| Campus: | University of Hawaii at Manoa | Course: | ICS 311 - Algorithms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Department: | Information& Computer Sciences | Crn (Section): | 84021 (002) |
| TA: | Armin Soltan & Kaiying Lin |
1. Global appraisal: Overall how would you rate this INSTRUCTOR?
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2. Considering everything, how would you rate the GA/TA’s sections of this COURSE?
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
3. Considering everything, how would you rate the LAB for this course?
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
4. What did you find most valuable and helpful about the instructor? |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Whenever I presented an attempted answer, he would always make sure that I explained where I got my answer and my thought process and this helped me thoroughly think through why my answer is correct and it gives me a deeper understanding of it.
he knows how to teach it
I think he explains the concepts really well when we can't understand it from the lecture videos or the textbook
It was very clear that the professor is a talented individual when it comes to this topic. He correctly and accurately was able to solve ever problem.
Nodari is capable of breaking down seemingly complicated concepts to something that is easier to understand with clear and concise step by step explanations and analogies.
The instructor had a lot of expertise and knowledge in this course. His teaching style was also very effective in a way that is very clear with his explanations.
Really in depth teaching. Starts from the beginning when giving examples and shows us how to get every step along the way to help understanding.
The most valuable and helpful is to when asking questions, explaining well on the questions specifically.
He forces us to use our brains and think about different approaches to solving a problem. What are the drawbacks or the benefits? He also makes the class very difficult but that also forced me to take the class a lot more seriously.
Nodari explains the material well if you at least try and participate, or at least show him you're thinking about the problem.
He is willing to meet outside of class and help to figure out difficult concepts.
Nodari will almost never give you the answer to a question. Instead, you will give him an answer or a theory you come up with about a topic or a problem, and he will point out flaws in your answers and guide you in the right direction. The only exception is if we are almost out of time and we need to rush to finish up talking about a topic in class. The consequences of this may seem bad: we learn slower since we our professor doesn't give us the answers we need. But, as a result, since we are forced to do all the learning on our own , we can therefore understand the material way better than if someone were to simply tell us what to do. I've never had teacher or professor that did this, and I've never been able to understand concept better.
He tried to explain things and seemed genuinely passionate about the material.
Activities during the class.
The instructor is obviously very skilled and knowledgeable willing to help and answer questions.
Encourages the student's to understand the material if they want to pass the class.
He is very understanding and helpful. He takes the time to help students understand by having office hours or explaining things in a different manner.
Professor is always open to questions and explains really well. I also appreciate how he tries to make sure we understand the material well and would walk through the in class exercises with us (granted, only after we had gave it a shot). He is also very fair in grading.
He went into detail when asked to explain a concept that did not make sense.
He seems to care about the students and how they are understanding the material.
The professor is really great at answering our questions about the material. He will spend a lot of time making sure we understand the content.
When the professor is lecturing about the material during class period, and when
He is very passionate about teaching and understands the topics very well. Sometimes his explaining is complex but he can try to explain it another way.
The instructor is very knowledgeable about the course and is good at using examples to explain some of the harder concepts introduced in the course. His office hours were also good for having more time be focused on concepts we didn't understand.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
5. What did you find least valuable and helpful about the instructor? |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Sometimes I couldn't follow his explanation of certain concepts although I don't think it is his fault since some of the material was a quite difficult to understand when first encountering it.
hes smart
Knowing a topic, and knowing enough about a topic to teach it are two different things. I believe that the inverted class room
Nothing. The instructor was amazing.
Some things that are supposed to be obvious weren’t obvious.
The least valuable and helpful is explaining the in class exercise and quiz.
Sometimes he would come by and stare at our solutions for a while, then walk away, which left me unsure if it was a good approach to the problem or not.
A better idea of what would be on the exam would be helpful. It was very unlike the quizzes and I ended up studying the wrong material for the first exam.
