SOFT6007 Assignment 2 Comments

As I give feedback to students I am copying and pasting the comments into a page so that other students might benefit from them. It's over there on the right in the Pages section.

SOFT6007 ITS1/DCOM1 Class 28

We had a Q&A session

SOFT6008 Class 28

For the fist hour we had a Q&A session. The second hour was more like a regular lab.

Most of the work I saw today was getting there. A lot of students are nearly done.

When you think you're done let me know. I'm happy to commit to a mark.

SOFT6007 COM1 Class 28

We had a Q&A session. We mostly discussed Assignment 3

SOFT6007 Dropbox

1320 12 April

Erasmus Study in Paris

Details here:
http://en.isep.fr/studying-at-isep/exchange-students

SOFT6007 Dropbox

As of 1004 5/4/2012

SOFT6008 Comments

I left a note called notefromColin.txt in each student's dropbox.

A number of students appear to have uploaded nothing yet.

I've pasted all of the comments here in case other students might benefit from them. They are in no particular order.

I was hoping to see how your assignment was going.
But I couldn't find it here.

You seem to be making progress but I think you are a small bit behind schedule.
Concentrate on meeting the minimum requirements.
For the topping selection it makes more sense to use checkboxes
and toggling the visibility is a bit of a long way around.
See the Tatyo Head example 2 on the blog. It does what you are trying to do.


Your pizza page looks great and you have a lot of it done already.
The total box you are using to display the price is editable. This would allow the user to set his own price. It need not be a text box. You could use a div and modify the innerHTML, like in the phone checksum example.
I'm not sure if the plain setting belongs there. It's a bit confusing. Unless sleecting it unchecks all the other boxes (that would be inpressive) you should remove it.
Check the values being sent to the PHP server for the drinks. It seems to be sending numbers.
You still have a bit of a ways to go. But you have nearly met the minimum requirements. Concentrate on those and make sure you meet them. Then try the visualization using the Tayto Head examples as a template.


You have made a lot of progress. But you are a bit behind schedule at this stage. Te validation functions are not being called when you click the buy now button. Wrap up the validation activities in a single function and call that when the button is pressed. That should help. Make sure that your functions return values.


Try the visualization using the Tayto Head examples as a template.
The pizza guy might look beter against a white background. But as it is, it looks great.
You need to start putting the pieces together. I think you are a bit behind schedule.
You are getting there though. well done.


You still have a ways to go with the pizza assignment.
You are a bit behind schedule at this stage.

SOFT6007 Dropbox

At 0955 3/4/2012

SOFT6007 Class 26 DCOM1 Lab

We sorted out the dropbox and the vaidator.

Students worked on Assignment 2.

SOFT6007 ITS1/DCOM1 Class 27

I talked a bit about setting up the dropbox and about using the validator.  ITS1 students are welcome to come along to class at 1400-1600 if they need help with any of that. There is usually plenty of space in the lab.

We resumed our look at image formats. We saw GIF, JPEG, ad PNG and discussed transparency.

At the end we talked a little bit about Assignment 3. Students opted for a take away assignment over an exam, which was expected.

I will spec out the assignment today  (or Tuesday.)

SOFT6007 COM1 Class 27

We resumed our look at image formats. We saw GIF, JPEG, ad PNG and discussed transparency.

At the end we talked a little bit about Assignment 3. Students opted for a take away assignment over an exam, which was expected.

I will spec out the assignment today  (or Tuesday.)

SOFT6008 Class 27

We looked at the style.visibility and how it might be useful for the pizza assignment.


I introduced HTML5's drag and drop but explained that it probably wasn't a profitable area of exploration.


We looked at the TimeGame case study, but didn't finish it.

SOFT6007 COM1 Class 28 Lab A

Students signed up to dropbox and shared a folder with me.

I explained about the doctype and how to validate webpages.

We discussed how very different pages could all use the same single stylesheet.

SOFT6007 COM1 Class 28 Lab B

Students signed up to dropbox and shared a folder with me.

I explained about the doctype and how to validate webpages.

SOFT6007 Validating XHTML

You will need to ensure that your code validates. You can check your code at http://validator.w3.org. Your pages should declare the document type correctly in order for it to validate. I recommend xhtml 1.0.

