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Results of CS3216 (Semester 1, 2011/2012) Mid-term Survey +
My Responses
The following are the results for the online survey that we did after the
mid-term exam. I've also included some of my comments to the mid-term survey.
There are several reasons for this survey:
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Timely Feedback - We cannot teach well unless we know what's going on
and what students do not understand. Waiting till the end of the semester
would be too late and there's nothing much that we can do. That said, I hope
that students will appreciate that the lecturers are only human and it's not
always possible to address all concerns and fix all problems this semester.
In any case, the feedback will be taken seriously and future batches of
students will benefit.
-
Allow
Lecturer to Respond - This survey also presents the lecturers with a
opportunity to address the concerns of the class and to clarify some issues
from the perspective of the teaching staff, which is also why this
particular page exists.
-
Reference
for future batches - Students always want to know about class before they
take it.
Note: Feedback on the TA and Tutors 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, I have the
privilege of the support of a FANTASTIC teaching staff this semester and the feedback
is raving good, but I still omit as a matter of policy). They can choose to put up their feedback
on their own homepages 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 : 39/43
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Seems like we've dropped from last year with only about 80% of
the students claiming that they have learnt a lot (compared to 85% from
last year).
The proportion of "I learnt more in CS3216 than all my other classes
put together" has however dropped from 44% to about 28%, which
seems a little worse than last year, but 30% is about the norm. Last
year was probably an anomaly. Truthfully, I feel that this is a little
surprising because I think the the two assignments this year were the
best designed ones for the past 4 years. I guess teaching is indeed
quite unpredictable.
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Multiple Choice |
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2)
How would you assess the difficulty of the
assignments? |
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They were too easy |
1
(2.5%) |
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They were not much of a challenge |
0
(0.0%) |
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Average, just like my other classes |
3
(7.6%) |
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They were challenging |
34
(87.1%) |
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I almost wanted to commit suicide |
1
(2.5%) |
| Skip |
0
(0.0%) |
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The proportion of students who want to commit suicide has fallen from
14.6% last year to 2.5% this year. In this light, I think we're doing
pretty good on the assignments. Personally, I really like the
assignments this year. Most of the credit needs to go to Kok Wee and the
tutors for pitching in to set up and update the assignments.
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The time taken also seems to be lower compared to last year, which I
find surprising because the mobile-cloud assignment is definitely
somewhat more complicated that the GoogleWave assignment last year.
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Essay |
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4) Please let us have your views on the
Facebook assignment. |
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1. learnt quite a bit |
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2. I was happy that we can choose from making iFrame or
standalone apps. |
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3. It was quite fun, and quite well designed. However, I
think the teaching team should warn us about using AWS
services T_T. It was quite costly afterward :(. |
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4. Challenging and interesting. The most important thing
is I learnt a lot from it. |
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5. I feel that the Facebook assignment is a good way to
let us learn about how we can tap on Facebook resources
such as graph api to get an app started. However,
Facebook app is not as popular as it is last time when
it first come out. This really disappoint me because I
have develop an app that nobody are keen to use as
compared to last time. But I have to admit I learn a
lot. |
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6. It is an eye opening experience to work with Facebook
API |
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7. Great start to the module, allowed us to learn really
a lot of web development, and how to fix bleeding edge
screw ups. Learning Facebook integration is pivotal for
good ideas and execution. |
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8. The Facebook assignment exposed me to the
ever-changing world of Facebook API. Integrating the
Facebook Connect was really a PITA, and it took us hours
and days to find a method that works. Nonetheless, it
was a good experience and we certainly learnt a lot, be
it new frameworks or new languages. |
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9. A good start to the term. Although I think would have
been better to start with seminar to gain more
understanding. |
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10. The assignment is fun and challenging at the same
time. I've learned a lot |
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11. Interesting and definitely gave me an insight on
what Facebook can offer. |
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12. Learnt that Facebook programming is not quite
simple, because Facebook API changes very frequently,
and its documentation is rather messy and not easy to
find out the exact code to use, since some parts of the
API are deprecated. The assignment is reasonable, just
that maybe because it was somewhat at the start of the
semester, I think that most people need a little more
time to know what the expectation of the assignment is. |
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13. Quite good. I learned most of the techniques from
that assignment |
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14. Was very good to get an overview of what is possible
on the FB platform. |
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15. Got to learn how to use the FB api, pushed us to
read documentation of a REST API and learn how to use.
The assignment is quite well structured and motivated us
to find out more and implement. |
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16. No comment |
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17. It is quite a well developed assignment. I learn
many things from that assignment. But also realize that
how bad Facebook api is. |
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18. Really had a nice experience with Facebook API,
which changing over time. I think this will be still a
good practice for future batches, to let them try
working with "external" websites. |
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19. The Facebook assignment kick started the entire
campaign! And I think it was appropriate as the first
assignment since it gave us the room to explore and have
fun at the same time while staying connected to the
world. LOL |
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20. The Facebook assignment is a good starting point for
us to familiarize with real world app. And its a good
platform to test out some ideas since many of our
friends are using Facebook. But since there are too many
apps on Facebook it could be a problem as well that its
not easy to get public traction. |
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21. I expected it to be a slaughter; everybody was still
feeling their way around. It would have been nice to
have had some examples from previous years because
frankly it was a mess and nobody really had any idea
what to do. Here's how things work in the army (and NUS).
When in a new environment/module/camp everybody works
fairly hard for a few weeks until some sort of appraisal
- monthly debrief, first project, grading, etc. Then
people usually get an idea of how much work is
desirable, and scale back. I think we were all too eager
on the first Facebook one, and tried to do too much
(i.e. try to do too many things, run around aimlessly
rather than focus and feel for something) and may have
missed the point of the assignment. I would have liked
to have had a "tutorial project - maybe a one week
challenge, Monday to Saturday, maybe hack some simple,
existing code to create something to show off to the
class. |
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22. It is well designed, the material given is
sufficient |
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23. I think the scope can be more well defined. Some
groups are doing do huge a project whereas some group
are doing to hit the milestones only. |
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24. I learnt more than I expected |
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25. I felt that this assignment was useful in getting
acquainted with web programming. |
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26. It is awesome. It was my first time building up
something that people can use/play. |
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27. its good except for Facebook as a platform seriously
sucks |
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28. Nice way to get started, but Facebook has lost its
strength on the apps area. Development in other app
environment like iOS or Android (or yeah, HTML5) are
much more sexy. |
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29. The instructions given were good, very informative. |
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30. Useful, engaging and fun. I start with no knowledge
of PHP, and finish with not full, but almost everything
I need to complete a web app. The milestones are just
great, help to guide us a lot. Thanks the TAs for great
documentation and preparation too! |
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31. Quick and effective way of gaining certain
techniques. A bit time consuming |
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32. Fun. Time for prototype is too early... |
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33. It is good but the problem is that its relevancy is
dying because a lot of the products are spammy (i hate
that) /dying out... |
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34. I enjoyed the overview of the Facebook platform.
