Week Sixteen - CST 338 - Software Design

They say hindsight is 20/20, what advice would you give to the next cohort regarding this course?

I’d give over the same advice I received. Expect to work hard and learn a lot!

How much do you envision using the skills you gained in this course in your career?

I think software design is the basis of every area in computer science so I’m sure these skills will be utilized daily in the course of my career.

Good job this session!  You are well on your way to finishing your degree!
Update your learning journal from what you experienced this week with class. 

What a class this has been. This was a challenging class and there were a lot of other things going on at the time which made focusing on college an extra challenge. Still, I put so many hours into learning this material and I know the skills I’ve gained in the past few weeks will serve as the foundation of my education and career.

Week Fifteen - CST 338 - Software Design

Have you ever created an app before, either for Android or iPhone?  How did it go?

Nope – never created one before but really enjoyed my first stint in app creation and development. It was cool to see how java code is used in android studio and android app creation.

Do you have any ideas for apps that you could create for recreation?  What about business?

I was just thinking of how to go about creating an app to log your diet or calculate BMI or other basic calculations relating to nutrition. I know there plenty of similar software exists though, so I don’t think there is need for such an app. I would be interested in developing something like that just for educational purposes.

Update your learning journal from what you experienced this week with class. 

After a few weeks of intense work, this material was a fun and cool change! I really enjoyed exploring the creation and development of apps and am interested in learning more about the multitude of available features in Android Studio and other IDEs.

Week Fourteen - CST 338 - Software Design

What experience do you have with UML diagrams?

I’ve only worked with UML in the assignments from the last 2 weeks. They are a cool representation of your program and good to use if you are inheriting methods from other classes. They are helpful but I find they are a pain to create.

Are they used at your workplace?

No – I am actually working in education right now so we wouldn’t use UMLs there. I do use other types of diagrams to facilitate learning in the classroom.

Have you done multithreading in any language before?

Nope – this was my introduction to multithreading. I did not create that part of this assignment so I plan to review other examples of multithreading someday when I have an extra minute.

Did you find Patterns to be helpful? 

Yes, course. It helps organize your code in a very meaningful way. The biggest obstacle to deal with is to access variable of other classes in Model, View, or Controller. That is something I am still working through.

Update your learning journal from what you experienced this week with class. 

It seems that each week just gets harder. This week’s reading was clear but when it came to building the program I was really lost. This is also a hectic time for the world and for my family so at the moment I’m not sure things will work out. I may need to get an extension on this week’s assignment but I’m not sure how that will affect the rest of my group.

Week Thirteen - CST 338 - Software Design

GUI is learned late in the game with Java.  Do you think this is helpful or harmful and why?

I think it’s helpful. It’s good to have a comprehensive education of classes and methods, before moving on to GUI programs.

Why do think that coding the Swing elements in Java would be more difficult compared to some other languages?

I don’t really know other languages. Thus far, I have only worked with Java. It was pretty difficult to build this GUI program in Java, though, so I’m glad to hear that other languages may have smoother solutions.

Update your learning journal from what you experienced this week with class. 

This week was intense. The learning was interesting to read about but very very difficult to put into practice. I believe it will take some time before I am proficient at building such programs. Also, with the current pandemic and other personal things going on at the moment, I do not have as much time as I would like to devote to college. I feel like I’m working super hard though!