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Unit Outline

ITEC833- Web Services

Semester 1, 2012

Convenor: Zehua Liu

Students should read this unit outline carefully at the start of semester. It contains important information about the unit. If anything in it is unclear, please consult one of the teaching staff in the unit.

About This Unit

ITEC833 provides in-depth understanding of the web architectures and specially the developments of Web in the Web Services arena. In addition, it develops competence in the upcoming new web technologies and understanding the potential strengths and pitfalls of each of these technologies.

Teaching Staff

Role	Name	Email	Room	Office hours
Convenor, Lecturer	Zehua Liu	zehua.liu@mq.edu.au	-	email or by appointment

All emails related to ITEC833 should be sent to zehua.liu@mq.edu.au and must include your full name and your student id number.

Classes

Each week you should attend 2 hours of lectures and two hours of mixed tutorial and practical exercises. For details of days, times and rooms consult the timetables webpage.

You should have selected a mixed class session at enrolment. You should attend the mixed class session you are enrolled in. If you do not have a class, or if you wish to change one, you should see the enrolment operators in the E7B courtyard during the first two weeks of the semester. Thereafter you should go to the Student Centre.

Required and Recommended Texts

The textbook for this course used this semester are:

• Michael Papazoglou, Web Services: Principles and Technology , First Edition, Prentice Hall, 2007. ISBN 0-32-115555-6

This textbook is available as a shrink-wrapped package from the University Co-op Bookshop. .

Additional reading that you may find useful for this unit:

• S. Chatterjee & J. Webber , Developing Enterprise Web Services: An Architect’s Guide, PTR Prentice Hall, 2004. ISBN: 0-13-140160-2
• Paul A. Watters , Web Services in Finance, First Edition, Apress, 2004. ISBN: 1-59-059435-5

These two textbooks may be out of stock in the University Co-op Bookshop. .

Unit Web Page

The web page for this unit can be found at http://www.comp.mq.edu.au/units/itec833/. Note that the majority of the unit materials are publicly available while some material requires you to log in to iLearn to access it.

The unit will make use of discussion boards hosted within iLearn. Please post questions there, they will be monitored by the staff on the unit.

Learning Outcomes

The course is going to cover many of the new technologies related to Web service development and service oriented software architecture. At the end of the unit you will be able to:

1. Understand how web services work.
2. Critically evaluate current web services technology.
3. Design and implement a web service.

In addition to the discipline-based learning objectives, all academic programs at Macquarie seek to develop students' generic skills in a range of areas. One of the aims of this unit is that students develop their skills in the following:

• Foundation skills of literacy, numeracy and information technology;
• Self-awareness and interpersonal skills;
• Communication skills;
• Critical analysis skills;
• Creative thinking skills.

Teaching and Learning Strategy

ITEC833 is taught via lectures and mixed tutorials / practical sessions in the laboratory. Lectures are used to introduce new material, give examples of the use of programing methods and techniques and put them in a wider context. While lectures are largely one to many presentations, you are encouraged to ask questions of the lecturer to clarify anything you might not be sure of. The mixed tutorials / practical sessions will are designed to be more interactive, exercise-driven sessions which give you the opportunity to interact with your peers and with a tutor who has a sound knowledge of the subject. Each week you will be given a number of problems to work on; it is important that you keep up with these problems as doing so will help you understand the material in the unit and prepare you for the work in assignments.

Each week you should:

1. Print out the lecture notes before going to the lecture.
2. Attend lectures, take notes, ask questions.
3. Read the mixed class specification before going to the session.
4. Attend the mixed class session, do as many of the exercises as you can and seek feedback from the tutor on your work.
5. Read appropriate sections of the text, add to your notes and prepare questions for your lecturer or tutor.
6. Submit the next biweekly task checkpoint or final submission.
7. Work on any assignments that have been released.

Lecture notes will be made available each week but these notes are intended as an outline of the lecture only and are not a substitute for your own notes or the textbook.

Topic List

The final schedule may change slightly to accommodate constraints of the guest presenters.

Assessment

Assessment will be made via biweekly tasks, practical assignments, and a final examination.

Assessment Type	Number	Weight	Learning Outcomes Assessed
Biweekly Tasks	6	10	1, 2
Essay	1	10	2
Practical Assignment	1	30	3
Final Examination	1	50	1, 2

There will be 6 biweekly tasks. Each task is worth 2 marks, and the sum of marks will be capped to 10. In practice this means that you may skip one submission and still get full marks. Each task will have an early submission check-point for feedback. This will give you an opportunity to improve on your submission. The submission deadline is firm and no late submissions will be assessed.

There will be a short essay describing a web service. The topic is open. We will give a list of example topics and the student will submit a proposal. After the final submission the student will give a 10-minute presentation + question time. The schedule of each stage is:

1. Proposal: week 2, with possibility of resubmission on week 3.
2. Essay submission: week 6. Worth 7 marks with 1 mark deduction per day late.
3. Essay presentation: from week 8, to be advised. Worth 3 marks.

