1. Experiment with course materials concerning ‘Threads’
M. Ivanovic, K. Bothe, I. Jurca
6th Workshop "SEERE", Nessebar, September 2006

2. Plan: experiments with certain Java topics
Mira in Berlin, February 2006
Basic Concepts of Object-Orientation: Objects, Classes, Abstract Data Types
Objects and Classes: Additional Useful Features
Inheritance, Polymorphism, Dynamic Binding
Exception handling
Interfaces
Event handling
Threads & Processes
MouseMaze
6th Workshop "SEERE", Nessebar, September 2006

3. 6th Workshop "SEERE", Nessebar, 18-23 September 2006
Threads
Ioan:
Threads for more
advanced students,
Zagreb 2004
Klaus:
Threads for 1st
semester students,
HU 2006
Mira: Experiment with a group of better students (fourth semester, some voluntaries from 3rd year) about Tread presentation:
To present to the students both versions of tread presentations (Klaus, Ioan)
Collect their opinions, suggestions and maybe critical points (in order to make further improvements or even better to join and then improve both presentations)
6th Workshop "SEERE", Nessebar, September 2006

4. Presentation circumstances
At the end of semester, after finishing whole Java topics
Klaus’ and Ioan’s presentation about Threads
30 students, 22 filled questionnaire (problem: some of them were voluntaries, motivation?)
2nd and 3rd year students
6th Workshop "SEERE", Nessebar, September 2006

5. 6th Workshop "SEERE", Nessebar, 18-23 September 2006
Questionnaire
I. Effort
How many hours did it take you to post-process the lecture
II Contents of the lecture
1. Do you consider the amount of knowledge offered in the lectures
too much      too few
2. How do you consider the contents of the lecture?
too easy      too difficult
3. Is the course well-structured?
very well      unstructured
4. Are there any special requirements (pre-knowledge) to be able to understand the course?
General remarks and suggestions concerning section II:
6th Workshop "SEERE", Nessebar, September 2006

6. 6th Workshop "SEERE", Nessebar, 18-23 September 2006
Questionnaire
III Style of the lecture:
1. Is the lecturer familiar with the contents of the lecture?
very well      not so much
2. Do the lectures seem to be well-prepared?
very well      not so much
3. Is the lecturer engaged?
4. Is the lecturer willing to answer questions asked by the students?
5 Is the presentation of the lecture
too fast      too slow?
6. Does the presentation style encourage you to follow the lecture?
General remarks and suggestions concerning section III:
6th Workshop "SEERE", Nessebar, September 2006

7. 6th Workshop "SEERE", Nessebar, 18-23 September 2006
Questionnaire
IV Using media
1. Is the amount of information on the slides adequate?
very well      not so much
2. Are the slides well-structured and clearly-arranged?
very well      not so much
3. What is your opinion about existence of program code on slides? Please explain more detailed.
General remarks and suggestions concerning section IV:
6th Workshop "SEERE", Nessebar, September 2006

8. 6th Workshop "SEERE", Nessebar, 18-23 September 2006
Questionnaire
V Benefit of the lecture (or value, profit, usefulness)
1. Did you learn a lot of new things?
much      not so much
2. Do you think the contents of the lecture is useful?
completely      not so much
4. What is you overall rank of the lecture?
very well       bad
General remarks and suggestions concerning section V (e. g. which topics did you like best - and why, which are not so important or not so interesting, which deserved more and which less attention/duration).
Final general remarks to the lecture:
6th Workshop "SEERE", Nessebar, September 2006

9. Questionnaire Results
I think that we have 2 solutions:
To show .doc file with all students’ opinions, and discuss only items with arrows (I put arrows on, in my opinion, illustrative and characteristic items)
To take only illustrative and characteristic items and include them in this presentation
What do you think about that?
6th Workshop "SEERE", Nessebar, September 2006

10. 6th Workshop "SEERE", Nessebar, 18-23 September 2006
General Suggestions
Results of additional, informal discussions with more motivated and more interested students:
Both presentations are good, but not excellent. Klaus’ presentation is basic and too general and Ioan’s is too complex.
Right solution: combination of both presentations.
Introduction, explanation of basic notions and terms
Good elements of both presentations
Additional elements like dispatchers.
Slides have to be interesting, with a lot of animations and graphics.
In presentation it is necessary to include a lot of examples (basic as well as more complex), with animation of program execution and output.
Also it is necessary to include real-life examples. For example producer-consumer case study has to be visualized.
It is advanced topic and is not suitable for first-year (NS) students.
Content of presentation has to be enough for learning all necessary thread concepts – students should not use additional sources (books, manuals,…). After classes students expect to have necessary knowledge to be able to write their own programs using threads.
Maybe it is better to include this topic (about threads) into Operating Systems course!?!?
6th Workshop "SEERE", Nessebar, September 2006