Glad we did an assignment on it, I would not liked to
have done more than 1 fb app though. |
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Skip: 5 (12.5%) |
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Most of the comments this year are quite positive and similar to what we
got last year.
Very few complaints, which I guess is good.
On comment 23, that's what life is really about. People get to choose
how much effort they want to put into something. Some people can choose
to do a lot, others can do minimal. That's just how life is. I really
don't see why I should dictate what students should be doing.
Facebook is definitely not dying. The Facebook App platform is
however too saturated and dominated by big players such as Zynga and EA,
so it's hard to compete, but that's not the point of the assignment. The
whole point is to expose students to the FB APIs so that perhaps they
might be able to exploit the API to do cool things in the future. FB
Connect and Likes will be a very important component of future web
applications.
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Essay |
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5)
Please let us have your views on the Facebook
Application Seminar. |
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1. iPad seminar? I really didn't get too much value out
of the seminar, it was more of a hindrance than it was
beneficial. |
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2. Wasn't entirely clear what we must present to be
honest; each app is different. However I thought that
all the groups did well as a whole. |
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3. Really helpful. It helps us look into an app. |
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4. This should definitely come before the Facebook app
assignment. |
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5. Ad-hoc, rush. |
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6. Serves more as an awareness/appreciation session for
some of the better made iPad apps. There was a much
larger proportion of iPad apps shown as compared to
Facebook apps, which probably means that there is a much
greater interest towards iPad apps than Facebook apps. |
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7. My favourite one; but I think this is less of a
"project" and more of an exercise. This
naming/classification is especially important. Timing is
poor; many people sort of did it overnight or had to
juggle with the Facebook and made it useless. Also Ajay
got angry when I called his presentation out for being
not as spectacular as I imagined. I expect somewhat
more, though. The show & tell format is strong. Maybe
not just Facebook Apps, but allow people to share
Utilities they think are useful, etc. |
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8. Maybe we should have this seminar before Facebook
assignment so that people can have some big idea before
doing Facebook assignment |
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9. It's ok, but I don't really like the idea of having
seminar on both Facebook and iPad apps. Just focus on
one of them should be easier to make comparisons between
presented apps. |
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10. No comment |
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11. The timing can be better organized as people are
busy doing the assignments when this is due. Good way of
learning. Be able to know the frontier apps and learn
them on our own. |
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12. It was a good way to get insight into the current
apps in the market. It pushed us to think more about how
these apps are implemented and built around the existing
technologies. |
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13. It's quite cool to review an existing app and
discuss over it's pros and cons. |
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14. Very good idea.. cannot express how great it is..
btw, should also be ipad seminar in the heading... |
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15. The schedule introduces a lot of pain. I have to
rush for the first assignment as well as prepare for the
app seminar. It will be better to move it after the
submission of the first assignment. |
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16. Hmm, not very educational to me |
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17. Useful, we are about to know what good/bad about an
app. However there are too many groups choose to present
an iPad app, thus the seminar is quite biased. Besides,
we don't have too much time to prepare for it, maybe the
seminar can happen after assignment 2 is great. Instead
can put case study 1 after assignment 1, since that's
more useful when we're going to do assignment 2. 1
advantage to do this is the case study is individual, so
no meeting is required (because the period between after
assignment 1 submission and Facebook App Seminar is
quite short, it's quite troublesome to have enough
meetings to prepare for a "great" presentation.) Overall
the seminar is useful. |
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18. A good chance to study other apps and learn how to
create something different. Lack of some framework for
presentation and could provide more tips on what to
study for all groups to gain the most. |
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19. Honestly, I don't think it was THAT useful. Could do
without it. Maybe it'd would have been better presenting
on the FB assignments other grps did rather than well
known ones. |
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20. I was a bit bored doing this and found it a chore. |
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21. Well the seminar on the contrary paled a little in
comparison to the Facebook assignment. Although there
are still lessons to be learnt, I felt it wasn't as
effective. Picked up some presentation skills though. |
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22. It is cool seeing others present about apps. I feel
it might be better if we are assigned genres of apps to
choose from. |
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23. This assignment was an eye-opener to various apps
and how UI/UX play an important role. |
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24. It's a good break between assignment 1 & 2. Most of
the presentations are interesting |
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25. An ok assignment, mainly because the workload was
not too heavy. |
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26. It is actually a good way to have a very focused
discussion about new and forward-thinking apps. |
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27. I like the seminar. From the Seminar, I learned what
is a good application. From the seminar, I know the what
kind of application I should try to develop in future.
In addition, I also learn something about the business
model of an application. |
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28. Sadly, I was not present for the class :( The
preparation for the seminar was quite haphazard as it
clashed with our first assignment prototype deadline. |
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29. It's quite useful that we may enrich our knowledge
with many applications that we might have not heard
before. Most of the apps presented were never been heard
by me, haha |
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30. waste of time |
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31. The Facebook/ipad app seminar is very helpful when
groups of us hunted for interesting apps and do analysis
and share with the whole class. Moreover, the after
class blogging and commenting opened up chances for us
to discover more and read thoughts from others. |
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32. Able to see many interesting applications |
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33. It was cool, cos I knew what the good apps are
around, and what should have been done in a better way.
Thus I can learn their good and bad. |
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34. Didn't really learn a lot from it. |
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35. I think this is not as interesting and useful as the
other assignments. |
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36. The Facebook application seminar is a good way to
open up our views on different app , their strength and
weakness and what to look out for when developing a app. |
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Skip: 3 (7.6%) |
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The FB application seminar has always had mixed reviews. Some folks
think it's great and others think it's a waste of time. :-)
But teaching is really not a popularity contest, so we don't have to do
things that is popular with everyone as long as we know what we're
doing.
Scheduling has always been a problem because we don't have a lot of time
and I really want the two programming assignments + this seminar to be
completed before the midterm break.
Actually, the intention of the seminar was to be a way to practise
presentation skills and the presentation workshop was supposed to be
conducted before the seminar. Unfortunately, the presentation workshop
had to be rescheduled because of the Presidential Elections and it came
too late AFTER the Seminar was already over. Also, the attendance of the
workshop wasn't quite as high as previous years, perhaps because many
students were a little burnt out because of the second assignment.
The Seminar was supposed to help student develop two soft skills: (i)
presentation skills; and (ii) an awareness of what the heck is going on
out there in terms of apps. Trouble is that some students didn't take
this assignment seriously and were just going through motion. That, is
not something I can help. What I can do is to create opportunities for
learning. Whether students make the most of the opportunities to
maximize the value of their tuition is really up to them.