You will need to ensure that the start of your xhtml files look like this:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">

<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" />

SOFT6007 Please sign up to Dropbox

Please sign up to Dropbox. If you haven't already done so you can follow this link or get someone who has signed up already to invite you. They will get extra space. Double your space at https://www.dropbox.com/edu

Make a folder called "SOFT6007-" followed by your mycit username. e.g SOFT6007-barack.obama2

Share that folder with colin.manning@cit.ie

From week 9 to the submission deadlines students will be expected to save the latest version of their assignment submission to the Dropbox at least once a week.

This will allow me to see how the work is progressing, and it will also allow me to help students out remotely if needed.

If youy are in the lab please check the screen to see if I you have shared folder. Afterwards you can check the screen shot here.

This is a requirement for the assigment(s). Failure to update your work will have a negative impact on your mark.

SOFT6008 Spec updated

Following on from today's discussions, I updated the specification for the assignment so that the value of the various non-required features are firmer. Students who didn't get >40% in Assessment 1 will need more than 40% in assessment 2 in order to pass.

SOFT6007 Class 26 ITS1 Lab

I spent a little bit of time with students concerned about their assessment result.

Students worked away on Assessment 2. No many seem to be taking on JavaScript just yet.

SOFT6008 Class 26

We discussed the assessment. Students made some fair points.

We also discussed plagiarism at length and what is allowed an what is not.

I don't propose to put a recording of today's class online. But it doesn't seem right that only I should have a copy. If anyone wants a copy I can e-mail an mp3.

SOFT6007 Assessment 1 results

The results are now available here.

Use the last 4 digits of your ID number to find your mark. If the number if digits shown is less than four it's because there were leading zeros.

I couldn't find all the ID numbers. If your's isn't there, don't be alarmed.

SOFT6007 ITS1/DCOM1 Class 25

We looked at some more JavaScript. We saw loops, and rollovers, buttons, and getElementById.

There is no more JavaScript required to complete Assessment 2, whether it's an exam or a take-away exercise.

SOFT6007 COM1 Class 25

We looked at some more JavaScript. We saw loops, and rollovers, buttons, and getElementById.

There is no more JavaScript required to complete Assessment 2, whether it's an exam or a take-away exercise.

SOFT6007 ITS1/DCOM1 Class 24

We looked at an alternative Three Column Layout (fancy5.html fancy5.css)

We looked at JavaScript.

• javascript1-time-based-greeting.html
• javascript2-random-image.html

SOFT6007 COM1 Class 24

We looked at an alternative Three Column Layout (fancy5.html fancy5.css)

We looked at JavaScript.

• javascript1-time-based-greeting.html
• javascript2-random-image.html

SOFT6008 Assessment 1 Results

The results for assessment 1 are now online. They are sorted by the last 4 digits of ID number. If there's only 3 it's because there's a leading zero.

I was disappointed by the results. They suggest that students are not as on top of things as I thought they were.

SOFT6008 Class 24

We looked at transparency and how it might be used to visualize the pizza for the assignment. I talked through the Mr. Tayto Head example.

SOFT6007 Class 23 Lab A

We discussed assessment 3 a bit and and warned against the dangers of over-sharing.

We looked at forms.

[I forgot my mic so there is no recording of this class]

SOFT6007 Class 23 Lab B

We discussed assessment 3 a bit and and warned against the dangers of over-sharing.

We looked at forms.

SOFT6008 Update to Dropbox

I asked student to work from their dropbox so that I can see their progress. Most student have been doing this. However, from Week 08 this is a requirement and will form part of the assessment.

Please check that I have your dropbox shown below. If I don't there is a problem.

SOFT6007 ITS1/DCOM1 Class 23

We looked at forms.

Slides:
html-12-forms.pdf (courtesy of Gary Couse)

Examples:
form1.html
form2.html

SOFT6008 Class 23

We looked at form validation.

FormValidation.html

SOFT6008 Class 22

No class today because it's a holiday. But I want to keep the class numbering consistent. So we'll call the next one 23.

SOFT6007 Class 22

No class today because it's a holiday. But I want to keep the class numbering consistent. So we'll call the next one 23.

Hogeschool van Amsterdam

A list of what is on offer at Hogeschool van Amsterdam is available at the link below. Depending on what course and stage you are at there might or might not be suitable options available to you.

https://www.international.hva.nl/programmes/exchange-programmes-minors/information-technology

SOFT6007 ITS1/DCOM1 Class 21 DCOM1 Lab

We looked at float and position

SOFT6007 COM1 Class 21

We looked at how to do a Three Column layout in CSS.

