Spring Term, 2005
BA 272 - BUSINESS APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT
Syllabus:
About BA272:
BA 272, "Business Application Development," provides students
with foundational skills in the disciplined development of business application
software. These skills are a prerequisite for success in course BA 371. They
are also required for professional success in business application system
analysis, design, and project management. The software development environment
used in BA 272 is Microsoft Visual Studio .NETŪ and the Visual Basic
.NETŪ programming language, an exceptionally productive and effective
development platform which is widely employed in enterprise computing.
BA272 is an introduction to the world of business software
application development. To do this we will use one of the world's most popular
and powerful software development environments, MicrosoftVisual
Studio .NET, and the most popular language in that
environment, Visual Basic .NET. Visual Basic .NET
is an extremely productive way to develop production-quality business
applications which run well, perform robustly, and integrate well with other
software packages. Because Visual Basic .NET provides an
excellent return for application developers' time, it is also a real kick to
use. I'm sure you will enjoy learning to develop business applications in Visual
Basic .NET.
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Visual Basic .NET is not just a minor revision of
previous versions of Visual Basic. It is a top-to-bottom redesign,
focused on the needs of business application developers of the 21st century. It
includes:
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Full Object-Oriented structure.
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Cross-platform and cross-language development through the use of managed code.
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Structured exception handling.
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Greatly enhanced Web services.
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Data portability via XML.
Textbook and other instructional aids:
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Programming with Visual Basic .NET: An Object-Oriented Approach, Comprehensive
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by Michael Ekedahl & William Newman
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published by Course Technology
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ISBN 0-619-01658-2 (August 2002)
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is available at the OSU bookstore
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(You won't really need the DVD that originally came with this book.)
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WebSites:
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We will make very extensive use of OSU's Blackboard
course-management WebSite:
Students registered in this course, and who have ONID accounts,
may access the BA272 Blackboard site by logging in
at:
http://my.oregonstate.edu/
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The BA272 Blackboard site will be your primary
contact for all
your work in the course.
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A much-used feature of the BA272 Blackboard site will
be its Discussion Board.
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The Blackboard Discussion Board will be the principal means by
which students can keep in touch with the instructor, and each other, between
class sessions.
-
To achieve maximum success in BA272, you should develop the habit of
logging into the BA272 Blackboard site and its Discussion Board
daily (7 days per week).
Grading:
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| Programming Homework Assignments |
25% |
| In-Class Exercises (part of our Thursday's classes) |
30% |
| On-Line Quizzes |
5% |
| Hands-On Lab MidTerm Exam |
15% |
| Hands-On Lab Final Exam |
25% |
| Total |
100% |
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Tentative and approximate grade ranges:
A=90-100%, B=80-89%, C=70-79%, D=60-69%, and F=0-59%
Note: Final course grades will be adjusted so that the class GPA
approximately corresponds to COB policy expectations.
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"Incomplete" grades:
Subject to OSU Academic Regulations, if a student has satisfactorily completed
most of the course work, but has encountered an emergency which, in the
instructor's judgment, is sufficiently serious, a grade of "Incomplete" may be
assigned.
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Other policies regarding grading and course management will be determined as
provided by OSU Academic Regulations.
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The Gradebook feature of the course Blackboard site will
be used to record all grades.
Students can review all of their own grades in the course at any time by
consulting the Gradebook.
Note that the Gradebook does not provide the mathematical functions
necessary to calculate grade totals.
Time commitment required for this course:
-
A rule-of-thumb for college courses is that you should expect to spend 2 hours
outside of class for each 1 hour in class.
So, "do the math": Our course meets for 4 class hours per week. Therefore you
should expect to devote at least 8 hours per week to your own individual
encounters with the Muse of Visual Basic .NET. The True Geeks
among you will devote much more!
Programming Homework Assignments:
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There will be a programming homework assignment for each chapter covered in the
text. The assignments will be posted on the course Blackboard
site.
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Each programming assignment must be contained in its own
properly-named folder. You must
use a Zip archiving program (there is one built into Windows XP, or you may use
a 3rd-party archiving program such as WinZip) to archive the folder containing
your programming assignment.