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Essay |
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6)
Please let us have your views on the Mobile-Cloud
Assignment |
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1. It's good, sometimes hard to meet the requirements in
the aspirations coz ideas and aspirations don't always
meet. |
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2. Really very bleeding edge. Even the frameworks used
are not very stable yet. More time should be allocated
to this assignment |
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3. More challenging than the Facebook assignment, but
more fun :) |
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4. Quite useful, the milestones are quite a lot, they're
helping us learning new things. It's just that we didn't
have time to carefully learn each thing, so as you said,
this is just to let us know the existence of such
things, but might not actually learning it. |
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5. Good |
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6. It is a quite good assignment. I learn how to build a
real mobile application with HTML5 as base. It is quite
interesting. |
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7. Very very good...forces learning of something that
you might otherwise not be able to do due to other
modules even if you are interested in it.. |
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8. Really enjoyed playing with HTML5 and local storage.
I don't think we had nearly enough time to complete the
assignment though. |
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9. The Mobile-Cloud assignment spanned across the recess
week and mid-term period. There wasn't much time spent
designing and programming on it till the last week
before submission. Personally, I find that there wasn't
much difference from the first assignment, as we used
most of the technology introduced for the second one,
except for optimizing for mobile devices. |
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10. The mobile cloud assignment gave us the opportunity
to explore the mobile scene. I think it is a very apt
assignment since the mobile scene still has lots of room
for improvement. Furthermore, the rise of the cloud and
the chance for us to learn and apply our skills works
well hand in hand. |
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11. deadline was too tight |
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12. I learnt a lot about HTML5 during this assignment. |
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13. After doing the mobile cloud assignment it let us
understands the current limitation and maturity of doing
a HTML5 application. |
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14. Good chance to work on a mobile app. Timing was very
tight so final product could have been better. |
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15. Learn about HTML5 and able to see the new and cool
features of HTML5 |
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16. I think this is a bit overlays with FB app. |
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17. Great experience working with HTML5 frameworks. |
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18. I think it is good that this assignment forces us to
make non-native apps. in this way, we are pretty much
forced to find alternatives and make the best out of
what we have. |
19. Most of the apps are pretty well done, probably
thanks to the fact that there are frameworks around to
do iOS-styled HTML5 programming, which would allow the
app to have a decent looking UI. As this is the 2nd
assignment, the students probably have a better idea of
what to expect and can express their skills better in
this assignment.
Touching cutting-edge technologies like html5 css3 and
cloud is helpful especially for preparing the final
project. IMO this assignment makes more sense than the
Facebook assignment as we might build more useful apps.
The only problem was that cross mobile platform support
for those scripts are not perfect yet and there's more
to discover. |
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20. all good |
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21. Most useful assignment ever. Probably because this
is the future of all mobile apps. |
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22. It feels as though the time given were so much
shorter. |
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23. Useful as well, and really helpful for us since
HTML5 and cloud is/going to be the trend. The rest api
and the authentication knowledge are very important,
could be much better if they were introduced in
assignment 1. (Maybe does not need to be milestones, can
be appendix, because it would save a lot of time to
code.) |
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24. Really learned a lot in this assignment like
principles of REST API, how to make offline applications
and the importance of a good UX ( after working with
frameworks like jQuery Mobile). |
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25. It went by in a blur of late nights. I don't
remember it. |
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26. Challenging but it is fun learning new technology.
No prototype requirement, which is good, :P |
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27. No comment |
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28. Most well planned, thought out and executed
assignment of all. |
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29. It helps strengthen the skills and prepare for
final. |
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30. I feel that it is too similar to the first
assignment. Both are web development, so sadly people
that already have experience in web development will
gain an upper hand (read: learn less) as compared to
people coming from other background, e.g. Java/C-heavy,
desktop, or close-to-bare-metal programming. |
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31. It's kind of ok. I learnt quite a lot of stuffs.
However, knowing that it's designed specifically for
iPad make our design a bit less universal for all mobile
device. |
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32. I didn't think the iPad was a good target choice,
maybe the iPhone/Android. But it also let me gain
insights on how the web is shifting towards supporting
mobile devices. I learnt a lot too. |
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33. This is a good knowledge |
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34. The mobile app assignment provides me with the
necessary skills and lessons to learn how to develop a
mobile app using html5 with several existing mobile
framework. |
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35. Most extensive use of JavaScript in my life |
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Skip: 4 (10.2%) |
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Frankly, I am hardly concerned about too little time and stuff. What I'm
concerned about is optimal learning, which seems to be happening at some
level, so I think we have met our goals in this assignment.
On the comment that the second assignment is similar to the first,
that's absolutely rubbish. This means that the student didn't actually
learn what he was meant to learn. The whole point in this second
assignment was to explore the idiosyncrasies of the mobile platform. If
I have to guess, the student must be from the group that built the
online book sale site and tried to explain that it was a mobile app.
Harlo?? Obviously if your team chooses to build an app that really
*isn't* a mobile app to begin with, it would be no different from the
first assignment. *hiaz*
This assignment is also an opportunity to explore mobile jQuery and
Sencha frameworks. Glad that many groups did and realized the buggyness
of these frameworks. My view is that HTML5 is not quite here yet 'cos
support in the browsers is still somewhat spotty. However, the morale of
the story is to "skate where the puck is going". I see part of the world
moving towards HTML5, so it seems like a good place to check out.
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Essay |
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5)
Did you find the feedback write-ups that you received after
grading to be useful? If so, why? If not, why? |
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1. Not very useful. Firstly because I already know what
problems there are with my apps. Secondly most of us
just give brief and easy comments since we are all so
busy with other work that we have no time to evaluate
properly. |
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2. Yes. The feedback helped to discover flaws in
programs or ways that the applications could be
improved. |
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3. Yes. It gave me much needed advice on how I can
improve myself. Also, it is harder for me to identify my
own flaws hence the feedback write ups I get are very
valuable to me. |
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4. Not really. Some misunderstood our idea because they
didn't take time and use the app. |
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5. Yes. The feedback gave me more ideas. |
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6. Not always. Sometimes we have reasons to do things in
our own ways, people may have critiques, these critiques
may have already been thought through by us and they are
sometimes not that constructive. |
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7. To some extent. It's a reflection of what my peers
think of me which would have been difficult to identify
individually. |
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8. not really, the feedback write-ups do not seem to be
done seriously |
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9. The feedback was very useful. It's very insightful
and in details, letting us know what's right and wrong
in our product |
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10. Yes! They were very useful! The loop holes
identified in our SQL (injection) was especially useful.
