Dave Tompkins :: Teaching :: 2015 Winter :: CS 100

Dave Tompkins :: Teaching :: 2015 Winter :: CS 100 - 081

Course Description:

CS 100: Introduction to Computing through Applications

Using personal computers as effective problem solving tools for the present and the future. Effective use of spreadsheets to process, manipulate, and visualize numeric and textual information. Introduction to the Internet, World Wide Web, HTML, and XML. Algorithms underlying the functional components of web search engines and their influence on data access. Using wikis to publish, reshape, and organize data collaboratively.

Dave's Comments:

This was the first time I was the "instructor" for CS 100, although I use that term very loosely as I did no instruction. My only concrete contributions were related to assignments and exams.

As a result, these evaluations are really more of an evaluation of the course, and not me.

I did not change any content for the course. I was mostly auditing the course to see how it was working (or not working). I was researching and developing new material. I conducted a large survey at the end of course to assess student opinions on individual modules (e.g., which modules were more "useful" or "interesting").

I was working remotely throughout the term, and was relying heavily on the ISAs (coop students) and the ISG Coordinator (Barbara) to keep the course running smoothly.

Teaching Evaluations:

Number of Respondents: 70 / 362 (19%)

Responses:

Course materials were presented in an organised manner.
Strongly agree	Agree	Neutral	Disagree	Strongly disagree
15	38	11	4	2
21%	54%	16%	6%	3%

Expectations for learning were clearly communicated.
Strongly agree	Agree	Neutral	Disagree	Strongly disagree
7	38	17	6	2
10%	54%	24%	9%	3%

The assignments, activities, and content helped me achieve the stated learning objectives.
Strongly agree	Agree	Neutral	Disagree	Strongly disagree
10	43	10	6	1
14%	61%	14%	9%	1%

The assignments contributed to my learning.
Strongly agree	Agree	Neutral	Disagree	Strongly disagree
21	37	7	4	1
30%	53%	10%	6%	1%

Feedback on course assignments contributed to my learning.
Strongly agree	Agree	Neutral	Disagree	Strongly disagree
3	23	27	11	6
4%	33%	39%	16%	9%

Technology was used effectively for learning in the course.
Strongly agree	Agree	Neutral	Disagree	Strongly disagree
18	36	9	5	2
26%	51%	13%	7%	3%

The general climate in the course was good for learning.
Strongly agree	Agree	Neutral	Disagree	Strongly disagree
8	32	24	3	3
11%	46%	34%	4%	4%

The instructor related to students in a way that promoted mutual respect.
Strongly agree	Agree	Neutral	Disagree	Strongly disagree
3	34	29	2	1
4%	49%	42%	3%	1%

The instructor's explanations were clear and understandable.
Strongly agree	Agree	Neutral	Disagree	Strongly disagree
3	32	20	12	2
4%	46%	29%	17%	3%

The instructor was helpful to students seeking assistance.
Strongly agree	Agree	Neutral	Disagree	Strongly disagree
8	35	24	1	1
12%	51%	35%	1%	1%

Overall, I learned a great deal from this course.
Strongly agree	Agree	Neutral	Disagree	Strongly disagree
9	41	11	5	4
13%	59%	16%	7%	6%

Overall, I learned a great deal from the instructor.
Strongly agree	Agree	Neutral	Disagree	Strongly disagree
4	19	35	5	6
6%	28%	51%	7%	9%

This course is:
required	elective
14	56
20%	80%

On average, I spent x hours per week working on this course.
Significantly less than 10 hours	Less than 10 hours	Around 10 hours	More than 10 hours	Significantly more than 10 hours
12	33	20	3	2
17%	47%	29%	4%	3%

Comments:

Note: This is a complete list of comments I received, listed alphabetically to avoid bias.

