Slide 2.1: Programming exercise guidelines

◀
Previous

Slide 2.0: Programming Exercise I: A focused web search engine
Slide 2.2: World Wide Web search engines
Home Print version

▶
Next

Programming Exercise Guidelines

Two programming exercises will be assigned:

The instructor has tried to make them as simple as possible. The guidelines of exercise requirements and evaluations are as follows:

General Specifications
It is a trend for IT workers to remotely and collaboratively work on a project and this is a good chance for you to practice it.

Because of the limited resources provided by the College, fundamental tools such as PHP will be used for exercise construction. Though basic tools instead of fancy ones are used, it is believed that almost all functions of web-enabled database projects can be completed by using these basic tools. Fancy and basic tools mainly affect the front-end development like HTML, which is simple and easy. The most difficult part is the back-end development, which does not matter much whether fancy or basic tool is used.

They are individual exercises instead of team exercises.

Exercises have to be located at the URLs:
and redirection (http-equiv="refresh") to the pages not hosted by http://undcemcs02.und.edu/~user.id/ is prohibited. That is, you can only use the facilities provided by the public Unix/Linux servers at the CEM to complete your exercises.

The instructor will prepare a set of test data to be used by all students.

One exercise can not be used to cover two exercises.

Students have to post their code online so the instructor can download and execute it on his own computer if any suspicion.

Exercises need to be put on the Web because of the following reasons:
- If the system is not web-enabled, it still requires graphical user interface, which is usually more difficult to construct compared to web interface.
- The instructor can easily grade and check the exercises.
- It is a trend for information systems.
- It is good for your programming experience.

Databases have to be used.

Absolutely no extra points will be given after grading.

Comments
Few comments are about the programming exercises:

According to a study, students in computer courses learn much more by building large-scale exercises instead of many small-scale test programs, which give fragmented knowledge contrary to solid understanding of the system.

Time management is critical for software development. If you are not able to complete the exercise, display whatever you have accomplished, so the instructor can give partial credit to your exercise.

Web and database programming is a must for IT developers, and the only effective way to learn software development is practicing, instead of studying concepts or writing some testing programs.
No pain, no gain 😂

◀
Previous

Slide 2.0: Programming Exercise I: A web search engine
Slide 2.2: World Wide Web search engines
Home Print version

▶
Next

Jennifer’s presentation was on point (well done)
– concise, relevant, and accurate.