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Survey Results



Course Survey Results


Philip   Johnson   ICS314, Fall 2016

Campus: University of Hawaii at Manoa Course: ICS 314 - Software Engineering I
Department:   Information& Computer Sciences Crn (Section):   78122 (001)    


1.   Class Level (pick one) - please note that by answering this question you could potentially jeopardize your anonymity

Mean N-Size Std Dev   Freshman (1)  Sophomore (2)  Junior (3)  Senior (4)  Grad (5)  Other (6) 
3.9 30 1.06   0(0%) 3(10%) 5(17%) 18(60%) 0(0%) 4(13%)
2.   Course - please note that by answering this question you could potentially jeopardize your anonymity

Mean N-Size Std Dev   Elective (1)  Required (2) 
1.83 29 0.38   5(17%) 24(83%)
3.   The instructor demonstrated knowledge of course content.

Mean N-Size Std Dev   Strongly Disagree (1)  Disagree (2)  Neutral (3)  Agree (4)  Strongly Agree (5) 
4.77 30 0.5   0(0%) 0(0%) 1(3%) 5(17%) 24(80%)
4.   The instructor fulfilled the goals of the course.

Mean N-Size Std Dev   Strongly Disagree (1)  Disagree (2)  Neutral (3)  Agree (4)  Strongly Agree (5) 
4.7 30 0.53   0(0%) 0(0%) 1(3%) 7(23%) 22(73%)
5.   The instructor communicated effectively.

Mean N-Size Std Dev   Strongly Disagree (1)  Disagree (2)  Neutral (3)  Agree (4)  Strongly Agree (5) 
4.67 30 0.55   0(0%) 0(0%) 1(3%) 8(27%) 21(70%)
6.   The instructor was consistently well-prepared and organized for class.

Mean N-Size Std Dev   Strongly Disagree (1)  Disagree (2)  Neutral (3)  Agree (4)  Strongly Agree (5) 
4.7 30 0.53   0(0%) 0(0%) 1(3%) 7(23%) 22(73%)
7.   The instructor was accessible to students.

Mean N-Size Std Dev   Strongly Disagree (1)  Disagree (2)  Neutral (3)  Agree (4)  Strongly Agree (5) 
4.7 30 0.53   0(0%) 0(0%) 1(3%) 7(23%) 22(73%)
8.   I gained a good understanding of concepts/principles in this field.

Mean N-Size Std Dev   Strongly Disagree (1)  Disagree (2)  Neutral (3)  Agree (4)  Strongly Agree (5) 
4.57 30 0.68   0(0%) 0(0%) 3(10%) 7(23%) 20(67%)
9.   I deepened my interest in the subject matter of this course.

Mean N-Size Std Dev   Strongly Disagree (1)  Disagree (2)  Neutral (3)  Agree (4)  Strongly Agree (5) 
4.63 30 0.56   0(0%) 0(0%) 1(3%) 9(30%) 20(67%)