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You must submit your assignments on-line via the Blackboard
"Digital Drop Box".
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(See tips on how to do this, below.)
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Note: other arrangements for on-line submitting of assignments may be developed
during the term.
If so, they will be announced in class and on the course Blackboard
site.
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Each programming assignment must be submitted one hour before the
beginning of class on the date due, i.e. by 5:00pm Assignments
will be marked down 3 points (out of 10 points possible) for being late and
will not be accepted more than one week late for any reason.
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Each programming assignment will be worth a maximum of 10 points. Points will
be earned as follows:
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1 point: satisfactory on-time completion of the assignment, and attendance in
class on the due date, with the willingness to present the
assignment to the class and explain:
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how it works.
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why you programmed it the way you did.
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9 points: program quality evaluated according to the VB
Scoring Guide.
Note: If the instructor needs more information in order to evaluate an
assignment, he will make an appointment for the student to come to his office
and explain the assignment in depth.
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Programming Homework Assignments will be graded.
Students will receive feedback on the following Tuesday.
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The proper format for submitting programs is illustrated in the
Instructions for submitting the first programming assignment and
the VB Coding Standards.
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Note: Students are responsible for assuring that assignments are
submitted in the proper format and that all required files are included. In the
case of assignments submitted On-Line, this includes the responsibility to find
and use a reliable network connection to the Blackboard server. If you
are in any doubt about the reliability of an off-campus network connection, you
are advised to submit your assignment from on campus. The instructor cannot
make allowances for a student's failure to submit an assignment because the
student's home computer crashed, Internet connection failed, dog ate modem,
etc. etc.
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When you ZIP your folder for submission, test it to make sure it can be unzipped
to a new location on your computer's hard drive and that the unzipped result
contains all the necessary files. Similarly, when you upload your Zip file,
test the transfer by downloading and unzipping it. The professional "Net Geek"
attitude about file transfers is "skepticism verging on paranoia".
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The instructor cannot be responsible for notifying students about
assignments that were not completely received before the deadline.
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Note that the programming assignments exercise most but not all of
the skills required for mastery of the course material. Students are strongly
urged to practice their Visual Basic programming skills by carefully following
the examples and tips in the text, as well as by "recreational"
programming outside of the assignments.
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Note: to understand and complete the chapters and projects in the textbook you
will probably find it useful to consult the data files that the textbook
publisher has provided. The files are posted as downloadable Course Documents
on the course Blackboard site, or you may be able to download
them directly from the publisher's WebSite listed above.
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Some tips on how to use the Blackboard "Digital Drop
Box":
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The Digital Drop Box enables students to exchange files with the Instructor.
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A file added to the Drop Box will not appear to the Instructor until it has
been sent. Once a file has been sent to the Instructor, it cannot be removed
from the Drop Box.
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After you have logged into Blackboard and our BA272
course, follow the steps below:
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Click Tools
on the course menu.
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Select Digital Drop Box. The following functions are available
from the Digital Drop Box page:
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Add File: Upload files to your Drop Box.
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Send File: Send a file to the Instructor.
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Remove: Remove a file from your Drop Box.
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The following date and time information is included in files:
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Files sent to the Instructor will show the date and time submitted.
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Files that are added to the Drop Box but not sent will show the date and time
posted.
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Files sent from the Instructor will show the date and time received.
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Note: The date and time displayed in each instance is the date and time on the
Blackboard server.
In-Class Exercises:
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Each Thursday's
class will be devoted mainly to an In-Class Lab Exercise during which students
will practice the skills covered in the chapter which we are studying. (Note:
There will also be an In-Class Exercise on the Tuesday of the last (10th) week
of class.)
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Lab Exercises must be completed in-class, in person.
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At the appropriate time during each Thursday's class, the instructor will give
instructions for the Lab Exercise.
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During the class session (up until 7:50pm), students will complete the Lab
Exercise, with the instructor's help as needed and possible.
