Archive for the 'Curriculum' Category
Feb
1
Oct
31
Once upon a time, a long long time ago in a desert far, far away, I took a Physics class. The professor used one of them thar new-fangled personal computer thingies (pre-Apple, pre-IBM PC) to manage his grading tasks. He also introduced a solution to the “one genius makes the rest of us look bad” problem.
For the uninitiated, the “one genius” scenario is the case where a test is graded on a curve and just one person aces the test while everyone else bombs it.
His solution was simple: normalize to the second-highest score.
I have adopted this approach for any of my classes with ten or more students. If there are less than that, I’ll normalize to the highest score.
Here’s how it works. Let’s say a test is worth 200 points. A genius scores 190, but the second highest score is 150. What I will do is add 50 points (200 – 150) to everyone’s grade. Everyone, that is, except for the genius-she will get 10 points to bring her grade to a perfect score of 200.
The rationale is simple: If two or more people do well, then my teaching methods seem to be working, but if only one person does well, we assume that person is a “genius” and treat their grade as an outlier to be ignored.
The bottom line: it’s my job to help you succeed, so it’s my responsibility to grade fairly.
Note: Technically I’m applying an offset rather than normalizing, but you get the idea.
Jul
2
Here is my tentative syllabus for CSC-315, Fall 2014. The text book has not yet been defined, but this will give you a sense of the material we will cover.
IMPORTANT NOTE: for this class, you will do your programming using Visual Basic in the Visual Studio.NET 2012 IDE. This is a Windows-based development environment. I have seen students run Visual Studio on their Mac computers atop a Windows emulator, but it is incumbent on you to get it to work. Alternately, the classroom should have VS 2012 installed on every computer.
Aug
22
I have selected Murach’s Visual Basic 2010 by Anne Boehm as the textbook for CSC-300 for both the fall semester and the BDP winter term.
Addendum of 13 May 2014: Murach now has a VB 2012 edition available. Based on student feedback, the jury is still out regarding its continued use. It’s not that they think the book is bad, but rather that they tend to refer to my lecture notes instead, going to the book only for specific lookups.
Jun
14
For my upcoming CSC-300 students in the Fall 2013 term:
I haven’t yet completed the new syllabus, but I thought I’d share the one I used last year so you can get a sense of what we’ll cover in class, nor have I selected a text book yet.
There will certainly be some changes to the syllabus because my previous classes were one night a week for four hours instead of two days a week, but I’m sure you’ll get the idea of the rough schedule.
Feb
28
Attached is a copy of the Capstone Syllabus courtesy of Dr. Peng.
I expect Independent Study students to follow a similar approach in their work.
Jan
17
In addition to my Systems Analysis class, I have been invited to serve as faculty advisor for students seeking the completion of their capstone projects.
This will be a new experience for me, but with the able assistance of senior faculty members like Drs. Peng, Klassen, and Reinhart, I’m sure I’ll be able to help the students successfully meet their objectives.
Jan
16
This morning I officially saw CSC-331 Systems Analysis on my CLU Faculty Advisor page.
I look forward to teaching this class beginning in late February!
I will be using the same textbook as last time:
Introduction to Systems Analysis and Design
Whitten Bently, McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2008,
ISBN 978-0-07-340294-9