10.   Which aspects of the course were most valuable?
Portfolio, github, linkedin, practice WODs, all of them are helpful for not only my skill but for my future.
Creating a technical portfolio and establishing understanding of github
Practice Wods at home so you were prepared for class was most valuable since it helped me be more organized
Everything we covered in the class was valuable. We learned the basic in the first half of the semester and after that we applied our knowledge to build a web page.
Learning what kinds of tools are out there, and how to use them effectively
Getting to know how to use Github.
Many ICS courses are purely theoretical, and it's difficult to see how certain courses pertain to the job market. This course however taught skills such as project management within a team, and how to use the various tools that are actually being used in the field today.
Developing professional portfolio. Learning new programming languages. Learning web development.
I found the Homework Assigments and screencasts very instructive
Learning how to develop a professional portfolio was very valuable.
Public profile.
The lesson on how to ask effective questions. The flexibility of the professor and the emphasis on the holistic approach to the subject rather than just focusing on it from a computer science point of view.
Javascript, HTML, different types of environments such as GitHub and Meteor
I thought project management and the configuration management module was most useful to me.
The WoDs, while painful at first, they helped my understanding of the material quite a bit.
The whole thing was valuable.
He taught me about professionalism and I can use my portfolio and linkin account in the future when I am looking for jobs.
- Creating a professional portfolio: Without this course, I wouldn't have been focused on my online persona at all. This course made me realize the importance of organizing a proper portfolio, so I can get ahead of the game and prepare for the future. Besides allowing us to practice coding and writing essays, we are actually forming potential business networks through 1) joining professional networking sites and 2) constantly being forced to work with new classmates. - Teamwork: Getting accustomed to working with new people, collaborating in an organized and effective manner on projects, meeting deadlines depenedent on others as well as yourself, practicing understanding others' code: all important skills we honed in this course - Learning to use GitHub: It's amazing and I don't know why I've been without it for so long. Enough said. - Ethics: I never even considered the chance that computer science might have a code of ethics. Really though, it makes so much sense to have one. - WODs: Practicing to code efficiently, something we all need.
The WODs were the most valuable, because they challenged me to apply what I learned.
Meteor/JS/WOD
Gaining some familiarity with Meteor and the Semantic UI framework was very exciting, and they are valuable tools that I now have in my toolbox. However, I think that becoming familiar with GitHub and how to use it to develop an application as a team was the most valuable aspect of this course.
The WODs and in-class exercises
professional portfolio


11.   Which aspects of the course were least valuable?
Team/Group work since I am just horrible at group stuff
None
The trouble that everyone had getting digits working, when that wasn't supposed to be part of the work
None.
None.
The Wods were helpful but very stressful
The weekly class WOD seemed the least valuable to me, mainly because the all or nothing grading system for it seemed to take away from the learning experience.
Actual javascript.
How some of the information was slightly disorganized.
Reflection essays
I think we didn't have to read a lot of articles.
First of all, I believe all parts of this course was valuable. That being said... - Meteor Framework: As time passes, frameworks are likely to become less relevent. As innovative as it is right now, who knows if it will be long outdated after I graduate. - Copy-pasting Although I understand that sometimes learning through example is the best way, there are a few times where we copy- pasted code without fully understanding what it meant. I then had a harder time debugging and possibly using the same methods again later to implement different things. - Repeating the same WOD for practice: We were told to practice the same problem over and over again. After a while it wasn't so much learning how to solve problems quickly, just memorizing and typing faster.
There's not really anything that was not valuable.
N/A
I really enjoyed this course and found everything valuable in some way. That said, out of everything, I think that the writing assignments were what I found least valuable, because I didn't feel that I could really write much of technical value pertaining to the new framework or tool that I had just been introduced to that week. However, I noticed that some of my classmates wrote what I thought were some really excellent and interesting papers, so perhaps experience, creativity, and time committed to research of the topic would help me to write better papers. Going into this course I thought that the WODs (Workout of the Day) would be what I found least valuable, but I actually ended up enjoying them quite a bit. After using the at-home WODs to practice, I generally felt confident and prepared for the in-class WODs. I think that having practice exercises is essential to building confidence. It would have been much harder not to freak out if I was going into a WOD without any preparation.
Personally, the Amy WODs because I could never go to them.

12.   The instructor gives clear explanations.

Mean N-Size Std Dev   Strongly Disagree (1)  Disagree (2)  Neutral (3)  Agree (4)  Strongly Agree (5) 
4.6 30 0.62   0(0%) 0(0%) 2(7%) 8(27%) 20(67%)
13.   The instructor seems to enjoy teaching.

Mean N-Size Std Dev   Strongly Disagree (1)  Disagree (2)  Neutral (3)  Agree (4)  Strongly Agree (5) 
4.7 30 0.6   0(0%) 0(0%) 2(7%) 5(17%) 23(77%)
14.   The instructor seems knowledgeable in many areas.

Mean N-Size Std Dev   Strongly Disagree (1)  Disagree (2)  Neutral (3)  Agree (4)  Strongly Agree (5) 
4.77 30 0.5   0(0%) 0(0%) 1(3%) 5(17%) 24(80%)
15.   The instructor was effective in meeting the objectives of the course.

