I strongly suggest that you take a little while and navigate my web site so that you familiarize yourself with what is available and where it is located. There are notes, PowerPoint presentations and sample programming examples that will benefit you as you learn the material.

There are two texts suggested as reference for this course. The text by Mike Murach is the more comprehensive text and the one by Shelly and Cashman is more introductory. The information for the course is available at the Web Site and the order that the material is presented in the course will follow the weekly schedule laid out at the web site. However, you may find a textbook very valuable for reference.

If you have a PC computer at home, I suggest that you acquire a student version of the COBOL compiler so you can work at home on your own schedule. COBOL is also available in many of the K Building labs. See below for information about where to go on the web to acquire this.

The home page for the course gives you access to all of the site pages that apply to the course that you are taking. The top box presents access to this information by category.

• The first category is called About This Course.
• The page that you are currently reading was stored under this category as Read Me First.
• There is also an Introduction to CIS12 - methods, expectations etc that should be read by all students
• Finally there is the course syllabus for CIS12
• The second category is called Resources at this Web Site. The student should use the weekly assignment to tell them what to read in each of these categories. For example, if I say to read the Notes about the Hello World program you should go to the category Notes and handouts and find the notes on this topic. If I tell you to look at a PowerPoint Presentation about Hello World, you should go to the category Presentations and find the presentation on this topic. Use of these resources should be primarily driven by the assignments in the Weekly Assignment sheet.
• Notes and handouts for CIS12 points to the notes that will serve as the major textbook for this course. You should always read the assigned notes because they are the framework on which the course is built.
• Presentations for CIS12 points to PowerPoint presentations that will provide additional resources to accompany the notes and handouts. It is a very valuable resource and students should make a point of always looking at the assigned presentations.
• A Bulletin Board where students can communicate, pose questions, discuss problems they are encountering, ask for help. I moderate the bulletin board but only occasionally, so do not expect to get answers from me often. If you want to ask me a question, use the email account I will give you in class.
• Sample programs contains the samples that I discuss in class and additional sample programs that students can reference when doing assignments. These samples can be downloaded and run, but more importantly they can be looked at for style and methodology in problem solving through programming.
• The third category is called Work. In this category you have the Weekly Schedule for CIS12 including assignments. Several times a week, you should check this weekly schedule to determine what you are being asked to do. You should read the notes, look at the presentations and check the sample programs that I suggest under the current week. You should also do the weekly assignment.
• The fourth category is COBOL Links. In this category, I provide some links to areas on the Web. The most important link here is the one that points you to the Microfocus site where you can by a student version of COBOL if you have a home computer that you want to use for this course.

The other information on the home page contains the notes and presentation links. The sample programs and the weekly schedule are on separate pages and are accessed through the home page.