BEN LEONG

Associate Professor
School of Computing

National University of Singapore

15 Computing Drive, COM2 Building, #03-20, S(117418)

Tel: (+65) 6516 4240 Fax: (+65) 6779 4580

Email: benleong at comp.nus.edu.sg

 

Results of CS1101S (Semester 1, 2006/2007) Final Survey + My Responses

The following are the results for the online survey that we at the end of the course. I've also included some of my comments to this survey.

There are two key reasons for having this survey:

  • Feedback - It is impossible to teach perfectly. With feedback, I will be able to improve the teaching of this course in future semesters. It is likely that I will be assigned to teach this course again for at least another year or two. :-P

  • Reference for Future Batches - I am hoping that future batches of students will read this feedback before deciding whether to take CS1101S or the regular CS1101XYZ version. Scheme is indeed an easy language, but that doesn't imply that CS1101S is easier than CS1101XYZ. Students who decide to take CS1101S because they are looking for a "softer" or easier option are likely to be disappointed. My advice, "Choose CS1101S only if you seriously think you like computer science and are considering going into the IT industry or graduate school. Students who are simply interested in scrapping by should avoid CS1101S".

Note: Feedback on Razvan and the TAs are omitted here because of privacy reasons. I do not feel that it is right for me to put up the feedback they received on this site (not implying that they are bad. In fact, the feedback has generally been good). They can choose to put up their feedback if they wish.  This is an anonymous survey. We have no idea who said what. We just know what was said. :-)

Total Number of Respondents : 28/32

Teaching
Question Total Responses
 
Multiple Choice
How do you find the lectures?
A : I have no clue what the lecturer is talking about most of the time 0  (0%)
B : I have no idea what's happening half the time 3  (11%)
C : Lectures are no different from the other classes on campus 2  (7%)
D : Lectures are clear and I am able to follow the material quite well 13  (46%)
E : Lectures are way cool. Easily the best class that I've taken at NUS (not like I've taken a lot, but...) 9  (32%)
F : Others
 		 1  (4%)
Skip: 0  (0%)
 

 
Multiple Choice
How do you find the recitations?
A : I'm always asleep during recitations and have no idea what the lecturer is saying. 1  (4%)
B : I have a hard time understanding what is taught in recitation 2  (7%)
C : Recitations are okay 12  (43%)
D : Recitations are clear and helpful in reinforcing the material covered in lectures 11  (39%)
E : Recitations are brilliant. I understand Scheme completely because of them. 2  (7%)
Skip: 0  (0%)
 
Seems like recitation isn't quite as well received as lectures, even though it's the same people teaching both. Perhaps we can do away with recitations in future semesters?
 
Essay
Feedback for Lecturer Ben Leong.
1. Hardworking and passionate.
2. Great lecturer Very Enthusiastic and helpful Knowledge outside classroom Motivating Great to interact with! :-)
3. could speak a little slowly as most people dont follow the sporean accent very well
4. inspiring
5. A very cool n enjoyable lecturer.. He made us realise scheme is not "Rocket Science". It was fun studying under him. He always made us smile and enjoy his classes
6. Quite slow liao relative to the past. Haha, as in, less of "fast fast" speeches. Yah, maybe on year 3 will come back help u by signing up as T.A. See how first!
7. Great too, very enthusiastic. Thank you so much, both of you. However, ben teach a little bit fast :)
8. He is very friendly with students. I like him.
9. Good and clear as well! Very understanding lecturer. Will go out of his way to help the students, for example, having a review session after people have requested for it.
10. NA
11. he speaks too fast!!! otherwise he's quite good.
12. cool "arrogant" lecturer, haha
13. He is soooooooo energetic^_^ "This is not rocket science." I like this~ can be more organized?
14. Even cooler than Scheme!
15. Passionate
16. Good
17. very cool and very cute, though he speaks a little fast.
18. Good
19. friendly guy
20. fast and more exciting. can stay awake during lecture but sometimes the material can be too powerful to absorb. requires self-study.
21. humorous, friendly, devoted
22. Good too but a little too fast
23. Ben is the most friendly lecturer I've been touch .He is someone like young lecturers : very inspired ,eager to conduct his knowledge to his students.....
24. good, but he should be a little harder
Skip: 4  (14%)
 
