I N F O R M A T I C S Online tutorial

1. I N F O R M A T I C SOnline tutorial Leila Shautsukova Kabardino-Balkarian State University, Russia Designed by Sultanbek Tezadov

2. The on-line tutorial «INFORMATICS», http://www.kbsu.ru/~book,represents a base course of Computer Science Fig.1. The front page of the on-line tutorial

3. Structurally the tutorial consists of two parts: "Theory" and "Practice". Fig.2. The «Theory» part review

4. The on-line tutorial is intended for high school students, students of universities and teachers of Computer Science. The tutorial will also be a good help for a person that wishes to comprehend a base of Computer Science independently. Fig. 3. A typical design of sections of the "Theory" part

5. The information part represents the contents of my textbooks, made as a Hypertext. The operating systems Windows 95/98/NT 4.0 and browsers Internet Explorer 5.x, Netscape Navigator 4.xx or Opera 4.0 are recommended. Fig. 4. A sample view of the tutorial design

6. The demonstration part loaded after simple adjustments directly from a browser in one of the two environments of programming: Borland Turbo Pascal and Microsoft Quick Basic. The practical part includes tasks and exercises of the theoretical unit, and also more than two hundred problems for solving. Fig. 5. Exercises

7. The "Practice" part is thematically broken on eight sections, that cover processing of the numerical, textual and graphic information. In the beginning of each unit there are demonstration examples planed to be the samples for imitation of problem solving tasks. Fig. 6. The contents of one of the "Practice" part chapters

8. For giving the demonstration material greater universality all tasks are realized in four environments: on a pseudocode, in flow-charts and in Turbo Pascal and Quick Basic. Fig. 7. A typical view of the "Practice" part

9. At the end of each practical unit there are 30-40 tasks for inde- pendent solving which are structured by the degree of difficulty Fig. 8. The view of "Problems for solving" section

10. The browser of the user is integrated into Turbo Pascal and Quick Basic. To start a chosen environment of programming it is enough to click on the appropriate button: "Turbo Pascal" or "Quick Basic". Fig. 9. Organizing of Pascal and Basic IDE startup

11. As a result of this integration the demonstration program is loaded on environment of programming. The user will need only to start the program. The same mechanism is used at a stage of independent solution of tasks. Fig. 10. Loading of the Turbo Pascal demonstration program

12. Each task for problem solving is supplied with "pattern" of the solution. The pattern represents "skeleton" of the future program with prepared test data. The user has an opportunity to expand a pattern to the ready program and then to check up its serviceability. Fig. 11. Pattern of problem solving task (skeleton view)

13. One more advantage of integration of a browser with programming environments is an opportunity of use the built-in Help system. Fig. 12. Quick Basic help window view

14. The user can apply the entire complex of debugging tool kit of programming environments that allow to better catch logic of the programs, viewing of intermediate values variable in a window Watches, use of conditional breakpoints etc. Fig. 13. Turbo Pascal integrated debugger in action

15. The on-line tutorial also contains a testing unit. Fig. 14. Knowledge testing window view

16. Several testing modes are used. In the most rigid mode students have to answer questions within a given time period. In a softer mode they are not limited in time. Fig. 15. Text questions window view

17. In learning mode students can receive a short hint or a full answer to the question. There are also statistics pages, which provide information on student performance by groups, courses and faculties. Fig. 16. Statistics view E-mail: shau@kbsu.ru, http://www.kbsu.ru/~book