DCS100ODL115 |
Procedural ProgrammingIntroductionThis web site provides additional resources for students studying the Queen Mary introductory programming modules DCS100 (face-to-face at Mile End) and ODL115 (by distance learning). The material is organised on a "week-by-week" basis around the face-to-face lecture schedule. You essentially have 12 study weeks to complete the course. Use that as a guide over whether you are keeping up or getting left behind. If you are getting behind - seek help from tutors before it is too late. That said different people start with different experience and backgrounds and so go at different paces. Things may crop up that slow your progress for a period, or you may work in a bursty way. The assessed coursework is designed to allow you to go at our own pace. However, beware - it is really important that you do make steady progress through the "weeks". You cannot learn to program by catching up in one go at the end. Learning to program is a key skill you need to master. Take it seriously from the start. You only learn to program by writing programs - lots of them. That takes time, but the more you write the better you will be and the stronger foundation you will have built for your later studies. The material here is currently experimental. I intend to add to it as I have time (which is limited) and I discover students having problems I think I can fix. I am trying out a variety of ideas here to help you to learn to program. Some may work better than others. Some may help some people not others. They are intended to be used in a flexible way. I would be really grateful of any feedback you have about what is useful and what is not - post any comments to the course discussion group so others can add to your comments. Please let me know about broken links etc which I will do my best to fix as quickly as possible - though note that some material such as slides may only be made available on a week by week basis - so do not complain of those links! We will be working as hard as we can all term to give you the opportunity to learn but it is you who have to do the hardest work - actually doing the learning. I hope you have as much fun learning programming as I have every year teaching it. Discussion GroupODL115 students have a dedicated module discussion forum accessible via the ODL site. These forum are so we can all support each other. If one person has a question others will probably want to know the answer. Use it to post any genreal questions about the course or Java rather than emailing me. If you know the answer to a question (or think you know part of the answer) have a go at answering it. You will learn a lot by answering others questions. It should not be used for anything unrelated to DCS100/ODL115 or for sharing answers to assessed exercises (which would obviously be cheating). Possible things you might ask about are what bugs mean, problems with installing Java, what an earth something on the web site means....PeopleGraham White: Distance Learning Module Leader, Summer 2006I can be contacted using either the online discussion groups or Email: Details of the Assessed CourseworkDetails of the ODL115 Assessed Coursework for Summer 2006 will be available shortly Weekly MaterialThe material for the course is broken into "weekly" units corresponding roughly to the lecture content in face-to-face study mode. Each week you are expected to, for example, attend the lecture (if a DCS100 student) or read the website material (if not), read through the lecture slides (ideally before the lecture and then review them afterwards), read corresponding chapters in the recommended books, do various programming and other exercises, do assessed programs and get them marked in the labs (DCS100) or by your TA (Graham for the Summer 2006 ODL115). ODL115 students start a week or so early so in effect have one spare week to allow a little extra flexibility for them studying part time in distance learning mode. As a distance learning student, you will be doing the lab exercsies in your own time rather than in the labs. The work for each week is set out week by week in the links below.
What you need to work at home:If you want to use a computer at home, or to use any computer outside the department then you will need Brinch Hansen's library as well as a standard version of Java.
External Java Resources
Other Resources
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