The feedback on possible improvements was insightful as
well. |
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11. Yes, the comments let us understand on what's the
good and bad of our apps, and that we can prevent
ourselves from making the same mistakes again for the
later assignments. |
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12. Yes. Helped me understand how users viewed our
applications. |
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13. Yes, it is quite useful. There are many good
suggestions, most of which I won't know from
programming. |
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14. Yes they are extremely useful in letting me
understand myself. I am glad that there is this kind of
feedback and peer review system. We need this kind of
system to keep improving ourselves as well as knowing
our weakness from the peer's point of view. If we could
take these feedback in and work on our weakness and
strength, the effect will be immeasurable |
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15. Yes, it made me realize many very subtle things that
I didn't pay attention to before |
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16. Not really, because most of the faults that we did
are only due to the limited time constraints. The
assignments don't reflect our real abilities, so the
comments are not improving a lot. |
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17. Peer feedback was incredibly annoying because I
don't know who I mistreated badly. And to be frank, I
hear most people comment that they rushed through it and
filled it in randomly without much consideration since
they were rushing mobile cloud by then. To be fair, I
did receive helpful feedback from those who could be
bothered to tell me how I suck, but we're losing some
vital data here (apologies, loss-averse). App feedback
could have been more structured, I felt. Also, this
peer-review feedback collection thing: people hate it.
There's too much to do, at one shot. People are going to
get bored and abandon it halfway, pity the last few
groups. |
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18. yes they are very useful. lets just say I cant
remember that last time I received any qualitative
feedback for my work in NUS. really appreciate this. |
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19. Yes, definitely very useful. It gives me an idea
what we've done wrong and how we can improve. |
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20. not useful at all, all problems are due to short of
time, do you honestly think I am not aware of all the
stuff you say? if I have the time I would have done
that. feedbacks can be more useful |
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21. Yes, I have known my weakness better. |
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22. Useful for reflection. But most of them already know
due to the team limitations and time constraints. Also
would be more useful if there was more build up of the
different projects for specific lessons learnt to be
applied in the next assignment. |
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23. Yeah. The feedback provided some encouragement for
us and some of the criticisms were really constructive.
It provided a different perspective that we may have
probably missed when coding, designing or testing. |
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24. It is very useful. Help me improve my coding style a
lot. |
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25. Amazing feedback.. gives such a nice perspective
when someone thinks your product looks great and
organized while someone else says it looks cluttered. |
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26. Very useful, helping me know better about myself. |
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27. Yes. It provides the perspective from a developer
and it really helps in reviewing the app I built. |
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28. Very useful. They enable me to reflect on myself
what I have done right and wrong. |
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29. Yes but a lot of the comments are very generic.
Perhaps on top of giving feedbacks, we can ask our peers
to do a rating (1-10) for us to have a rough gauge of
the standard. Coz many will say they think the app is
good, but you don't really know how good it is. So if
you have a value from 1 to 10 of how good it is, then
we'll have a better gauge. |
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30. The feedback from Fb app assignment was not very
useful since the problems mentioned were not major
problems. |
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31. Yes they were good. I especially liked the peer
review comments. The more comments I can get on my app,
the better I can improve on it. |
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32. Feedback write-ups were a good measure of what was
good and what wasn't, definitely found it useful. |
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33. yes. sometimes we are blinded and other people may
point out some important things that we can't see. |
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34. Yeah they are quite helpful. I know I was kind of
getting a free ride on one of the assignment, and it was
reflected quite truthfully :)). |
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35. Yes, we know what we're good at and what we need to
improve. Most importantly the UI design part, what we
think is good is not necessary what others think is
good. |
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Skip: 4 (10.2%) |
|
This is the first year that we tried getting students to give feedback
on the apps to other teams. Clearly, not all feedback was construed to
be useful. However, it seems to me that there's sufficient useful
feedback (that was appreciated) for the exercise to have been considered
helpful. Thanks!
|
|
|
| |
|
Multiple Choice |
|
1)
How do you find the lectures? |
|
They are completely useless. I learn nothing.
|
1
(2.5%) |
|
I have no idea what's happening half the time |
2
(5.1%) |
|
Lectures are no different from the other classes
on campus |
4
(10.2%) |
|
Lectures are clear and I am able to follow the
material quite well |
15
(38.4%) |
|
Lectures are way cool. Easily the best class that
I've taken at NUS |
16
(41%) |
|
No idea. I don’t attend the lectures |
1
(2.5%) |
| Skip |
0
(0%) |
|
The feedback has dropped from 63% "Way cool" to 41%. :-( That said, I
shouldn't be too sad. Historically, it was about 40% "Way cool", so
we're really not doing too badly. Last year was probably just
exceptional.
Last year I had Chewy Chong from Microsoft, who was absolutely fantastic
and Pamela Fox from Google to talk about GoogleWave. It's not always
easy to find good speakers. The key learning value for CS3216 really
comes from the assignments, which I think were quite well-set this year
compared to past years, so I suspect that the lectures aren't going to
make a whole lot of difference.
|
|
Essay |
|
2)Feedback
for Lecturer Ben Leong. |
|
1. While I do enjoy his devil-may-care, iconoclast
personality and enthusiasm when he speaks, he might
consider comporting himself with a little more dignity.
Seriously, I get that you can dress down on Saturdays
but when you drop in to see your kids you shouldn't be
wearing such a drapy shirt. Otherwise, I feel that
perhaps he can do more. He has a wealth of experience
and much to share with the class, and instead he 'hides'
behind delegated work and external parties - this is
good for him and excellent for us but he is somewhat
denying us the opportunity to learn from him and get
real proper feedback. He's seen a lot, and he knows
things, and surely he can understand his kids. I also
strongly dislike his habit of planning things precisely
and not giving slack. Time will be wasted, speakers will
drag; his focus on cutting classes precisely and chasing
everybody else out sort of hampers any effective
after-action review or commentary we could have had. |
|
2. Energetic and insightful. Encourages student to
explore beyond the limit. Inspires student by talking to
them and sharing cool stuffs on Facebook group. |
|
3. He is always cool. He does not teach by speaking but
by doing himself. One of the most impressive thing is
that he blogs and writes comments to encourage us to
blog. |
|
4. Haha, a nice Prof. Previously I thought Prof Ben is
nice except that he made a evil survey that forced us to
critique on team mates' bad sides. When the survey
result came out, I realize the critiques are really
constructive and it's not evil at all. So... Prof Ben is
nice without exceptions. |
|
5. Can't think of any... |
|
6. Very interesting Prof that look at things from a
different perspective and insightful. |
|
7. There was a saying "The mediocre teacher tells. The
good teacher explains. The superior teacher
demonstrates. The great teacher inspires". I think it's
true for Prof Ben. |
|
8. Truthfully he did not teach much :)). But the way he
inspired us help us to learn quite a lot of new stuffs
:). |
|
9. Talk fast and humorously. |
|
10. I think the vision and skills he wants us to learn
are great. I am a Ben Leong fan so not much for me to
say... |
|
11. As inspiring as usual. |
|
12. Prof Ben is cool! He takes care of our welfare and
invites interesting speakers to class. He is flexible
and gives student enough room to explore on ourselves.
