Survey Summary CSCE 489 Spring 2019

Responses 25 of 44 of you (57%) replied. Feel free to send me other comments by email (or post on piazza) Can still be anonymous there

Major takeaways from survey – lecture time New topics were most useful of existing lecture time activities; followup discussions on Mondays were least For lecture time, people would like: Actually writing code in class (13 people) More time presenting topics (8 people) Less time reviewing previous problems (6 people) More time reviewing previous problems (3 people) Reviewing code of prior problems (6 people) Based on this, I’ll try to spend more time writing code in class (at least 1 short example each week); probably instead of followup on Mondays. I expect to leave problem review similar, and try to devote all of Wednesdays to new topics.

Online materials Several people said they would either regularly (8 people) or sometimes (8 people) review code for prior problems if posted. So, I’ll start putting that out there (but will not spend time in class on it in most cases). Most people like having the notes about problems Suggested that they could be more detailed No major changes but will try to be more detailed here Lecture notes were viewed by about half People found them somewhat/very valuable (but less important than problem hints); on the dry side, though Will continue as I have been

Problem Sets General suggestions: Too many problems; reduce number Too much time taken; after upsolving, are behind on solving next week’s problems.

Deadlines for weekly problem sets 17 people: keep on Saturday 6 people: move to Sunday We’ll leave deadlines as they have been (Saturday night)

Individual vs. Team labs Plurality of people (10) wanted to keep this ratio (2:1 individual:team). 7 wanted individual only 4 wanted more team, fewer individual 2 wanted team only I will keep the plan as it was. There will be 3 more team labs, and I’ve noted these on the course page.

Time spent People report spending: What I would like to see: Problem Set: 1.9 – 18 hours, with mean of 8.74 Upsolving: 0.5-12 hours, with mean of 3.81 Other work: 0.5-2.4 hours, with mean of 1.25 What I would like to see: Problem set: mean of about 7-8 hours Upsolving: mean of about 1-2 hours Other: 1 hour I will look at trying to reduce workload slightly in the future; probably 1 fewer weekly problems than otherwise planned

Other items Nothing major regarding course webpage, piazza; piazza use is OK for most people, but don’t want more Textbook use is inconsistent: 6 do not have it 1 has it but has not read it 6 have only glanced at it 3 have read it, but not found it helpful 2 have read it, and found it somewhat helpful 5 have read it and found it very helpful People generally seem to be liking the class, and feel their programming has improved overall. Suggestion for google-doc of algorithms and complexity of each