Thanks for your kind words. :-) Apparently I've managed to slow down somewhat since the mid-term, but it's hard to change one's accent. :-P
 
Essay
Feedback for Ben Leong as Discussion Group Leader
1. All I have to say - Tutorials would not have been the same without Ben!
2. not as excellent as a lecturer. can prove something, but sometimes difficult to make it clear.
3. He tried his best in order to help us understanding the problem sets.
4. Very good, easy to understand his classes and teaching.
5. NA
6. free
7. I like ben. I think his discussion group is very interesting and helps me a lot.
8. Good
9. great!
Skip: 19  (68%)
 
Due to a shortage of TAs, I taught one Discussion Group (Tutorial). Shouldn't happen again
 
Multiple Choice
We had a review session on Thursday 2 Nov 2006 from 6 to 8 pm. How did you find the review session?
A : It was completely useless. I don't know why I turned up. :-( 0  (0%)
B : Only the students who are completely clueless should attend. Students who know what they are doing will fall asleep. 1  (4%)
C : It was just like every other review session for any other class. Passable, but not much of a help. 3  (11%)
D : It was good and clarified most of my doubts. Students should be encouraged to attend. 13  (46%)
E : Brilliant! Clarified all my doubts. Every student should attend. 3  (11%)
F : Not Application. I didn't attend the session and I wouldn't know better. 7  (25%)
Skip: 1  (4%)
 
We had a review session the week before the Practical Exams. Response seems to be quite good. Perhaps we will do this again. :-)
 
Essay
Please let us have your suggestions on how the teaching for CS1101S can be improved.
1. More different examples used to explain concept.
2. Review Sessions at end of 4-5 lectures, Maybe weekly tests, Practice Tests at the end of term like the mock practical exam. It increases confidence.
3. its just fine .. if i can follow the classes ..anyone can
4. Let more people know about CS1101S.
5. More reading assignments? As in, reading of codes and ps-alike discussion group questions.
6. Contest is cool, but i think is shouldn't happen near the exam. However why there is no lab ?
7. I think it's OK.
8. By having more review sessions! ^___^
9. NA
10. you could go a little slow and maybe increase lecture hours
11. good enough :-)
12. Maybe should not touch Java so early? (just a suggestion~~)
13. It might help us to understand functional programming better if we were introduced more about lambda calculus.
14. maybe we should have more time to learn scheme.
15. 1. entertaining slides. 2. more lessons. 3. more exercises which practice the scheme material.
16. more contest it make the class more eventful
17. I know it's not really possible but maybe slowdown the rhythm...
18. the longer recitation students have , the more thoroughly they understand.
19. - encourage contests over my time as a cs1101s student i have come to realize that contests are the premier way to help a student understand a topic. he/she is more motivated (to finish first in class) and will learn LOTS by doing just one contest. it is also fun. you should really promote it more.
Skip: 9  (32%)
 
We are already only covering 2/3 of the MIT 6.001 syllabus (but MIT has a slightly longer semester) and we already have a lot of lecture time (3(!) hours a week). It is not quite possible to slow down the pace further. Of course, one possibility is that we leave Scheme till Semester 2, but the experience this Semester of introducing some Scheme at the end seems to be somewhat positive.

Next year, my plan is to move the Robot Contest forward, to immediately after PS2, so that people have time to play with the robot over the mid-term break. That will however mean that students will get to deal with the somewhat hairy RSA problem set after the mid-term break. :-P
 
Homework: Problem Sets
Question Total Responses
 
Multiple Choice
As a five MC module, the workload for CS1101S is expected to be heavy. On average, we expect students to spend about 12.5 hours per week on the subject. Granted that for some of the weeks, you spend less time on the subject; and on other weeks, you spend tremendous amount on it. On average, how much time per week have you spent on CS1101S?
A : At most 10 hours 10  (36%)
B : Between 11 and 13 hours 7  (25%)
C : Between 14 and 15 hours 3  (11%)
D : Between 16 and 18 hours 4  (14%)
E : At least 19 hours 4  (14%)
Skip: 0  (0%)
 
Overall, CS1101S seems to be a little on the heavy side, but to some extent, I believe that there's some over-estimation. We had on average one problem set every two weeks. It is hard for me to believe that it takes more than 30 hours per problem set on average. :-P

What's seems to be happening is that students tend to leave the problem sets till one or two days before they are due and it gets really rough.
 
