SOFT6007 JavaScript re-cap

If you missed the classes on JavaScript last week, this video might go some way to filling in the gaps in your knowledge. (If you're in a hurry skip to 19:00)

SOFT6007 Classes 07.2 & 07.3 & 07.4

Students worked on the assignment.

I saw little evidence that students who missed the classes on JavaScript last week had adressed the gaps in their knowledge in the meantime.

SOFT6007 Classes 07.2 & 07.3

Students worked on the assignment.

I saw little evidence that students who missed the classes on JavaScript last week had adressed the gaps in their knowledge in the meantime.

SOFT6008 Classes 07.2 & 07.3 B

Students worked on coding checksums. 

Attendance was poor

SOFT6008 Class 07.4

We looked at some more checksum calculations for user inout validation and I talked a bit about how one might code them.


When discussing the PPSN I drew students' attention to the relationship between the loop counter (n) and the multiplier.

n	multiplier
0	8
1	7
2	6
3	5
4	4
5	3
6	2

The multiplier is 8-n


When discussing the henkilötunnus I wasn't clear on whether the start of the list of check letters was considered 0 or 1. It's 0. So 311280-999J is a valid henkilötunnus.
I have updated the slides so this is clearer.

SOFT6008-07-4-20151028.mp3

SOFT6008 Class 07.3 A

Students worked on coding checksums.

Attendance was poor

SOFT6008 Class 07.2 & 07.3 W

Students worked on coding checksums

Holiday

Monday 27 October a holiday in Ireland.

SOFT6007 Class 06.4 W

Nobody turned up to class

SOFT6007 Class 06.2 & 06.3 & 06.4 N

I asked students to look at the spec for the assignment so that I could answer any questions they might have.

We looked at JavaScript and I talked students through the Coin Toss & Dice Game examples.  I asked students to take a look at the code and made sure they understand it.

Students who understand the code should be able to extend it to make a slot machine.

Everybody left after two hours.

Slides: 2015-JS01b.pdf

SOFT6007 Assignment Spec update

I emailed an update of the spec to all students. The updated spec does not require a JavaScript game to be included.

SOFT6007 Slot machine images

These might be useful for the slot machine exercise:

SOFT6007 Class 06.2 & 06.3 W

I asked students to look at the spec for the assignment so that I could answer any questions they might have.

We looked at JavaScript and I talked students through the Coin Toss & Dice Game examples.  I asked students to take a look at the code and made sure they understand it.

Students who understand the code should be able to extend it to make a slot machine.

Slides: 2015-JS01b.pdf

SOFT6008 Attendance Week 06

Attendance for Week 06 was 45%

SOFT6008 Class 06.2 & 06.3 B

Students worked on coding checksum calculations for the assignment

SOFT6008 Class 06.4

We looked at different ways to code the Luhn algorithm.

We looked at EAN, ISBN, and PPSN algorithms

Audio: SOFT6008-06-4-20151021.mp3

SOFT6008 Assessment 1 Results

The results of assessment 1 are here sorted by the last 4 digits of your ID number.

I was disappointed by the results. A number of students have not yet mastered be very basics.  These students need to go back to the very start of the course and work forwards from there.

SOFT6008 Class 06.3 A

Students worked on coding the checksums.

Only three students came to class

SOFT6008 Class 06.2 & 06.3

Students worked on coding checksum validations.  Most are still working on the credit card. We will look at that in the lecture today.

SOFT6008 Class 06.1 W

Students worked on coding the credit card checksum.  Many students are weak programmers and are struggling with the logic.

SOFT6008 Class 06.1 B

Students worked on coding various checksums.

Attendance was poor

SOFT6007 Class 06.1

We looked at how to do a three column layout in CSS.

It was very slow because the machine in the room was not cooperating. I will go over it again in the labs.

SOFT6008 Class 06.1 & 06.2 A

Students worked on coding various checksums.

Attendance was poor

SOFT6007 Class 05.4 W

We looked at using Google Fonts to add an interesting font to the page.

SOFT6007 Classes 05.2 05.3 05.4 N

05.2 I asked students to experiment with different CSS properties. We looked at the font property shorthand again and I asked students to experiment with that. I asked students to experiment with relative sizes using em

05.3 We looked at classes and IDs and I asked students to colour code their timetables using classes

05.4 We used Google Fonts to add an interesting font to the page

SOFT6007 Class 05.2 & 05.3 W

05.2 I asked students to experiment with different CSS properties.

We looked at the font property shorthand again and I asked students to experiment with that. 

