Internet, HTML, JavaScript, Java Programming,
Advanced Java and Global E-Commerce Projects
Donald K. Hsu, Ph.D.
Dominican College
Division Business Administration
Casey Hall, 470 Western Highway
Orangeburg, New York 10962, USA
http://www.dc.edu, yanyou@hotmail.com
Abstract
The teaching and research of Internet, Web Design, Java Programming, and E-Commerce Projects revitalized the curriculum development for many Universities and Colleges in the world. Since 1995, new courses were developed at Dominican College, attracting 314 students of all majors. In addition, training was provided to 254 people at seven companies in New York and New Jersey. This paper presents a summary of the teaching/training efforts.
Internet, Web Design, Java and Project courses attracted much interest in recent years. Audick et al (2001) built JDBAssist JavaBeans, Bruce et al (2001) defined the teaching of Java in CS1, Chenoweth (2001) developed a new curriculum including web courses, Cogswell (2001) listed visual/interactive Java applets, Georgiev and Georgiev (2001) identified a security model for distributed computing, Hatfield et al (2001) implemented a logic tool in Java, Hufford (2001) constructed a web network and website management course, Hsu (2001) presented Internet job search, Hsu (2001) reviewed advanced webmaster development tools, Hsu (2000) did work on advanced Java Programming tools, Hsu and Wirth (1997) reported Japanese management styles, Johnson (2001) demonstrated a tutorial on web programming, Kumar et al (2001) did a panel discussion on Internet curriculum, Royster (2001) explored E-business programming (2001), Sanders and Heeler (2001) explained the Java support tools and Stiller and LeBlanc (2001) taught Java in Client/Server environment.
Dominican College
In Fall Semester of 1988, Dominican College student population was about 1400 when this author joined the Division of Business Administration. Business Division offers two Bachelor of Science programs in Information Technology, one in Computer Information Systems (CIS) and the other in Management Information Systems (MIS). CIS majors have to take two semesters of Calculus. There is a small difference of the course requirements between CIS and MIS. As of Fall Semester of 2002, the College student population is about 1800 with 10 CIS majors and 75 MIS majors. The College is located 14 miles northwest of the New York City. The largest major is Business (23%). Other academic programs include Arts and Science, Education, Nursing, Occupation Therapy, Physical Therapy, and Social Science. Master degrees are offered in Education, Nursing, and Occupation Therapy.
(1) Internet course
To satisfy the need of the industry, an Internet course was offered in Fall Semester of 1995, in the Continuing Education Division on the weekend. In the beginning, the Internet access was very slow and only one machine was used. The AOL connection was demonstrated and various ethical issues were covered. This course gives no credit. In 1996 and later years, the course became very popular. After significant redesign, it is designated as CI 17 for one credit. It was taught in day, evening and on weekend. The course is “50% hands-on”. The course is scheduled for a total of 12.5 hours. For the day student, this is a five-week class, which meets twice per week. For the weekend students, they will meet on one Saturday and Sunday for 6 hours and 20 minutes each. During each class, a specific topic is given. Students search the appropriate website, gain in-depth knowledge and perform “hands-on” group or individual exercises. Table 1 lists the semester, catalog number, course title and enrollments. Students taking this course come from all majors including English, History, Nursing and Social Science.
(2) Website Design HTML course
Students enjoy the CI 17 Internet course very much. Many asked for the next course. CI 19 Web Page Design (HTML) course was developed and offered in Spring Semester 1999, see Table 1. This course is a “100% hands-on” course. In the first class, the files for the students to do exercises were downloaded. Notepad was used as an editor. Students were let loose to follow the textbook published by Course Technology (2001). It has the same 12.5 hours and one-credit design as CI 17. Using HTML and the textbook, students design all types of website with ease and some become very creative. Students help each other. Instructor was able to assist them with difficult problems. Any one can take this course without any pre-requisite. Younger students (18-25) enjoy this type of approach. Adult population who have difficulty typing do not enjoy as much. There is a minimum requirement, say five chapters out of seven total chapters. The slower students will not be penalized as long as they finish these five chapters. It becomes a popular course that is offered every year. At the end of the semester, there is a final exam. It tests definitions and “hands-on” problem solving.