What grade do you expect in this course? (percentage 1%...100%)

70
70
70
70%
70%
70%
70%
70%
70%
75
75%
75%
75%
75%
75%
75%
75-80
80
80
80
80
80
80
80 ish
80%
80%
80%
80%
80%
80%
80%
80%
80%
80%
80% if not more
80%-85%
80+
80-90%
82%
85
85
85
85 or higher
85%
85%
85%
85%
85%
85%
85%
85%
85+
87
88
90
90
90
90%
90%
90%
90%
95%
Around 90%
High 80s, low 90s
Hopefully no lower than a 75%
If I continue to study as well as I have for the course of the semester I expect to end up with an overall grade that will be over 75%.
Maybe around a 75%?
Over 80

In your opinion the strengths of this course are:

Assignments were an accurate reflection of the material taught.
basic familiarization of the web, excel
Being able to play with the programs on the computer as they were taught.
-Easy feedback and help through discussion boards
Gives students and introduction to a variety of computer science related topics.
Gives you a good understanding on the different topics out there in the computing environment.
Good intro course to using programs such as excel, html and wiki
Good introduction to excel, and computer language Textbook supplements the course
Grace days were nice to have because during weeks where we are overwhelmed with other assignments it gives us an extra day or two to finish up. Also the information in the modules walks you through the practice problems.
Helped me a lot with excel and how to use it for my required courses. As the course came to an end there were only two quizzes to complete for the assignments, which was good as required courses final assessments were at the same time.
-information explained very clearly
It is convenient
It provided a large amount of content, and students were able to develop various skills on how to effectively use computers.
Its organization, clarity, and ease of accessing materials to help with assignment questions. Well structured
its real life application
Material that was included went into good detail and was explained well most of the time.
Modules are evenly spread out. The schedule allows you to work at your own pace.
modules were organized into different componenets ex. 4.1, 4.2 able to reach instructors in a quick manner
n/a
None
None
Organized, assignments were helpful
Overall pretty interesting material were covered, but organization of the course is lacking.
Practicality except for some very unpractical abstract chapters
Problem solving skills are improved through the assignments.
Regular assignments to reinforce knowledge
Simple evaluation of students, the weightings of marks are fair. I also liked that students were given late days, which was helpful.
simple, not too detailed
Simple, organized
Since this was an online course the assignment were a must to keep us on top of the material. The interactive style of the assignments got us working with excel and HTLM so we could really see how they worked. This was very helpful in demonstrating the material covered in the module.
TAs readily available to answer questions on assignments and content
taught online so as to be focused on tech
Teaching students how to work and use different software. Eg excel and webpage making.
The ability to teach a variety of things in a short period of time and in good schedule.
The assignments help understand the material
The assignments, because I was able to learn the content much more extensively through them.
The chat rooms and the TAs contribution to assisting students with extra questions
The course is well dispersed to give new students a great idea what the world of computer science is all about. I enjoyed the various components of assignments that encouraged my studying of the course material.
The easy access to TAs.
The Excel component and HTML component contain enough information to allow for a good understanding of how to make a basic Excel sheet or website.
The explanations for the concepts in the course.
The modules + questions and supplementary videos
The modules are very informative and helpful.
The modules on using excel are very useful. The chat times are very helpful and the response to questions were clear. The videos in the modules were beneficial as they gave a visual of some of the written content.
The online aspect of the course is convenient. The TA's are also very helpful.
The online chat room was my saving grace. Jack was an amazing ISA and he helped with understanding the material.
the pretty excel assignments, all nicely laid out to help you along with out being confused where to put stuff
The right amount of activities
The topics it continues to teach students about technology
-the workload is well laid out/ spread evenly -good course to be able to work at your own pace
There are lots of introductory CS concepts for beginners.
Very important basics of computer skills.
Very interesting material that might be useful - more with the excel aspect
Very useful information. The assignments really pushed me to learn the material in a practical way. So far this is one of the most useful courses for the working world I have taken. The teachers and ISA were also extremely helpful. I could easily read the forums and seek help there. Particularly when I emailed for help I got a very clear response right away, so I really do appreciate the support that is offered!
Very useful, assignments were fun to do.
Weekly assignments Chat online and walk in office hours on campus Discussion boards
Wikipedia use
You learn a lot about the computer.

