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University of Alberta

Object-Oriented Design

University of Alberta via Coursera

Overview

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This course takes Java beginners to the next level by covering object-oriented analysis and design. You will discover how to create modular, flexible, and reusable software, by applying object-oriented design principles and guidelines. And, you will be able to communicate these designs in a visual notation known as Unified Modelling Language (UML).

You will be challenged in the Capstone Project to apply your knowledge of object-oriented design by evolving and documenting the Java codebase for an Android application with corresponding UML documentation.

After completing this course, you will be able to:
• Apply the Class Responsibility Collaborator (CRC) technique to analyze and design the object-oriented model for a problem.
• Explain and apply object-oriented modeling principles and their purpose (e.g., abstraction, encapsulation, decomposition, generalization).
• Explain and apply different types of inheritance
• Explain the difference between association, aggregation, and composition dependencies.
• Express object-oriented models as Unified Modeling Language (UML) class diagrams.
• Translate between UML class diagrams and equivalent Java code.
• Apply design guidelines for modularity, separation of concerns, information hiding, and conceptual integrity to create a flexible, reusable, maintainable design.
• Explain the tradeoff between cohesion and coupling.

Syllabus

  • Object-Oriented Analysis and Design
    • Good software design begins before coding. After establishing the initial software requirements, design practices involve two main activities: conceptual design and technical design. In this module, you will realize the importance of design and object-oriented thinking, and learn how to design software using techniques like CRC cards.
  • Object-Oriented Modeling
    • Best software design practices have evolved alongside programming languages. Today, all developers should be familiar with abstraction, encapsulation, decomposition, and generalization, which are fundamental principles in object-oriented design. You will learn all of these principles and how they are expressed in Java and communicated visually in Unified Modelling Language.
  • Design Principles
    • Additional design principles will help you to create code that is flexible, reusable, and maintainable. In this module you will learn about coupling and cohesion, separation of concerns, information hiding, and conceptual integrity. You will also learn to avoid common pitfalls with inheritance, and ways to express software behavior in UML.
  • Capstone Challenge
    • In the previous modules you were introduced to object-oriented analysis and design, object-oriented modeling, and design principles. To cement your understanding of this material, you created a UML class diagram from an example Android code base, and used your understanding of the code base to make sequence and state diagrams to model its behavior. Now, in the final module of the course, given a description of new functionality and an updated UML class diagram, you will implement the updated design into the Android code base. After completing this development task, you will be ready to complete the final exam.

Taught by

Kenny Wong

Reviews

4.4 rating, based on 39 Class Central reviews

4.7 rating at Coursera based on 2261 ratings

Start your review of Object-Oriented Design

  • This course is the first of four in the Software Architecture and Design Specialization offered by the University of Alberta on Coursera. The course starts with a "whopper" when students discover that they are expected to very rapidly understand And…
  • Anonymous
    This object-oriented course is great!, yes you have to commit time to complete it, but what you receive in exchange for your time, is a rewarding experience that will help you be a better developer. As developers, we like to jump right into coding, but the course teaches you to hold back and take your time analyzing and thinking about your solution, it gives you tools to achieve this.

    You don't need Android experience to complete the course, yes you have to download Android Studio to finish the final assignment, but they give you an almost finished project, where you apply the knowledge given in the course, so if you never build Android before, don't worry, you can do this!
  • 3.5 out of five. There are two reasons for taking away 1.5 star. One is using android platform to teach object oriented design and another reason is putting too much importance on uml, sequence diagram than object orject oriented programming. Now using android studio is not a good idea because it is really resource intensive application and when you are using android you are unnecessarily complicating things to teach OOP which could have been easily achieved by selecting any of the core OOP language. Lectures are well organized and enjoyed interviews of veteran OOP programmers.
  • Anonymous
    The other reviews really explain it well. The choice of Android Studio for a development environment is really a poor choice. I'm sure at the time it was sexy, but I spent almost as much time getting the lousy environment running as working on the assignments.

    That said, I guess I can claim to have some Android development experience now.

    The material covered is very good and it was a good review and filled in a few gaps in my knowledge. The UML diagram were the most critical part of the course. That will be helpful for me in the future.
  • Anonymous
    Exceptional course with very good videos and documentation. The speaker on videos speaks very clean. Very good notes and good examples. The assignments are well documented and to point. Generally it helped me clarify some concepts and get a better understanding about the software architecture
  • Profile image for Andres Wang
    Andres Wang
    This course teaches a lot about UML, not quite sure if it's still relevant these days because I just started working as a software engineer and I haven't seen anyone here does that, or it's possible that we're not in the period of designing the entire software. Anyway it'll come in handy if one day it's needed. Overall the course is not that hard, the concepts are well explained with straightforward examples, and they put a lot efforts into graphics.
  • Well, it was not an easy but very useful course in object-oriented programming. This course focuses more on the concept of OOP itself than on programming in Java and I think that's a good thing. I recommend everyone to take it, a great investment of money and time.
  • Anonymous
    I didn't quite understand the concept of nested activations. When an object is activated we use rectangles drawn along the object life line. I don't understand why and when we should use nested rectangles on an object's lifeline. Maybe these concepts should be explained in the video related to UML sequence diagrams with some examples.
  • Anonymous
    It's a really good course, the reason why I rate this course only with 3 stars is because android platform as a method to explain Design in OOP is not the best approach for people who dont know android. It should be only mandatory to have a good understanding of Java or other any OOP language.
  • Anonymous
    I found this course very helpful. Concepts are explained succinctly. The capstone projects ensure that you implement what you learnt . Plus point is emphasis on UML.. drawing UML Reinforcing what has been learnt .
  • Profile image for Md. Golam Hossain
    Md. Golam Hossain
    Recommended for those who prefers design before starting coding. Those who are now responsible to design projects and guide fellow developers will be benefited.
    The only complication that one may face is the course's demand of using android studio. The course could be designed language or framework agnostic all the way.
  • Anonymous
    Just finished this course and I've found it to be of great value for me. In my opinion, this course teaches the very foundations of object-oriented design that every serious developer should know (at least if you want to call yourself a professional software developer). The course is well structured, and all the practical assignments and quizzes help to retain information learnt.

    This course is the first one in specialization called "Software Design and Architecture", so I'm looking forward to starting the next course.
  • Anonymous
    I attended the course to be able to communicate better with our developers. Since I regularly get to see the code I am now able to better understand it and discuss design approaches.
  • Anonymous
    It is an interesting and useful course to improve software design.
    The material is well written and easy to follow.
  • Anonymous
    I liked the course. Even the project is based on Android. But you can complete it even if don't have Android knowledge. All you need is understanding of JAVA.
  • Anonymous
    The course was well presented and organized. Short lectures with quiz to validate each skill at thé end help students verify that they have really understand each concept.

    The course materials were very clear, peer reviewing is also a good evaluation strategy.
  • Anonymous
    pros:

    whatever they promise at the beginning of course they tried teach & cover all .

    --with theory

    --hands-on exercises

    cons:

    --can be used animations

    --can be included some infographics for important concepts

  • Take the course - its worth your time - as the instructors go to great lengths to give you really amazing content around building amazing software.
  • Anonymous
    They also provide well done document text material even if you do not watch the videos. Great course
  • Anonymous
    The course is challenging and requires to go through some topics several times, do a lot of reading , exams, and, whats the best, a lot of practical excerises. By the end of course you will have solid skills in UML Class Diagrams, UML Sequence Diag…

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