Multiple Choice
There are six problem set submissions for CS1101S this term. What are your views on the workload?
A : Way too little work. More please .... 2  (7%)
B : Workload is somewhat light 2  (7%)
C : This is just nice 11  (39%)
D : Workload is somewhat heavy 10  (36%)
E : CS1101S problem sets are killing me.... 3  (11%)
Skip: 0  (0%)
 
As expected, students find the workload heavy (probably compared to other classes), but people should remember that this is an "S" module. :-)
 
Multiple Choice
The problem sets are important for learning the material in the class
A : Agree 24  (86%)
B : Disagree 1  (4%)
C : Others
 		 2  (7%)
Skip: 1  (4%)
 
Note that the two "Others" said "Strongly Agree". The guy who disagrees that problem sets are important might be in the wrong class. :-)
 
Essay
Please let us have your feedback on the problem sets for the class
1. Some of the questions are made for the MIT Scheme and quite a few problems in the question appeared. Especially when past examples of question are reused.
2. They're okay...
3. few were very tough but then few were easy so it was balanced
4. I think PS4 and PS2 are cool. PS1,PS5 are easy. PS6 has too many easy problems in homework part. PS8 can be improved.
5. They must be a bit simpler
6. Enlightening.
7. Nice and hard enough.
8. The problem sets are rather difficult but also interesting.
9. Some problem sets are fun! Some of the questions are just confusing as I do not know what the question is looking for.
10. The problem sets are good, but some of them are too long.
11. the problem sets are good. a little tough though
12. A bit difficult, but helps a lot!
13. The workload is just okay~ Doing problem set is a good way to digest the new knowledge~ J'aime le 'RSA' beaucoup!!!
14. cool
15. It is a good way to practise
16. good. the number and difficulty.
17. Somewhat tedious and hard to understand sometimes.
18. interesting problem sets. Hope such problem sets will continue to entertain students next year.
19. some are difficult, some are hard. the game problem set was enjoyable because we are already good enough in the syntax and understand how to manipulate lists.
20. Good indication of knowledge penetration.
21. They are all very difficult, but some are killers..
22. I love it . Generally , the problems set are something like another good tutor (it helps me with understanding Scheme more)
23. good, at times
Skip: 5  (18%)
 
Yeah, there were some compatibility issues in the conversion from MIT Scheme to DrScheme. Hopefully, most of them seem to have been resolved this semester. :-)
 
Essay
Please give us your suggestions on how we can improve the problem sets.
1. Problem set questions needs to be reviewed to make it understandable.
2. they are just fine .. the workload is high but that's the point of a "S" module
3. More background like PS2 and PS4.Then we can retrieve useful information from the problem sets.
4. Make it more interesting involving more games
5. Clearer requirements for the questions. All others are ok liao.
6. No suggestion
7. I think it's OK.
8. By having more direct questions? Not easier questions but just questions that are more understandable and straight to the point.
9. The problem sets should be shorter.
10. you could actually have it a little shortened like the last two.
11. Introducing the background information earlier would be helpful.
12. can do something more interesting?
13. Every problem sets are time consuming, but helpful to improve...
14. some is very easy, however some is not. generally speaking, if i cannot finish the first one, all cannot be solved. very terrible.
15. Have some examples for some qns so that we know what the qns is asking for.
16. Sometimes the question is not very clear about what it wants from us.
17. maybe some links to the scheme websites or books we can study ourselves.
18. Release hints little by little to guide.
19. more problem sets
20. Maybe make them a little easier and relate them more directly to what we do in lectures..
21. Nothing better
22. no idea
Skip: 6  (21%)
 

I'd admit that some of the questions were not well-worded and it's not easy to understand exactly what the questions are asking for. Will review them next year and try to improve the comprehensibility of the questions.
 
