Maybe this has already been covered here, but I found it interesting that Cem Kaner is using Ruby in a software testing course at the Florida Institute of Technology. (I’m guessing this is due to some influence that Brian Marick had on him).
He describes the final exam for his Software Testing 2 course, and 25% of the grade is to develop a Ruby program using test driven development.
I am teaching OO using Ruby at my work. We are treating it like an in-house
university course. All who pass will get a certificate of completion.
The class is one hour, two days a week for 13 weeks (2nd qtr),
for a total of 26 hrs class time. We assign homework that I
create and readings from “Teach Yourself Ruby in 21 Days”.
After the Unit Test lesson (#3) all coding homework is test-case driven.
Makes it easy to grade functionality and is an excellent
communicator to the students of the requirements.
···
On Tuesday, 22 April 2003 at 2:20:08 +0900, Chad Fowler wrote:
Maybe this has already been covered here, but I found it interesting that Cem Kaner is using Ruby in a software testing course at the Florida Institute of Technology. (I’m guessing this is due to some influence that Brian Marick had on him).
He describes the final exam for his Software Testing 2 course, and 25% of the grade is to develop a Ruby program using test driven development.
Maybe this has already been covered here, but I found it interesting =
that Cem Kaner is using Ruby in a software testing course at the Florida =
Institute of Technology. (I’m guessing this is due to some influence =
that Brian Marick had on him). =20
He describes the final exam for his Software Testing 2 course, and 25% =
of the grade is to develop a Ruby program using test driven development.
Anyone know of other cases where Ruby is showing up in schools?
While not a university course, I’ll offer an introductory course to Ruby
at the local Volkshochschule (VHS, no this one’s not the video recorder
thingy) (in Ahrensburg, nearby Hamburg, Germany - in case you’re
interested) .
VHS, a bit hard to translate… it’s kind of a non-profit organisation
offering courses on a very broad range of topics: Languages, Sport, Art,
Health care, Computers and what-not for a reasonable price - a lot less
expensive than “professional” companies offering the same, but at an at
least comparable quality.
Both courses address people interested in learning programming.
Cheers and happy teaching, learning and last but not least programming
I am teaching OO using Ruby at my work. We are treating it like an
in-house
university course. All who pass will get a certificate of completion.
The class is one hour, two days a week for 13 weeks (2nd qtr),
for a total of 26 hrs class time. We assign homework that I
create and readings from “Teach Yourself Ruby in 21 Days”.
After the Unit Test lesson (#3) all coding homework is test-case driven.
Makes it easy to grade functionality and is an excellent
communicator to the students of the requirements.
Sounds like fun. I’ve had an interest for a long time in teaching some
courses on programming (to non-programmers), trying to start out with Ruby,
extreme dynamic OO, test-first, etc. Sort of in the
Hello-World-considered-harmful vein. Sounds like you’re just about living
that dream.
Maybe I should head down to Lexington and gate-crash one of these sessions
after I get back home from India. I’ll be the guy heckling in the back.
Anyone know of other cases where Ruby is showing up in schools?
There is a professor in the English Department at the University of
Georgia who is teaching ruby! His name is Stephen Ramsay.
That’s fascinating. Another programmer-by-avocation.
(But then, I may be that, too, soon…) Another
David Alan Black, in a way.
There have been at least two, maybe three mentions
of Ruby in the university on this list. Maybe even
more, but I recall two or three. One person copied
my entire set of slides for his class (which was
permitted as he gave credit).
Can’t recall any details, but you could search the
ML archives for such keywords as university, college,
course, homework, and department.
Cheers,
Hal
···
----- Original Message -----
From: “Ed L Cashin” ecashin@uga.edu
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ruby
To: “ruby-talk ML” ruby-talk@ruby-lang.org
Sent: Monday, April 21, 2003 7:31 PM
Subject: Re: Ruby in a university course
Not yet, but I’ve been hoping to do just that some day. I have seen
several cases where a topic would have been taught better using Ruby. For
example:
The Newton-Raphson method, and Riemman Sums.
In Calculus the kids have to program their TI-85s to do these. TI-85s are
very akward to program in. With Ruby the code would have been easier to
understand, easier to type correctly, easier experiment with and more
powerful.
Probability.
Here I’m constrained to using simple examples because that’s all you can
do with a TI-85 within a reasonable time. With Ruby we’d be able to do
more interesting examples.
In a sense, I am already using Ruby “behind the scenes”. I wanted my kids
to look at a more realistic distribution, so I produced one with Rubby and
gave them the results as a hand-out.