The group assignment will be based on the design and implementation of a transaction-based web service that uses service composition. There will be checkpoint submissions for the detailed proposal and background documentation. The overall schedule will be:

1. One-page proposal: Week 7
2. Background documentation: Week 8. Worth 5 marks, 1 mark deduction per day of late submission.
3. Final submission: Week 11. Worth 25 marks, 5 marks deduction per day late.

The final examination will test the theoretical concepts of the unit and will not focus on implementation details.

 

Assessment Standards

The following table shows an indication of achievements required corresponding each final grade relative to each learning outcome. The standards of a level also include the standards of a lower level. For example, the standards of a HD level includes the standards of P, CR and D.

In general, a P standard shows knowledge of the core aspects of the learning outcome. A Cr/D standard shows ability to draw inferences that are not explicitly made in the course. A HD standard shows a comprehensive proficiency in all matters related with the learning outcome.

Where applicable, more specific versions of the requirements will be provided with the assessment task descriptions.

	Standards
L.O. #1	P	Cr or D	HD
Understand how web services work.	Provide short descriptions of the key components of a web service.	Describe the key components of a web service with detail, showing an understanting of the role of each component.	Discuss the key components of a web service with detail, reasoning the necessity and importance of each component.
L.O. #2
Critically evaluate current web services technology.	Describe a current key web service technology in detail.	Discuss and compare web service technologies.	Provide a deep an insightful evaluation of a range of web services technologies.
L.O. #3
Design and implement a web service.	Design and implement the basic functions of a web service.	Design and implement a web service capable of performing the usual range of functionality.	Demonstrate proficiency in the design and implementation of all aspects of a web service.

Your final grade depends on your performance in each part of the assessment. For each task, you receive a mark that combines your standard of performance regarding each learning outcome assessed by this task. Then the different component marks are added up to determine your total mark out of 100. Your grade then depends on this total mark and your overall standards of performance.

You will obtain a grade of Pass if you meet the learning outcomes of this unit at a basic level. In particular:

• If you perform satisfactorily in the examination; and
• if you submit all the core tasks of the essay and the assignments and the submissions are correct.

You will obtain a grade of Credit if you demonstrate performance at the level of Pass, and in addition demonstrate performance at the level of CR or higher in the exam and one of the other assessment tasks.

You will obtain a grade of Distinction if you meet all the requirements of a Credit grade and in addition demonstrate performance at the level of CR or higher in the exam and most of the other assessment tasks.

You will obtain a grade of High Distinction if you meet all the requirements of a Distinction grade and in addition demonstrate performance of HD in more than one of the assessment tasks.

Examinations

The university examination period in First Half year 2012 is from 12-29 June.

You are expected to present yourself for examination at the time and place designated in the University Examination Timetable. The timetable will be available in Draft form approximately eight weeks before the commencement of the examinations and in Final form approximately four weeks before the commencement of examinations.

You are advised that it is Macquarie University policy not to set early examinations for individuals or groups of students. All students are expected to ensure that they are available until the end of the teaching semester, that is the final day of the official examination period.

The only exception to not sitting an examination at the designated time is because of documented illness or unavoidable disruption. In these circumstances you may wish to consider applying for Special Consideration. Information about unavoidable disruption and the special consideration process is available on the web (PDF).

If a Supplementary Examination is granted as a result of the Special Consideration process the examination will be scheduled after the conclusion of the official examination period. For details of the Special Consideration policy specific to the Department of Computing, see the Department's policy page.

Plagiarism

Please refer to the Department of Computing Plagiarism Policy for the definition of plagiarism, advice on avoiding it and the penalties in place if you are found to have submitted plagiarised work.

To apply for special consideration you must:

1. Satisfactorily complete all core essay and assignment submissions;
2. do well in most biweekly tasks;
3. attach a completed Professional Authority Form to your request;
4. provide valid documentary evidence to substantiate your circumstances; and
5. submit your request in accordance with the University's regulations.

University Policy on Grading

Academic Senate has a set of guidelines on the distribution of grades across the range from fail to high distinction. Your final result will include one of these grades plus a standardised numerical grade (SNG).

On occasion your raw mark for a unit (i.e., the total of your marks for each assessment item) may not be the same as the SNG which you receive. Under the Senate guidelines, results may be scaled to ensure that there is a degree of comparability across the university, so that units with the same past performances of their students should achieve similar results.

It is important that you realise that the policy does not require that a minimum number of students are to be failed in any unit. In fact it does something like the opposite, in requiring examiners to explain their actions if more than 20% of students fail in a unit.

Student Support Services

Macquarie University provides a range of Academic Student Support Services. Details of these services can accessed at http://www.student.mq.edu.au.