ITEC 334 Fall 2008

Computer Programming in the Web Era

Syllabus

 

Mondays & Thursdays 11:20 am - 12:35 pm

Classroom: TBA & Kogod Lab

Professor: J. Alberto Espinosa

Last updated 8/22/08
Rev. changed suggested JavaScript book

 

 

[Objectives] [Grading] [Lab Exercises & Homework]
[Term Project] Research Assignment] [Attendance & Participation]
[Academic Integrity] [Requirements] [Course Policies]

 

OBJECTIVES OF THE COURSE:

The objective of this course is to help students develop an understading and hands-on experience on how to develop and implement web business applications online. The course will take students step by step through this process while learning the fundamentals of web application programming. Students will also learn how to manipulate and access data from databases through the web. The course is very practical and hands-on oriented, alternating between short lectures and lab work to implement what you have learned in the class. The course covers topics like: introduction to web programming; HTML forms; client-side scripting and server-side scripting; embedding database queries in web pages; and introduction to other web programming languages like Java and XML. [Top]

(30%) Lab Exercises and Homework

(40%) Implementation Project

(20%) Research Assignment

(10%) Attendance and participation

Lab Exercises and Homework

There are several individual homework assignments that each student needs to complete. All homework assignments will start in the lab where students will need to complete lab exercises. These lab exercises are intended to help students get off to a good start on their homework, so progress on lab exercises will be graded at the end of each lab session and the resulting grade will be incorporated into the corresponding homework grade. The purpose of the homework assignments (an their preceding lab exercises) is to give students hands-on experience with specific aspects web application development and implementation methods so that students can complete their projects successfully. All lab work and homework are STRICTLY INDIVIDUAL and students need to turn in their own work. Students are allowed an encouraged to help each other, but each student is responsible for turning in his/her own individual work. [Top]

Term Project

Students are required to submit a specification proposal for a simple online business application. This application needs to be submitted to the instructor in the form of a general use case diagram, use case descriptions, CRUD matrix and data model. The data model must contain no less than 4 database tables and the use case model must contain at least one of EACH of the following database operations: (1) search and display data from a database; (2) instert new records into a database; (3) update data in the database; and (4) delete records in the database. The final application needs to include these four database operations programmed with server-side scripts, but it also needs to include the use of HTML tables, HTML forms and JavaScript client-side scripts. The projects will be presented and demonstrated at the end of the semester. Students are encouraged to start thinking early about an interesting business application that may have practical use for them.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The best and most productive software programmers are excellent at re-using software code, adapting software code written by others, and debug existing software. In fact, the whole "open source" movement is based on this premise. Therefore, some form of cooperation among students and the instructor will not only be allowed, but will be encouraged. Students will be allowed to copy and adapt software code written by other students and the instructor (and even external sources) for their term project, provided that: (1) students get the explicit consent from the software code author and the author gets an acknowledgement; and (2) the software is "adapted" to the students program needs, not just "copied".

Research Assignment

There is such a broad and diverse choice of web application technologies, that it would be impossible to cover all of them in a single semester course. Therefore, the coures focuses on a particular set of popular contemporary technologies. Furthermore, these technologies are very rich, flexible and powerful, so it will also be impossible to cover the entire range of functionalities available with the technologies to be covered in this course. The course is oriented towards giving students familiarity with the process of developing online applications with these technologies, but expertise with these technologies can only come with practice. This research assignment will provide the students with the opportunity to identify, research, test and explain one web development technology not covered in the course. The instructor will provide the students with a few choices of technologies to research for this assignment, but students can also propose other technologies for the instructor's approval. Students are required to work on their research assigments the entire semester, not just towards the end, discuss their progress periodically in class, and then present the results of their research to the class at the end of the semester. The final deliverable for this research assignment will include a short paper and brief class presentation describing the technolgy and a short program demonstrations developed by the student. [Top]

Attendance and Participation

Attendance is mandatory in this class. Attendance will be taken at the beginning of each class and lab session. Most problems observed with students can be attributed to low attendance.  Historically, students with high attendance do substantially better in the course than those with low attendance. Furthermore, some course material builds upon previously covered material, so missing even one lecture can put a student at a substantial disadvantage with respect to the rest of the class. Therefore, we encourage high attendance. 10% of the student's final grade will be based on attendance and class participation. Some students often earn extra points due to outstanding participation, which results in extra credit. Other students some times lose participation points due to negative participation and non-businesslike behavior in class. Please see the participation policies for this class.  Attendance to lab sessions, special discussions (e.g., case), invited speaker presentations, and other important sessions will be more heavily weighted in the participation grade.

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ACADEMIC INTEGRITY POLICY

Academic integrity, the body of ethical standards, practice, and behavior, is paramount in higher education and essential to effective teaching and learning. As a professional school, the Kogod School of Business is committed to preparing our students and graduates to value the notion of integrity.

Standards of academic conduct are governed by the University’s Academic Integrity Code. By enrolling in the School and registering for this course, you acknowledge your familiarity with the Code and pledge to abide by it. All suspected violations of the Code will be immediately referred to the Office of the Dean. Disciplinary action, including failure for the course, suspension, or dismissal, may result.

Additional information about the Code (i.e. acceptable forms of collaboration, definitions of plagiarism, use of sources including the Internet, and the adjudication process) can be found in a number of places including the University’s Academic Regulations, Student Handbook, and website at www.american.edu/academics/integrity. If you have any questions about academic integrity or standards of conduct in this course, please discuss them with your instructor.

Violations of the code include, but are not limited to: cheating in exams, copying parts of another student's homework, re-using papers presented in other courses, using any material prepared by others and submitting it as the student's own work, and using verbatim text materials from sources without quotes and appropriate citation references. All lab exercises, homework assignments and the exam are individual. You MUST complete all your individual assignments INDIVIDUALLY and turn in your own work.

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IMPORTANT COURSE REQUIREMENTS