But sometimes talks too fast and talks about things that
are slightly irrelevant. |
|
13. Well done =) Keep promoting good (life) values to
students! |
|
14. Prof Ben is the most inspiring lecturer I've ever
had. CS3216 wouldn't be this interesting without him |
|
15. Keep doing what you're doing. The articles shared on
FB are very useful. The approach to conducting the
module is good too. Perhaps can try to convince other
fellow colleagues (lecturers) to adopt a similar
approach to their teaching. |
|
16. LOL. His content are a tad repetitive but
interesting nonetheless. He enjoys talking about life
and how we should go about doing "stuffs". Thought I
learnt quite a bit from his talking. Much of the
lectures however were outsourced, which I think is very
beneficial. :) |
|
17. Cool guy. Tries to let students learn as much as
possible. Tries to impart practical knowledge for the
REAL world and also LIFE skills. Would have wanted to
hear more teachings from him. |
|
18. approachable for help and care that students learn
whatever they should be learning |
|
19. He's extremely careful with his words. Favoritism |
20. Haha, it seems that you are like us - most of the
time listen to others' speech. But prof should spend a
quite lot of time preparing for all the lectures! Hard
working prof!
very contactable even though busy. |
|
21. Probably have a more convincing tone in Lectures.
Thanks for pointing out all the problems in our Final
Project's idea. Super smart observer. :) |
|
22. There should be more chit-chat sessions between the
lecturer and students. I learnt from my friends who took
the class in previous semesters that you guys spent
hours before class debating about certain topics, such
as politics and life. It would be great if we could have
such informal sessions, but I suppose given the tight
schedule that the lecturer has, it is not possible? :s |
|
23. Initially, I thought that Prof Ben is going to be a
normal professor with a spectacle and just teach just
for the sake of teaching. Furthermore, he is from MIT so
i half expected him to follow the conventional way of
teaching this course. However, after getting to know
him, he structured his course in such a way that there
is life in it. Not only it is interesting because we do
not get the same person to teach us for every lecture,
but we are getting a wide variety of professionals who
are sharing their expertise. |
|
24. The lessons that was taught are more related to life
which is so different from the rest of the modules. As
such, I can say that this professor is more open towards
learning outside classroom. He is also open to crazy
ideas and will not hesitate to correct people of their
mistakes and thinking. Even on his own, he is not afraid
to admit his mistakes. It is really welcoming to find
such professor still exist in this school. I hope that
he will continue to this way of teaching. team dynamics.
How to get the best team! |
|
25. Great professor, great attitude and style. |
|
26. Awesome lecturer. |
|
27. Inspiring, but doesn't teach too much. This is a
good thing and a bad thing. I would like more classes or
perhaps Saturday workshops with ben. |
|
28. Has worked hard to invite speakers to come and give
their informative presentations. Cares about students by
sending reminding emails time to time, but I might
suggest that he could write shorter and more concise
emails, because I realised the students do miss out
points here and there if the emails are too long. |
|
29. Prof sometimes talk too fast (maybe because his
thoughts are too fast too). He sometimes use some "Singlish"
words and not describe their meanings. First time a
lecturer read and comment my blog. Really engaging. He's
really good at what he's doing. And he has passion doing
it. Awesome lecturer. |
|
30. Very responsible. All the lectures are well
prepared. |
|
31. An excellent mentor and very good at providing
extensive feedback. |
|
32. You like to talk many random things which I like
very much. Very passionate and disciplined, which
motivates me. |
|
33. Great module coordinator. He knows how to structure
our assignments and grading and everything so that we
try to learn instead of try to score. |
|
|
|
|
Skip: 6 (15.3%) |
|
Re: comment 19, I consider it odd 'cos I think I should really be
more careful with what I say and I haven't quite been careful enough. On
"Favouritism", what's that about?
Re: comment 22, yeah, time is a luxury I really don't have this semester
because of teaching both CS1101S and CS3216 together. The fact that I'm
even still standing is a miracle in itself. I am actually behind on
several items, but I have been forced to work on "heck that can wait if
nobody is going to die soon" basis. Lots of people are probably upset
with me already, but what to do? Promised myself I will never teach two
classes in the same semester ever again. >.< Will see if we can get Kok
Wee to organize an end-of-semester BBQ and we can talk about the meaning
of life then. :-P
|
|
Essay
|
|
3)
Suggest other topics that should have been
covered for the lectures (if any). |
|
1. There is not much need for lectures actually since
the module is all about projects. |
|
2. Psychology of human behaviour. Marketing. All those
non-technical stuff we need to know for our apps to
succeed. |
|
3. Some overall information on how to execute the
individual assignments. More sharing of possible
pitfalls and case studies from previous batches so
quality of work over the years keep improving. |
|
4. Communication skills |
|
5. Possibly a lecture to introduce us to more bleeding
edge technology so that we can pick them up. |
|
6. Marketing for apps |
|
7. perhaps a lecture on game development. |
|
8. Skill-sharing. Let students share with others what
they have learnt and think is most interesting. |
|
9. I found the lectures that were of a technical nature
to be of limited use. They give a decent introduction
for some topics. But for a class like 3216 most of us
have very different needs depending on what project
we're working on, and it's usually easier to look it up
ourselves. The non-technical lectures (Vsee etc) were
really good. |
|
10. Although I know that creativity cannot (or hardly)
be taught, I still wish to have some lectures about
creativity and idea-brainstorming. Maybe I'm too
demanding, but since I'm asked, I want lectures on GUI
design, UX and probably psychology as well! |
|
11. MARKETING. MARKETING. MARKETING. In retail it's
about location location location - even if you don't
advertise people might walk by and accidentally see your
shop, be intrigued, and try it out. If your shop is
along Orchard Road or in a major shopping centre you'll
definitely have that base of walk-in customers. The web
has no such luck for you; there are so many addresses,
and there are already so many distractions on the
internet - it's not how good you are, it's who you know
who think you're good. It's not about the power of the
app, it'll be crushed by an app that's more popular.
Also, because it's a pet rant of mine, any chance of a
Social Media lecture discussing the ethics of spamming,
the worthwhileness of allowing your app to update SM,
and how to go about doing it. Also, goddamn it, can we
instill some documentation discipline and make sure
every single app has a ? or a tutorial page or at least
a splash/pitch page explaining to me exactly what the
fuck the app is supposed to do. I apologise, pardon my
French - but this is serious now; the apps are way cool
but if I have to spend fifteen minutes solving the
riddle of what to do, then it's really frustrating. Like
how every Market and Store app has its own page with
screens and write-ups, make every single app produced
have its own one too, with title logo, graphic etc, so I
know what I'm looking at and how to judge it. If you
don't tell me what it is I will probably not judge it
properly. |
|
12. Team dynamics. How to get the best team! |
|
13. How some great projects are made? How a small team
make a big big difference? |
|
14. Too many already... |
|
15. Case study of successful start-ups like Dropbox. |
|
16. Would have been useful to have some design lessons.
:P |
|
17. More life stories by external speakers. I think I've
learnt a lot more from |
|
18. Real time technology (Comet, XMPP, etc) |
|
|
|
|
Skip: 21 (53.8%) |
|
The fact that students are able to identify both marketing and
psychology as useful skills are already good enough for me. Last year we
did have Chewy Chong give a lecture called "People are Not Like You",
which was really a talk on human psychology. I think we probably covered
quite a bit about both marketing and psychology in our Final project
discussions. Marketing is really quite a wide subject and I'm not sure
that getting some random business guy in to talk about marketing would
have been effective. Perhaps a tech entrepreneur.