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At the end of the class session (7:50pm), students will transfer their Lab
Exercise solutions to a file share which will be designated
(The temporary default location will be the Blackboard
"Digital DropBox".)
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Each Lab Exercise must be contained in its own
properly-named folder. You must
use a Zip archiving program (there is one built into Windows XP, or you may use
a 3rd-party archiving program such as WinZip) to archive the folder.
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The Lab Exercises will be briefly graded; students will receive
feedback on the following Tuesday.
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There will be 10 In-Class Lab Exercises.
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Your grade for the Lab Exercises portion of the course (30% of the course
grade) will be the average of your best 8
Lab Exercise grades.
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If you are absent on the day of a Lab Exercise or are present but do not submit
it, of course your grade for that Lab Exercise will be zero.
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Since, as above, up to two Lab Exercises can be missed without any grade
penalty, there will be no make-up Lab Exercises for any reason.
On-Line Quizzes:
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There will be an On-Line quiz for each chapter covered in the text. The quizzes
will be given via Blackboard.
The quizzes may be taken from any computer on the Internet.
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Obviously, quizzes administered in this way are necessarily "open book". You
are expected to find your own answers to the quiz questions. The main purpose
of the quizzes is so you can check your comprehension of the chapter study
material. To help toward this goal, students are strongly encouraged to
complete each quiz before
we finish our class discussion of the chapter. Reviewing the Summary at the end
of the chapter will be helpful in mastering the quizzes.
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All the quizzes will be enabled in advance of the week(s) during which the
chapter will be discussed in class, so that students may work ahead. Each quiz
will be turned off at 10:00PM on the date designated. The
chapter study assignments and the dates when the corresponding quiz will be turned
off are listed on the Course Schedule
posted on this Web server, and also on the Schedule of the course Blackboard site.
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There are no "make up" quizzes for any reason, although the lowest quiz grade
will be discarded.
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Students have the responsibility to find and use a reliable
network connection to the Blackboard server in order to take the
On-Line quizzes. If you are in any doubt about the reliability of an off-campus
network connection, you are advised to take the On-Line quiz from on campus.
The instructor cannot make allowances because the student's home
computer crashed, Internet connection failed, etc.
Exams:
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MidTerm exam:
One MidTerm exam, worth 15% of the course credit, will be given during
a class time as listed on the Course Schedule.
The exam will consist of one or more practical programming problems which you
will complete as well as possible during the available 1 hour and 50 minutes.
You may use your textbook and class notes for reference during the exam. We
will have an in-class review session to prepare for the exam, and I will
provide one or more sample problems which you can work on to prepare for it.
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Final exam:
The Final exam, worth 25% of the course credit, will be given
in our regular classroom at the time scheduled for it by the OSU Academic
Calendar as listed on the Course Schedule.
The exam will consist of one or more practical programming problems which you
will complete as well as possible during the available 1:50 hours. You may
use your textbook and class notes for reference during the exam. We will have
an in-class review session to prepare for the exam, and I will provide one or
more sample problems which you can work on to prepare for it.
Class attendance:
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For legal reasons, instructors are advised to keep track of students'
attendance in class. In addition to considerations of Class Participation, this
is made necessary by the fact that some Student Financial Aid programs require
class attendance. Instructors do not know which students may be enrolled in
such Financial Aid Programs until the end of the term, at which time attendance
information may be required. So the best policy, which will be followed in this
course, is for the instructor to take attendance at each class meeting. This
also helps the instructor learn students' names as quickly as possible.
Interacting with the Instructor, and other students, outside of class:
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If things are not going well for you in the class, contact me, Parker Swanson.
Don't wait until the end of the term to request help.
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The best way to contact me is by e-mail:
mailto:swansonp@bus.oregonstate.edu
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My office hours for Winter 2005 term will be:
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|
Time |
Place |
|
Tue, Thu:
5:00 - 6:00pm
|
Bx 402A
(or Bexell basement computer lab, if a note is posted on the door of
Bx402A) |
| or: |
By appointment. |
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My office phone number is: 541-737-6055
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Online Discussion:
As mentioned above, a much-used feature of the course Blackboard
site will be its Discussion Board.
