Course Description:
CS 136: Elementary Algorithm Design and Data Abstraction
This course builds on the techniques and patterns learned in CS 135 while making the transition to use of an imperative language. It introduces the design and analysis of algorithms, the management of information, and the programming mechanisms and methodologies required in implementations. Topics discussed include iterative and recursive sorting algorithms; lists, stacks, queues, trees, and their application; abstract data types and their implementations.
Dave's Comments:
Teaching Evaluations:
Number of Respondents: 28 / 88 (32%)
| Evaluate the organization and coherence of the lectures. |
| Excellent | Good | Satisfactory | Unsatisfactory | Very poor | No opinion |
| 20 | 8 | | | | |
| 71% | 29% | | | | |
| At what level were the instructor's explanations aimed? |
| Too high | Somewhat too high | Just right | Somewhat too low | Too low | No opinion |
| 5 | 23 | | | |
| 18% | 82% | | | |
| Evaluate the instructor's treatment of students' questions. |
| Excellent | Good | Satisfactory | Unsatisfactory | Very poor | No opinion |
| 11 | 10 | 5 | 2 | | |
| 39% | 36% | 18% | 7% | | |
| Evaluate the effectiveness of the instructor's visual presentation (blackboard, overheads, etc.). |
| Excellent | Good | Satisfactory | Unsatisfactory | Very poor | No opinion |
| 19 | 8 | 1 | | | |
| 68% | 29% | 4% | | | |
| Evaluate the effectiveness of the instructor's oral presentation. |
| Excellent | Good | Satisfactory | Unsatisfactory | Very poor | No opinion |
| 19 | 9 | | | | |
| 68% | 32% | | | | |
| Was the instructor available for help outside of class? |
| Always | Most of the time | Often enough | Not often enough | Never | I did not seek help |
| 13 | 5 | 3 | | | 7 |
| 46% | 18% | 11% | | | 25% |
| Did you find the course interesting? |
| Very Interesting | Interesting | Not interesting | No opinion |
| 18 | 9 | | 1 |
| 64% | 32% | | 4% |
| Evaluate the overall effectiveness of the instructor as a teacher. |
| Excellent | Good | Satisfactory | Unsatisfactory | Very poor | No opinion |
| 19 | 9 | | | | |
| 68% | 32% | | | | |
| What proportion of lectures did you attend in this course? |
| 90-100% | 75-90% | 50-75% | 25-50% | < 25% |
| 24 | 3 | 1 | | |
| 86% | 11% | 4% | | |
| Was the assigned work (assignments, projects, etc.) helpful in learning the course content? |
| Very helpful | Helpful | Not helpful | No work assigned | No opinion |
| 19 | 9 | | | |
| 68% | 32% | | | |
| Were the printed notes (if any) helpful in learning the course content? |
| Very helpful | Helpful | Not helpful | No printed course notes | No opinion |
| 12 | 11 | | 4 | |
| 44% | 41% | | 15% | |
| Was the required textbook (if any) helpful in learning the course content? |
| Very helpful | Helpful | Not helpful | No text required | No opinion |
| 3 | 6 | 3 | 15 | |
| 11% | 22% | 11% | 56% | |
| Did the course introduce an appropriate amount of new material? |
| Too much | Somewhat too much | Okay | Somewhat too little | Too little | No opinion |
| 1 | 4 | 23 | | | |
| 4% | 14% | 82% | | | |
| Was the amount of assigned work required for the course appropriate? |
| Too much | Somewhat too much | Okay | Somewhat too little | Too little | No opinion |
| 2 | 9 | 17 | | | |
| 7% | 32% | 61% | | | |
| On average, how many hours per week did you spend on this course outside of lectures? |
| 0-2 hours | 3-6 hours | 7-10 hours | 11-15 hours | > 15 hours |
| 3 | 16 | 6 | 3 |
| 11% | 57% | 21% | 11% |
| Evaluate the effectiveness of the instructor's visual presentation (blackboard, overheads, etc.). |
- [Excellent] Really good. Effectively arose interests of students.
| Evaluate the effectiveness of the instructor's oral presentation. |
- [Excellent] Very engaging and interesting. It is very clear and helped me a lot in assignments.
Note: This is a complete list of comments I received, listed alphabetically to avoid bias.
| Please mention anything that you feel the instructor has done well in this course. |
- Assignment tests cases were not available to see after due date. Students weren’t able to see their mistakes.
- Dave cares about students and creates a positive learning environment in class through his engaging teaching style.
- Dave is a very engaging professor who explains complex concepts in an abstract way. His demonstrations, which some may feel go a little overboard, usually help students visualize the concepts and helps our understanding.
- Dave is very engaging and humorous and he definitely made CS136 fun.
- Dave makes a lot of hard concepts very easy to understand. Also, he always points out some mistakes students made in the past and the key point of each new concept. I like the clicker questions, though these questions are tricky, they are very useful for deepening the understanding of a new concept!!
- Engaging and amusing instructor who understood his audience
- Engaging lectures
- Everything
- Great presenter, clear explanations
- Lectures are great and engaging. Help me to understabd the course way better and easily.
- Lectures.
- Very engaging and makes the content memorable
| Please make constructive comments about anything in the instructor's technique or style that could, in your opinion, be improved. |
- Everything is good enough.
- I think sometimes discussions can go a little off topic when the content gets easier. In times like these, we can try to ensure the content is covered and then move on through the material.
- n/a
- None
- Slower pace than necessary at times.
| What were the strong points of the course? |
- Build strong foundations for future cs courses
- Coherent structure
- Interesting
- Interesting and engaging lectures.
- It's very well organised.
- Lectures, explanations and assignements.
- Teaches a lot of data structures and theories that are helpful in the future
| What were the weak points of the course? |
- Assignments took people way too long to understand; questions should be more straightforward; assignment private tests are not reviewed by students thus people keep making mistakes.
- Assignments were difficult and took a lot of time.
- None
- See constructive comments.
- Sometimes it relied too much on the assignments to fully teach new concepts
- Sometimes the homework is very confusing and unclear.
| Was the class atmosphere affected either positively or negatively by attitudes of the instructor or students, e.g., with respect to gender, race, ability, appearance? Please explain. |
- Positive influence definitely. Dave respects and cares about students.
- Positively by the humor of Dave.
- Positively. Great class
- The atmosphere wasn't noticeably affected.
- The class atmosphere was usually positive.
- Very positive
| Any other comments, e.g., class size, suitability of room, noise level, etc. |
- n/a
- No.
- None
- Sometimes it could be hard to see from the back
- The class was always filled so sometimes if you are late to class, it is hard to find a spot to sit in on the lecture.