CSCE 315: Fall 2010, feedback from the students.
Compiled by Yoonsuck Choe based on comments from all teams. NOTE: This is not a formal course evaluation!
Thu Dec 2 17:01:26 CST 2010
Project #1 was most difficult but also good since it was well defined.
For project #1, make sure all teams implement the parser correctly so that
they are compatible with the other teams.
Project #2 network protocol could have been defined more precisely.
Project #3 was good because it gave so much freedom.
Positive aspects: Real team experience, much improved coding skills, learned
a lot, helped catch up with stuff that should have known, lots of APIs, really
intense, diversity of projects, experience on big projects, GUI was fun,
exposure to different development paradigms (Agile, etc.)
Changing teams after each project was somewhat distracting and took
3-5 days in the beginning of each project to adjust.
Consider making it a 4-credit course! It felt like a 16-credit course!
Consider switching lab and class (MWF <-> TR). Each lab, at 50 minutes, is
too short.
Mostly skip individual assignment and go straight into project #1.
Project #2 and #3 had less time given so it was tough.
Have a lot of discussion during the class. Much enjoyed the aspect.
After project #1, the ice is broken, so really good discussion can happen,
about code, about the subject, etc.
Consider skipping lectures near the end of each project to give students
time to work on their project and use that lecture time to meet with their
team. Scheduling meeting time outside of class/lab was very difficult.
Would appreciate feedback on the code, as well as grades.
For completed projects, it would be nice if we can look at other teams'
code, to see how they did it differently.
Ditch the textbook -- we didn't need it at all!
Provide clearer guidelines for the projects. Dedicate lectures at the
beginning of the project to explain philosophy and details. Also, it would
be good if you can mention what typically went wrong in the last class,
and common problems faced by the students.
Consider pairing Test-Driven Development with project #1. Project #3 is more
interactive, and it is hard to come up with an automated test suite.
Consider Android app development project (for project #3?)
Appreciate the hard work by the TA (Tim Mann)!
Additional comments:
Some lectures are somewhat straight-forward and students can just read
the slides instead. The time made available by this can be used for
discussing code, team activity, or even coding (especially when project
deadline is near).
For project #3, distribute experts among the teams. Some teams can end
up with many people with PHP, HTML, Javascript expertise and some other
teams with none.