XML API Course Content: Yoir opinion

[Jonas Mellin <jonas.mellin@his.se>]

Dear all, I am running a course in XML API at university level. 
Currently, it has been added to the curricula of a number of 
non-computer scientist study programs (more informatics, web design 
etc.) and the program directors are concerned with the amount of 
programming that is involved in the course. The reason is my strong 
belief in that the students must range through the state of-the art 
techniques for processing XML to be able to telll future employers as 
well as themselves that they know XML APIs. Currently, they get a 
briefer of XSLT,  XQuery, XML Schema, DOM and SAX which they apply to 
three different XML sources so they can compare and contrast. The 
students get template programs in which they have to fill in details (of 
different levels of difficulty) as well as tools for directly validating 
if their output is correct or not. Note that XSLT, XQuery etc. are not 
strictly APIs, but I cover them since they are among the major basic 
ways of processing XML in my view. Students typically feel that they get 
feedback quickly and get insight in how to process XML. Strangely, they 
favor XSLT over XQuery even though they have studies SQL before.

The course is 25% of s semester and at basic level (undergraduate) 
level. (In Europes, in 7,5 ECTS credits). It is preceded by a course 
that covers the basic XML stuff (well-formedness, tags, elements, 
attribute etc.).

Now, one of the program directors essentially wants the students to 
write a PHP program accessing an XML source and display as HTML. He 
considers this to be sufficient for a pass. So, we have a slight 
difference in opinion of what is required to pass an XML API course.

So, what is your opinion?

-- 
Carpe Diem!
===
Jonas Mellin, Assistant Professor in Computer Science
School of Humanities and Informatics, Building E-2
University of Skövde, P.O. Box 408, SE-541 28 Skövde, Sweden
Phone: +46 500 448321, Fax: +46 500 448399
Email: jonas.mellin@his.se, URL: http://www.his.se/melj