1. Practical Solution to Assuring Student Preparedness for Advanced Information Science Courses Susan Carbone Hartwick College Oneonta, New York

2. Introduction Students are often compelled to enroll in advanced Information Science classes prior to having had the opportunity to fulfill the prerequisites. Proposed solution addresses this issue and offers a method which will enable these students to acquire the needed skills prior to beginning the advanced coursework.

3. Information Science Major Core Requirements –Introduction to Programming (Java) –Visual Basic.Net Programming –Advanced Programming Techniques (Java) –Database Management

4. Possible Solutions Require the student to wait out the cycle and take the courses in the proper order Allow the student to take the prerequisite as an independent or directed study while simultaneously taking the advanced course Allow the student to take the advanced course without the basics hoping they will be able to make the adjustment Have the student wait, take the prerequisite when next offered and then allow them to take the advanced course as an independent or directed study

5. Fall 2006 Advanced Web Development Prerequisites –Visual Basic.Net Programming –Database Management –Systems Analysis and Design

6. Practical Solution – mini course Student Missing PrerequisitesSummer Study DatabaseVB.NetDatabaseVB.Net James mini Joe mini Lauren minionline Monica mini Rachel mini

7. Implementation – Spring 2006 Designed mini courses to cover the first four weeks of material Set up online Blackboard site for each course Met with each student –Installed software –Enrolled students on Blackboard –Syllabus –Textbooks

8. Visual Basic.Net Introduction to VB.Net programming Developing a VB.Net Application Using Forms and Controls Writing VB.Net Code Conditional Structure Repetition Structure

9. Database Management Database vocabulary, concepts and design tools Normalizing the database table structures Implementing the database design

10. Results StudentCompleted Summer mini courses DatabaseVB.Net James Joe Lauren Monica Rachel

11. Conclusion Mini courses –Summer for Fall semester –January for Spring semester Proactive approach Student success