I asked students to experiment with relative sizes using em

05.3

We looked at classes and IDs and I asked students to colour code their timetables using classes

SOFT6008 Class 05.2 &05.3 B

Students worked on coding the Luhn algorithm and some looked at some others too.

SOFT6008 Luhn Algorithm Patent

If you didn't like my explanation of the Luhn's Algorithm check out the original patent
http://www.google.com/patents/US2950048

SOFT6008 Class 05.4 Exam

We had an exam from 1230-1400.  I will send an email once I have the results organised.

The font for the code caused some confusions because l2 looked like 12.  I did my best to clear that up on the day, but it may not have been enough.  Here's a PDF of the exam and a version of it in a different font.  Please take a look at them both.

If you feel that you were disadvantaged by the typography of the exam, please send me an e-mail by noon on Wednesday (21st) and I will set aside your result.  I will get back to you with a time for a different exam, that will address the same learning outcomes.  However, before making this choice please be aware that the exam will likely be after 1800 some evening, will take less than an hour, and may not be open book.  Also it won't be a best-out-of-two scenario.  The mark you get for the second exam will be on only mark you will get.

I have no reason to believe that anyone was disadvantaged by the typography.  But if someone was I would like to try to redress it now while we have time rather than later.

SOFT6008 Class 05.3

Some students worked on the credit card check sum code, but other got ready for today's exam by reviewing code.

SOFT6008 The Google

I cannot stress enough the importance of trying to write code for yourself.  Googling for solutions is of limited value.  Students need to learn to write code from scratch.  That the the point of the programme they are enrolled on.  I've been doing this while now and in my experience obsessive Googlers tend not to be successful because they don't learn the skills they need.  Students are unlikely to learn much from other people's code.

If you try to write the code yourself I am happy to help you.  If your objective is to steal code and put all your efforts into covering your tracks, then you are wasting your time and mine.

No one is going to pay you Google code for a living.

SOFT6008 Class 05.2 & 05.3 W

Students continued working on the credit card validation.  Progress was slower than I had expected.  I think students are struggling with going from the problem definition to the algorithm.  The JavaScript code per se doesn't see to be an issue.

SOFT6008 Class 05.1 B

Stduenst worked on coding the Luhn algorithm in JavaScript

SOFT6007 Class 05.1

We looked at CSS. I stressed the importance of keeping the content and styling information separate and told students to never used embedded nor inline styles.

SOFT6008 Class 05.1 & 05.2 A

I asked students to write code for the Luhn checksum algorithm used for credit cards.

SOFT6008 Attendance

The attendance rate in Week 04 was 64%. That's a slight improvement on earlier weeks, but it's still low.

SOFT6008 Exam reminder

The exam will run from 1230 to 1400 in the Melbourne Exam Hall on next Wednesday 14 October.

It won't be a long exam but I booked a 2-hour slot just in case someone needs a bit of extra time.

This is a one-sheet exam. Student will be permitted to bring a single A4 sheet of notes (front-and-back).

This will be worth 20% of the final mark for the module. All students registered for the module need to attend in order to get full marks.

You should have received a sample by e-mail.

Please enter and leave quietly.

SOFT6007 Class 04.2 & 04.3 & 04.4

Students worked on coding up the form.

We had a brief introduction to CSS and students styled the timetables they completed in previously

SOFT6007 Class 04.2 & 04.3 W

Students worked on coding up the form. Most are done now or nearly done.

We may move on to something new in the next class.

SOFT6008 Class 04.2 & 04.3 B

I asked student to start coding up the Luhn algorithm for check sum calculations. It was slow going. But we will look at it again in the next lab.

SOFT6008 Class 04.4

I talked a little bit about the slot machine exercise and the exam next week.

We began our look at user input validation and checksums.

slides: 2015-JS04.pdf  (check notes page for most recent version)


code: Phone Number Checker


audio: SOFT6008-04-4-20151007.mp3

HTML5 Audio tag

MP3 

SOFT6008 Class 04.1 A

Students worked on the phone cost calculator. As with other lab groups it is the logic that is slowing people down and not the javascript as such.