When Nodari speaks to you or the class, his tone can sometimes make you feel really stupid. He may add comments after explaining something like "it's trivial" or "it's that simple". Often, it really is simple, but some students might have thought it was a brilliant string of logic that they would have never realized on their own. I was often this student, and my spirits would be crushed for the rest of class.
Sometimes his explanations were a little hard to follow or not particularly relevant to the homework.
Sarcastic attitude, scolding everyone in the class (which is fair though), and lack of teaching the course materials (just let us work on in-class questions rather than teaching)
The instructor can seem a bit intimidating, especially in the beginning of the semester an for some students not all, it can make the notion of asking questions a bit harder especially since some of the topics can be quite hard and confusing. However, Nodari does open up a bit and becomes more approachable as the semester goes by.
Doesn't have much hope for many of the students
Sometimes explanations are a bit unclear or make it harder to understand.
None
None
His office hours were either a hit or miss. He would help students understand the question and what it’s asking but sometimes it would confuse as more.
I really found doing the notes before the class was very helpful. I think the grading of the notes were least helpful because since we had a page minimum, it felt like I was taking notes on all the material rather than the important content of the notes,
The time taken to reprimand the students, about their lack of participation and/or lack of understanding of the material. Some times it’s just necessary, from a professor, from the “leader” of the class’s standpoint, to just move on.
Certain exams were way too long and most can not finish it within the time limit.
While this isn't a big problem, I feel as though the professor could be a little nicer when it comes to asking the class for answers. Multiple times throughout the semester he would ask a question in class and no one would want to answer for fear of giving a dumb answer. Maybe just phrasing his responses to questions better could elicit a better response from the class. Also the room for his office hours needs to be larger. Since this class is so hard, many students go to office hours and we have a hard time fitting into the room since it is so small.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
6. The instructor is fair and objective in evaluating students.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
7. The instructor is well prepared and organized.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
8. Which aspect of the course were most valuable? |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The fundamental algorithm skills I gained were very valuable to me and I think I got a lot better at pattern recognition of certain problems and how to solve them. Also the administration updates at the beginning of class were very nice and I am shocked at how many classes I take don't have these.
when he actually teaches
All information in the course was extremely valuable.
Office hours are very valuable if you need help.
Learning how to develop efficient algorithms. This topic was valuable because it provided me with essential problem-solving skills that I can use for my future courses and a deeper understanding of optimizing performance.
In class exercises helped a lot on the homework.
The course materials to understanding the concepts and method to solve the problems. And in class exercise for enforce understanding materials.
Working in groups to solve the same problem
Being taught why we design and analyze algorithms, and having friends to go through this painful class together.
The in-class exercises were helpful. It was also very useful to be made to take good notes, because they ended up being useful.
The inverted classroom style fits this course extremely well.
The notes and screencasts were helpful.
Maybe inclass activities
Essentially the whole course is very valuable as you develop the problem-solving skills required for the field of computer science.
Learning how to approach problems in CS
Class time was the most valuable as it was for questions and problem-solving.
The explanations Professor did for the in class exercises and office hours.
The material that this course offers is very important in the future for interviews within the field. Nodari himself was valuable as well as he explained concepts well.
The 2-average notes grade was the most valuable because it made me actually do the notes. Quizzes were also valuable because I had to understand the material before each class. Some of the homework questions were hard asf and required help from TAs and the professor itself, but they are similar to exam questions so understanding them should help with exams.
In-class exercises were the most valuable.
The web lecture notes and professor’s explanations of the materials.
Certain in-class exercises and homework problems were very useful as they were similar to leetcode style questions.
The TAs and professor are both very good at explaining the subjects and changing how we think about algorithms.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
9. Which aspect of the course were least valuable? |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
I cannot think of the least valuable part of the course
the flipped classroom and the overly hard homework and exams
The online notes and lectures are awful. Please fix them to induce examples that correlate to the homework, or better yet, teach the class in person.