-
The Blackboard Discussion Board
will be the principal means by which students can keep in touch with the
instructor, and each other, between class sessions.
-
Students with ONID accounts may access the BA272 Blackboard
site by logging in at:
http://my.oregonstate.edu/
-
To achieve maximum success in BA272, you should develop the habit of
logging into the BA272 Blackboard site and its Discussion Board
daily (7 days per week).
-
If you see a question posted by another student, feel free to help if you know
the answer. The instructor will also monitor the Blackboard Discussion
Board
and respond to questions.
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In general, it's much better to bring up a subject on the Blackboard
Discussion Board
instead of e-mailing it to the instructor. The instructor strongly prefers that
all students should have access to all substantive discussions about course
material.
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A tip about using the Blackboard Discussion Board:
try to post your contributions under the appropriate Topic. (For example, for
most postings you can probably think of someplace more appropriate than
"General Topics".) You will have the ability to create new Threads so that
topics can branch appropriately.
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Another tip: If, as usual, you are asking about a Visual Basic .NET
program, code snippets copied from your program and pasted into a text message
are of very little use. In order to figure out what
your problem is, the instructor (or other students) need your entire VB.NET
Solution, in the form of a Zip file attached to your posting.
After you have made your posting with its attached Zip file containing your
VB.NET Solution, check that it was properly posted by
downloading the Zip file, extracting it to a new location on your computer hard
drive, and opening the resulting VB.NET Solution in
Visual Studio .NET.
Skills required for success in this course:
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Time management:
The ability to plan ahead, start assignments early, ask for needed help early,
and submit assignments according to specifications and on time.
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Patience:
The ability to look calmly at a problem, analyze how to solve it, and
concentrate on its solution.
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Skill in analytical and logical problem-solving:
A genuine liking for solving puzzles, and satisfaction in having done your best
work to produce a solution.
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A sense of humor: Working with computers humbles a person every day.
Learn not to take it personally!
Academic Honesty Policy:
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Much of what you learn in this course will be through interactions with other
students. As you will often teach each other, it is difficult to draw the line
between getting legitimate outside assistance and outright cheating. Students
who receive too much assistance ultimately cheat themselves by not attaining
the computer skills needed in their college careers and the competition for
jobs in the "real world."
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Despite the preceding disclaimer, you are to do your own work on all activities
and exams. Direct or indirect use of exams or other student work from previous
terms to complete your exams or assignments is a violation of academic honesty.
If you turn in all or part of someone else's work as your own or allow someone
else to turn in your work as theirs, then you have committed a violation of
academic honesty and will be dealt with in accordance with regulations of the
University. Possible penalties include a failing grade for the work in
question, a failing grade for the course, and suspension from the College or
University.
Note about cell phones in class:
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Please set your cell phone ringer to "Vibrate Only" mode (or turn it off)
before you enter the classroom. If you need to answer or place a call, please
step outside the classroom while you do so.
Accomodations:
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Students who have any emergency medical information the instructor should know
of, who need special arrangements in the event of evacuation, or students with
documented disabilities who may need accommodations, should make an appointment
with the instructor as early as possible, no later than the first week of the
term. If additional assistance is required the student should contact the
Office of Disability Services.
Discrimination or harassment:
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Discrimination or harassment will not be tolerated in the classroom. Most cases
of discrimination or harassment violate Federal and State laws and University
Policies and Regulations. Intentional discrimination or harassment will be
referred to the Affirmative Action Office and dealt with in accordance with the
appropriate rules and regulations.
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Unintentional discrimination or harassment is just as damaging to the offended
party, but it usually results from people not understanding the impact of their
remarks or actions on others, or an insensitivity to the feelings of others. We
must all strive to work together to create a positive learning environment.
This means that each individual should be sensitive to the feelings of others
and tolerant of the remarks and actions of others. If you find the remarks and
actions of another individual offensive, please bring it to their attention. If
you believe those remarks and actions constitute intentional discrimination or
harassment, please bring it to your instructor's attention.
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