Quote: Original post by jwalsh

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It think you might want to add ACCU Reviews.

Here is a free C++ book that would be good for instruction.

C++ Essentials

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Quote: Original post by Michael Tanczos

Quote: Original post by jwalsh

Quote: Original post by Michael Tanczos
Moodle would be IDEAL for this. If you can get past it's look, it's far superior to the Game Institute in format, better than Blackboard, better than most LMSs out there.

But then, I've spent the past entire semester researching online learning. A forum is probably not the best way to go.

And lastly, our forums do support sub-forums.

That's cool. Thanks for posting that, Michael. I'd agree that a forum may not be the best format for this endeavor. Unfortunately, GDNet is where the people go that need help, and there's such a great community already here.

Moodle is a piece of software that you install on a server. Like, say you have a few teachers for a course.. for the course you could post web pages, graded assignments that require participants to submit a file, polls, quizzes, collaborative workshops where peer evaluation takes place, a course wiki where users can edit, discussion forums that can either be single-threaded discussions or anything goes (including peer review of individual posts). The newest version also supports participant blogs, so participants can post about their progress.

Moodle is a social constructionist software, meaning that the course itself ultimately gets built by the collaboration of the teacher as well as all the students. Since it sounds as though you want to have the participants actively involved in sharing in the learning process, this is why I recommended it.

It also allows participants to actually "enroll" themselves in the course with a click of a button, allowing you to better track the actual participants.

---
Michael Tanczos

Huh??
What's that???
Michael said GDnet is supporting Moodle?!

Hooray!!!

























Just kidding. We know he didn't say that.

y did nobody reply to what i said

i am in

pleas reply

You realize "Thinking in C++" Is free right. Somebody mentioned it on page 1.

Quote: Original post by londonman
y did nobody reply to what i said

i am in

pleas reply

londonman,

Because no reply is necessary. In fact, you don’t need to let us know "u r in." When the program starts on June 1, merely begin reading the textbook to get involved.

In response to your first post, whichever textbook we use will likely be around $30 USD. You don’t need to purchase the textbook to participate, but as the threads will be based on the chapters, likely with references to page numbers and specific lines of code, it will be easier for you to follow if you have the book.

Quote: Original post by Fruny
It think you might want to add ACCU Reviews.

Thanks Fruny. I'll definitely check each of the books on that site as well.

Quote: Original post by Michael Tanczos
Moodle is a piece of software that you install on a server. Like, say you have a few teachers for a course.. for the course you could post web pages, graded assignments that require participants to submit a file, polls, quizzes, collaborative workshops where peer evaluation takes place, a course wiki where users can edit, discussion forums that can either be single-threaded discussions or anything goes (including peer review of individual posts). The newest version also supports participant blogs, so participants can post about their progress.

Moodle is a social constructionist software, meaning that the course itself ultimately gets built by the collaboration of the teacher as well as all the students. Since it sounds as though you want to have the participants actively involved in sharing in the learning process, this is why I recommended it.

It also allows participants to actually "enroll" themselves in the course with a click of a button, allowing you to better track the actual participants.

Definitely sounds cool, but I'm beginning to think this is your way of suggesting we take this idea elsewhere. [lol]

For what it's worth, I'm self-employed, married, and a veteran of the game industry with about 15 years experience with C/C++ - so I don’t mind taking the initiative and running any forums which may be created to see this project happen. I'm fine with finding a suitable textbook, reading over the chapters with the students, answering questions, creating my own list of questions, posting additional resources, and creating projects for the students to undertake for learning.

Unfortunately, I don’t have time to wiki a textbook, create web pages and a site design, create and grade people's assignments, create polls, create and grade quizzes, or pay attention to who's 'enrolled.' My idea is really just an extension of what GDNet already does so well. By narrowing in on a specific topic, in this case C++, and using a common textbook it allows a subset of the GDNet community to help each other learn the topic. Which is why, in a way, a forum is a pretty good method of presentation.

Projects which involve all of what Moodle allows (lessons, quizzes, study guides, wiki textbooks, etc...) require a lot of work and it's often difficult to keep people involved in such projects. In contrast, something as simple as what I've outlined in my updated proposal requires little extra work by the tutors then what they already do here on GDNet, and yet benefits so many people at the same time.

With all of that said, if you want to set up a new website that hosts Moodle for people to pursue a larger project I think that's great and would certainly be willing to contribute.

Cheers!

I second C++ Essentials as a possible candidate. Though it has no questions it is a good, complete turorial and reference, and a not-too-easy-not-too-tough introduction (any difficulties of which could be offset by the community)

Will we be posting a tentative schedule? I think this would be very important for people who are >noob but <intermediate, etc. so that they can determine when to jump in so that they won't be doing things that they already know.

However, with that there is the slight possiblity that someone could skip over something thinking that they already know it||don't need it, and later on they find that they should have done what they skipped.