Essay
Please let us have your comments about the Programming Contests.
1. Cool.
2. i didn't do any ...
3. I only took part in Contest 2. They are quite different and every one can find the part that they are interested in. Maybe we can also have some other forms of problems like ACM ICPC. More like a live contest. People who are interested can take part in it.
4. They are difficult but enjoyable..
5. A very fun experience, even to put in some thoughts into the contests.
6. Super cool
7. I never join the Programming Contests.
8. The final programming contest is fun!
9. The programming contests are good.
10. those are the best parts!!!
11. Useful, necessary, interesting
12. Have nothing to say cuz I just participated in the first contest. It is time-consuming and I'm always busy 'killing' assignments from other modules...
13. the first one is too simple, the third one OOP, i think need a group to finish
14. I think it gave us more chances to show our programming skills.
15. Most people might be too busy to compete in such contest but it is still good to see student joining.
16. good practice for good students.
17. Good encouragement.
18. more contest, more difficult, increase the price of contest :D
19. it's good especially for those who are at the top qualified students
20. FUN, more
Skip: 7  (25%)
 
There is quite a large disparity in this class. While some students complain that they are drowning under the problem sets. There are some who complain that they simply cannot get enough of Scheme. The programming contests were designed to address this gap. Basically for students who want to do more and more challenging problems, they have some extra to do. 

Apparently, the feedback from the students is very positive as you see above, and so we will continue to have them in future semesters. :-)
 
Practical Exam
Question Total Responses
 
Multiple Choice
Do you think that it was a good idea to have a practical exam?
A : Nope. The practical exam was a terrible idea. We should have stuck to paper exams. 1  (4%)
B : I don't see a need for a practical exam. 1  (4%)
C : I don't have a strong view about this. 1  (4%)
D : It's a good idea to have a practical exam 'cos it allows us to show off our programming skills 6  (21%)
E : This question shouldn't even be asked. This is a programming class, not a paper and pencil class!! Of course you should have a practical exam. 19  (68%)
Skip: 0  (0%)
 
Unlike the previous semester, we had a practical exam this semester. 90% of the students agreed that this was a good idea. Note that this survey was conducted AFTER the exam. Perhaps the exam was too easy. If it were hard, perhaps the response would have been different. :-P
 
Multiple Choice
The practical exam is worth 10% of the final grade. What do you think of this weightage?
A : I don't like practical exams. Weightage should be ZERO. 0  (0%)
B : We should reduce the weightage to 5% 4  (14%)
C : 10% is good. I like 10%. Let's keep it this way. 12  (43%)
D : We should increase the weightage to 15%. 3  (11%)
E : This is a programming class!! Of course the weightage of the practical exam should be 20% or more! 7  (25%)
F : Others
 		 2  (7%)
Skip: 0  (0%)
 
Turned out that the mean for the practical exam was 15/20. Many students scored 20/20. Perhaps that is why most said it was good to keep the weightage at 10% and some who wanted to increase the weightage to 20+%? Perhaps if the exam was harder and marks lower, the response would have been different? :-)
 
Multiple Choice
How would you rate the difficulty of the practical exam?
A : It was way above my head. 1  (4%)
B : It was somewhat difficult. I was drenched with sweat after the exam 5  (18%)
C : The difficulty was just right. 18  (64%)
D : It was quite an easy exam. Couldn't quite show off my *REAL* programming skills. 1  (4%)
E : In addition to the tamagotchi, I also implemented Pokemon, Digimon and all their friends. Gimme another 2 mins and I would have finished my Pokemon Adventure Game. Shucks. 0  (0%)
F : Others
 		 3  (11%)
Skip: 0  (0%)
 
Personally, I thought the exam was calibrated at the right level and most of the students did well because they actually learnt something. I was quite pleased with the results of the practical exam. :-)
 
Multiple Choice
How would you rate the fairness of the practical exam? Note that fairness is not the same as difficulty. An exam could be difficult and fair, or easy and unfair. Fairness deals with whether the questions asked on the exam are appropriate given what we taught in class and what you did in your problem sets.
A : The questions asked were completely unreasonable. Would have made no difference if I never attended a single lecture. 0  (0%)
B : We were not prepared sufficiently for at least one of the questions. We cannot reasonably be expected to do well on this exam. 3  (11%)
C : I cannot help but get the nagging feeling that we weren't quite taught how to solve those question, but I'm not completely sure. 2  (7%)
D : There were no surprises. 11  (39%)
E : There were no surprises. None at all. The material required to handle them had been covered in class multiple times. 9  (32%)
F : Others
 		 3  (11%)
Skip: 0  (0%)
 
Apparently the students were happy with the questions. 70% said that there were no surprises. I did have some students comment however that the practical exam was harder than the mock exam.... well, it's hard to set exams of the same difficulty.
 