In your opinion the weaknesses of this course are:

1) We were quized on stuff that we haven't learned. The point of the lesson is the learn, the point of the quizzes is to test our learning. The quizzes should therefore not expect things that haven't been taught. ex. one questions was (CS100 AND UWaterloo) AND Science-Students) AND (NOT CS100 OR Science-Students) However, we didn't learn and (not…). When I sent an email to the TAs asking about it they said I could look up the answer online. 2) The links to further materials and example material aren't all up to date. You can't have the students responsible for finding your errors, nor can you have us responsible for material that might not be accessible anymore 3) The textbook sections that we had to read were all done by page number. This made me wonder when on a page I was supposed to stop and what actual material I was responsible for. It would be helpful if the chapter and section headings that we are required to read were also included in the descriptions. 4) The questions to the practice questions are given only after finishing the unit (and the quiz for that unit). However, by that time I would often forget the struggles I had with certain questions. It would be more helpful if I had access to the answers all the time, so that I could do the question and then get immediate feedback. I would then be able to work through the question correctly instead of learning the false way first. 5) The entire course is taught online and the course content is all about computers. Going forward we will also be using the material electronically. However, the exam is in pen and paper. Changing the entire medium makes it more difficult for students who have just learned all the material. It would be helpful if the exam could be done online as well. (The questions would just have to me more difficult and take longer).
always received incorrect feedback regarding grades, had to get corrections multiple times
Answers for assignments aren't always shown. For example Part B, the answer for the short answers are sometimes not shown. Therefore I am not allowed to understand which step of my thought process went wrong, or how I answered incorrectly.
Assignments are very difficult for a level 1 course. Marking was harsh.
-could be more clear and to the point
don't see the point in spending 5 weeks learning about search engines and how they work, rather spend more time learning about excel and the other programs that are more applicable for future use Communicating what is expected.
exam.
Excel formulas within formulas
Expectations are not clearly laid out, as well as they could be.
feedback was okay but not enough. would like full correct solutions. ex. when building the website, have a sample that has perfect marks some information wasn't detailed enough
- for a 100 level course, and as a complete beginner to alot of the concepts this course was very challenging at times. The concepts were sometimes not explained very well/ or broken down enough
Hard to keep track
i prefer inclass courses over online. Not being able to message the prof instantly was a weakness
I think that if the material were taught in-class, it would be easier to understand. Or if there were online videos that taught the material instead.
in the html, for the website one, maybe having a few of the more difficult think for use to copy wuoldd have been nice
In the outline it doesn't explain how in depth it goes. I assumed it would teach you how to use it not all the bits and pieces that make it work.
It was my first time taking an online course and I assumed that I could work on the course every day after work (after 4:30pm) but the chats were not available after 4pm. I think help from TA's should be available after hours as well. Overall I loved the course a lot. The course was well designed and the content was very valuable (including the history part)!
its online
Its online, and therefore, anyone who learns better listening to things is at a disadvantage. Part C questions are difficult as well.
learning excel was not communicated effectivly. had to use other tools like mr. Excel to figure out many of the formulas
Make all assignments available from the start so students can choose to work ahead.
Method of conveying -> suggestion 1. Pod casts 2.Pod casts 3. Pod casts 4. Pod casts ........... 100. Pod casts
Modules were convoluted and did not cover all material required to do well on the assignments.
more videos needed
n/a
Need more in depth examples, especially in the EXCEL portion.
Not much coding languages learned Less excel lessons Some content feels outdated (how to search)
Not really sure..
Often, modules do not go into deep explanation. If technology is already to be used, I feel like it would have been more helpful to have videos and student-lecturer interactions VIA different social platforms rather than blocks of information in paragraph format. Also, often the feedback on assignments is quickly done in a vague format. The feedback will not help me understand what I did wrong and further enhance the probability of me fixing any future mistakes from happening on the final exam.
Practice exercises did not prepare us properly for the assignments (especially in the excel modules) Expectation from some modules were not clear enough
