April 10, 1999 Dr. Cliff Kettemborough, University of Redlands, Lead Adjunct Faculty1 CURRENT COURSES OFFERING, ISSUES and CHANGES (CK) - 1 ISYS 312 (1

April 10, 1999 Dr. Cliff Kettemborough, University of Redlands,

Lead Adjunct Faculty 1

CURRENT COURSES OFFERING, ISSUES and CHANGES (CK) - 1

• ISYS 312 (1 of 2)– A mixture of two important topics to be covered

within 6 weeks!

– CIS/ Business Information Systems Overview - good and only opportunity to teach it

– Productivity tools (MS Office) - a prerequisite to the BSIS program (?)

• Mandatory literacy - attending workshops

• Knowledge and skills are expected in all subsequent courses



• ISYS 312 (2 of 2)• Revise the course content and placement in the

program

• Should be rather offered in AFCA workshops-like, only

– The course needs to be revised (content, textbook, software, etc.) - I will by end of this year

– Need your input

• ISYS 219 (1 of 8)– Problems




• ISYS 219 (2 of 8)• SDLC and basic tools, i.e., flowcharting, formal specs

and documentation• Fundamental programming concepts• Prerequisite to the program• Surprisingly often I have students who lack very basic

operation of a computer or familiarity to MS Windows environment

• Challenge examination– strongly do not recommend– taking a T/F, M/C or fill-in test means almost nothing in

this case




• ISYS 219 (3 of 8)• Most students struggle with basic concepts (even

thou some of them come to the class with the impression they knew them)

• Textbook (24 chapters) - NOT achievable in 6 weeks

• Besides fundamental programming concepts, C, by nature is difficult to understand

– Solution (for now)• Promote it to Core Course

• Changed textbook




• ISYS 219 (4 of 8)– A challenge: C is on a abrupt downhill, as a

programming language– Looked in 10s of books, narrowed down to 3-4

– Selection process is long, dependant on many factors, difficult in one word; Gail (Karpman) is great!

– Graham, Neill. (1992). Learning C. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill

– Specifics» 7 chapters - manageable

» emphasis on programming fundamental concepts




• ISYS 219 (5 of 8)» covers C fundamental concepts» problem: textbook doesn’t come with source code

• Revised syllabus– A e-copy is available from my home page or call Susie

Ahearn

• Placed course very early in the BSIS sequence (2nd course)

• Updated software to Visual Studio 6.0 (available this fall)

– Remaining Issues• Remaining (advanced) C concepts




• ISYS 219 (6 of 8)– Pointer, arrays, strings - as a minimum

– File processing - desirable

– Data structures (linked lists, queues, trees, ADT)?

– When and where?

– AFCA, mandatory seminar (?)

• C++– C is almost a prerequisite

– C++ (OO part) is difficult

– Make room for in the program (?)

– Offer it as a mandatory AFCA workshop (?)




• ISYS 219 (7 of 8)– By the time a decision is being made, C++ will be in

C’s position now, i.e., on a downhill (already?)

• Object Orientation (OO) Concepts– Fundamental topic, we (university) are already

behind the curve

– Employers expect it, students look forward

– When and how?

– Stand alone course?

– Part of C++?

– Part of VB (see below)?




• ISYS 219 (8 of 8)– New ISYS 404 textbook is around OO analysis and

design, but never covered prior!?...

• ISYS 317 (1 of 8)– Problems/Issues

• Textbook (20+ chapters, “21 days”) rarely achievable in 6 weeks

• Not appropriate for teaching the topic, at the college level

• O.K. for self study, or trade schools, MS certifications...

• Lacks exercises or material for homework




• ISYS 317 (2 of 8)• Students constantly asking for more than 6 weeks

course• Surprisingly often I have students who lack very

basic operation of a computer or familiarity to MS Windows environment

• Textbook - Compiler: out of synch, creates confusion, what it’s available in the lab and either what students have at home, work, or find in the textbook

• Students like VB better compared to C, at least in the beginning




• ISYS 317 (3 of 8)• Later, by the time they realize it’s still programming,

start struggling with• Textbook: too much emphasis on “spoon fed” - step by

step instructions• Too much emphasis on “click here and there” without

understanding what’s behind that click• Students love it (up-front), especially coming from the

“C experience,” but by the time the realize it’s still programming, they start hating it

• When the OO part is reached, lack of students’ background hits even harder




• ISYS 317 (4 of 8)• “Advanced” topics, e.g., API, MIDI, OLE, ActiveX,

etc., reached only with those more “capable” clusters

• “Little OO textbook” requires significant exposure to programming concepts, especially in at least couple of other programming language

• “Little OO” textbook rarely covered, it depends a lot on the cluster composition

• Successful completion of C class - very important

• Prerequisite in OO, highly recommended




• ISYS 317 (5 of 8)– Solution (for now)

• Changed textbook– Looked in 10s of books, narrowed down to 3-4– Selection process is long, dependant on many factors,

difficult in one word; Gail (Karpman) is great!– I “hate” textbooks with “in 21 days” or “in 24 hours”

in the title!… It’s totally demeaning to the concept of education - at least!

