3 day course - how best to cover Java

[Ben Wood]

Hi,

I work for a fairly large scientific research organisation that is keen on providing a wide range of internal training courses and I am responsible for a 3 day course which could be described either as an introduction to Java, or an introduction to programming. Given the demographics of the organisation which (on the technical side) is sort of 60% scientific, 40% IT developers (web, DB mostly + support), people come to the course with a range of experience from FORTRAN and C on the scientific side, to JavaScript, Perl, ColdFusion on the IT side. Some people also have practically no programming experience.

The course has been run several times using the following structure:

 
Part I - Java Basics
1 - Introduction to Java
2 - Using the Java development tools
3 - Statements
4 - Variables & data types
5 - Operators I
6 - Operators II
7 - Control structures I - conditionals
8 - Control structures II - loops
9 - Arrays
Part II - Object Orientation
10 - Introduction to objects
11 - Creating a Java class
12 - Working with objects
13 - Constructor methods
14 - Encapsulation and methods
15 - Inheritance
16 - Polymorphism
Part III - Developing an Application
17 - The Java API
18 - Creating a windows application
19 - Arranging a user interface
20 - Responding to events in a user interface
21 - Graphics - the Java 2D API
Part IV - Advanced Topics
22 - File I/O
23 - Connecting to databases via JDBC
 

...some people want to learn Java because they want to develop scientific applications, other because they want to use it for web stuff (applets and server side), others just turn up because they think it's something to do with JavaScript

anyway, the question is, what do people here think of the course structure? I'm aware that we don't get started on OO until day 2, but I can't really think of a good way of introducing it within day 2 where they need to get to grips with the anguage fundamentals. Any thoughts on how early OO can be introduced and ways of using it without clouding the need to learn about floats, loops and operators ?

Day 3 is there because it is a way of pulling together all the concepts into a real piece of software that they can see doing something, it would be nice if people could develop the sort of thing they were interested in (app, applet, servlet etc) but the resources are simply not there so I choose to stick to a stand alone app and cover a little GUI stuff.

[Kathy Sierra]

Howdy -- I like to teach things iteratively, so maybe if you kept your day one topics but did them only *partly* (rather than doing each topic such as "conditionals" to death at that point), then you could get them to the point where they can *do* something pretty quickly, then jump into OO on day one. Do the same thing with OO -- don't do it to death at that early point, then iteratively at some point in the course come back around and go into more details on your day one stuff and the OO stuff that would have been covered in Day two. So I guess I'm saying you can bring day two OO stuff into day one, if you do your first pass at those topics without giving them The Full Treatment.

Our editor has a saying about this... "What's the minimum threshold they have to reach to be able to be creative?" So, as long as they can use an if and a for loop and basic variable declarations for an int, they can make things happen, and then giving them some basic OO early on at a very simple level...

So I guess my main point would be that teaching the topics iiteratively, over the length of the whole course, can be a good way to get them doing interesting things very early, while still giving you the chance to come back around to fill in the gaps. When you don't teach iteratively, there's always a chance that you get behind and some of the important stuff is left out--I'd rather leave out some of the additional pieces of the topics I DO cover, then leave out some topics completely.

But it really depends on your audience, I guess.

cheers,
Kathy

[Barbara Norway]

Hi,
Though Kathy is too modest to say so, her book with Bert Bates (Head First Java) could give you some ideas on how to introduce O-O quickly, allow the students to start developing some apps quickly, and spark additional excitment about Java (beyond whatever they come in with).
[ September 07, 2004: Message edited by: Barbara Norway ]

[Ben Wood]

Thanks for the input, much appreciated. Oh how I love to teach Java to scientists; typical problems are...

Comments like...
"..oh, this would be soooo much easier in C"
"..can I install an IDE, I'm bored of using the command line already"
"..well, when I do this in fortran..."
"..why are we coding basic GUI's without a GUI tool?"

Problem is a lot of these guys are either a) out to confuse you or try and make Java look inadequate compared to whatever bizarre language they have been using for the past 15 years or b) they are used to using visual development environments, stuff like VB etc and they aren't prepared to see the benefit of actually learning basic Java instead of getting an IDE to skim over the details. Although I am considering using NetBeans or something this time instead of just javac

[Barbara Norway]

Wow, can I identify with that. Except mine say "I could write that system in two days in FileMaker." NOT.
[ September 09, 2004: Message edited by: Barbara Norway ]

[Marlene Miller]

>> what do people here think of the course structure?

I�d like to be taught Java from the point of view of solving a problem by decomposing a system into a set of autonomous agents interacting to produce some higher-level behavior.

I�d like to see the code for a whole working system. I�d like to see an example that is related to what I do. I�d like to learn Java by developing something like it.

Would it be possible to show every feature you want to teach in this context?