It often felt as though the instructor was insulted by students not learning the material despite having never made an honest attempt to teach the material in class. We need your help my guy, and if you keep telling students that they don't know this information because of a failing on their part, they're just not going to come to you for help. No one wants to talk to someone that just assumes their failing to learn because they choose not to read the material. The professor really needs to change his opinions on students motivations. We all want to do good in class. Some of us just can't learn by staring at a text book. We need someone to work though the problems with us so we can see how its done. that person is you, my friend. You need to teach!
Nothing.
n/a
Not asking questions, if just leave as don't know it will not move forward.
homeworks. The homeworks themself are great, but the option to turn them in online should be available. A lot of students didn't have class on Fridays.
Cramming before each exam because you don't know what type of questions will be on it, it's all based on the homework, but there's so much material.
Having to go submit homework in person was quite inconvenient, since it means having to drive to campus just to submit homework. Also, taking office hours away from Friday because it was the day homework was due ended up making all the office hours have time conflicts with my other classes.
The lecture notes and videos are often insufficient to prepare us for the homework and in class exercises. In this case, reading the textbook is the answer, but the point is that the lecture notes could be worked on in terms of clarity of the content.
The notes not being graded didn't feel like our effort into writing them was being taken into account, so I think credit for those would be appreciated.
lecture notes and screencasts. Those are 9~10 years ago, and it doesn't explain fully.
Regarding the least valuable aspects of the course, I would like to express my concerns about the implementation of the flipped classroom model. While the intent behind this approach is to encourage self-learning, I believe it may not be as effective for certain topics that necessitate more in-depth guidance from the instructor. A traditional lecture-based approach could be more beneficial, as it would establish a solid foundation for students before they delve deeper into the subject matter.
Furthermore, the quizzes administered at the beginning of each class may not accurately reflect students' understanding of the material. After speaking with fellow classmates, I have noticed that many of us are learning as we attempt to answer these questions, having either missed crucial information from the self-lecture or struggled to comprehend the content. This can negatively impact quiz scores, leading to diminished motivation and increased stress for students.
Lastly, the group assignment aspect of the course, in which we allocate 60 points among our teammates on a weekly basis, poses some issues. Although collaboration is essential, the point distribution process can be de-motivating when one is making a genuine effort to contribute but has not yet grasped the topic as effectively as others. In these instances, it is not uncommon for students to receive minimal participation points, which in turn can adversely affect their overall grades.
The in class exercises weren't so enjoyable
Classwork problems were sometimes hard to comprehend and made learning difficult.
None
No live lectures. Everything was pre-recorded and we were expected to learn from old notes and videos from 2015.
Group rotations each week. I get the point of it was to help us connect with each other, but most of the time people you didn’t know stayed quiet.
The lecture notes/screencasts are very hard to understand if you don't like complex explanations. I preferred to watch someone else on Youtube.
Please make homework due to 11:59 pm instead of at 4:00pm on Fridays. Due to work or other obligations, having homework due to 4 is an inconvenience when it comes to turning them in. Also I'm not sure that a flipped classroom is the best type of course for this class. For some classes, I feel like a lecture would be better, especially since we would be able to ask questions about parts we are confused about when learning instead of after we have incorrectly learned the material.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
10. Other comments? |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
This class was very challenging and I am glad that I went through it.
TAs were great too
I may have said some mean or over reaching stuff up there, but I genuinely want this class to be better. This material is so interesting, and so useful, and I really think students are missing out by not having you teach it to them in person in a compassionate way. Just so you know I'm not some dumb young person mouthing off, I'm 31, a veteran, and I taught nuclear power in the navy. I know that's not the same as a college professor, but I looked into how people learn and the best ways to teach while I had that job. So hopefully that convinces you to listen to some of the suggestions I made, but I understand if you do not.
One last thing, grading people notes based on how they look because you don't trust people? Common man, this is foolish because of some basic math principles. You might be forcing some students to waste their time when they have a way of taking notes that works for them.