Re: comment 5, I guarantee it wouldn't help. Those who are keen to
pick up bleeding edge technology would go read up on their own.
Otherwise, I guarantee that talk alone will not be sufficient. The other
way is for us to formulate assignments to "force" students to learn
which we have accomplished quite successfully in CS3216 already.
Not sure that it's possible to teach team dynamics in a lecture. I think the
interesting thing about CS3216 is that it provides sufficient
opportunity for folks work with enough different people to sort of
figure some of it out. There are several really great teams that have
been formed for the Final Projects and that would probably be helpful
for many students.
We did have a presentation and a Photoshop/Illustrator workshop. Not
everything needs to be done in lectures and also not everyone is keen to
learn everything. Workshops are used to teach "optional" topics.
|
|
Essay |
|
4)
Which of the workshops (UNIX, XHTML/CSS, PHP/MySQL,
Intro to JavaScript, AJAX) did you attend. Please let us have
your feedback on them |
|
1. AWS, UNIX, HTML5 The workshop for AWS and HTML5 are
quite useful. But the one about UNIX is too basic. |
|
2. most of them. |
|
3. all except photoshop Workshops should include hands
on instead of just sitting there and listening |
|
4. I attended the AWS, HTML5, and Presentation. The
Presentation workshop is the most useful one for me. I
learned a lot about how to make a successful
presentation. It's about content, not about visual aids! |
|
5. AWS, UNIX, PHP/MySQL. Too complicated for beginners,
too simple for experienced. Please modify for target
audience which I think should be beginners. |
|
6. I attended all workshops. The workshop about
Presentation was excellent but probably the only one I
found interesting and useful. Other workshops were too
basic to be useful. Yes, I completely understand that
there are so many things to cover but perhaps the
workshops can be levelled up! |
|
7. Everything except Photoshop and Presentation. As a
non-coder, it was not easy to follow the programming
workshops. I imagine it would be impossible for people
without any programming background to catch anything. I
also imagine that people with programming background
would know most of the stuff already so it's pretty
useless to them. If they do need to learn more, they
would self learn it anyway. So these workshops become
quite redundant since it only covers the basics. |
|
8. I have attended all the workshops. For the CS
students, I think that the workshops only scratch the
surface of the content and not really substantial enough
to entice the students to attend them. As for other
students who do not contribute in terms of code, I think
it's not really for them either because they are not
going to be interested in the codes. Even for the
non-coding workshops, they probably felt that they are
either something that they have already known, or that
the contents are somewhat of common sense. |
|
9. Intro to AWS, UNIX, PHP/MySQL, HTML/CSS,
JavaScript/AJAX/JQuery, HTML5 A quick introduction to
the stuffs we used during assignments. Possibly cut down
on the content, as there is too much to be covered over
that short period of time. I love the catered food. |
|
10. Intro to AWS: I did not know much about AWS
previously and this workshop gave me a good overview of
what it does. UNIX: It was really elementary :p PHP/MySQL:
Basic stuff gone through as well. HTML5: Interesting
topics covered. |
|
11. I attend all. The workshops are quite helpful for
beginners. But it would be better if the slides can be
uploaded *before* the workshop, so that we have
sometimes to read through and prepare questions. |
12. If I remember correctly, those were AWS, Javascript,
HTML5. They are all very good and I always get something
out of the workshop. However as I said before people
coming from web development have less to learn here,
since most of the topics covered are topics that come
naturally for a web developer. (Except presentation)
(1)Intro to AWS: Instructions by the tutor were clear
and straight forward, but they could have solved our
problems hand by hand instead because the manual was
quite sufficient. (2)Javascrip/AJAX/JQuery: Cool stuff!
I got to know how DOM works and potential loop-holes in
client-side validation with JS. (3)Presentation: Really
insightful talk! The discussion was interactive by using
the online question system. Best presentation workshop
ever had! (4)Time for the technical workshops are not
really long enough to cover everything despite that they
were for beginners. |
|
13. AWS, PHP, HTML, AJAX As a non-coder, they were of
hardly any value. Didn't learn much. |
|
14. I attended Intro to AWS, UNIX, PHP/MySQL, HTML/CSS,
JavaScript/AJAX/JQuery. I feel the workshops are good
for introducing the concept to people who have no clue
about these things, so that they can get a head start. |
|
15. Intro to AWS, Unix, PHP/MYSQL, HTML/CSS,
JavaScript/AJAX/Jquery, HTML5 Useful. Not enough plugs
in the room. May need more hand ons. |
|
16. I attended all of the above. I feel that the
Presentation workshop could have been useful _before_
the seminar, strongly. It's also the one I liked the
most. Being a non-programmer I did feel somewhat like
the workshops were less useful for me - then again I
know the programming people felt the workshops were
fairly useless too, and I suspect they turned up because
they felt like being Singaporean they needed to, in case
the lecturer dropped hints or gave class part
(ridiculous, I know, and yet...). Also, free lunch.
