THE TEXTBOOK

COBOL: From Micro to Mainframe,Third Edition, Fujitsu Version
Robert T. Grauer, Carol Vazquez Villar, and Arthur R. Buss
Prentice Hall, 2000 (ISBN 0-13-085849-8)

See Blackboard's Course Documents Page for the accompanying Data Disk (with sample programs from the textbook's chapters)

This course uses COBOL programming to introduce structured programming techniques and to prepare students for learning mainframe applications and understanding older (legacy) COBOL software.

See "Course policies" below for details on grading.

After completing this course, students will:

• Understand the structure of COBOL programs.
• Be able to design well-structured programs using flow charts and pseudocode
• Be able to write simple COBOL programs involving:
  • Formatting
  • Data validation
  • Loops
  • Strings
  • Screen I-O
  • Tables (arrays)

Assessment will be by means of fourteen programming assignments as specified below. The first four assignments are each worth 5 points of the final grade. The remaining ten (as well as an extra credit project) are each worth 10 points. Students may thus earn a maximum of 130 points. 100 points earns an A in the course.

Because this is a skills-oriented course, there will be no exams. Grading will be based on fifteen programming assignments as specified in the schedule portion of this syllabus. The first four assignments are each worth 5 points of the final grade. The remaining ten (as well as an extra credit project) are each worth 10 points. Students may thus earn a maximum of 130 points. 100 points earns an A in the course. Students who do well on one or more assignments should consider making the programs part of their E-portfolios.

Attendance will be recorded. Two absences will be excused. No others will be approved without a medical excuse. For each two absences beyond the first two, the final grade will be reduced three points.


Students who plagiarize projects will receive zeros for the work in question, with no makeup opportunities.

Students with a disability who are requesting academic accommodations should contact Ellen McQuiston at the Center for Academic Support (CAS) and the instructor as soon as possible.

COURSE SCHEDULE

CAUTION: COURSE SCHEDULE SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT WARNING!

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DATE	TOPIC	ASSIGNMENT
Tues, Sept 2--Week 1	Introduction	Read Chapter 1
Thurs, Sept 4	From Coding Form to Computer	Read Chapter 2
	Why 80 columns?   Punch card	History and Key punch machine
Tues Sept 9--Week 2	Project #1	Project 2-1, p. 755
	Students may assist each other on projects, but each student should hand in his or her own work. Similar results are inevitable, but duplicate results will be viewed with suspicion. See the plagiarism policy above.
		Hand in program listing and output
Thurs, Sept 11	Project #2	Project 2-2, p. 756
		Hand in program listing and output
Tues, Sept 16--Week 3	Structured Design--Hierarchy Charts and Pseudocode	Read Chapter 3
	Project #3	Project 3-4, p. 765
		Hand in hierarchy chart & pseudocode.
		NOTE: This project will be continued later.
Thurs, Sept 18	Program Divisions and Working Storage Section	Read Chapter 4
	Project #4	Project 4-4, p. 772
		Hand in code for Identification, Environment, and Data Divisions
Tues, Sept 23--Week 4	The Procedure Division	Read Chapter 5
	The Tuition Billing Program Example
	Project #5	Project 5-4, p. 772
Tues, Sept 30--Week 5	Debugging	Read Chapter 6
	Project #6	Compile and execute, debugging as necessary, the results of Projects #4 and #5
		Hand in the report specified as the goal in Project #3
Tues, Oct 7--Week 6	Formatting Output and Coding Standards	Read Chapter 7
	Project #7	Project 7-4, p. 775
		Hand in the report specified
Thurs, Oct 16--Week 7	Data Validation	Read Chapter 8
	The Stand-Alone Edit Program
	Project #8	Project 8-2, p. 784
Tues, Oct 21--Week 8	Data Validation cont.
	Project #8 cont.	Project 8-2, p. 784
		Print and hand in the valid data file.
Tues, Oct 28--Week 9	Procedure Division: PERFORM, INITIALIZE, ACCEPT...	Read Chapter 9
	Project #9	Project 9-2, p. 800-801
		Hand in code and resulting report
Tues, Nov 4--Week 10	Screen I-O	Read Chapter 10
	Project #10	Project 10-2, p. 807
		Demonstrate result
Tues, Nov 11--Week 11	Tables	Read Chapter 11
	Project #11	Project 11-1, p. 808
		Hand in code and resulting report
Tues, Nov 18--Week 12	Table Lookups	Read Chapter 12
	Project #12	Project 12-1, p. 818
		Hand in code and resulting report
Tues, Nov 25--Week 13	Multilevel Tables	Read Chapter 13
	Project #13	Project 13-1, p. 830
Tues, Dec 2--Week 14	Multilevel Tables cont.
	Project #13 cont.
		Hand in code and resulting report
Tues, Dec 9--Week 15	Sorting	Read Chapter 14
	Project #14	Project 14-1, p. 839
		Hand in code and resulting report
Extra Credit	Control Breaks	Read Chapter 15
	Project #15	Project 15-1, p. 851
		Hand in code and resulting report

Syllabus last modified July 9, 2008.