( 3 ) JavaScript course
Many students who completed the CI 19 course requested another web design course. In the Fall Semester 2001, CI 19B JavaScript was offered for the first time. It uses the same format as CI 19 Web Page Design, except using JavaScript in conjunction with HTML. Students again, enjoy the “100% hands-on” experience. Dominican College has the approval with the State of New York to offer a Certificate in Personal Computing to anyone with completion of six one-credit courses. Several students are taking these courses in addition to MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint to get their certificates.
(4) Java Programming course
A Sabbatical Leave grant in Spring Semester of 1998 was awarded. The intent was to get training in Java Programming so Java courses can be offered at Dominican. The Career Center Java course was held on four Sundays, with 8 hours per day. The Java course at Baruch College was conducted on ten Wednesday evenings. Taking these two courses and doing homework assignments took much of the time for the Spring Semester of 1998. Since 1986, C and C++ programming were taught in different firms. Learning Java is not very difficult. CI 68 Java Programming was offered at Dominican in Spring Semester of 1999. This is an elective course in the curriculum but it quickly becomes a popular offering that many CIS and MIS majors take (Table 1). It was also offered many times at different corporations as discussed below.
Computer Impact
(5) Advanced Java Programming course
In December 1999, Java Programming was offered at Computer Impact in New Jersey. After the course was over, there was a need to develop an Advanced Java course. Much time was spent on preparation and an Advanced Java Programming course was given in January 2000 (Table 2). It covers many topics: Corba, JDBC, Jini, EJB, Servlet, XML, just to name a few. Students made final presentations on these topics by using their PowerPoint slides. This course was later taught at Baruch College and Dominican College (Table 2). Several students got jobs as Java Programmers.
Xincon Technology
(6) CIW Application Developer course
In the summer of 2000, a 60-hour course, CIW Application Developer was offered at Xincon Technology, New York city. Half of the time is devoted to Java Programming. The other 30 hours are spent on ASP, Cold Fusion, Perl, security issues and server-side scripting. This course was given twice (Table 2). Students then signed up for Java Programming course, 30 hours. At the end of the course, students obtain a Certificate of Completion from Xincon Technology. They can also get a Certificate of Completion with Prosofttraining.com by passing the multiple-choice exam.
(7) CIW Site Designer course
From January to November 2001, CIW Site Designer course was offered three times at Xincon. This 30-hour course is normally covered in five Saturdays, with 6 hours each day. Three books from Prosoftraining.com were used. Topics are: design concepts, web page layout, ASP, cookies, CSS, Cold Fusion, DHTML, databases, Dreamweaver, Flash, Front Page, Java Applet, JavaScript, servers and XML. It is the same format as the CIW Application Developer course that students can get a Certificate of Completion with Prosofttraining.com if they pass the exam.
Baruch College
From January to July 2001, the Java Programming and Advanced Java were offered at Baruch College (Table 2). Each class was held on 10 Sundays, three hours each. In the Advanced Java Programming course, students were assigned group projects for their final presentations. Seven projects presented at the last class were: (1) Java database connectivity, (2) Investment applet on the server, (3) Java Server Page, (4) ASP vs JSP, (5) Airline applets, (6) Enterprise Java Beans, and (7) Graphical user interface applets. The majority of the students are adults who are working full-time, including a business manager, COBOL programmer, and a Medical Doctor. It was gratifying to see the final projects after spending six months with these students. They did excellent jobs.
Polytechnic Institute of New York
(8) Project Management course
In Fall 1999, the Project Management course was offered at Polytechnic Institute of New York, Manhattan campus, in the Executive Master of Science program in Telecommunication and Information System. Eighteen of the 36 students worked at the Verizon Corporation. In the final presentation, six group projects were made including: (1) Acme Pharmaceutical Company, (2) Australian Motors Ltd, (3) Automatic Baggage System, (4) The Apollo Project, (5) Human Genome Project, and (6) Kansai Airport. In Spring 2002, the Project Management course was offered at Manhattan Institute of Management (see below) to 26 students from Paris, France. This course was also taught at Baruch College, in Fall 2001.