Incorporating what works best of "the average student" seems like the misguided attempt of a mathematician make learning as efficient as possible. Here's why I think that's bad math. Students are not "average students." Each one is different and learns differently. An "average student" benefiting from handwriting their notes a certain way does not mean that imposing this as a law for an entire class will result in higher average scores. How do you know that you've received an average distribution of students? What of the students that are neurodivergent, and learn better from typing notes or taking them a different way? Now what if you were given an entire class of students like that? You're now artificially increasing the difficulty of this class for the benefit of an "average student" that is not even in the class. I hope that makes sense, because that is the logic I learned in this class.
This course introduction so it will use these kinds of method to solve the problems in other courses. It required hard time to study but I think it's good to acquire knowledge.
This class might be a nightmare for me to have this experience..but also it is valuable to study algorithms. I am pretty sure this class is the hardest class in my life.
I didn't really appreciate the way the peer evaluations were done. Sometimes some of my group members would accidentally forget to turn in the peer eval with the HW which meant I would get 0 points for that week even though my members meant to give me points. This negatively impacted my grade.
I also would have preferred if we could turn in the HW online instead of in person. There were several times where I went to the ICS office at around 8am when they were supposed to be open and they weren't there. So I had to wait around for someone to come just so I could turn in my HW.
Very hard course, if not curved majority of the class would fail. I would like to see some of the content actually taught rather then learning it all on our own.
Honestly, this is a course taught by a good professor and good TAs but is hindered by the format of the class and a weak lead up into this class. Specifically, the 141 and 241 classes offered at Manoa are not adequate in teaching material required for 311 and leave many students having to drop 311 after this realization. The class also packs in a lot of material for the time frame it is taught in so it is hard to focus on any one subject deeply.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
11. The instructor was open to comments and questions.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
12. The course was a valuable contribution to my education.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
13. I learned a lot in this course.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
14. The instructor treated students with respect.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
15. The instructor demonstrated knowledge of the course content.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
16. This course challenged me intellectually.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
17. The instructor both sets high standards and helps students achieve them.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
18. The instructor was available for consultation.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
19. Considering everything, how would you rate this COURSE?
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
20. What was the format of this class?
online synchronous (class scheduled for particular days and times)
online asynchronous (class conducted online - no scheduled class meeting)
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
21. If you answered 'Other' for the question above, please specify. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
22. The course is highly recommended if it were taught by this instructor
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
23. The teaching-learning strategies used in the course encouraged active class participation
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
24. The instructor seems to enjoy teaching
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
25. The instructor was enthusiastic about the course material
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
26. What changes would you make in the lectures? |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
I enjoyed the structure or style of the class so I don't know of anything I would change
No graded notes.
I would not use the inverted classroom format for this class.
I would start accepting HW online. Turning HW in person often resulted in having to drive to campus during rush hour. There are a lot of commuters at this school, the the in person HW thing drive them all crazy.
Class info is not maintained or produced by the professor teaching the class. Resulted in error that could not be fixed in the lecture notes, and the professor was not sharp on the material as he was not regularly teaching it.
Expecting students to learn this complex, difficult material on their own is unrealistic. With topics as complex and niche as this one, people need to be led though it, and be shown several examples with lots of opportunities to make mistakes. This was never the case. The first time I found out I had an incomplete picture of the topic was often by discouragingly failing a quiz.
The class was often quiet, and few students would ask questions. The professor assumes this was because students did not know the material due to failure to properly prepare for the class. This was a really bad faith assumption on the professors part, and I was shocked to hear it. I'd like to propose a different narrative: that the professors bad faith assumption that students are lazy and malignant is incorrect and that another scenario is playing out. Students are unable to adequately prepare for this class because they are teaching the material to themself with little support from the professor. We only learn of the gaps in our knowledge in class, when the professor expects us to know everything. If we are teaching ourselves, and the professor is expecting us to know everything without any help form him, then what is his job? Is he not paid to teach? The professor must change his attitude regarding students, and understand that we desperately need his help to grasp this material. If he always assumes we do not know anything because we did not prepare, not one will ever speak up because no one wants to admit they didn't prepare. Also, we simply do not have the time to prepare adequately on our own as we have other classes to study and do work for. We are expecting you to teach at least half of the information, so that we have time to work on other things.