Mean N-Size Std Dev   Strongly Disagree (1)  Disagree (2)  Neutral (3)  Agree (4)  Strongly Agree (5) 
4.73 30 0.52   0(0%) 0(0%) 1(3%) 6(20%) 23(77%)
16.   The instructor was enthusiastic about the course material.

Mean N-Size Std Dev   Strongly Disagree (1)  Disagree (2)  Neutral (3)  Agree (4)  Strongly Agree (5) 
4.87 30 0.43   0(0%) 0(0%) 1(3%) 2(7%) 27(90%)
17.   The instructor acknowledges all questions insofar as possible.

Mean N-Size Std Dev   Strongly Disagree (1)  Disagree (2)  Neutral (3)  Agree (4)  Strongly Agree (5) 
4.7 30 0.65   0(0%) 1(3%) 0(0%) 6(20%) 23(77%)
18.   The instructor is willing to meet and help students outside class.

Mean N-Size Std Dev   Strongly Disagree (1)  Disagree (2)  Neutral (3)  Agree (4)  Strongly Agree (5) 
4.53 30 0.78   0(0%) 0(0%) 5(17%) 4(13%) 21(70%)
19.   The instructor makes me feel free to ask questions.

Mean N-Size Std Dev   Strongly Disagree (1)  Disagree (2)  Neutral (3)  Agree (4)  Strongly Agree (5) 
4.7 30 0.7   0(0%) 1(3%) 1(3%) 4(13%) 24(80%)
20.   The instructor was professional.

Mean N-Size Std Dev   Strongly Disagree (1)  Disagree (2)  Neutral (3)  Agree (4)  Strongly Agree (5) 
4.73 30 0.64   0(0%) 1(3%) 0(0%) 5(17%) 24(80%)
21.   The instructor seems well prepared for each class.

Mean N-Size Std Dev   Strongly Disagree (1)  Disagree (2)  Neutral (3)  Agree (4)  Strongly Agree (5) 
4.77 30 0.5   0(0%) 0(0%) 1(3%) 5(17%) 24(80%)
22.   The instructor presented the course materials in a clear and organized way.

Mean N-Size Std Dev   Strongly Disagree (1)  Disagree (2)  Neutral (3)  Agree (4)  Strongly Agree (5) 
4.63 30 0.61   0(0%) 0(0%) 2(7%) 7(23%) 21(70%)
23.   In general, the course was well organized.

Mean N-Size Std Dev   Strongly Disagree (1)  Disagree (2)  Neutral (3)  Agree (4)  Strongly Agree (5) 
4.72 29 0.53   0(0%) 0(0%) 1(3%) 6(21%) 22(76%)
24.   The instructor makes the course difficult enough to be stimulating.

Mean N-Size Std Dev   Strongly Disagree (1)  Disagree (2)  Neutral (3)  Agree (4)  Strongly Agree (5) 
4.67 30 0.55   0(0%) 0(0%) 1(3%) 8(27%) 21(70%)

25.   My overall evaluation of this instructor is....
He is GOOD.
He is a great professor with a deep understanding of software engineering
He is a good professor who is very knowledgeable of the subject, it is up to us, the students if we are willing to learn which is a good thing
Great!
A sincerely good person as well as an excellent teacher.
Good teacher, knows how to teach, knows his stuff.
He has a very unique teaching style that takes a while to get accustomed to, however we were able to cover a great deal of material as a result.
He is a great, enthusiastic professor.
A
I would recommend his class to those that really want to challenge themselves, but also have fun.
Excellent professor.
Strong 'stage presence'. The instructor was definitely enthusiastic about the subject and helped keep the material fresh and interesting with humor. They also made sure to demonstrate real world relevance to the subject and how soft and other non technical skills and practices were relevant to the subject. Sometimes the class felt slightly disorganized, but not to the point of significantly interfering with the learning experience.
Very good teacher overall. Ran a very enjoyable class that was both fun and educational.
A great teacher who is fun to be around and makes learning easy.
He assigns a lot of homework but I believe that it is essential to passing this class. He's friendly and always helps whenever you need!
He is good. I recommend his class for all ICS students
Excellent. He was a very enthusiastic and involved professor. You could see that he put a lot of time and effort in organizing the modules we had to learn. He was quick and thorough with his responses to student's questions. Most of all, his enthusiasm for software engineering (and anything in general) made for a very encouraging classroom.
I feel that I learned a lot from this course. He organized the course in a way that made it easy to keep up with the course, but it still challenged me. The screencasts were organized and helpful. I would definitely take another one of his classes in the future.
Great professor
I think Philip Johnson is pretty rad. He is a great teacher who works hard to help his students to learn, and he also takes the time to impress upon them the importance of health, professional development, and life-fulfillment.
27/10
Appears very set in his ways and inflexible when unforeseen situations arise. Responses to theses situations sometimes come off harsh.