Manhattan Institute of Management
(9) Global E-Commerce Projects course
From April to July 2001, a course in “Global E-Commerce Projects” at Manhattan Institute of Management, New York City was given to 14 students from Paris, France. It was a combination of using lectures, Internet search, software labs and group projects. E-Commerce, IPO success and dot.com crash stories were explained in details. There were few dot.com companies in France. Therefore students displayed much interest in these topics. Three groups were formed to do in-class projects: (1) MS Project, (2) Business Plan, (3) Siebel database, (4) Global Finance, and (5) Merger & Acquisition. This course extends the Project Management course to a new level, global. At the beginning, there were problems with understanding English. When they speak slower and make more efforts, they are able to learn. One student had to return to Paris in a hurry. He did a Case study with a Paris bank while he was doing an internship. Distance education does have its merit. This course was also taught at Dominican College several times (Table 1).
Netcom Information Technology
From December 2001 to June 2002, a Java Programming class and several Resume Workshops were given at this firm. About 8-12 people showed up at the Resume Workshop to get help on their resume.
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
In Spring 2002, a Java Programming class was offered to 26 electrical and computer engineers at BAE Systems, Wayne, NJ. IEEE North Jersey Section sponsored this class.
Conclusion
Nine new courses were developed and taught at eight organizations to 568 people in the last seven years. Students range from 18 to 65 years old. Many of them never took a web course or a programming course. By starting them on something simple, then gradually move to more advanced topics, they seem to follow and learn. Hands-on approach, in-class assignments, and group-project final presentation will have the best chance of success. Many of them got jobs after taking these courses. Student evaluations have been extremely positive.
Acknowledgment
Thanks are given to John Spillner and the faculty of Business Division of Dominican College for their encouragement. The sabbatical award and the faculty research grant are appreciated. Thanks are also given to CEO or managers at various companies, including Philip Yang of Computer Impact; Tom Guo of Xincon Technology; Paul Russo of Baruch College; Anthony Vlasov, Kate Collins and Jose Ohayon of Manhattan Institute of Management; Mel Horwitch and Nina Ziv of Polytechnic Institute of New York; Russel Sarder of Netcom Information Technology and Bhanu Chivakula of IEEE. John G. Meinke and James Briscoe, of the University of Maryland, Heidelberg, Germany, were supportive for the research effort when this author visited them in August 2002.
References
1. Audick, A, Locasto, M. E., and Pike, D., “JDBAssist: generating JavaBeans and supporting 3-tier enterprise applications”, Journal Computing in Small Colleges, Volume 16, Number 4, pps. 335-337, May (2001)
2. Bruce, K. B., Danyluk, A., and Murtagh, T., “Events and objects first: an innovative approach to teaching Java in CS1”, Journal Computing in Small Colleges, Volume 16, Number 4, p.1, May (2001)
3. Chenoweth, J. D., “Lessons learned in the development of an information technology concentration”, Journal Computing in Small College, Volume 17, Number 1, pps. 212-217, October (2001)
4. Cogswell, K., “Visual, interactive math on the web: bringing the abstract down to earth”, Journal Computing in Small College, Volume 17, Number 1, pps. 210-211, October (2001)
5. Course Technology, http://www.course.com, Cambridge, MA (2001)
6. Georgiev, H. K. and Georgiev, I. I., “A security model for distributed computing”, Journal Computing in Small College, Volume 17, Number 1, pps.172-180, October (2001)
7. Hatfield, E., Kilpatrick, D., and Wong, L., “Charles Peirce’s existential graphs: a logic tool in Java”, Journal Computing in Small College, Volume 16, Number 4, pps. 325-326, May (2001)
8. Hufford, K. D., “CS 265 Web network and website management development of a core course in the internet technology minor curriculum”, Journal Computing in Small College, Volume 16, Number 4, pps. 142-155, May (2001)
9. Hsu, D. K., “Internet job search after the dot.com crash”, Program Trenton Computer Festival, Volume 26, p. 7, May (2001)
10. Hsu, D. K., “Advanced webmaster development tools”, Program Trenton Computer Festival, Volume 26, p. 10, May (2001)
11. Hsu, D. K., “Advanced Java Programming tools”, Program Trenton Computer Festival, Volume 25, p. 10, May (2000)
12. Hsu, D. K. and Wirth, I., “Japanese Firms in the New York Tri-State Region: Trends in Managerial Styles”, in “Interactive Teaching and Learning, Wacra 14th International Conference proceedings”, edited by Hans E. Klein, pps. 577 – 584, Omni Press Inc, Madison, WI, December (1997).