If possible, I think it would be helpful in the future if there for 3 classes per week in order to do more in-class activities that may improve our overall understanding of the material, especially since this course covers a ton of typically hard to understand content.
Nothing everything is good.
There aren’t many lectures in this course besides the online notes, so I don’t have much to say about that.
Make new problems that explain how to find the solution with also has answers to the problems.
Get rid of the backwards classroom, or if you decide to keep it, maybe do a very brief lecture at the start of the class. I also do not think grading the quizzes is necessary. I think it would be beneficial to treat them as a knowledge check to see what students may have trouble with since this is a backwards classroom setup.
Give more practice problems, or more explanation on the homework questions. Can also add another class period during the week for more time to go over materials.
Not much complaint, except that they were a little dry.
Since the lecture are inverted, we need to learn the material on our own outside of class. It would be extremely helpful if for each topic, there were something like a list of practice problems or at least a list of sub-topics that is especially crucial to pick up. Personally, it's easy to feel overwhelmed when trying to learn all the content at once, so having having a list of focus points would've helped me learn the material better.
I think homework should be able to be submitted online instead of in person on Fridays. Additionally, since sometimes people don't list points for others for the participation credit (either because they weren't here or forgot), their groupmates shouldn't suffer from it.
It allowed me to study everyday spending per 2~3 hours.
Maybe a different class structure due to the demands of the topics.
Maybe the professor himself can give a quick lecture of the material (just like 10 min) to review the things we will be using in the in-class problems
Having a walkthrough problem at the beginning of each class done by the professor would help the understanding of topics.
I think a quick in class review of the day's notes before starting the in class exercise will help me better understand the material rather than diving straight in and not understanding what's going on.
More hands on programming exercises rather than psudeocode.
Peer evaluations. Students who didn’t drop the course, but stopped attending class are still being accounted for the peer evaluation and is screwing a lot of us.
While the in-class exercises are a great men’s to encourage group discussion and team collaboration, often times the students are either hesitant to participate, or showed a lack of willingness to participate. In general, the most efficient use of class time seems to be when the professor was lecturing the students, which was direct, informational, and quite more engaging than having the students discuss amongst themselves, or for the professor to be asking the students for responses. Therefore, perhaps more professor-led discussions and lectures during the class period may prove to be beneficial.
In regards to homework, online submission would greatly benefit student in turning in their work, and perhaps more legible work at times.
Probably teach some of the content in the actual lectures. Certain topics are very hard to learn on your own.
Redo the lectures. They're like a decade old and I can't read the handwriting
I really wish we went over more of the concepts in class. We take notes and watch the video lectures outside of class but its hard to really understand the material at times unless we are being taught in-person where we can ask questions. Thus, our class where we are supposed to be working on the practice problems is broken up by the professor having to explain basic concepts to us since not everyone has the same understanding of the material.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
27. What advice would you give to students, who might be taking this course in the future? |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
LEARN BY EXPLAINING IT TO SOMEONE ELSE. The only way to guarantee that you know material in this class is to share that knowledge with other classmates. By trying to explain something and hitting a wall, you will notice some holes in your understanding and that tells you exactly what you need to study.
Also understanding each problem is 1/3 of the battle.
dont overload your class load with this class.
Definitely start homework early, go to office hours if you can, work on homework with other people.
Study. You're on your own in this class. There are no tutors and you will find little help. There is a list of topics the instructor recommends you brush up on, and you should brush up on them. If you are struggling in the first few weeks of class, drop it. Every topic builds on the last, and by the end of the course you will be using information that you learned at the beginning of the course alongside brand new material. Don't take another class that requires a lot of extracurricular work. This class may seem like is does not, but the inverted classroom means you will be doing almost everything on your own, including teaching yourself a majority of the material.
