Dear Fellow Instructors,

The material in my book is based on an Object-Oriented Programming course that I teach as an adjunct faculty member at The George Washington University. This material is equally well suited for use as the basis of an Advanced Placement (AP) high-school level programming course, and can be covered in a variety of ways:

• As the basis for a single semester generic OOP course, focus on the subject matter content in Parts 1 and 2 (chapters 1 through 12). Make sure to give students ample hands-on experience with both Java programming and object modeling through homework assignments as well as in-class group modeling exercises. The latter is particularly important for giving students an appreciation for how subjective object modeling can be. Time permitting at the end of the semester, cover the material in Chapter 13. (This happens to be the way that I am currently teaching the material at The George Washington University.)



• As the basis for a single semester OO methodology course, adapt the approach described above so as to emphasize hands-on object modeling and deemphasize actual programming. However, exposing students to the way that an object model translates into the syntax of an OO language such as Java really helps to cement object concepts, even for those students who are not aspiring to be professional programmers. It is therefore important to examine students on the object aspects of the Java language by giving them simple code examples to analyze on paper.



• As the basis for a single semester comprehensive Java language course, devote the first lecture to reviewing UML notation as covered in Chapter 10, using this lecture as an opportunity to refresh students’ memories on the basics of key object concepts. Realize, however, that to do justice to Java as an OOP language, students must have previously been exposed to object concepts in depth. Devote the rest of the semester to the Java material in Parts 1 and 3 (chapters 1 - 7 and 13 - 16).

One significant advantage of using my book as a textbook is that it uses a consistent case study as the basis for object concepts, object modeling, and Java programming. Students can actually see how an object model evolves from a requirements specification, and how that same object model translates into a working Java application, something that few other books present.

If you are a professor or instructor who has adopted -- or who is willing to consider adopting -- my book as a textbook, I would love to hear from you! I have considerable teaching materials that I'd be happy to share. Also, if you come up with a particularly effective approach or idea for how my book can be used in an academic setting, I'd welcome the opportunity to share it with others through this web page. Please drop me a note at jacquie@objectstart.com.

To request a courtesy copy of my book from my publisher, please click here.

Please keep an eye on this page for new ideas in months to come.

Regards,