CSIT 105 SYLLABUS (Section 03)
           Visual Basic I (Fall 2005)  

Lecture Instructor Gurmukh Singh  
Lecture Location 2164  Fenton Hall
Office Location 242  Fenton Hall
Lecture Days & Time  Tuesday and Thursday, 12:30 PM – 1.50 PM 
E-mail singh@fredonia.edu  or singh@cs.fredonia.edu
Office Hours  Tuesdays & Thursdays: 8:20 AM - 9:20 AM, 4:50 PM - 5:50 PM in 242 Fenton Hall
Office Phone  (716) 673-3867

 

1. Visual Basic I is a three-credit course. This course is given in a computer laboratory to provide students hands-on exposure to the following major topics:  Introduction to MS-Windows; event-driven/object-oriented programming, toolboxes, help; Visual BASIC (VB) environment; forms and properties; form procedures, printing, etc.; communications and control; managing controls, input/output and messages; components of BASIC language; variables, data types, declarations, operators, writing VB code, decision-making and looping, formatting, functions and procedures, files; program development: graphics and business applications.

 

2. Course Objectives: This course is intended to give students an introduction to programming with Visual Basic, using the .NET(2003) platform.  The text teaches programming from a task-driven rather than command-driven approach.  By working through the chapters, students learn how to design and use VB.NET applications found in the workplace.

 

Prerequisite: Three units of high school mathematics.  No previous programming experience required.

 

3. Course Homepage: http://www.cs.fredonia.edu/~singh  

 

4. Course Textbook:  Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic . Net 2nd. ed., by Diane Zak (Thomson Course Technology, 2005). Included with the text should be a CD set containing the standard edition of Microsoft Visual Basic.NET version 2003 that can be installed on your own computer. Book is available at the College Bookstore.

 

5. Grades: There will be a midterm exam, a final exam or project, and Labs/programming projects/quizzes throughout this course. The grading distribution will be approximately 20% for the midterm exam, 20% for the final exam/project, and 60% for the Labs/programming projects/quizzes.

5. Assignments: You will be assigned lab activities from the textbook along with at least one comprehensive programming project during the semester.  Labs and programming projects will be graded on functionality, organization, appearance, and proper formatting.  These assessments will contribute to your overall grade as described above.

5.1. Lateness policy: Late assignments will lose 5% off the grade otherwise earned for each day of lateness.  NO ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE ACCEPTED FOR GRADING IF THEY ARE MORE THAN A WEEK PAST DUE.

Note: Confirmation of quiz/examination/project dates and other due dates to be announced in class.

6. Attendance: Class attendance is highly recommended even though I will not take attendance every day. You are responsible for all material presented in class, examinations, and other announcements even if you miss class.  You can expect a quiz at the end of each tutorial assignment.  Exams/quizzes missed due to absence will not be made up unless prior arrangements have been made with me.  A valid written excuse will be required before any makeup is considered.

7. Academic Honesty: The specific actions in response to incidents of student dishonesty are inclusive of receiving a failing grade for an exam, quiz, assignment or the course, suspension or dismissal from college. I grades are given only if illness, hardship or any other extra ordinary circumstances preclude the completion of the course.  An I grade must be arranged before the final examination.

8. Click here for the Academic Calendar of Fall 2005 and Spring 2006

9. Students with Disabilities: If you have a disability, (physical or psychological) and require reasonable assistance to enable you to participate in this course, please see me during the first two weeks of class for appropriate arrangements.

10. Topic Outline: Course will consist of the following Tutorials:

1. Introduction to Visual Basic.NET
   (a) Creating a New Project
   (b) Working with controls
   (c) Writing code


2. Designing Applications
   (a) Planning an Object Oriented/Event Driven Application
   (b) Building the User Interface
   (c) Coding, Testing, Debugging, and Documentation

3. Using Variables and Constants
  (a) Creating variables and named constants
  (b) String concatenation and input boxes
  (c) Creating procedures that handle more than one event

4. The Selection Structure
  (a) If ... Then ... Else statement
  (b) Comparison Operators
  (c) Logical Operators
  (d) The Group Box control
  (e) Converting strings to Upper and Lower Case
  (f) The Financial.Pmt Method
  (g) MessageBox.Show Method and Keypressed Event

5. More with Selection Structure
  (a) Nested If/Else If/Else and the Case Select structures
  (b) Radio buttons & Check box controls
  (c) User-defined Sub Procedures
  (d) Generating random numbers

6. The Repetition Structure
  (a) The For...Next loop
  (b) Do...While and Do...Until loops
  (c) Counters and Accumulators 

11. Material Required: (a) One 128 MB or bigger capacity USB flash drive and (b) two or  three blank 3.5" High Density (HD) 1.44 MB diskettes (IBM compatible)

12. Class/Lab Procedures: 

     (a) Bring your USB flash disk to class daily. I recommend you use your personal storage space (U:\) on the Fredonia server mainly for backup purposes, which should be done regularly.  The floppies may be used occasionally for quizzes and/or tests, but most likely we will use the Drop Box feature in Blackboard rather than a floppy. Any work turned in must be clearly labeled (student's name and lab activity) with solution files saved with the suggested file names from the textbook.

     (b) Textbooks should be brought to each class. Take time to read the required text.  We may do some parts of (or some variation thereof) the tutorials together in class; otherwise it is expected that you will perform the tasks in the tutorials on your own as you read the material. The completed tutorial lessons and assigned exercises will be handed in as indicated on the lab sheets. 

     (c) A large portion of our class time will be used to work on labs, but you will still need to plan additional time outside of class to complete the activities. Refer to the lab sheets for the tutorial assignments and corresponding due dates.  Remember, NO LABS WILL BE ACCEPTED MORE THAN ONE WEEK LATE!

    (d) Each completed lab will consist of the lab sheet as a cover sheet, printouts when indicated and a folder submitted via Bb, CLEARLY LABELED, containing the appropriate files from that chapter. All printouts arranged chronologically, please.   Incomplete labs will not be graded.

      (e) There will be a mid-term exam along with quizzes throughout the semester.  The exam will include short answer questions plus programming questions. Each quiz will consist of around 25-30 short answer questions (multiple-choice, true/false, fill-in-the-blank), usually specific to a recently completed Tutorial.

     (f) There will be a final exam or programming project. 

  Note: This syllabus is subject to change at the discretion of instructor