Instructor Notes for the course: Web Development with .NET

Introduction

The concept behind this course is this: Take students that know how to program and know a little bit about web technology, and in 1 semester teach them the fundamentals of how to develop web applications and web services with the .NET development platform.

This graduate-level course covers the building of web applications and web services using the Microsoft .NET development platform. The student will learn the basics of programming in the C# language, what the .NET Common Language Runtime is and how it works, how to use many of the .NET framework classes, how to use ADO.NET to access relational databases, and how to use ASP.NET to build web applications and services. In addition the student will learn about XML and how it is used in .NET. Most aspects of web applications and services will be covered: architecture, design, coding, data access, etc. The architecture of the .NET development platform will be discussed, as well as practical development issues such as debugging, deployment and security. Design for scalability, performance and availability will be emphasized.

I have taught 6 sections of this course, beginning even before the .NET Framework was released. The course covers a lot of material quickly, so be sure to warn your students of the pace of the course. I've gotten very positive feedback about the course from students. One student put it this way: "This was a great course to have near the end of my master's program in computer science. It pulls together many topics I've learned over the course of my studies."

Course Philosophy

The material in this course is intended to provide instructors with a jump start in creating their own .NET Web Development course. It is not expected that instructors will use all of the material exactly as it is. Different instructors have different teaching styles, and will tweak the course to their liking. This course is designed to make it easy for them to do that.
Focus on one language: C#. There is not enough time to cover VB.NET, JScript.NET, J#.NET or any of the many other .NET languages.
Provide modules that are as loosely coupled as possible. This facilitates the rapid and easy tweaking of the course by each instructor. You may choose to leave out some modules, or to expand others (e.g. you might want to cover C# or ASP.NET in 3 classes).
There is a lot of material included. Arguably there is more than can be covered in a single semester. The key material to cover is: C# programming, ADO.NET, Web Forms and Web Services. The other modules (e.g. XML, CLR, Design Considerations) are very valuable, but are essentially optional. Use your own judgement as to which modules to cover.
We assume that students already know how to do object-oriented programming; i.e. they should be comfortable with a language like C++, Java, Smalltalk, Eiffel, etc.
We assume that students know a minimal amount about web development – HTML, JavaScript, DHTML, CGI, ASP. We’ll provide an overview of these in the first class, and as needed throughout the course. Same goes for databases, SQL, XML, etc. Most students have some knowledge of HTML and relational databases.
There is a module on XML, but part of the message is that programming with .NET eliminates the need to do much XML programming. It is, however, important to understand the role of XML. Also, XML continues to grow in importance, so it is valuable to learn the relevant .NET Framework classes.

Included in the course material are:

These instructor notes.
A suggested syllabus file.
A set of modules on various .NET topics. Each module contains one or two PowerPoint presentations, and may also contain some simple sample files. Some samples are run from the command line; these have a related .cmd file that compiles the sample. Other samples are web forms or web services that have to be run from IIS. To use these, create a virtual directory that maps to the folder containing the samples, and then hit the .aspx or .asmx page from the URL for that virtual directory. For the samples that use a database, be prepared to edit the sample source file to change the login name and password. Samples use either the Northwind or pubs samples in SQL Server, and the Northwind.mdb Access/Jet sample database.
A set of homework assignments.
Midterm and final exams.

MSDN Academic Alliance

I suggest you look into the MSDN Academic Alliance (http://www.msdnaa.net/). The MSDN Academic Alliance is an annual membership program for technical departments in the area of Computer Science, Engineering, and Information Systems. As a member, a department receives an MSDN AA subscription that includes Microsoft platform, servers, and developer tools software. This software may be installed on any number of departmental lab machines. The software must be used for instructional and research purposes; it may not be used to run the infrastructure of the department. In addition, the department’s faculty and students may check-out or download the software to install on their personal computers. The program has two primary goals:

to make it easier and less expensive for you to obtain Microsoft developer tools, platforms, and servers for instructional and research purposes and
to build a community of instructors who can share curriculum and other learning resources to support the use of these technologies.

Have fun teaching .NET!

Instructor Notes for the course: Web Development with .NET

Introduction

Course Philosophy

Contents

MSDN Academic Alliance