which include copyright infringement among their claims. Since generative AI systems more closely resemble a copy machine than an actual human brain, some of these lawsuits have already resulted in multi-billion dollar settlements.

There are several key issues to remember with copyright infringement and using AI tools:

  1. Generative AI tools are capable of reproducing copyrighted work, without providing any indication of the original source or that the results are subject to copyright.
  2. AI tools are considered tools. Works generated entirely by AI cannot be copyrighted in the United States.
  3. If you use an AI tool to infringe upon someone else's copyright, that someone else may be able to sue you. It doesn't matter how the infringement happens: accidentally generating material that violates a copyright is treated the same way as intentionally finding and copying the same material.
  4. Since the AI algorithms do not cite their sources, they are effectively leaving it up to the user to figure out if the generated material is legal to use.
Data Collection

Another reason to use caution with generative AI tools is that the companies that own the AI systems are using both your queries and your personal information to train their systems. Whatever you put into the AI tool becomes part of the system's knowledge base. Worse, if you actually read the license agreements and privacy policies for some of these tools, you will find that you're agreeing to let the AI companies train their models with information about you that they have collected or purchased from a data broker. AI models are expensive to train and operate, and these companies are in business to make money. They will happily absorb your data into their model while also selling it to the highest bidder.

Prohibited Uses

In this course, you must NOT do any of the following:

Permitted Uses

You may (and probably should) use AI tools for the following tasks:

Attendance

Regular attendance and participation in this course is expected but is not directly recorded or graded. Instead, any missed assignment submission is treated as an absence per the University Distance Learning Policy, which also applies to hybrid courses.

Preparation Phase Submission

If you do not make a submission by 11:59 PM ET on the last day of the Preparation Phase, then you will be reported as absent and dropped from the course for non-attendance before the Census Date. This policy is required by federal financial aid regulations.

Communications

To communicate with me, please use e-mail, Microsoft Teams, or stop by during office hours. The office telephone is the worst way to reach me, since I can only return calls when I'm physically sitting at my desk.

Calls can be made through Microsoft Teams. Please send me a text message in Teams first, unless we have a previously scheduled appointment, in case I have someone else physically present in the office.

Response Times

I use email for asynchronous communications. Please allow up to 2 business days to receive a response. Business days are Monday through Friday on days when classes meet. Expect longer response times for emails sent on weekends or during University breaks.

Communications Etiquette

When communicating with me or with your classmates, please follow general business etiquette guidelines:

Contingency Plan

Per the CCU Academic Continuity Plan, courses will continue online whenever the University is unable to hold in-person classes. During contingency operations, any synchronous class meetings will be moved to Microsoft Teams. Otherwise, this course will proceed online unless the Governor orders the University to close completely or the Provost gives alternate instructions.

Emergency Communications

Please remember that an emergency in Horry County might impact my ability to communicate, and that synchronous communications (such as Teams) might not work properly. I have access to satellite-based backup Internet service and plan to use email and announcements in the learning management system as my primary backup communication methods. Please note that satellite Internet will not be functional until a hurricane or other extreme weather has passed.

If you need to reach me during an emergency, please send me an email. My ability to respond will be dictated by emergency conditions, but I will respond when I'm able.

Hurricanes

Each fall semester, hurricanes are a concern for our area. Evacuations and extended operational disruptions are always possible. I will generally try to keep the class informed about potential tropical impacts and will communicate any course changes and/or changes in my availability. If you live in a coastal area, you should have your own hurricane plan to stay safe if a storm threatens.

Please review my Hurricane Information page for planning information and links to useful resources.

Travel and Evacuation

ALWAYS take your laptop or other computer with you whenever you go out of town during University breaks, evacuations, and for other travel. Remember that you could encounter travel difficulties and have issues returning on time even if University operations are not affected.

Disability Accommodations

I am happy to work with any students requiring accommodations for a disability. University policy stipulates that Accessibility and Disability Services is the only office on campus that is authorized to evaluate and provide academic accommodations. Please have your accommodations information sent to me within the first week of class or within a week of approval if accommodations are implemented in the middle of the semester.

Requests for Adjustment

To ensure fairness to all students and compliance with accreditation requirements, the policies in this syllabus will be followed. In exceptional cases, individual adjustments might be warranted due to unexpected and unforeseeable circumstances that arise during the semester. A formal Course Adjustment Request must be submitted in order to make such requests. The request and my decision will be archived as part of the course record.

Please note that disability accommodations from the Office of Accessibility and Disability Services are already transmitted as formal notifications and are already archived by the University. You do not need to send a formal request in order to use an accommodation. A simple email or other informal message will suffice.

Disclaimer

Portions of this course may deal with issues related to cost analysis, laws, and ethics. I am not a lawyer, accountant, or financial advisor, and no portion of this class constitutes legal, financial, or other regulated professional advice. This syllabus is tentative and is subject to change with notice to the class during the semester. If a portion of this syllabus is found to be non-compliant with University policies or applicable laws, the remainder of this syllabus will remain effective.