Practically nobody came for the final set of
presentations where there were no lunch - tells it all,
really. |
|
17. AWS: Most of the things were already in the pdf
file. Maybe it wasn't really needed as the instructions
in the pdf was quite clear already. PHP/MySQL: Was okay
to me as I learned most of the stuff before. Could use
more hands-on for non-programmers. Workshop was quite
dull. JavaScript/AJAX/JQuery: Could use more hands-on
for non-programmers. (Make sure they are actually
trying!) |
|
18. Intro to AWS, UNIX, PHP/MySQL, HTML/CSS,
JavaScript/AJAX/JQuery, HTML5, |
|
19. I think almost all... They were quite good..though I
feel that the level is quite basic so maybe there can be
some hacky uber elite ones too.. |
|
20. Intro to AWS, UNIX, PHP/MySQL, HTML/CSS. A better
venue will be good. The power points in the class were
not enough. |
|
21. I attended AWS, UNIX, PHP/MySQL, HTML5. I feel that
these workshop are excellent. If only i have the time, i
would have attend all. |
|
22. Intro to AWS, UNIX, PHP/MySQL, HTML/CSS, HTML5,
Photoshop, Presentation I think the UNIX workshop may
not be necessary. |
|
23. almost all of them. I don't really find the
workshops useful and hard to learn from them. |
|
24. I attended aws, unix, php/mysql, html/css,
javascript/ajax/jquery, html5. I think they are very
brief and not very informative, but it's good that they
do point us to the good source of knowledge. |
|
25. I attended all the workshops. The ones I found most
interesting are Javascript, HTML5 and Presentation. I
hope in the HTML5 workshop, more example codes are
showed and we have more time for the Photoshop one. |
|
26. none of them are useful, they are too introductory,
why would I spend time there if its something I can
learn on my own with like 30 mins. the WSs are for
non-coders and since they are not coding at all, as well
just cancel them |
|
27. javascript/ajax/jquery and html5. They're not
helpful. What they were talking about are all some basic
or general stuffs. I still need to learn everything by
myself. But the buffet is nice! |
|
28. All except photoshop and presentation (fell sick :/)
Workshops are good. helps us designers to understand
basic things about coding. But lecturer didnt specify in
the first few workshop that not everyone needs to open
an AWS account! Some of us kinda missed the "remember to
terminate your instance" announcement so we paid like
30+ bucks to AWS for nothing. :( |
|
29. I attended almost all the workshops except Photoshop
and the presentation workshop which I kinda got the
timings wrong. >< I think the remaining workshops were
beneficial in a way that it kick starts the learning
process. Given the timeframe available for these
workshops, it was impossible to cover much of the
content. However, if it were a tad bit more focused it
would be good. :) |
|
30. UNIX, PHP/MySQL, HTML/CSS, JavaScript/AJAX/JQuery,
HTML5 I didn't learn much from the workshops. I think
they talk too briefly because of the time limit. |
|
31. Didn't attend any of them |
|
32. Attended all except photoshop. I would have liked to
have them be less of a lecture style, with some
interaction and hands on in the middle of it. |
|
33. Intro to AWS, UNIX, PHP/MySQL, HTML/CSS,
JavaScript/AJAX/JQuery/HTML5 Most of them are quite ok.
However, i think just a 2-hour session does not help
much, and there are quite a number of sessions where
people are not really interested, since the stuff is too
familiar (I guess?). For me the most helpful one is the
one about JS/AJAX/jQuery, because I did not know
anything about these stuffs before, and my friend Jason
did quite a good job of introducing them :). |
|
|
|
|
Skip: 5 (12.8%) |
|
I think we didn't do so well this year in terms of calibrating the level
of the Workshops. The Presentation Workshop was supposed to have been
conducted before the FB Seminar but got re-scheduled because of
Presidential Elections. Too bad the attendance was quite poor.Glad to
hear that the free food was well-received. :-)
|
|
Essay |
|
5)
Do you think we should conduct other workshops?
What should they be? |
|
1. I think currently no need. |
|
2. No. |
|
3. Nope. Jus improve the ones now. |
|
4. If workshops are conducted, they should be in-depth
and for advanced learners. As well as stuff like UI/UX
design. |
|
5. No need for more workshops. Instead, each workshop
should be more in-depth so that we can make a better use
of the tools to apply to our works. |
|
6. User interface design workshop. |
|
7. I think the workshops are quite adequate. |
|
8. Social Media, Marketing. Also a team-bonding workshop
where we just do stupid stuff and play games might be
cool. Come on, like you wouldn't be able to see it
happening in this kind of module. |
|
9. I think a workshop on creating Facebook app will be
super useful. |
|
10. I think it's good enough |
|
11. Setting up and using version control systems
(especially mercurial, haha). (How come I am the only
one who can actually do the setup in the group) |
|
12. Meeting/Teamwork workshop |
|
13. Maybe one UI design workshop, not too many technical
things. |
|
14. Elite workshops! |
|
15. Totally! Drawing workshops perhaps? :D Marketing
workshops? :P |
|
16. Yes, I would love to see a workshop about other
kinds of programming language like Ruby, Python. |
|
17. Workshops on bleeding edge technologies? Things that
you think we might find useful. Such as a brief overview
of different useful frameworks, (instead of jQuery we
could be introduced to batman.js etc). |
|
18. yes. Software engineering skills and team
communication skills, esp. between designers and
programmers. |
|
19. Marketing for apps. Business and economics behind
sales |
|
20. illustrator |
|
21. Marketing |
|
22. ASP.NET? |
|
23. Idea creations. |
|
24. Objective-C |
|
25. nice try, but no |
|
26. I think these workshop is self sufficient. |
|
27. Nope, they are actually relevant, just maybe lacking
some depth. |
|
|
Skip: 11 (28.2%) |
|
Workshops were (mostly) meant to help the non-programmers level up, so
it's not quite feasible to make them too advanced. The programmers are
supposed to level up doing the assignments.
Interesting ideas on what else to do. Yeah, I also take the point
that we should work on improving the organization of some of the
existing workshops.
|
|
|
The distribution is similar to that last year. It's fine with me that
not everyone finds blogging helpful. In life, we cannot expect all
things to work for everyone. As long as something works to improve the
learning value for at least a reasonable proportion of the class, it is
worth having.
Teaching/learning is complicated because different people have
different learning styles.
|
|
|
| |
|
Multiple Choice |
|
1)
What is your overall impression of CS3216 thus
far? |
|
This is a horrible class. Truly regret choosing
it. |
1
(2.5%) |
|
It’s alright, but mostly painful. |
4
(10.2%) |
|
Just like any other module |
1
(2.5%) |
|
It’s a good module and I definitely enjoy it. |
17
(43.5%) |
|
CS3216 rocks! Coolest class I have taken in my
life. |
16
(41%) |
| Skip |
0
(0.0%) |
|
Overall response to the course is a little worse this year compared to
past years, but 85% of the class seem to positive about the course.
|
|
Essay |
|
2)