Since there is a lot of content provided, it is difficult to keep up with the course, and ensure good understanding at the same time.
Some knowledge needed in the assignments is not taught, and this was very frustrating at some times. Learning WikiText - I think it's a waste of time. Layout of content could be confusing and difficult to read and comprehend, given the large blocks of text. Maybe try to break them down more, and use more images and videos?
Some material that was expected to use on assignments was not explained within the modules, especially in the excel assignments. Course material was not organized well, should be broken down into more modules or sub modules. Contents was also all over the place and jumped around.
Some of the material is out of date.
Some questions on assignments were not alway clear and it was a guessing game to figure out what the question was specifically asking for
The assignment questions asked questions that weren't covered in the lecture or textbook material. Sometimes I lost marks for things that weren't mentioned anywhere. When I would use the online chat room during the day office hours sometimes TAs weren't online or active. The course could be better for online students. There's not much flexibility in getting help for strictly online students.
The assignments tested on topics that were not covered in the lecture or textbook, especially in the spreadsheet portion of the course. This was very discouraging as a lot of extra work had to be put in to try and find the answers online or with other resources. The spreadsheet portion could have been taught better, more examples and videos would have been very helpful.
The complexity of the assignments.
The course material is not taught at all. The quizzes are so general and the answers are not in the slides.
The course seems to include many aspects that are not relevant to the main theme of the course.
The dated content
the fact that we are expected to memorize the HTML tags for the final exam is not something I agree with. There are so many little details that we shouldn't have to memorize but we are expected to. T understand needing to know the excel functions but HTML and wikitext is something I can't see myself using in the future which is why this aspect of the course could use some major improvements. I disagree that in order to pass the course, you must pass the final exam. This is something I have always disagreed with and it puts extra pressure on the students who also have 4 other exams to study for
The format of the modules, they are not easily stated and are not always complimentary to the assignments and practice exercises. More training and videos is needed to understand the entire subject.
The information could be much more condensed. Doing assignments it felt like I had to hunt down specific information through excessively large paragraphs that could be shortened down. Also, for some of the assignments, how we were supposed to do certain things was not taught in the course, or just not in a clear manner. I found myself having to consult the web more often than not.
The instructions for some of the assignments were somewhat vague and unclear.
The language within the modules could be simpler - I think this could optimize understanding.
The last 3 modules were not interesting.
The last module should be more detailed. Feedback on assignments should be more and it should be marked faster. Also there should be solutions to all the exercises not just videos to some problems. There has to be solutions to all the exercises so we known that we are on the right track. Also upload most of the assignments and files early so people who want to get ahead can actually get ahead.
The module readings were sometimes difficult to understand. It got confusing and some things were not explain thoroughly
The multiple choice of the assignments didn't test for knowledge; it tested very specific things that didn't help with assignments.
The quizs to unlock the answer key to the practice questions seemed very difficult and asks for too specific of an answer. Ended up wasting a lot of time on that, as I wanted to make sure I was doing everything correctly. Need to improve that in the future. I felt that some parts of the course material online were very dull to read. Make the content more appealing and improve the readability of the content.
There are a lot of new terms used in this course that can lead to confusion when trying to understand the material. It just takes time to become familiar with them.
There were some assignments that asked for answers that were not talked about in the modules (ex: HTML).
Use of the textbook
Using firezilla and Kompozer to upload webpages was confusing.
-would have preffered this course to be offered on campus, in a class room setting -some marking felt unfair. (I would work hard on the assignments, then it would have no technique difficulties on my end, but when it is marked there were errors with the file on two separate occasions and marks were taken off for that. it tends to be discouraging especially when alot of time and effort was put into it.) -Because it was an online course it was hard to asks question face to face, which I like best, instead of over email.

