Instructor

Course Objectives

Method of Teaching

Course Outline (topics not necessarily covered in the order listed)

• Visual Basic Design Interface
• Visual Basic Program Elements
• Graphical Elements
• Program Control Structures
• Objects & Events
• Arrays
• Text files
• Object Oriented Programming
• Integration of other applications (such as Access, Excel)

Textbook

David I. Schneider, An Introduction to Programming Using Visual Basic 2005, 6^th ed., Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2006 (required).

Evaluation of Grades

Based on examinations, homework problems, programming projects, attendance and contributions to discussion

A student's grade is determined by the student's percentage of possible points.

• There will be 4 or 5 programming projects of increasing complexity.  These may be worth from 40 to 100 points apiece, with smaller values associated with the earlier projects.
• Exams (likely, a midsemester and a final) will be worth 100 to 125 points apiece.
• Quizzes (if any) and non-programming homework (if any) will be given lesser weights
• Attendance and class participation will be worth approximately 25 to 30 points (possible).

For example, if there are if there are 350 possible points on programming projects, and if there are 2 exams each with 100 possible points, and if there are 100 possible points of quizzes and non-programming homework, and if there are 30 possible points for attendance and participation, there would be a total of 680 possible points; a student with 550 points would have a semester average of

Approximate grading standards (the instructor reserves the right to adjust these as required by the interests of justice):

               88% - 100%:  A- to A+
               72% - 88%:   C+ to B+
               55% - 72%:   D+ to C+
               45% - 55%:   D
               0%  - 45%:   F

Approximate schedule of assignments

The list given below is approximate. Deadlines and point values may be changed according to the needs of the course. Details of assignment specifications will be posted in Blackboard.

• Written homework exercises may be assigned irregularly.  They may be given at short notice, i.e., less than a week before they are due.
  Such assignments may be worth 10 to 50 points apiece.
• Programming assignments will generally give you 3 or 4 weeks per project. Instructions will be posted in Blackboard.
  Such assignments may be worth 40 to 100 points apiece. There will be 4 or 5 such assignments.
• Midsemester quiz:  Week 7.  This will be an in-class quiz.
  Possible points: 50 to 75
• Final Exam:  Finals Week.  This will be an in-class exam.
  Possible points: 100 to 125

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The NU library's books on Visual Basic are filed (mostly) under QA 76.73 .B3 or nearby, including the following (note Visual Basic .Net has incompatibilities with Visual Basic 6.0 and earlier versions of Visual Basic).