CSCI 112 - Applications Programming
Fall 2025 Course Outline

This document is available at URL: http://csci.viu.ca/~liuh/112/OutlineCSCI112.html

Course Motivation and overview

This course is intended to give interested students an introduction to a variety of forms and levels of application programming: from the use of built-in environments in applications such as Excel, to independent development of small scale applications using visual environments such as Visual Basic. Time permitting, the course may include topics such as the extraction and manipulation of data from sources such as web sites and databases. Theoretical topics will be discussed in the lectures, while the weekly labs will guide the students through the use and application of the various tools, languages, and programming techniques. A more detailed topics list is included in the Topics section below.

Contact information

• Lecturer: Huizhu Liu
• Office: Building 315 (Physics Building), Room 211
• Email: Huizhu.Liu@VIU.CA
• Course web site: http://csci.viu.ca/~liuh/112/
• Office Hours:
• 11:00 - 13:00, Tuesdays and Thursdays
• By appointment

Materials

• Textbook: None
• Web material: some material will be made accessible online. Possible online material includes lecture notes, assignments, labs, sample programs, practice problems, and links to external documentation and tutorials.
• Software resources: we will be using the following software
• Microsoft Excel
• Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)

Timetable

• Lectures:
  13:00 - 14:30, Tuesdays and Thursdays
• Labs:
  Section F25N01: 11:30 - 13:30, Mondays
  Section F25N02: 13:30 - 15:30, Mondays

Assessment

• About 8 Assignments -- 40% (5% each)
• In-class Midterms -- 20%
• Final Exam -- 40%

You MUST provide your own original work as your assignment and exam solutions.

You MUST achieve a passing mark in weighted exam marks in order to pass the course.

The instructor reserves the right to modify this grading scheme during the term as necessary.

Labs/Tutorials

You must be enrolled in, and fully participate in, the weekly lab sessions. During these sessions the students will apply the concepts discussed in lectures. Exercises completed in the labs will form a significant portion of the overall course mark.

Software evaluation

Most of the assessment in this course is focused on the production, adaptation, or extension of software applications. To evaluate the quality of such work we will consider four factors:

• functionality: does the product get the job done
• usability: is the product easy to learn, intuitive and efficient to use, and effective at guiding and supporting the user
• robustness: does the product handle adverse conditions and unexpected input in an appropriate manner
• maintainability: will it be easy to revise/adapt the software to handle predictable changes over the life cycle of the product

Topics

Actual topics and order will depend on the class interests and pace we work through the material, but the initial topic plan can be viewed:
Topic Scheudles (tentative)

• Introduction
  • Computer organization
  • Software and algorithms
  • Math models
• Introduction to Excel and applications programming
• Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)
  • Basics
  • Variables and data types
  • Human-computer communications
• VBA User Forms, Controls and Events
• Decisions
• Repetition
• Arrays, Additional Controls and Objects
• (Optional)Managing files and Databases

Learning Outcomes:

Upon completing this course, students should be able to:

• Identify basic computer architecture/components and functionalities
• Use spreadsheet, espcially Excel, to collect and store data
• Use spreadsheet formula to process data and establish simple models
• Design, implement and test VBA procedures to process data and build data models as per specification
• Design user interface to collect user input effectively using VBA userform
• Write event-driven procedures to handle userform related tasks

Appeals of Grades:

Any exercise or examination grade may be appealed. However, the appeal must be made to the instructor, in writing and attached to the work in question, and within 7 days of the grade being made available to the class. The instructor reserves the right to re-grade the entire piece of work submitted on appeal, not necessarily just the component that the student believes is in error.

Grade Conversion:

The following grade scale will be used:

Guidelines Concerning Academic Misconduct

All students taking this course are subject to the Vancouver Island University Policy and Procedures:

The official policies of Vancouver Island University can be viewed at http://www.viu.ca/policies/.

To quickly view some policies and procedures concerning student academic code of conduct and academic misconduct, etc, go to http://csci.viu.ca/~liuh/AcademicGuidelines.html.