- When your slides look like Javadocs, you can teach students how to find meaningful information in that format.
- Print out slides as notes for each student so they will have reference material.
- If you have an online learning management system, make sure to put all your notes up on it.
- Have a slide that illustrates the different aspects of a JavaDoc entry.
- Point out what and where the method name is, the parameters, what the method returns, and the explanation.
- Literal arrows annotating the slides works really well!
- This slides should be a bit more guided and detailed than Javadocs so that students understand what they’re looking at easily, both in form and content.
- Include examples of the method in use in your slides to help students.
- Even though Javadocs doesn’t always have easily accessible examples as a part of the definition, it’s extremely helpful for scaffolding students in reading documentation and learning about methods.
- Javadocs has examples for each method that are searchable from the main definition page but are not a part of the original explanation.
- When students have questions about the material after lecture, tell them everything they need to know is in their notes.
- Require that they at least locate the relevant information in their notes before answering their question.
- Next, create an assignment that requires them use a method they’ve never seen or had to use before.
- This will force students to look things up on their own and get them using Javadocs.
- Some students won’t think to look up methods on their own, so you’ll have to scaffold them into searching Google and Javadocs for the method.
- As students become comfortable using their notes that look like Javadocs, direct them to actual Javadocs documentation online.
- Tell them it’s the same concept, just online.
- Don’t underestimate the importance of scaffolding students from your notes that mimic Javadocs up to the actual online documentation itself.