Alice Community - View Single Post - Textbook suggestions after teaching with Alice this year...

05:54 PM

Thanks for the link to my online teaching material at http://www.dickbaldwin.com/tocalice.htm

I am using this material for the first time this summer to teach a course in Programming Fundamentals at the community college level. Although I normally teach OOP courses using Java, I have taught this course numerous times before using C++, typically during the short summer session.

I am happy to report that student enthusiasm and attendance is much better for the Alice version of this course than for the C++ versions that I have taught in the past. Many of the students take the course only because it is required in some non-CS degree plans, and for the first time even those students seem to actually be interested in learning about programming.

I will cover all of the lessons up through and including Lesson 180, Arrays in the coure. Time permitting, I will also cover Lesson 195, Transition to Java in the hope that some of the students will enroll in the first OOP Java course in the Fall.

I have provided slides for each lesson up through Lesson 180 for classroom use. I have also provided an interactive practice test for each of those lessons. Links to the slides and practice tests along with instructions for their use are also available at http://www.dickbaldwin.com/tocalice.htm

Finally Appendix A provides a description and examples of the behavior of each of the twenty primitive methods that belong to all or at least most of the objects that can be instantiated from the Alice gallery. I have not seen this information published anywhere else online.

Just in case you may be interested in my syllabus and other material for the course, it is available by selecting the link to COSC 1315 at http://www.austincc.edu/baldwin/ (Links to the other courses that I teach are also available there.)

Faculty and staff of public and private non-profit educational institutions are granted a license to reproduce and to use this material for purposes consistent with the teaching process, so please use the material in whatever manner works well for you.

Thanks again,
Dick Baldwin

	#6 (permalink)
DickBaldwin Guest Status: Posts: n/a	06-30-2007, 06:19 AM Thanks for the link to my online teaching material at http://www.dickbaldwin.com/tocalice.htm I am using this material for the first time this summer to teach a course in Programming Fundamentals at the community college level. Although I normally teach OOP courses using Java, I have taught this course numerous times before using C++, typically during the short summer session. I am happy to report that student enthusiasm and attendance is much better for the Alice version of this course than for the C++ versions that I have taught in the past. Many of the students take the course only because it is required in some non-CS degree plans, and for the first time even those students seem to actually be interested in learning about programming. I will cover all of the lessons up through and including Lesson 180, Arrays in the coure. Time permitting, I will also cover Lesson 195, Transition to Java in the hope that some of the students will enroll in the first OOP Java course in the Fall. I have provided slides for each lesson up through Lesson 180 for classroom use. I have also provided an interactive practice test for each of those lessons. Links to the slides and practice tests along with instructions for their use are also available at http://www.dickbaldwin.com/tocalice.htm Finally Appendix A provides a description and examples of the behavior of each of the twenty primitive methods that belong to all or at least most of the objects that can be instantiated from the Alice gallery. I have not seen this information published anywhere else online. Just in case you may be interested in my syllabus and other material for the course, it is available by selecting the link to COSC 1315 at http://www.austincc.edu/baldwin/ (Links to the other courses that I teach are also available there.) Faculty and staff of public and private non-profit educational institutions are granted a license to reproduce and to use this material for purposes consistent with the teaching process, so please use the material in whatever manner works well for you. Thanks again, Dick Baldwin Last edited by DickBaldwin; 07-01-2007 at 05:54 PM. Reason: Update status of slides and practice tests.