That disturbing yet possible possibility brings this question to my mind: are we going to keep track of students? And what about people who just got "hello, world!" to work and want to join in after we've started talking about polymorphism?

I think that the open forum idea for posting solutions is very bad. The poor nooblets who struggle with the problems will be able to just come on once somebody has posted an answer and look at how to solve their problems without having to work through it on their own. People need to do the exercises to learn, and I feel that opening up the possiblity of people finding answers like this without working it out one their own will be extremely detrimental.

Just things to think about once we decide on a compiler, book, and get the green light from the staff...

As jwalsh already said, he doens't have quite the time to do that. If someone wants to really learn C++, then they can be mature enough to try to solve something on their own. There's also nothing wrong with looking at someone's work to find out how they did something...

I myself won't have loads of time to help set up this thing, if I become a tutor...

Quote: Original post by jwalsh
Definitely sounds cool, but I'm beginning to think this is your way of suggesting we take this idea elsewhere. [lol]

For what it's worth, I'm self-employed, married, and a veteran of the game industry with about 15 years experience with C/C++ - so I don’t mind taking the initiative and running any forums which may be created to see this project happen. I'm fine with finding a suitable textbook, reading over the chapters with the students, answering questions, creating my own list of questions, posting additional resources, and creating projects for the students to undertake for learning.

Unfortunately, I don’t have time to wiki a textbook, create web pages and a site design, create and grade people's assignments, create polls, create and grade quizzes, or pay attention to who's 'enrolled.' My idea is really just an extension of what GDNet already does so well. By narrowing in on a specific topic, in this case C++, and using a common textbook it allows a subset of the GDNet community to help each other learn the topic. Which is why, in a way, a forum is a pretty good method of presentation.

Projects which involve all of what Moodle allows (lessons, quizzes, study guides, wiki textbooks, etc...) require a lot of work and it's often difficult to keep people involved in such projects. In contrast, something as simple as what I've outlined in my updated proposal requires little extra work by the tutors then what they already do here on GDNet, and yet benefits so many people at the same time.

With all of that said, if you want to set up a new website that hosts Moodle for people to pursue a larger project I think that's great and would certainly be willing to contribute.

Cheers!

I like the moodle idea. I'd like to point out that you do have alot of people willing to help here, not like you'd be doing it alone, but if you dont have the time I understand.

Quote: Original post by Photonman:
Will we be posting a tentative schedule? I think this would be very important for people who are >noob but <intermediate, etc. so that they can determine when to jump in so that they won't be doing things that they already know.

Nah, I don’t think there will be need for a schedule. We start on June 1 and do one chapter a week until we finish. Anyone who wants to read ahead can do the math. As well, chapter threads will remain in the forum so people can read what's already been discussed. And I don’t plan on closing previous chapter threads, so people can always continue to post questions after-the-fact.

Quote: Original post by Photonman:
That disturbing yet possible possibility brings this question to my mind: are we going to keep track of students? And what about people who just got "hello, world!" to work and want to join in after we've started talking about polymorphism?

Nope. I don’t plan on keeping track of students. Anyone who purchases the book and reads along with us will be considered "involved." People who post questions and answers will be actively involved, so they're involvement will be more obvious, but I see no reason to have people sign up just so I know they can read.

People who just got "Hello, world!" to work can read the chapter threads up to the chapter we're on as they need to, answer the study questions as everyone else did, do the projects that we did, and ask new questions if theirs wasn’t answered by someone else. People can ask questions on any chapter we've covered, and tutors and others should feel inclined to answer any new questions that are asked. Once a question has a suitable answer, perhaps we can add it to the first post of the thread, so that its easy to spot which questions have already been asked and answered - sort of like a FAQ for each chapter thread.

Quote: Original post by Photonman:
I think that the open forum idea for posting solutions is very bad. The poor nooblets who struggle with the problems will be able to just come on once somebody has posted an answer and look at how to solve their problems without having to work through it on their own. People need to do the exercises to learn, and I feel that opening up the possiblity of people finding answers like this without working it out one their own will be extremely detrimental.

Indeed it would be detrimental. But this workshop is for self-motivated learners who have come to understand that knowing and understanding the information is the most important part. Since no attendance is being taken and no grades are being handed out, the only person being hurt by cheating is the cheater.

I would hope that people would make an honest attempt at solving the problems and doing the exercises. If they find they cannot, that should be a sign to them that they do not understand, and thus, they should ask questions that help them more fully understand the subject matter. If they need to look at what others have posted to help them comprehend the information more fully, that's fine. Some people need to see what others have done until they're comfortable with the topic themselves. If, however, people just come online and copy the information so that they "look smart," they'll be sorely disappointed when the workshop is over and others have mastered the language where they have not.

This is what I fondly refer to as "Corporate Darwinism." Those who fail to learn will be weeded out in the workplace. [lol]

Cheers!