9 ms·
I'm teaching a data structures class w/java this coming fall semester, and am putting together a reference text/notes in markdown to provide for free, since it
by thearn4 9y ago
I'm teaching a data structures class w/java this coming fall semester, and am putting together a reference text/notes in markdown to provide for free, since it seems really silly to require a paid text for this stuff.
Every single item that contributes to the learning objectives of this course is incredibly Google-able, but as new students to the field, they do need at least some curation and direction to keep from getting overwhelmed. They need a reference resource that they can trust which is academic enough to be true, yet reasonably conversational. Textbooks used to fill this role, but publishers priced and walled-gardened themselves out of relevance.
Side note: if you're an professor who has done something like this in the past, I'd love to compare notes with you.
- jpolitz 9y agoI'm basing my course this quarter on one from Northeastern, where Ben Lerner has written a pretty impressive set of notes, the latter half of which are data structures content: http://www.ccs.neu.edu/course/cs2510/Lectures.html http://www.ccs.neu.edu/course/cs2510/Lectures.html The NEU course assumes that students have taken How to Design Programs in Racket, so the early notes refer to Racket syntax. I'm working on notes for a Racket-less introduction that uses the same tools for my course right now: https://cseweb.ucsd.edu/classes/sp17/cse11-a/Lectures.html https://cseweb.ucsd.edu/classes/sp17/cse11-a/Lectures.html These notes also rely on a particularly good testing library that is capable of doing things like comparing objects for structural equality without requiring that students define a .equals() method first, which can be incredibly helpful for getting off the ground.