Someone asked me if we could use a header tag for the header instead of a div. Yes we can. The header tag is new-ish.
http://www.w3schools.com/html5/tag_header.asp

SOFT6008 Class 21

We had an in-class exam.

SOFT6007 COM1 Class 20 Lab A

I explained how the float and position properties worked and asked students to play around with them.

Most students weren't that interested because
1. It's not that interesting
2. They had an exam coming up in the next class and just wanted to chill

SOFT6007 FC Class 21

We looked at how to do a three column layout

SOFT76007 COM1 Class 20 Lab B

We looked at float (but not clear) and position. I asked students to experiment with different properties to see how they work.

It was a fairly pointless class really. I should have brought something more interesting to show.

SOFT6007 FC Lab Group B

Only four students turned up. Students go to grips with classes, IDs, and float. Some even played with positions.

SOFT6007 FC Lab Group A

I had hoped to move on with the CSS but because we didn't get a chance to implement the classes last week, I held off.

A good few students watched videos of the classes they missed. But that's something they could have done before today.

SOFT6007 ITS1/DCOM1 Class 20 ITS Lab

We looked at the float property and the position property. I went to C128 and added some images with transparency to the set of graphics for use in Assignment 2.

I will look into moving us to C128, even if only for an hour a week.

Educational Triage

I was discussing a student with a colleague a few weeks ago and she made a comment that got me thinking. She said “Oh, I’m not a bit worried about him. He’s not going to be here next year anyway”. That reminded me of triage.

On the battlefield, or where there are mass casualties, medical treatment is rationed so that it does the most good. Incoming casualties are sorted into different categories. Systems vary, but generally there are those casualties who are likely to be fine without immediate treatment, those who would benefit from treatment, and those who are so badly injured that they are likely to die irrespective of the treatment they receive. They are usually assigned green tags, red tags, and black tags respectively.

I wonder do lecturers (myself included) engage in educational triage. Does there come a time in our dealings with students we categorize them into those who will be fine anyway, those who need our intervention, and those who are so far gone that there is no point wasting our time on them. Are students walking around with invisible triage tags attached, that only lecturers can see? Is this fair? Or is it just pragmatic? Like battlefield medical attention, lecturers’ attention is finite. And as class sizes and workloads increase, it is becoming scarcer.

Should every student get the same amount of attention? Should those who need the most get the most, or should it be allocated where it can make the biggest difference.

What if we make mistakes? On the battlefield being classified as beyond help is fatal. If a student is written off in error and not given much assistance, he is likely to fail.

It’s interesting to think what signals or vibes we might be using to categorize students, consciously or subconsciously.  For me the question “what am I supposed to be doing?” is like bullet wound to the head. YouTube and Facebook during lab time are like serious infections.

And of course educational triage requires an additional category not seen on the battlefield. Those seriously injured students who refuse medical treatment by not turning up to class, put themselves beyond the reach of the help they need. What colour tags should we use for them?

SOFT6008 Class 20

We discussed tomorrow's exam a little.

There will be 3 questions.
Q1. (50 marks) Will be a checksum validation and DOM manipulation, with some code missing. Fill in the blanks. Having implements all the checksums from the notes, would have been good practice. If you didn't getting a look at someone else's would be good. [If you use dropbox to swap code make sure you identify it as someone else's so that I don't feel like you are passing it off as yours]

Q2. (25 marks) Will be about cookies

Q3. (25 marks) Will be write a javascript function that does ... It's something that could be in any language, but just happens to be in javascript.


In designing the exam I have tried to give average students a good chance of passing, while giving excellent students a change to do very well. Weaker students may feel time pressure. So we will try to start on the dot at 1700 and go all the way to 1800.

SOFT6007 ITS1/DCOM1 Class 19

RGB recap. LAB, CMYK, GIF

SOFT6008 Class 19

I gave out a printed version of the sample exam that was online. I talked through some parts of it, but didn't give much away.

I said "you wouldn't want to make assumptions about the length, based on the size of the box" and actually expected to get away with it.

Module Design Course

We looked at how to write learning outcomes and the different taxonomies. There's more than one!

First part of the assignment is due Friday week, so I must actually start working on it. Like most students, I have codded myself into thinking having it done in my head is enough.

SOFT6008 Sample Exam

Completing this exam would be good practice for the in-class exam this week. However completing all of the exercises would be the best practice.

Students should complete all the DOM games, try to get cookies working, and implement all the checksums outlined the notes.