[ericvan1]

Introduction to Visual Studio. Introduction to algorithms.
Variables. Calling/using methods. If statements. Comments.
Nested ifs. Loops. Creating/writing methods. Scope of variables.
Arrays. File I/O. Classes/Objects. Modular design. Exceptions.

This course starts right from the beginning of programming skills. If you are a programmer you will be bored out of your mind throughout this course. If you have never programmed, you will find the first half of the course easy and the last half more challenging.

5 marked assignments. Counts 20% towards the final grade
5 marked quizzes. Counts 10% towards the final grade
Midterm counts 30% towards the final grade
Final Exam counts 40% towards the final grade

Uses Visual C# 2008

If you've programmed in highschool then most likely you won't find this course very challenging. This course is VERY fast paced though. It starts of fairly easy first lab (display text in a textbox I think was the first one) then gets more difficult really fast. For people who have never programmed before I suggest you go to each tutorial because they go through the material giving examples and will help you understand things like arrays, classes, records etc. and also do the practise labs since they are relatively similar to the actual marked labs. Also I don't suggest you buy the textbook since all the material that you'll need will be in lecture/tutorial notes.

As stated by the previous people, if you have programmed before this class is a joke. You use Visual C# which is basically a mix of Java and Visual Basic. VB interface with the coding done in Java. The first bit of the course is fairly simple, talking about variables, types, etc... Gets harder once you move into 2D arrays and OOP(object oriented programming). The textbook is honestly pointless to get since pretty much EVERYTHING you need to know will be done in labs and tutorials. I found the lectures completely pointless and only went for the i-clicker marks. The labs imo wernt that bad. (But I have programmed for like 4 years). Thre are also quizzes which are done every other week at the end of your practice lab. They have 5 questions and you have 10-15mins to do it. The questions can be tricky but the material is mostly from tutorials. The midterm and exam are openbook so you can bring all your notes, printouts, textbook etc..

In the end, this course is either a hit or miss. Some people find it really easy and do extremely well. Some people find it too hard and just try to pass. Some people drop it to take in summer school. It just really depends if you can understand the concepts or not. Best advice is to keep making programs...reading the notes and books wont help ya much.

Btw, I had Spencer Smith as my prof...aint the greatest. Goes off topic pretty much the whole lecture.

I head something about this changing next year. Is this true?

I found that this course was not an introductory programming course AT ALL. I was constantly a few weeks behind the whole way through the course, failing all but one of the labs. I ended up learning everything 2 weeks too late. My advice would be to work well ahead and make sure you go to tutorials and ask LOTS of questions in practice labs.

The problem with the course is that it is too slow for those who have programming experience but it is too fast for those who are beginners. In lectures there were clicker questions which were suppose to see if you understood material that was just presented but I found the difficulty of the questions were way beyond what you should know for material that was just presented in the last slide.

They should offer two levels. If you put yourself in the wrong ones..that's your problem

Well they should at least not make it so painfully slow the first few weeks so people don't think it's a bird course

This was definitely one of my favorite courses. Although, I did not feel the tests and exams were not a true test of knowledge of the material we covered. If you enjoy programming, read ahead and do a lot of practice, this course is sure to be an easy A

Can anyone comment on the labs? Are they long and marked? I have a class conflicting with the last hour of the lab, can I consistantly make it to my class and finish the lab? (I have programming experience, and I'm willing to prep before the labs.)

which class?and it should be impossible to fix your scedule with help of Sally. If you have programming experience and know whats haappen before lab, you should be able to get it done in two hours, but there are always those times you may not

I'm not from engineering, I have differential equations at that time. Sadly, i can't fix it... my classes conflicts with all the lab. This is the best day I could find. Are the labs marked? Is there like a marked quiz at the end?

h9i9 yes there are marked labs every other week and marked quizzes on opposite weeks

This was probably the only course I enjoyed in first year. Make sure you go to all tutorials and pay attention. Because they were mandatory I attended them .. which actually helped me alot. If you go to all classes, tutorials and do just a little practice(hw) you should get above a 10 if you've done programming before. If you havent done programming you should still get around a 7-10 if you attend all lectures, tutorials.. etc. Course is very fast paced, one assignment is so easy, then suddenly next one is next level.

-As of 2014-15 the course uses Python.
-There are 5 Major Labs, each worth 6%, total of 30%, which are every other week
-Minors labs worth a total of 2%, which are alternate with major labs
-Tutorials and Lectures have attendance marks. Lectures have clicker questions, easy if you pay attention or go to next page of slides
-Course if as easy as it gets in Eng I if you have done even a little bit of programming or are willing to spend maybe a few hours a week
-Here are the key concepts that are covered:
+Variables, Data types, Ints, Floats, Strings, Lists
+Loops, For, While
+Conditionals, If Elseif, Else
+Functions
+Classes
+Recursion, lectures only, no labs
+Computing history
+Algorithms, sorting etc.

Its very realistic to aim at getting a 12 in this course.