Fall 2006

(old East Gym) ITT 27 – 11 MWF

Wright 112 lab (to be announced ahead of time for various dates)

Mark Jacobson Home phone: (319) 233–5610

Office: ITT 308 and WRT 338A UNI email address: jacobson@uni.edu

Office phone: 273–7172 Email on math-cns: jacobson@cns.uni.edu

Office hours: 12:00–1:00 MWF; ITT 308 (tentative) Computer Science department: 273–2618

yet to be announced for 338A WRT URL: http://www.cns.uni.edu/~jacobson

and by appointment anytime

Check the PC labs (WRT 110/112 and WRT 339).

Also check office door for where to find me and/or when back notes.

Please notify in advance by email or after class whenever possible!

Fall 2006 class schedule: 11 MWF; 1 MWF; 2 MWF

9:30 TTh; 3:30 TTh

Textbooks: Macromedia Flash 8 in 24 Hours by Phillip Kerman

Excel 2003 Power Programming with VBA

by John Walkenbach

Grading on exams, homework and quizzes.

1. There will be two midterm exams. One exam will be worth around 20 % of your grade, The dates for the first exam will be Friday, September 29^th. The 2^nd exam will be sometime in early to mid–November, probably on Friday, November 10^th.

2. The final exam will be held on Tuesday, December 12^th from 10–11:50 pm. It constitutes about 30 % of your grade in the course. The final exam may be held in two parts. If so, the 1^st part would be in the classroom and would be a paper and pencil traditional exam. The 2^nd part would be hands-on in the computer lab in Wright 112. If it is not a two–part exam, it would be the traditional 2–hour long final exam in the ITT 27 classroom.

3. The laboratory sessions and class participation/citizenship/attendance will count for 5 % of your grade.

4. The homework assignments and projects will be worth 25 % of the total grade. Some of the homework assignments will be completed and checked off in the lab.

Course objectives:

· You will probably double your skills and ability with applications software such as spreadsheets, graphics, word processing, database and web creation software.

· Introduction to PhotoShop. Integration of PhotoShop with other programs and with the web. Using PhotoShop to create web graphics. Comparing PhotoShop and Flash. Creating a custom command button for your web page using PhotoShop. Creating an animation for your web page using GIMP or Flash or the cowboy.cns.uni.edu gifmerge program. We will have a PhotoShop series of classes in the SABIN Hall computer lab later this semester. Times and place will be announced ahead of time.

· You will gain a deeper understanding of how Windows systems software and applications software work by creating your own custom user interfaces using Visual Basic for Applications and recording and writing macros in VBA. This understanding will make your use of graphical user interfaces much more effective. We will do this for both Excel and Access.

· Using FLASH to develop web applications and special effects. We will not start FLASH until sometime in October, probably about 30 days before Thanksgiving break. Do NOT install FLASH until we are ready to start it. The license for the trial version expires automatically after 30 days. If you want to buy FLASH, check at the bookstore, but it is fairly expensive.

· Developing a game program using Visual Basic for Applications and Microsoft Excel. Recording and writing macros. Making custom user interfaces.

· Further experience with animation, graphics and special effects using the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications environment. Integrating animation into your Excel game program.

· Introduction to database software using Microsoft Access. Automating database tasks and creating custom user interfaces. Customizing a database and using VBA code to extend its capabilities.

· Using PowerPoint to create presentations. Creating documentation and a presentation/lesson of some aspect of the microcomputer applications class. Publishing a PowerPoint presentation on the web.

· Being halfway through with the computer science department’s microcomputer certification program. Some students may wish to take 810:023 (described below) and another elective to receive certification on their transcript and for their resume. This 12 hour program is less extensive than a computer science minor and is more focused on what skills would be most useful to the typical UNI graduate in their future career and home personal computer use.

· Use (modify) a PERL/CGI program to create your own guest book.

Miscellaneous topics:

· Any student who requires some modification of seating, testing, or other class requirements should speak with the instructor at the beginning of the semester.

· When sending email, sign with your first name at the end of the note.

· Feel free to leave early for an appointment or whatever as that is never a problem but it is always nice to be told before class starts.

· The four classes 810:021, 810:022, 810:023 and 810:030 give you microcomputer certification from the computer science department. 12 hours of credits is required.

· 810:023 (Microcomputer Systems) is offered next spring. It focuses on PC hardware and operating system software, computer networks and how they work and understanding your PC, its peripherals and the networks that you use.

· 810:030 (Visual Basic) is offered every semester and has been offered the last four summers as well. It is a very popular course. Anyone who has learned VBA from 810:022 will have a great background for learning Visual Basic.

· 810:088 (Topics in Computing: ???) also counts for certification. It may be offered again in summer of 2007. It can be substituted for 810:021 or 810:023 or taken as an extra class in addition to the 021, 022, 023 and 030 certification classes. It has been offered most recently as Network Security. Before that it was offered as PERL/CGI Web programming.

· Do NOT install FLASH until later this semester. I will plan the FLASH portion of the class so all of the assignments you turn in will be during a 30 day period. The license only lasts for 4 weeks.