For many of the courses I teach, the primary content is either presented in class or in the examples and writings online, and the required or recommended books act more as reference material. For this course I am not going to try to duplicate the contents of any of the many well-written Java books in online format. Most of the lessons have specific reading in the recommended books.
The reading is part of your "lecture" material. I will give related examples and summarize and supplement many of the important points. I will present some parallel material in online format. But I will not be duplicating or paraphrasing much of the well-written content already in the book. I will point you at the content in the book, and it is your responsibility to include that in each lesson's reading and practice.
The lessons that follow roughly approximate a week-by-week schedule from classroom sections of this course. Most lessons have examples for you to try and an assignment at the end. One of the best ways of learning a new computer language is by taking existing code, trying it, and then modifying it little by little to see if you understand how it works and if your changes make it act as you'd expect. You should take time to try each example, make sure it works, and make sure you understand it fully before trying to write your assigned program on your own.
Please see the assignment schedule in the syllabus and read the syllabus thoroughly if you have not yet done so. I'll re-state here that you should e-mail me (mpelczarski@elgin.edu) when you complete each assignment so I can check it. Instructions for what you should attach to the e-mail are given with each assignment. Please go over the "assignment checklist" for each lesson before submitted each assignment just to make sure that you've completed what is expected.
If you have questions or are stuck on anything, send me an e-mail! If there's a section of code that is giving you trouble, you can paste it right into the e-mail.
Of course we always have old technologies like the telephone, or you can even come and see me in person during office hours! Don't tear your hair out if you're stumped. It happens to all of us, and the reason I'm here is to help.
- Mark