Re: Teaching with NetBeans

At 11:41 AM 6/12/03 -0400, you wrote:
>...
>NetBeans gives me the opportunity to maybe offer the students something 
>they can move too when they have "graduated" out of BlueJ. We still have a 
>lot of work to do to integrate BlueJ into the course but a few students 
>have said they really like it and many have stuck with it.

consider starting with net beans instead. ignore the project tab. put the 
code in a package using the default project. and just hit f9 and f6. for 
tje second project, use the project manager to create it. but again ignore 
the project tab (i.e. just use the filesystem tab). and hit f6 and f9 a lot.



>I'll look at it over the next little while and see if I can configure a 
>simpler version& has anyone done this already? One with less options that 
>isn't so overwhelming, but maybe with the option to show more features as 
>the user develops (like an Advanced Mode).

why bother, just download and install. having installed stuff in student 
labs at csulb.edu, i know what a pain that can be, so keep it simple and 
save yourself some work.


>Also, I would be very interested in seeing the work done with a way for 
>students to submit work or a way to catch/avoid cheating. Are their profs 
>out there who re-use old assignments and how do you avoid copying?

i am an *old* programmer who had recently done a *little* teaching. 
apparently cheating is rampant and students submit identical copies of lab 
projects (at least that's what everyone thinks). so students are forbidden 
to work together. i had a problem with this as software development is 
typically a team effort. i taught a graduate course in ooad and encouraged 
students to work together in implementing the design patterns (but not to 
copy each others work).

my suggestion would be to do the same and make the projects count less for 
the grade and make the tests count more and have a good portion of the 
tests require code or psuedo code. you can't really solve the cheating 
problem anyway. there is too much stuff on the web. but even rewritting 
someone elses code helps insert it into one's brain.

thanks

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