Finally, speak up for yourselves in class. If the material is difficult, you need to voice that immediately, and ask a ton of questions. This class benefits hugely from a loudmouth that's not afraid to ask stupid questions. The best thing to do is to compete and see who can ask the most questions in class. When the professor asks if no one prepared you need to constantly remind him that this material is extremely complex and difficult, and that students deserve the benefit of the doubt.
Make sure to do the notes/homework as soon as possible since it will allow you to have more time to digest the material before the assignments are due. Don't hesitate to ask questions since most of the time, the content isn't easy to understand. Make use of office hours since they are dedicated for clarifying things you're having trouble on.
One advice I would give to students is to start everything early since there is a lot of course content.
REALLY study. Not just to read it, but to understand the subjects. Its important to conceptually understand every topic before class.
Look at Homework first and working on problem faster.
You don't have to start homeworks early, but you should look over them. I found that when I looked at them earlier, I may not have been able to figure it out right away, but the solution would come to me a few days later. Also, this allows for questions if you need to ask them. The professor is really good at explaining things, but will not give you the answer. I would advise taking notes earlier too, and you may have to supplement your learning with youtube videos (do not use them as a replacement, however), especially for things like graph theory.
Give yourself more time to go over the materials and really understand them. Start on the homework early, at least take a look early on in the week. Make friends, or classmates who you can do the homework together with, and help each other study.
Take time on notes, but not so much time that you cannot start homework early. Make sure you know discrete math, because otherwise it will be very hard to catch up.
Every week, you learn two new topics on your own time via lecture notes and videos and do practice problems on those topics in class. Class is absolutely not the time to be learning the material in, nor should you try to right before class starts. Start learning next week's material WAY EARLY. In order to absorb the material, I highly recommend you spend at least two days on the material. On one day, read the material with the intent of previewing instead of trying to understand every single concept. Just try to grasp the big picture. On the second day, go way deeper into the material, do practice problems from the textbook, and try to understand the nitty gritty. Understand the proofs given, and think about the questions presented in the lecture notes. Beyond that, the more time you have to spend on the material, the more you will succeed. DO NOT START LEARNING THE MATERIAL ON THE SAME DAY AS YOUR CLASS.
Definitely try the extra practice problems. They're useful for reinforcing your knowledge and also practicing for exams.
I can only say that don't give up until the final even though you are falling behind (but if you are falling behind badly, then you should consider to drop the course). Everyone will agree with that this class is the hardest one in ICS major, and it is common to take second or third times for some people. Pay attention to all of the course materials, screencasts, and lecture notes (even though those are old), and start ahead on the homework since it takes lots of time to finish. If you can get any extra credit during the course, try to do anything you can.
The best approach is to get as ahead as possible on the required weekly
Put effort into the notes, it'll make the work easier.
Take the time to understand the content and do research outside of just the books and notes.
Go to office hours and actively ask for help when you need it.
Make sure that you understand then notes before coming to class since there is a quiz every session before class starts.
Attend office hours and do homework early. also make friends to study with.
I strongly encourage students to go to office hours. The professor and the TAs were of great help when trying to understand the material.
This course is perhaps the first non-introductory ICS course you will take seriously, so take it seriously. The rigor of this course stems from having a solid foundation in prior introductory ICS and Mathematics courses, and self-discipline to keep up with weekly assignments and course load. If you feel that your foundation is shaky, take the time to review. If you have questions about the material you are learning, absolutely do not hesitate to ask about it. To progress in this class, you will need to have a good understanding of concurrent material being taught.
Study discrete math and make sure you understand the basics of data structures.
The given course resources are insufficient to do well in the course. Seek more resources and find a good way to learn fast
If you don't understand ICS 141 and 241, don't take the class. Trying to understand 311 concepts is based on 141/241 and trying to learn both is really hard. While it might be possible to take 311 with a weak foundation in those classes, more likely than not you will struggle and not be able to pass the class.
|