26.   Assignments are relevant to what is presented in class.

Mean N-Size Std Dev   Strongly Disagree (1)  Disagree (2)  Neutral (3)  Agree (4)  Strongly Agree (5) 
4.76 29 0.44   0(0%) 0(0%) 0(0%) 7(24%) 22(76%)
27.   The instructional materials (e.g., texts, handouts, etc.) were relevant to course objectives.

Mean N-Size Std Dev   Strongly Disagree (1)  Disagree (2)  Neutral (3)  Agree (4)  Strongly Agree (5) 
4.69 29 0.54   0(0%) 0(0%) 1(3%) 7(24%) 21(72%)
28.   Grades are assigned fairly and impartially.

Mean N-Size Std Dev   Strongly Disagree (1)  Disagree (2)  Neutral (3)  Agree (4)  Strongly Agree (5) 
4.66 29 0.72   0(0%) 1(3%) 1(3%) 5(17%) 22(76%)

29.   My overall evaluation of this course is...
Definitely Recommended
Very valuable course, well worth the time and effort
Good
Worth taking
A good introduction to website making. Could use more group-project focus earlier in the term.
Good course, but was crammed.
The course felt somewhat disjoint in that it shifts from professional portfolio and technical essays, to javascript and athletic programming, to the final project phase. While I appreciate that the course is writing intensive and that the point of the course is to prepare students for the workplace, I feel as though I would have much rather taken a course that focused solely on software engineering itself.
Good.
Interesting course and i learned a lot from it.
Difficult, but mostly fair.
Excellent.
Pretty good! I definitely feel more prepared for a career in the field.
A fun and enjoyable class, but at the same time it had a bit of a challenge to go along with it.
Great!
9/10
Great course.
I enjoyed this course very much. Though it may have caused me some stress along the way, there was never a moment when the amount of effort I put in didn't result in a satisfying reward. It teaches you much more beyond coding and shapes you as a future computer scientist. I really feel as if it has been a significant stepping stone in the journey towards my career, whatever that may turn out to be.
This course was both challenging and fun. I felt that I learned a lot from this course.
A solid foundation for all ICS students
Great course. 10/10 would take again. I would also like to say that I found the focus on development of our professional portfolios really helpful, and I think it will help many students to build up an online showcase of their accomplishments over their college career and beyond, something they might not have thought to do without exposure to this course.
Two thumbs way up


30.   Other comments:
This class is a solid foundation for necessary skills.
While the professional portfolio is needed to post the technical essays, and the technical essays come after each new material has been covered and therefore creating the professional portfolio has to come before everything else, I felt that creating the professional portfolio was actually the hardest part of the course. Because it comes at the beginning of the course, I felt fairly discouraged early on and nearly dropped. If it were possible to break creating the professional portfolio into multiple parts, I think it would serve the course a little better.
I hope to take more courses with this instructor in the future!
N/A
You da bee's knees, Philip. Rock on.
He should play us a song
The jump to meteor was a little excessive. A more gradual warming up to meteor would have been appreciated. It would also help if the framework and database were explained before working with meteor. Section on Git and Github could be improved as it seemed that many students had issues when it came to working on their final projects in groups.