Multiple Choice
What do you think about the length of the practical exam?
A : It is inhumane to expect anyone to finish the exam in the given time. 0  (0%)
B : Too little time, too much to do. 3  (11%)
C : Time allotted was *JUST* nice. 21  (75%)
D : I could have gone for a 15-minute coffee break and finished the exam. 2  (7%)
E : I could have gone for a 15-minute coffee break and finished the exam, but I didn't. I wrote a full featured digimon adventure game instead. Darn, two more minutes and I would have finished it. 1  (4%)
F : Others
 		 1  (4%)
Skip: 0  (0%)
 
The students also agree that the time allocated was just right.
 
Essay
Suggestions on how the practical exam could have been improved or on how we could have helped you better prepare for the exams.
1. Nothing serious.
2. We should have a 2-hour practical exam and the coverage of the exam should be wider and should have the problems as interesting as problem sets.
3. More mocks maybe? Also pass year papers...
4. Nice enough
5. Maybe have optional practice questions with solutions provided for the weaker students to get a hang of it. I take too much time to think of the solutions, maybe I need more practice with questions of similar styles to the practical exams.
6. NA
7. could have had two more of the review sessions
8. Can the tutors tell us more about how to think instead of simply giving us the answers?
9. can we do something more interesting?
10. PE should have more easy and small question..... like the first question
11. I think this way is good. if possible, please give us more time to prepare for it.
12. more problems about other topics
13. I think it is ok however you should stress on the lecture which part is used more frequently than the rest or something like that
14. blah
Skip: 14  (50%)
 
I will think about the merits of having a longer (2-hour) practical exam instead of a 1-hour one. Setting practical exams is not easy. It already too me quite a lot of effort to set one mock exam. Things should be better in future semesters 'cos we will have the past year practical exams as the mock exams for practice.

For more practice, students should try the questions in SICP or Concrete Abstractions.
 
Java vs Scheme
Question Total Responses
 
Multiple Choice
Do you agree with Razvan that Scheme is easier than Java?
A : Nope. 9  (32%)
B : Of course! 19  (68%)
Skip: 0  (0%)
 
At the beginning of the Semester, Razvan apparently told the students that Scheme is easier than Java. Then in the middle of the semester, some of the students were complaining that they had been misled ('cos it turned out that CS1101S was harder than they had expected). So now that the students have learnt both Scheme and Java, I decided to take a poll to see what they think. Turns out that almost 70% of the class agrees with Razvan.
 
Multiple Choice
This is the first time that we are introducing Java at the end of CS1101S. Do you think it's a good idea?
A : Lousy idea. More Scheme. More Scheme. More Scheme. We should leave Java till CS1102S in Semester 2. 5  (18%)
B : I'm neutral. 11  (39%)
C : It's good to start learning Java in CS1101S instead of waiting till CS1102S in Semester 2. 9  (32%)
D : Others
 		 2  (7%)
Skip: 1  (4%)
 
Since there is only a minority of Scheme lovers who can't seem to get enough of Scheme and almost a third of the class are in a hurry to learn Java, I think we did the right thing this semester to introduce Java at the end.
 
Essay
Now that we've come to the end of the semester and you've learnt Scheme and some Java, what are your views about teaching introduction to programming in Scheme instead of Java? Our view is that it helps us abstract(!) away the complicated language issues to focus on the important programming concepts, but you might not agree with us, so here's your chance to express your views.
1. I agree that Scheme is a better teaching tool and it gives more exposure for us
2. I definitely agree! scheme is cool!
3. i totally agree
4. Maybe we should have more comparison between Scheme and Java since no programming language is perfect. And we need to know what makes a programming language different from others. For example, in the DP problem in Scheme, we can have a table that is at most 300*300,while in Java, we can has a array as big as 10000*10000,but at the same time, in Scheme, the table is continuous to some extent, while in Java, the array must be discrete. I am really interested how they can improve the precision in Scheme. Because I found just by simulation in array in C, it might be very difficult to calculate n! up to 10000,while in Scheme, it doesn't seem very difficult.
5. Perfect. I think Scheme really does bring about concepts easily. Java's messy, so messy for an amateur programmer.
6. I totally agree that Scheme is a good programming language to learn concept
7. Scheme taught us a very important concept that most Java students have a problem handling, which is the conversion between iteration and recursion. Many Java students take a long time to grasp recursion as they started learning iteration.
8. I agree that Scheme is cool !
9. yeah...scheme is actually good
10. I agree. I learnt a tiny bit of java before I attended this class and I was totally lost. Teaching introduction to programming in Scheme is a quite smart idea. I feel much better when I came back to Java at the end of this class.
11. Scheme is more suitable than Java for introduction to programming. The first time I touched Java I was totally confused about the 'public' and the 'static' thing... what the hell they mean? Feel more comfortable in scheme although we are doing recursive things all the time...
12. Basically I agree with you in that we can get rid of the complicated language issues. But I also found that to master Scheme is not that easy... :P
13. Can we take CS1101s and CS1101X,Y,Z at the same time? I think that's a good idea.....
14. I think Java is very similar to C language, but scheme is very different which is very cool.
15. Good good good...
16. faster in getting solutions to programming problems.
17. When I listen to some of my Java class friends i sometimes feel that Scheme is maybe easier than Java but don't think that its a good idea to start learning with scheme and to stop it in 4 month to start again learning another new language...
18. I think Scheme is a better start than Java even though we use Java mostly, however it makes us have a glimpse of what a program language is
19. AWESOME
Skip: 9  (32%)
 