Maybe some day I’ll be able to introduce Ruby in my classes. This is
actually possible. So far all my teaching evaluations have been very
flattering (both the ones done by my kids as well as those by other
instructors). I think that this is why this semester I am a course
instructor instead of just a teaching assistant.
If I build a good reputation (which so far I have) they might let me
introduce Ruby. Perhaps I can run a pilot project in the summer 2004.
Who knows?
Cheers,
···
On Tue, Apr 22, 2003 at 09:31:15AM +0900, Ed L Cashin wrote:
Anyone know of other cases where Ruby is showing up in schools?
–
Daniel Carrera
Graduate Teaching Assistant. Math Dept.
University of Maryland. (301) 405-5137
While not a university course, I’ll offer an introductory course to Ruby
at the local Volkshochschule (VHS, no this one’s not the video recorder
thingy) (in Ahrensburg, nearby Hamburg, Germany - in case you’re
interested) .
That’s great. I’d love to see this place, but it’s unlikely
I’ll ever make it to Germany.
VHS, a bit hard to translate… it’s kind of a non-profit organisation
offering courses on a very broad range of topics: Languages, Sport, Art,
Health care, Computers and what-not for a reasonable price - a lot less
expensive than “professional” companies offering the same, but at an at
least comparable quality.
It sounds similar to what we in the USA call a “community college.”
I taught at one for four years – 1000 students, rural area. But we
used Pascal, not Ruby, in 1985.
I think it would be good if people who teach Ruby
made their materials available, perhaps on the
wiki.
Please Chad, come on down. Keeneland is still going on.
Next week, everyone will be heading toward Louisville.
Now’s your chance to go with the flow.
I’m serious. It would be great to have a guest lecturer.
···
On Tuesday, 22 April 2003 at 2:50:05 +0900, Chad Fowler wrote:
I am teaching OO using Ruby at my work. We are treating it like an
in-house
university course. All who pass will get a certificate of completion.
The class is one hour, two days a week for 13 weeks (2nd qtr),
for a total of 26 hrs class time. We assign homework that I
create and readings from “Teach Yourself Ruby in 21 Days”.
After the Unit Test lesson (#3) all coding homework is test-case driven.
Makes it easy to grade functionality and is an excellent
communicator to the students of the requirements.
Sounds like fun. I’ve had an interest for a long time in teaching some
courses on programming (to non-programmers), trying to start out with Ruby,
extreme dynamic OO, test-first, etc. Sort of in the
Hello-World-considered-harmful vein. Sounds like you’re just about living
that dream.
Maybe I should head down to Lexington and gate-crash one of these sessions
after I get back home from India. I’ll be the guy heckling in the back.
–
Jim Freeze
If Patrick Henry thought that taxation without representation was bad,
he should see how bad it is with representation.
Great to hear! I thought sometimes of giving such a course myself. How
many evenings does your course span?
See below.
I hope you’re getting enough students for your course to take place.
Thanks a lot.
Maybe “Adult evening classes”
Both courses address people interested in learning programming.
Both?
Hmmm, I didn’t concentrate on waht I wrote…
But the plans for now are to offer two courses.
One of them is a whole weekend, the other one is about 1.5 hours in the
evening for some 4-5 weeks (The origanitator says: “Short courses run
better.” From my experience as a participant).
I don’t know enought about education in anglo-saxon countries so let
me write a bit about Volkshochschule (VHS - same abbreviation as
Video Home System).
VHS has many different courses. Courses can be ‘How to repair your
bike’, ‘Mastering Excel’ but they can also be ‘finishing school’.
Almost anything is possible. I did take a COBOL course. As far as
computers are concerned they usually only do mainstream. I think it’s
Vice++ (VC++) and Phoebe (VB) these days. But that strongly depends
on two questions: What are people after that want to teach and what
do people want. If too few join a course it is cancelled. I am
surprised that a VHS does announce a Ruby course - it is by no means
mainstream here in Germany.
Many people here in Bonn and Cologne believe in the holy church of
the camel, some have a python cult and very few are Rubyist. But I am
evangelizing. At our local LUG (Bonn) I can produce laughter by
taking a Ruby book and holding it in the way other people hold their
‘Watchtower’ >;->
But it works. Some people start taking Ruby into account when it
comes to scripting problems. At least one guy told me 'I started
using Ruby because of your frequent statements about Ruby :->
Maybe some day there will be a Ruby User Group here. Presently I
don’t think there are enough people for that. Convince me I am wrong
(-_-)
Gis,
Josef ‘Jupp’ Schugt
···
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