Date: Sat, 5 Apr 2008 15:33:54 -0400 (EDT)
From: Adrian German <dgerman@cs.indiana.edu>
To: A290/A590 Spring 2008 Distribution List <dgerman@indiana.edu>
Subject: A290/A590 Midterm Update


Greetings A290/A590 Friends,

Our class started the first day of March, and after three weeks and a
spring break we've reached what could safely be called the midterm. I
met with most of you last week, I also have graded your tests. I will
be sending feedback by e-mail today and tomorrow. Here's a summary of
what I will be writing to you about. This is the global perspective:

There are currently three tracks in this class:

   -- Introductory track
   -- Basics track
   -- Advanced track

The Introductory track is for people with no knowledge of programming
and we have 8 students in that group.

The Basics track is for students that have at least one semester of
programming behind them, and there are 8 students in that group too.

The Advanced track is for people who have at least one semester of
Java behind them and there are 9 students in that group.

There are also two students I have not heard from (either at all, or
since the first day of class) and I wouldn't know where those students
would be placed unless I manage to establish contact with them soon but
they have not replied to my messages so far. Anyway, that's a total of
27 students, which is how big our roster is.

I will post very specific reading assignments and homework assignments
for each track this weekend. The difficulty levels will be appropriately
adjusted, of course. I will suggest that the Introductory group follows
one of two books that I recommend from Books24x7; Horstmann can be used
for both Inroductory and/or the Basics tracks; and the Advanced track
has Petchel or whatever they choose to pursue, with my approval and by
clearly announcing their milestones to me and following them accordingly.

So labs from now on will have this aspect:

a) brief presentation of the topic for the day by me (10-15 minutes)

b) about 60 minutes in which everyone works on the assignment for the
day (posted for the track they're in); during this time I simply float
and come and check your work, take questions, offer help, etc.

If this is too confusing just wait until I send you the info for your
individual track and that should be very focused and simple to follow.

Thanks for your hard work so far, here's hoping your weekend is coming
along fine and I will be in touch before too long with track information
about reading assignment and programming assignments for this half of the
semester.

If you have any questions or need any help please let me know.

Sincerely,
Adrian German