This is the six-million dollar question that was asked for the benefit of future students who are faced with the choice of choosing CS1101S or CS1101X,Y,Z. The lecturer can stand up and say that Scheme is cool and it is worth learning Scheme than Java .... but that's useless. The test of the pudding is in the eating. Here you hear it from the students themselves as to what they think about learning programming in Scheme. :-)
 
General
Question Total Responses
 
Multiple Choice
Since we have come to the end of the semester, what is your final impression of CS1101S?
A : This is a horrible class. I learnt nothing and truly regret choosing it. 0  (0%)
B : CS1101S is not as good as my other classes. 3  (11%)
C : CS1101S is just like any other class 0  (0%)
D : CS1101S is cool(!) 15  (54%)
E : CS1101S rocks. Coolest class I have taken in my life. 9  (32%)
F : Others
 		 0  (0%)
Skip: 1  (4%)
 
I think we did pretty well this semester. Most of our students seem to be satisfied with the class.
 
Multiple Choice
What is the relative difficulty of CS1101S compared to the other classes you are currently taking?
A : CS1101S is *MUCH* easier 3  (11%)
B : CS1101S is somewhat easier 1  (4%)
C : CS110S is just like the rest 4  (14%)
D : CS1101S is somewhat more difficult 10  (36%)
E : CS1101S is an order of magnitude more difficult 7  (25%)
F : Others
 		 2  (7%)
Skip: 1  (4%)
 
Caution: most students find CS1101S more difficult than their other classes. 25% find it an ORDER OF MAGNITUDE more difficult. There are however also some crazy(?) fellas who find CS1101S a piece of cake(?). So perhaps it's a matter of personal taste.

Historically, we award more A and B grades than CS1101X,Y,Z because the class is somewhat self-selecting. CS1101S is usually chosen by the better students and the material IS harder than CS1101X,Y,Z. Overall, the assignment of grades is somewhat absolute. Students will pretty much get the grades they deserve and not be "forced" into a bell-curve. Therefore, on one hand, students don't have to worry about getting worse grades because of increased competition in CS1101S compared to CS1101X,Y,Z, the material is somewhat harder and the workload is heavier and so there is no guarantee of better grades not withstanding the somewhat more liberal grading policy.

CS1101S is also not a mugging subject, i.e. you cannot expect to do well in exams and get a good grade for the class by simply memorizing and regurgitation. CS1101S aims to teach students HOW TO THINK and students die die to learn how to think to do well in this class. Students who have a tendency to leave studying for the exam till the last minute are likely to have a really rough time unlike they are exceptionally bright (but of course, we do have some of these as well...... in fact, some students take to CS1101S naturally and don't have to study at all).

In summary, students who are only interested in good grades and not interested in learning how to think SHOULD NOT take CS1101S.
 
Multiple Choice
If you were given a choice again to choose either CS1101S or CS1101XYZ, would you still have chosen to take CS1101S?
A : Yes 25  (89%)
B : No 3  (11%)
Skip: 0  (0%)
 
There's apparently somewhat of an improvement in the perception of this class from the midterm survey where 25% said they regretted choosing CS1101S...... the proportion of students who regret had fallen to 11%. :-) Perhaps Scheme is an acquired taste?
 
