Teaching again

The "teaching period" (aka semester) started last week and labs have started this week. Both of my subjects have started well. I am teaching Algorithmic Problem Solving and Enterprise .NET. The two ends of the programming spectrum at Swinburne. Algorithmic Problem Solving (APS) is an introductory subject where students are learning to read and understand code at the moment, and will soon move to writing code and solving problems. Enterprise .NET is Enterprise .NET :) we will start looking at developing multi-layered software, and database programs this week.

APS is a totally new subject, and it is always interesting to see how the new material works out. It appears to be going well so far, though I'm sure its either to fast or to slow. Student who have programmed before will find the start a little slow, while for the new programmers we are covering a lot of new material in a short time.

Today I had my first APS labs. The lectures are always hard to judge, but the labs really give you a feel for how everyone is progressing. So far most students are going well. I have had a few new programmers "get it" for a number of new concepts.

As far as challenge goes, we are already looking at procedures and functions in code, as well as working with the different control flow statements. These concepts are core and once covered we can start writing more interesting code. Having said that most other introductory programming subjects would not have covered so much by week 2... Lets hope it all goes well... If you are doing this subject and feel "up to date" you are doing really well. If not keep reading and ask questions.