13. Johnson, J., “Web programming: ideas for making your website interesting and effective”, Journal Computing in Small College, Volume 17, Number 1, pps. 278-279, October (2001)
14. Kumar, A., Bergin, J., Hufford, K. D., and Hickey, T., “Internet-centric curriculum”, Journal Computing in Small College, Volume 16, Number 4, pps. 45-49, May (2001)
15. Royster, M., “Exploring internet E-business programming”, Journal Computing in Small College, Volume 16, Number 4, pps. 327-328, May (2001)
16. Sanders, D. and Heeler, P., “Support tools for teaching CS1 & CS2 in Java”, Journal Computing in Small College, Volume 17, Number 1, pps. 7-8, October (2001)
17. Stiller, E. and LeBlanc, C., “Teaching client/server programming in the context of computing curricula 2001”, Journal Computing in Small College, Volume 16, Number 4, pps. 122-133, May (2001)
Table 1. Dominican College, NY, full-time
Semester Catalog Course Title Students
Fall 1995 CI 17 Internet, Con’t Ed 9
Sprg 1996 CI 17 Internet, Con’t Ed 16
Fall 1996 CI 17 Internet 6
CI 17 Internet, Con’t Ed 4
Sprg 1997 CI 17 Internet 7
Fall 1997 CI 17 Internet 4
Fall 1998 CI 17 Internet 13
Sprg 1999 CI 17 Internet, Con’t Ed 7
CI 19 Web Page Design 9
CI 68 Java Programming 9
Fall 1999 CI 17 Internet 9
CI 19 Web Page Design 9
Sprg 2000 CI 19 Web Page Design 11
CI 19 Web Page Design, Con’t Ed 6
CI 68 Java Programming 12
Fall 2000 CI 17 Internet 16
MG 66 Global E-Commerce 11
Sprg 2001 CI 19 Web Page Design 18
CI 68 Java Programming 11
Fall 2001 CI 17 Internet 18
CI 19B JavaScript 17
CI 68 Java Programming, Accel 10
CI 69 Advanced Java Programming 6
Sprg 2002 CI 19 Web Page Design 12
CI 69 Advanced Java Prog, Accel 11
MG 66 Global E-Commerce 21
Fall 2002 CI 17 Internet 18
CI 68 Java Programming 14
Subtotal Dominican students 314
Table 2. Corporate Training, part-time
Starting Ending Course Title Students
( A ) Computer Impact, Parsippany, NJ
12/01/1999 12/18/1999 Java Programming 10
01/29/2000 04/01/2000 Advanced Java Prog 10
( B ) Xincon Technology, New York, NY
07/22/2000 09/23/2000 CIW Application Devep 8
10/07/2000 12/09/2000 CIW Application Devep 14
01/13/2001 02/10/2001 CIW Site Designer 9
02/17/2001 03/17/2001 Java Programming 7
05/12/2001 07/11/2001 Java Programming 5
06/16/2001 07/14/2001 CIW Site Designer 5
09/29/2001 11/03/2001 CIW Site Designer 5
11/17/2001 12/15/2001 Java Programming 5
01/12/2002 03/17/2002 Advanced Java Prog 5
03/02/2002 03/31/2002 Java Programming 7
04/20/2002 06/01/2002 Java Programming 4
07/13/2002 08/10/2002 Java Programming 8
08/17/2002 10/19/2002 Advanced Java Prog 8
( C ) Baruch College, New York, NY
01/14/2001 03/25/2001 Java Programming 12
04/01/2001 07/01/2001 Advanced Java Progrm 20
10/03/2001 11/28/2001 Project Management 6
( D ) Polytechnic Institute of New York, New York, NY
09/10/1999 12/11/1999 Project Management 36
( E ) Manhattan Institute Management, New York, NY
04/16/2001 07/09/2001 Global E-Comm Project 14
03/18/2002 05/31/2002 Project Management 26
( F ) Netcom Information Technology, New York, NY
01/13/2002 02/10/2002 Java Programming 4
( G ) Institute Elect Electron Engrs, Parsippany, NJ
02/13/2002 04/26/2002 Java Programming 26
Subtotal Corporate employees 254
Total number ==== >> 568!