Murdoch's AP Computer Science MOOC Goes Live 67
theodp writes "Friday saw the launch of Rupert Murdoch's AP Computer Science MOOC. Taught by an AP CS high school teacher, the Java-centric course has students use the DrJava lightweight development environment for the exercises. 'If this MOOC works,' said Amplify CEO Joel Klein, 'we can think of ways to expand and support it.' Only the first week's videos are posted; course content is scheduled to be presented through March, with five weeks thereafter set aside for AP Exam prep. Might as well check it out, you may have helped pay for it — a MOOC-related Amplify job listing notes that 'This position may be funded, in whole or in part, through American Recovery & Reinvestment Act funds.'"
MOOC (Score:2, Informative)
Nothing on the site explained what "MOOC" stood for, including the FAQ where it should have been question and answer #1. Luckily Google helped me out, but it's still something that should be front and center on the site. This is like Communications 101: define your jargon/acronym the first time it's displayed, don't just assume everyone knows what you're talking about. It's indicative that these people are so far up their own ass they just assume everyone already is on the same page as they are.
Re:Was Java a good choice for the AP requirement? (Score:5, Informative)
Every part of the method declaration you quoted is important for a student to understand. And not just the student who is learning java.
1. "public". This speaks to the difference between public, private and package visible methods. That is to say, information hiding, which is a key concept in object oriented design.
2. "static". This speaks to the difference between class and instance methods. Again, a key concept in object oriented design.
3. "void". Return types. Or, in this case, the lack of one. You'll be hard pressed to learn how to program w/o learning about functions that return a value.
4. "main". This speaks to the need for the operating system to know where to "start" your code when it's executed.
In fact, I'd even go so far as to to say that java being verbose and requiring that these modifiers be explicitly specified is a positive in the context of it being used in a teaching context.