SOFT6008 Feedback on exercise 1

Individual feedback is here:
2015-SOFT6008slot-feedback3.htm

I didn't  make note of any instances of copying. But I did have a word with some students.

For assessments worth marks I would investigate possible cheating more thoroughly.

SOFT6008 Call Cost Calculator Tips

Some students have struggled with the logic required to complete the call cost calculator exercise.

Once the first two price plans have been coded correctly the rest are easy.

The pre-pay plan is simple because each minute, text, or mb used is charged per unit.

If if mins were 8c, texts 6c, and data 2c per mb
the calculation looks something like:

total = mins * .08 + texts *.06 + mbs * .02

However where a plan comes with some free usage for a set minimum fee and this need to be accounted for.

Suppose a price plan costs €20 and comes with 50 free minutes and customers are charged 8c per extra minute.

It's tempting to say that
extramins = mins - 50

But wherever mins in less than 50, the phone company would be giving money back for unused minutes. It's only correct to say extramins = mins - 50 when mins is greater than 50. Furthermore, if mins is less than 50 then the number of extra minutes is zero.

So the code would look something like

if mins > 50 then
     extramins = mins - 50
else
     extramins = 0
end if

This is the pice of the puzzle that most students who had difficultly failed to figure out.

However the calculation of the extra minutes, texts, and data are independent of each other.

Eventually the final calculation might look something like:
totalcost = 20 + extramins * .08 + extratexts *.07 + extradata * .03

It doesn't make sense to check to see
if (mins > 50) && (texts > 100) && (data >100)

The extra minutes, extra texts, and extra data, must be calculated independently of each other.


The javascript part of the exercise didn't seem to pose any major problems for students.  Students who are weak in programming may want to revisit some of the exercises they did in first year.

SOFT6008 Class 04.1 & 04.2 W

Students worked on extending the phone cost calculator. That has taken much longer than I was expecting. I think some students are struggling with simple programming issues. The javascript portions of the problem don't seem to be giving rise to any of the difficulties.

Students who were finished with that exercise took a look at checksums and some started coding.

SOFT6008 Attendance

The attendance rate for the first three weeks of semester was 57%. This isn't good. Coming to class can have a big impact on a student's chances of passing this module.

SOFT6008 User Input Validation

Video on User Input Validation

SOFT6008 Class 04.1 B

Most students worked on the call cost calculator. I advised them to concentrate on getting the first two plans completed correctly before starting the others.

I asked students who were done to take a look at the video on User Input Validation

SOFT6007 Class 04.1

We looked at semantic tags and forms.

I mentioned that we will have an assessment soon.probably in Week 06. I will get back to students about this.

SOFT6008 Class 04.1 & 04.2 A

Students worked on extending the call cost calculator example. Many students struggled with the logic, rather than the HTML. I advised them to concentrate on getting the first two plans completed correctly before starting the others.  It's useful to focus on the extra number of minutes, extra number of texts, and extra data.

SOFT6007 Class 03.4 W

We had a rather hurried introduction to forms and students got stuck in and coded one up. 

We we have a more leisurely look at forms in the lecture next week

SOFT6007 Class 03.2 03.3 & 03.4 N

Most students completed the table exercises including those requiring colspan and rowspan.  Students did not finish them should complete them outside of class.

We had a brief look at forms and I gave out a printout with different kinds of inputs. We will look at these more closely in the lecture next week.

I asked students to complete a form exercise. (see below)

SOFT6007 Form Exercise

Code a HTML page with a  form for a computer club

Join page containing a form

• Parent's full name
• Parent's Email
• Child's name
• Age of child (7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15, or 16)
• Tick a box if they are willing to volunteer
• Do they own a laptop computer?
• Do they own a raspberry PI?
• Prove they are not a computer – choose their favourite colour
• Submit and Reset buttons

·         Use http://atlantis.cit.ie/displayvalues.php to verify that your form sends the data from the form to the server

SOFT6007 Class 03.2 & 03.3 W

I asked students to modify the timetables completed last week to account for double classes. This didn't take very long, But a few students didn't do the timetable last week and so had to first catch up.

I asked student to code the exercise we did class on Monday.

Only 6 students turned up to class this morning.

I asked students who were done to take a look at HTML forms. We will be looking at forms next.

In future we will not wait for students to catch up, Students who miss a lecture or practical session will be expected to figure out what happened and catch up in their own time,.