The instructor would like to know what specific things you believe might be done to improve the teaching of this course:

Be more clear of what is expected. Just putting the pages to extra reading was difficult to follow since there are different editions. Put chapter names, or subtitles. Also, some of the practice questions contained information not covered in the modules or textbook, and required outside resources.
Better and more feedback on assignments.
Better descriptions for the assignment questions.
Create video tutorials for better academic understanding
don't expect students to know wikitext and HTML tags for the final exam. WE HAVE OTHER COURSES with lots of information that will be way more beneficial to understand and memorize
Eliminate the supplementary textbook from the course. If information is useful, place it in the modules rather than referring to the textbook
Focus more on main points in teaching and quizzes rather than trying to test insignificant memorization.
For HTML we were instructed to use a third party program to assist us, unknowningly we were not allowed any aids for the final and we were expected to recreated tags and or codes of HTML for our practice exams. I find that it would have been better if we weren't introduced to the third party program in the first place and learned to code HTML ourselves.
for the excel section much more of a basic breakdown is needed for true beginners
Have better slides.
Have longer videos (and slower paced) or summary videos for each module
Have more videos explaining topics, explaining excel in better detail.
have samples of perfect assignments after the completion have examples for formula errors. what formula could have caused #NUM? to appear
I don't think anything needs to be changed.
I'd recommend this course to anybody. As it is right now, it's fine.
If not this course, then have another course made for people who just want to learn about the basic necessities in a computer not the how it works part just how to work it.
Implement better ways of using the technology available. Also, encourage TA's to be more available to those students who actually can be on campus to ask questions rather than those that simply solely rely on emailing.
In each module the content was hard to determine from practice questions at times. It would be easier to have them at the end of the page or module
Include more example and explanations
Include more videos in the lecture to show students how to work with the computer. Test only on that information that is covered in the course.
instead of offering the entire week for an assignment to be late, do 2 days because this gives time for other students who hand it in on time to look over their assignments and compare it with the answers since they only have 2 weeks to dispute marks
Make it an in-class course
Make the information more concise and ensure all things we need to know for the assignments are in the modules.
mandatory weekly quizzes
Mark assignments a little quicker so we have more time to reflect on the feedback before doing the next assignment while the information is still fresh.
More chat sessions, and better feedback on assignments.
More concise readings.
more online videos
More video examples on how to complete problems in module.
More videos would be helpful to make some of the concepts more clear.
More videos Would like to learn CSS as well in this course Less textbook readings (readings not helpful)
More videos! They were incredibly helpful.
n/a
N/A
Please get someone to review the course and make sure that the links aren't broken.
Please provide specific learning goals at the beginning of each module. This is to ensure the students know exactly what they have to do and know to succeed in the course.
Relate to topics that such as social media and such. Also remove the history aspect. In place of the explain some topics more thoroughly. Eg. Boolean
remove exam
set up an instant messaging tool and a time so that people who cant attend office hours can get help from where ever they are
The course modules should have a more reasonable amount of practice questions within them. It took too long to get through some modules sometimes.
The due dates for the assignments are slightly inconvenient because they were due on mondays, so if we were working on it the weekend before it was due, we wouldn't have access to any help until the monday which made completing the assignments feel rushed. Yes I understand I could have worked on them the week before, but I never really had the time to until the weekends.
The pod casts were very very very helpful. I guess students will learn better with the video lecture than the long text (Which I abhorred). There were few very unpractical modules such as how the search engine works. I think we should replace this part with basic coding or learning things that we could actually apply. I enjoyed [Excel, html, wiki-text et cetera). I think those chapters should remain. Furthermore another critique that I will like to make is about the method of testing the information. Some quiz question resembled some kind of SAT English test. It was both convoluted and I had to meditate for a long time to understand what the question was asking me. Since CS100 is an entry level course and in order to accommodate wide variety of students the complex wording should change. I spend most of the time deciphering the long text and quiz whether than spending time learning the material (Usually end up searching up in google to learn it rather than reading the module). Many thanks for reading
The solutions for assignments were not very detailed or specific. Some only had one answer. It would have been nice to see step by step solutions for all the questions. This would help students who know the process but may have made a mistake at a certain step to spot it easily.
The TAs take too long to respond to emails, and sometimes there aren't TAs available to replace the ones that aren't available for the online chats.
There should be more online evening sessions other than Friday night. ISA's should be able to communicate with students via Skype if both parties agree. For instance, I had a hard time understanding some concepts on Assignment 5, Jack had to explain it to me several times via. email but this was a waste of time. If I didn't get it in the notes then writing it again isn't going to help. I should be able to speak to someone on the phone or Skype to get a verbal help since I live way to far to attend office hours.
there was a lot of readings, maybe break them up into smaller portions for absorption
Update course content and be more concise in the way concepts are explained.
update the course content, newer versions of software exists now (ex/ updated version of excel on mac/pc)
update the modules, a lot of it is outdated and does not match the current layout of webpages today ex. wiki modules the sidebars aren't the same as the pictures when you compare them to wikipedia
updated content as well as assignments that actually applies concepts and things that would be used in real life (ex. the coding for excel assignments are much too complex and weird to actually be used in real life). Also, some assignments required things (or functions) that weren't thoroughly taught in the content which required us to do additional searching and learning outside of the course to truly understand what to do.
Upload everything early please. Some of us would like to get ahead and finish everything beforehand so it could work with our schedule. Also Make assignments open from the start like at least half of them.
Work on updating the text of the course content, by making it more engaging. Also, as stated above making the answer keys to the practice questions more accessible would be awesome.
-would have preferred this course to be offered on campus, in a class room setting. -explain more clearly the format of how assignments should be handed in and add a preventive method to prevent losing marks just from technical difficulties.

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