Multiple Choice
Would you recommend CS1101S to other students?
A : Yes 23  (82%)
B : No 5  (18%)
Skip: 0  (0%)
 
Strangely enough, we have two students who don't regret taking CS1101S themselves, but who will not recommend the class to other students.
 
Essay
Please give us your comments and suggestions on how to make your learning in CS1101S more efficient and interesting.
1. conduct the classes in the labs .. make it compulsory that all students write the code on the computer and learn
2. Try to recommend some interesting applications like the Google servers we talked about in recitation.
3. Nil.
4. Cool enough
5. No comment.
6. NA
7. have more review sessions, and go more slowly
8. Relate programming to your real life. Try to write some programs for yourself.
9. Still ThInKiNg...
10. Do the problem set, and read the lecturer's code. It really helps.
11. more ideas (not only traditional but also the latest) more concepts
12. I think we need more classmates.
13. Alternative method to represent environment model and to have it cover in the beginning of the course. Current method of representation is confusing and tedious.
14. maybe we can use this book called "the little schemer" or "the reasoned schemer" might be useful to learn scheme and it's cute.
15. Less of "this course is difficult" more of "this course is fun" talk.
16. contest make us interesting, the knowledge razvan and ben taught is very useful
17. actually at the end of the semester I've feel that Scheme is cool and good start so I am not sure how to improve the efficiency and interest
18. good... keep up the good work
Skip: 9  (32%)
 
There's apparently a student who prefers the class to have lab component. We had labs for CS1101S in past semesters. Personally, I see no need 'cos programming is a very individualistic thing. We have the problem sets and we have the discussion group questions. Students are supposed to have done the latter on their own on their own computers (therefore a lab component, but at home). In reality, many students don't. They say they have no time.

We are not dealing with 12 year old kids. We are working with young adults. I really do not believe in making students come to lab and force them to sit down in front of a computer to do what they need to do. Students need to take responsibility for themselves. If they don't want to do the work that they have been assigned, that is their RIGHT. :-)

In response to comment number 15, let me just say this: CS1101S IS FUN! Okay? :-)

I will go check out "the little schemer" and "the reasoned schemer" to see if they are good. Thanks for the pointer!
 
Essay
Tell us more about what you think about CS1101S. This is your chance to tell us anything you want that is not already covered by the previous questions.
1. in the beginning of the semester, i was warned by my seniors not to take scheme because they said it was very tough ... i even reconsidered taking scheme but then scheme was a pre-requisite for SPC so i had to take it .. now when i've done this module , i agree that it is tough.. but it is worth the effort ..scheme makes u smarter !!! :)
2. First of all, I did not regret choosing it since it is indeed very cool. Secondly, maybe we can stand at a higher point to view the programming languages. Ben talked a lot about the advantages of Scheme, but the comparison between Scheme and other languages are still too little. Maybe we can just insert some stuff about Java in the process of learning scheme instead of talking about it at the end of the semester.
3. Luv the class, luv the company of students, luv the interaction with teachers, bla bla bla... Scheme's cool
4. I like it, this should be a coolest class in NUS
5. No comment.
6. NA
7. cs1101s is a nice module, just that too much is taught in too little a time.
8. SCHEME ROCKS!!! Thanks to Razvan, Ben and all the TAs!
9. (define (mystery) (define (foo n) (if (> n 0) (and (newline) (display "please let me get an A in CS1101s!!!") (foo (+ n 1))) "no error in this programme")) (foo 1)) Got the joke? hahaha...
10. I learned most of the stuff in doing the problem set. So I'm thinking whether we can reduce the time for lecture and put more stuff in problem set for self-studying?
11. Now I think this course is helpful. It gives me general ideas and important conceptions. And it is quite good for starter.
12. I think this module is very interesting, and in fact it gives me more details of computer science.
13. Scheme is really cool
14. there are some parts in the lectures I dont know when we finish Scheme, can we do like that. I think they are only the introductions and we have to study more to explore and use this. For a easy problem set, the lecturers have to give a long code for us, but when I read this something I am not clear (even though I finished Scheme)
15. no java... more scheme more contests take contests more seriously.
Skip: 13  (46%)
 
 

 

Last updated $Date: 2015/02/26 13:12:22 $