Developing and enhancing a client/server programming for internet applications course

  • Authors:

  • W. Sam Chung;Don McLane

  • Affiliations:

  • Computing & Software Systems, Institute of Technology, University of Washington, Tacoma Box 358426, 1900 Commerce Street, Dougan 310 Tacoma, WA;Computing & Software Systems, Institute of Technology, University of Washington, Tacoma Box 358426, 1900 Commerce Street, Dougan 306 Tacoma, WA

  • Venue:
  • Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges
  • Year:
  • 2002

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Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to describe the development and enhancement of a Client/Server (C/S) programming for Internet applications course in Computer Science (CS) curriculum. If a CS program has used Java as the first programming language and the program does not have enough resources to support the C/S course development with proprietary environments, it will bring an issue: how can we develop and enhance the C/S programming for Internet applications course? We develop the course by integrating multi-tier architecture, Web technologies, Java technologies, and open source software into the teaching material of the course. Also, the instructor provides the students various laboratory settings, which is called an Active Learning Environment in Computing (ALEC), to enhance the course through the strong hands-on practices of the students.Our approaches for developing and enhancing the C/S programming for Internet applications course can bring several benefits to students, instructor, and the institution. First, the students can smoothly understand the course materials without having the sharp learning curve when studying the Java-related technologies such as JavaScript, JSP, JavaBean, and JDBC if Java is used as the first programming language in the institution of the students. Second, by using the system administration lab, the students can have strong hands-on practices by building their client/server computing environments for themselves. These practices can help the instructors to teach multi-tier architectures and other C/S computing models. Third, by using open source software, the institution can minimize the cost of the computing environment for the course. In addition, if the institution has been predominantly exposed to Windows environment, the open source software can bring another diversity in software to the institution.