Lesson 8 (Intro to MVC and Controllers)

Lesson 8: Introduction to ASP.NET (Core), MVC, and Controllers

In the prep work this week, the students learned

1. About the MVC design pattern.
2. What ASP.NET is.
3. How to initialize an MVC project using Visual Studio and ASP.NET.
4. How to handle routing and write controllers in ASP.NET.

Announcements

1. Check with your course manager for any important announcements.

Large Group Time (Instructor)

Lesson 8 Topics That Require Careful Attention

1. The C#/ASP.NET development environment can be tricky. Some students may encounter issues that we were not able to anticipate in the text. Some minor versions of the software may be different than what is listed in the text. If a student has an environment or build issue, do your best to reassure them that these types of configuration hurdles can be common.

2. Lesson 8 content includes a number of short videos meant to be coding walkthroughs. Remind the students that it is critical to code along with these. We introduce some Visual Studio tips they may find useful, as well as provide visual aids for the controller tasks we give them.

3. You may find it useful to review some relevant HTTP topics since a foundational understanding of the protocol is expected.

4. Though the students have been introduced to C# attributes in the unit testing lesson, the attributes introduced in this chapter are the first they have seen that can take parameters. Spend some time reviewing what these parameters accomplish on the attributes.

Small Group Time: Lesson 8 Studio (TA Notes)

1. This studio will be the students' first foray into creating their own MVC project. Remind them that they will only need to pay close attention to the Controllers directory for now.
2. Some students may also benefit from a reminder of how to create a select tag.