– At this point I have a leading candidate– Final decision, within couple of weeks or less




• ISYS 317 (6 of 8)– Syllabus will be revised accordingly

– Spasov, Peter. (1999). Programming for Technology Students Using Visual Basic.Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall

– “Only” 12 chapters - at least 2 can be made option (up to the instructor, and depending on cluster composition)

– Achievable in six weeks

– Comes with CD-ROM

– Emphasis is on programming concepts and skills, rather then “clicking” business




• ISYS 317 (7 of 8)– Later technical (“technology students”, not

programmers)

– Provides exercises and plenty of examples: good pedagogical style; appropriate for “teaching” the topic

– It doesn’t have the “step-by-step” clicking style

• Made “little OO” textbook, optional, perhaps drop it at all

• Push for VB 6.0 (as part of Visual Studio 6.0)

• Revised syllabus




• ISYS 317 (8 of 8)– Still Outstanding

• All of the above (the balance)

• ISYS 318 (1 of 6)– Issues

• The link between VB and database course (as intended) it’s not quite working

• Presentation made couple of weeks ago (relationship to Project Practicum)

• Available on my home page; encourage you to look at and give me some feedback, too




• ISYS 318 (2 of 6)• Can be used as a guideline for those teaching the

course

• Sequencing (VB and database course should be offered “back-to-back”)

• Object Semantic Modeling– important but difficult– encourages an OO like approach, or at least non-

relational view of the world– some students prefer it, especially after they struggle

with it a little bit– they see its advantages over ER modeling





• ISYS 318 (3 of 6)– SALSA - good modeling and validation tool; however,

not a popular choice

• ER modeling tool - missing (until ISYS 404): System Architect (newer, more complete version), O.K., even though not ideal!

• Students are expected to know MS Access BEFORE the start of the class: RARELY the case!!!

• “Little” accounting information systems textbook (also a MS Access tutorial like) - very important

– I leave it “up to students” to cover it, but I rarely found that really being the case!



• ISYS 318 (4 of 6)– I have to use “at least” one class to cover the basics

of MS Access - I (you) shouldn’t!

– Students “love” to build before design! (industry culture)

• ISYS 312 barely (if at all) cover it!); or, a long time ago, at least!

• All software tools should be offered up-front, at the beginning of the program

• 8 weeks is a good allotted amount of time; however, it depends a lot on the cluster!




• ISYS 318 (5 of 6)• Textbook: strongly biased toward the relational

model and MS Access(?!)

• DBMS: MS Access - not much of a choice, even though I encourage dissidence

• Upcoming Visual Studio 6.0 (another reason I asked for) has Visual FoxPro

• Project assignment - critical, especially for upcoming ISYS 488-489 sequence

– Solution (for now)• Keep it as it it




• ISYS 318 (6 of 6)• Looking for another textbook to solve above issues

• Push for modeling tool and its mastery before the start of the course

• Push for MS Access mastery before the start of the course

• Emphasis on the link to VB (client/server development)

• Emphasis on Web-based databases, Distributed databases, Multi-dimensional databases, non-relational (non-legacy!) models




• ISYS 324/327 (1 of 3)– Issues

• More programming skills involved

• More and more of a technical course, rather than “managerial” view

• Long course - 10 weeks

• Students are required to build a personal homepage– Basic HTML coverage

– Advanced features: DHTML, CGI (?), ActiveX, Java Script, VB Script

– Use of an HTML editor (?) - it may be needed!




• ISYS 324/327 (2 of 3)– Use of similar products, e.g., MS FrontPage

– Potential solutions• Course can be spilt in two 5 week courses

– A managerial view» general computer networks

» telecommunications concepts

» state-of-the-art issues

– More of a programming, practical view» see above for topics




• ISYS 324/327 (3 of 3)• Find two appropriate textbooks

– Stalling’s text (current) for part I

– other text for Web development (part II)

• It should be a preparatory course toward MSIT

• Questions, Comments, Suggestions?

CURRENT COURSES OFFERING, ISSUES and CHANGES (CK) -24

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April 10, 1999 Dr. Cliff Kettemborough, University of Redlands, Lead Adjunct Faculty1 CURRENT COURSES OFFERING, ISSUES and CHANGES (CK) - 1 ISYS 312 (1