Course Expectations and Tentative
Syllabus
CSC:230 Programming Concepts and GUIs Fall 2004
Section 21 Meets: TR 11:00am-12:15pm Room: 319 Olney Hall
Lab Wed 2:00-3:45pm Room 201 Olney Hall
Professor: Dr
Redmond Office Hours: W
10:00am-12:50pm
330
Olney Hall (215) 951-1096 TuTh 2:00-2:50pm
redmond@lasalle.edu
Th
3:00-3:50pm http://www.lasalle.edu/~redmond/230 And
at other times by appointment
Text:
Zak,
D., Microsoft Visual Basic .NET Reloaded, Thomson Course Technology, 2004 ISBN:
0-619-21287-X
Course
Description:
This
course is an introductory computer science course, primarily for computer science,
information technology, mathematics, and science majors, also taken by
education majors. Not to be confused with an introduction to using computers
(136/151/152), this course places a heavy emphasis on learning to write
computer programs. It introduces the major types of programming constructs that
are common to most languages. It emphasizes proper programming techniques, to
give a firm foundation for future courses and for the workplace. This course
also provides exposure to the Visual Basic programming language, which is
popular in the marketplace due to its ease of creating graphical user
interfaces (GUIs).
An
important part of the class is the two-hour lab each Wednesday. Your regular
attendance is expected, as with other class meetings.
Prerequisite: You must be competent in basic
operation of a computer, (which can be demonstrated by successful completion of
CSC 136, 151 or 152 OR by passing the competency test administered by the
department during DAY ONE).
Grading: Final
Grades:
Quizzes 10% B+ 88-89 C+ 78-79 D+ 68-69
Assignments 25%
A 92-100 B 82-87 C 72-77 D 60-67
Exam 1 20% A- 90-91 B- 80-81 C- 70-71
Exam 2 20% F < 60
Final 30%
Class Participation 5%
Quizzes will be short, 10 minutes
or less, with one or a few questions, given at the beginning of class,
typically on Thursdays. Latecomers to class will not be given extra time
to complete the quiz. Lowest quiz score (or one missed quiz) will be dropped.
Assignments will typically be assigned on a Tue., possibly with
“pre-lab” preparation work to do, hands on time in the lab on Wed, and
“post-lab” work to do, due the following Tue.
Do
your own assignments !!!! Work that
is copied or done with somebody (when not assigned to a group) will be
punished. If programs are copied, both students will receive a zero for the
assignment. Changing small aspects of a copied program does not make it
not a copy. Asking another for help on a step or two in a many-step assignment
is acceptable; looking at another person’s program is temptation for cheating;
handing in a near duplicate program is cheating
Late
Assignments -25% per weekday (NOTE
- NOT per CLASS)
UNLESS SPECIFIED OTHERWISE ASSIGNMENTS ARE DUE AT THE BEGINNING OF
CLASS
-10% if handed in after start of class
and before I leave for the day.
Makeup exams only by advance arrangements
or for documented real emergencies, such as medical problems. Makeup may
involve double-counting your final exam.
The Final Exam is cumulative, though it
will focus more on the (previously untested) final third of the course.
Class participation grade will be assigned
based on 1) attendance, 2) in class contribution, and 3) “minute papers” turned
in at the end of each class. These minute papers may vary in content, including
reflection, questions, etc from class. More details will be given in class. The
formula for calculating class participation is available upon request.
Materials:
You will need at least 3 diskettes. Generally assignments
will be handed in on diskettes and a new assignment will be started on the next
day - before the previous assignment is graded. You will also want to
keep a disk with backup copies. You will need access to Visual Basic and
Microsoft’s Visual Studio development environment outside of class. This is
installed on PCs in labs in Olney 200/200A/201. The software can be downloaded
for free via the ELMS program. (The book may include a CD with VB and VB .NET. If so, that is an alternative as
well).
Open Lab Location:
Olney 200A is available
(small number of computers) irregular hours (most of the day, but not late)
Olney
200 and 201 are occasionally available when not being used for classes.
E-mail: You will need to check e-mail regularly. If you send me
e-mail from a non-La Salle account (e.g. Yahoo, Hotmail, etc), be sure you put
either your name or CSC 230 in the subject to ensure that I read it, and make
sure that your name is somewhere (subject or body). Assignments and information
may also be posted on my WWW page.
Middle States: The Department of Mathematics and
Computer Science will be conducting a self-study during the next four
years. A part of this process involves
inviting external experts who will review our course offerings, assessment
measures, and student work. For this
reason, faculty members will keep sample copies of students’ work including
tests, homework assignments, programming assignments, and projects. Every effort will be made to ensure
individual names are eliminated from these “artifacts.” During the early part of the semester,
you will be provided the opportunity to “opt-in” or “opt-out” of this effort.
Course Objectives
1. Teach systematic
program development and debugging techniques.
2.
Demonstrate basic programming statements including IF-THEN-ELSE, Loops,
Subroutines.
3.
Demonstrate use of built-in data types.
4.
Demonstrate use of classes, an implementation of the concept of abstract data
types.
5.
Demonstrate use of file processing.
6.
Demonstrate use of Arrays.
7.
Demonstrate the creation of graphical user interfaces and the handling of
“events” such as mouse-clicks
8. Emphasize
the importance of DOCUMENTED code.
9. Provide
experience writing, testing and debugging programs.
Tentative Course Plan:
The course is extremely unlikely to
follow this exactly. Attending class is the best way to know adjustments
(especially with regard to exams)
Estimated Date |
Book Pages |
Topic |
Days |
8/31 |
|
Intro to
Class |
1 |
9/1 LAB |
2-28 |
Development
Environment and Creating Interface |
1 |
9/2 |
42-47 |
Planning an
Application |
1 |
9/7 |
72-82 |
Variables |
1 |
9/8 LAB |
48-60 |
Creating
Interface |
1 |
9/9 |
82-99 |
Simple
Coding |
1 |
9/14 |
100-102,
118-128 |
Selection -
IF |
1 |
9/16 |
128-148 |
IF |
1 |
9/21 |
148-157 |
Nested IF/
ELSEIF / CASE |
1 |
9/23 |
178-181 |
Repetition
– For Next Loops |
1 |
9/28 |
|
TEST –
Chapters 1-4 |
1 |
9/30 |
185--191 |
DO LOOP |
1 |
10/5 |
191-197 |
Do LOOP |
1 |
10/7, 10/12 |
250-263 |
Sub Procedures |
2 |
10/14 |
263-267 |
Function
Procedures |
1 |
10/19,
10/21 |
284-294 |
Files |
2 |
10/26 |
|
FALL BREAK
– NO CLASS |
1 |
10/28 |
294-304 |
Files |
1 |
11/2 |
324-330 |
Arrays |
1 |
11/4 |
|
TEST 2 –
Chapters 5,7,8 |
1 |
11/9, 11/11 |
330-340 |
Arrays |
2 |
11/16 |
340-351 |
Parallel
Arrays and 2-Dimensional Arrays |
1 |
11/18,
11/23 |
372-382 |
Structures |
2 |
11/25 |
|
THANKSGIVING
HOLIDAY – NO CLASS |
1 |
11/30, 12/2 |
382-396 |
More
Controls |
2 |
12/7, 12/9 |
416-427 |
Classes and
Objects |
2 |
Thur Dec 16
10:30- 12:20 |
|
Final Exam |
|