Course Expectations and Tentative Syllabus
CSC:230 Programming Concepts and GUIs Fall 2009
Section 01 Meets: MWF 12:00-12:50pm Room: 120 Holroyd Science Center
Lab Tues 2:00-3:45pm Room: 120 Holroyd Science Center
Section 02 Meets: MWF 11:00-11:50am Room: 120 Holroyd Science Center
Lab Tues 9:00am-10:45pm Room: 120 Holroyd Science Center
Professor: Dr Redmond Office Hours: MWF 10:00-10:50am
131 Holroyd Science Center (215) 951-1096 MW 1:00-1:50pm
redmond@lasalle.edu And at other times by appointment http://www.lasalle.edu/~redmond/teach/230
Text:
Zak, D., Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 Reloaded, Third Edition, Thomson Course Technology, 2009
ISBN: 1-4239-0250-5
Course Description:
This course is an introductory computer science course, primarily for computer science, information technology, mathematics, and science majors. Not to be confused with an introduction to using computers (151/152/154/155), 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 Tuesday. Your regular attendance is expected, as with other class meetings.
Prerequisite: You must be competent in basic operation of a computer (using keyboard, mouse, software etc).
Grading: Final Grades:
Quizzes 5% 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
Lab Final 10%
Final 15%
Class Participation 5%
· Quizzes will be short, 10 minutes or less, with a few questions, given at the beginning of class, typically on Friday. 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 Monday, possibly with “pre-lab” preparation work to do, hands on time in the lab on Tuesday, and “post-lab” work to do, due the following Monday or Tuesday.
· 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 program with even section(s) that are nearly duplicate is cheating
Besides, you don’t learn to program by copying.
· Late Assignments -20% per class late – BUT, not accepted more than 2 classes late.
UNLESS SPECIFIED OTHERWISE ASSIGNMENTS ARE DUE AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS
-10% if handed in after start of class and before midnight.
· Makeup exams only by advance arrangements or for documented real emergencies, such as medical problems. Makeup may involve double-counting your final exam or lab final.
· Lab Final will be held on the last Tuesday lab of the semester (Dec 8). It will be a cumulative test involving writing / modifying code in the lab on the computer
· 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 some classes. 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:
It is very highly recommended that you bring a USB drive for storing work. Most or all assignments will require you to submit your work to Blackboard Course Management System, and the network (I:\) drive provides convenient storage in lab; however, you may want storage you can carry around with you (for instance the I:\ drive may not be accessible in the dorms), along with backup capability. You should keep copies of all of your assignments at least until you receive your grade for the assignment (and don’t have any questions about it). Missing or destroyed files are not acceptable excuses for incomplete assignments.
You will need access to Visual Basic and Microsoft’s Visual Studio development environment outside of class. This is installed on PCs in the Holroyd labs. The software can be downloaded for free via the ELMS program. (The book may include a CD with VB and VB 2008 .NET. If so, that is an alternative as well. Last time students had more success with the book CD than with the ELMS approach).
Open Lab Location:
We’re in a bit of transition with the move to the new building. I believe that Holroyd 124 and 151 will be available with access via your La Salle ID - small number of computers, not sure hours available.
The lab classrooms may occasionally be available when not being used for classes.
E-mail:
You will need to check La Salle e-mail regularly. Any late-breaking announcements would typically be sent via e-mail instead of being posted to the www or Blackboard. 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 or on Blackboard.
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 the creation of graphical user interfaces and the handling of “events” such as mouse-clicks
5. Demonstrate use of file processing.
6. Demonstrate use of Arrays.
7. Demonstrate use of classes, an implementation of the concept of abstract data types.
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 |
76-91 |
Creating Interface |
1 |
|
9/4 |
69-75 |
Planning an Application |
1 |
|
9/9, 9/11 |
121-137 |
Variables |
2 |
|
9/14, 9/16 |
137-157 |
Simple Coding |
2 |
|
9/18, 9/21, 9/23, 9/25 |
183-207 |
Selection - IF |
4 |
|
9/28, 9/30 |
233-247 |
Nested IF/ ELSEIF / CASE |
2 |
|
10/2, 10/7 |
343-347 |
Repetition – For Next Loops |
2 |
|
10/5 |
|
TEST – Chapters 1-5 |
1 |
|
10/9, 10/12, 10/14, 10/16 |
284-302 |
DO LOOP |
4 |
|
10/19 |
|
FALL BREAK – NO CLASS |
|
|
10/21, 10/23, 10/26, 10/28 |
409-423 |
Sub Procedures |
4 |
|
10/30 |
424-429 |
Function Procedures |
1 |
|
11/2, 11/4, 11/6 |
536-545 |
Files |
3 |
|
11/9 |
471-476 |
Arrays |
1 |
|
11/11 |
|
TEST 2 – Chapters 6,7,8, 10 |
1 |
|
11/13, 11/16, 11/18 |
477-486 |
Arrays |
3 |
|
11/20, 11/23 |
487-494 |
Parallel Arrays and 2-Dimensional Arrays |
2 |
|
11/25, 11/27 |
|
THANKSGIVING – NO CLASS |
|
|
11/30, 12/2, 12/4, 12/7, 12/9 |
581-604 |
Classes and Objects |
5 |
|
12/11 |
|
Catch up |
|
|
TBD Dec 14-18 |
|
Final Exam |
|