T. Andrew Yang 

(yang@grove.iup.edu)
Computer Science Department

HTTP://WWW.CO103.IUP.EDU/

1. Introduction to Web Development

1. World Wide Web as a new computing platform

2. The client-server model

3. The multi-tier model

4. Sample Web applications

5. Alternative Web development technologies

6. Client side development

7. Server side development

8. Summary

2. Curriculum Design

1. Curriculum Design Issues

2. A Sample Course

3. Lessons Learned

4. Specialty Track in Enterprise Computing

References

Designing and Teaching a Web Development Course

• Click here to see the course on line (the syllabus, class notes, assignments, tests, et. al.).

Ö  A Mixed Audience & the Final Grades

• Population size: 12

Ö   What have we learned? 

• A good grab of Java is a must!

• Some students who took a Java course before still had difficulty completing the assignments.

• More coverage of fundamental topics in Java, such as Java servlets, will be helpful, especially during the first quarter of the course.

• ASP can be easily learned even for students without Visual Basic experience.

• Importance of multi-tier model and distinction between client side and server side development.

• Lack of textbooks covering both the architecture, the protocols, and the various technologies.

• Difficult to get system support for the course!

• A new course on distributed component-based technologies, such as CORBA, EJB, and DCOM, is highly desirable!

• Modification of the prerequisites: 

Prerequisites: cosc304 (Java Prog.) and cosc310 (Data Structure)

Co-requisite: cosc341 (Database Management System)

 

• An issue for discussion/debate:

IDE versus "raw" systems

- Sample IDE's: CodeFusion, VisualAge for Java

- The "raw" approach: JDK, notepad, ftp, telnet, Java servlets engine, Web browser

Trade-offs?

Development versus Deployment

Should students in an upper-level Web development course be required to deal with the deployment aspects of Web applications?

 

Ö  Alternative curricular design

• Alternative 1: Two separate courses for separate camps of technologies

  • Course one - focusing on Microsoft technologies, including VB Script, ASP, and COM/DCOM.

  • Course two - focusing on Java technologies, including applets, servlets, JSP, JDBC, RMI, and EJB.

• Alternative 2: Two separate courses with mixed technologies

  • Course one - focusing on Web-server based development, including VB Script, ASP, Java Script, Java applets, servlets, JDBC, and JSP. 

  • Course two - focusing on distributed component-based technologies, including RMI, EJB, DCOM, and CORBA.

• Guess which alternative the students voted for?

  The result: alternative 2  (COSC415 + COSC416)

• Main arguments during the debate:

• Simultaneous (during the same semester) exposure to compatible technologies from both camps

  aka, "preventing 'single-minded' practitioners who knows one and only one camp" -- a famous quote made by Jeff, who had completed his internship using both Java and ASP before taking the class.

  -> The importance of cross-platform development and distributed connectivity!

• Moving from Web-server based development to distributed component-based technologies