What do you think you have learnt thus far? |
1. Mostly programming techniques. Learnt a lot about php,
and javascript as well as gotten much more familiar with
frameworks like jquery. Besides programming,
Photoshop and illustrator. How to think from the
perspective of others. Soft skills mainly. |
|
2. TMTL = too much to list. LOL. But in general, other
than the various languages, I think the bulk of the
takeaway from this module thus far is the application of
these languages and how best to work it to our advantage
for the world. Design considerations, coding
considerations, leadership, team dynamics etcetcetc
Perhaps the most important lesson so far, is that I've
learnt more about myself. My strengths, my flaws and how
best to optimize myself. :) |
|
3. I learnt things about life for a different point of
view. You can say that I become mature such that my
mother notice the change in me. The lessons especially
about life is enriching that prompts me to think deeply
and to see from different perspectives. I kind of become
more open and know how the general mass think about
several issues. It is not the programming or designing
that I learnt most but the life lesson. |
|
4. 1. programming languages related to web programming,
html css js php ect. 2. how to work with others in a
team 3. some design skills, photoshop, illustrator etc
4. how to look into an existing app. 5. pay more
attention in daily life and find new ideas. |
|
5. I've learned more from CS3216 than all of my other
classes combined. I've learned not only technical stuff
but also entrepreneurship, project management, team
building...Obviously the best class ever! |
|
6. A LOT of web development. Teamwork. How to have
efficient time management. How to learn in suffering. |
|
7. I truly regret choosing this class. I constantly feel
like the most useless person on the team, a deadweight,
having denied some other poor bugger entry into this
module, and generally wasting people's time and
resources. Don't get me wrong, this class is fucking
fantastic and I am gleeful that I slipped through the
cracks and gained the XP and levels, but this, I think,
whoa. The nonprogrammers all have to deal with this, I
think. |
|
8. I feel I am pushed to learn new things all the time.
I started to read more about IT, to think more about
what are happening around and what I will do. |
|
9. On the technical side, I've gotten to explore a lot
of technologies I haven't used before. For non-technical
things, gave me a better understanding of team dynamics
and how to manage projects. |
|
10. software development. team work technical skills
good attitude |
|
11. Time management, team effort and the technology
limitation. |
|
12. Learnt mostly web programming skills, and
appreciation for some of the frameworks out there for
HTML5. Also learnt that different group of people can
have very varied mindset, and thus resulting in
different workstyle for different groups. |
|
13. Tons. I learnt PHP, CodeIgniter, Sencha Touch and
Objective-C, which I previously have no knowledge of.
Other than technical skills, I have also learnt how to
put what I learnt from my work experience to good use. I
encouraged a transparent environment within my team,
where people should communicate their problems and
update one another on what they have done. I find this
approach to be really effective and it bonds the team
together too. |
|
14. How to work with non-programmers. |
|
15. I need the right team to work thing out because I'm
newbie! And I don't really hate web programming as I
used to think. It's just that I'm not good enough! XD |
|
16. Web programming and software engineering. |
|
17. The existence (that's what you want right? =p) of
Amazon, HTML5, some rewriting rules, local storage, etc2
and how to use them |
|
18. Lots of project related and life related lessons.
How to design for application developments. More
information about tech related issues and how to think
critically about them. |
|
19. team dynamics, how to work with programmers and
people from other countries. |
|
20. Communications, I realise that my personality is
flawed... |
|
21. How to identify a real life problem and tackle it
with other passionate fellows, see the market potential
and come up with a practical business model, then split
the work and execute. |
|
22. Besides the technical skills of using Facebook API
and JQuery Mobile framework, I think the most useful
things I've learnt are the concepts and ideas shared in
the videos and articles shared in the CS3216 FB group. |
|
23. JQuery, HTML5, PHP Javascript, FB API, texting API.
Basically: how to learn on my own. |
|
24. Code for all the web stuff. Learn how to write a
clear and well structured code. |
|
25. Apart from new technical knowledge, I learned how to
work in a fast paced environment and definitely learned
how to learn! |
|
26. Working with different team members. web programming
skills good/bad ideas |
|
27. Learnt about different languages such as JQuery PHP
CSS HTML5 |
|
28. A lot of stuff about web programming. Importance of
selling ideas. Product analysis. |
|
29. * Working with people on product-generating projects
(presentation, reports are not products). * Open up my
mind to different point of view and way of thinking. *
The fact that my programming skill is comparable to the
other group mates -- gives me confidence. * Getting the
drive to blog again. * General programming skills. *
Finding people that share the passion and joy of
programming / development. * Met all kinds of
interesting people. |
|
30. Mostly technical stuffs: PHP (kind of revision),
setting up server, JS, jQuery, CSS, HTML5. However,
learning to work with a lot of different people from
different backgrounds is a cool idea, too :). |
|
31. Mostly about team dynamics, project management and
nothing about technology or computing. |
|
32. A lot, teams kill, lots of tech stuff, lots more to
learn |
|
33. I have figured out what kind of life that I want to
live |
|
34. A lot. Team work, presentation skills. What is the
software trend out there, what is going to be the next
big things. How to pick up a new language in less than a
week. |
|
35. Go agile. AB testing. How to handle pressure. Idea's
cheap, execution matters. Finishing strong. How hard
have I pushed myself everyday. Damn and I don't even
have to try to remember those above things. How cool is
that? |
|
36. learned a lot on my own, but some ppl simply take
this class in order to act, learn nothing from those
douche |
|
|
|
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Skip: 3 (7.6%) |
|
Looks good to me. Seems to me that we're doing good again this year. It
hardly matters to me what students learn as long as they all learn
something along the way. CS3216 is not so much about stuff, but the
process of learning. Learning comes in many different forms and
different people need to learn differently. As long as students learn
stuff in the class, I have earned my pay. :-)
|
|
Multiple Choice |
|
3)Would
you recommend this module to anyone else? |
|
No, I won’t want them to suffer the pain I did. |
0
(0%) |
|
Nah, I don’t think it’s worth it. |
1
(2.5%) |
|
I have no opinion about this. |
3
(7.6%) |
|
Yes, I will encourage anyone who asks me. |
27
(69.2%) |
|
Of course, every NUS student should take this
class! |
8
(20.5%) |
| Skip |
0
(0%) |
|
We're doing a little worse than last year, but not too differently from
two years ago. I guess we're operating at sort of steady state. Last
year was just exceptional.
|
|
Essay |
|
4)
Please give us your comments and suggestions on
how to make your learning in CS3216 more efficient and
interesting. |
|
1. Maybe can have some classes on knowledge exchange
where the students with varied skill set in CS3216 can
share their particular experiences with the rest of the
class. |
|
2. I prefer this module to be the learning module, not
just introducing the existence of some cool features. So
people can be a bit "enforced" to learn about the real
things. |
|
3. I believe in self-selection. Ben Leong won't suffer
slackers or idiots, unless they're really good talkers
(cough) and this class needs some good talkers as well. |
|
4. I am quite sad that Google can't come. |
|
5. More workload! I'm just kidding :P this is already
very efficient and interesting. |
|
6. remove non-coders |
|
7. Already very efficient and interesting, lol |
|
8. I get as much out of the class simply being around
the other students. The motivation in the room is always
evident. If there were a way to get together more, or
have team code-a-thons that would be great. I would
REALLY love a 24 hour quick app hack-a-thon with cs3216.
Some really cool agile apps would come out of it. |
|
9. I would really like the opportunity to know more
people in the class. Perhaps tone down the assignments
and introduce another one (I'm not sure whether this has
been tried before). Or something like a 2-hour
assignment (debate?) within lecture hours. |
|
10. I like the talks given by those external parties.
Also maybe slightly different objectives and grading
criteria for non-programmers so that non-programmers
have a clearer picture of how to contribute in the
group. My experience so far being a non-programmer is
that I feel quite lost sometimes looking for ways to
contribute during the assignments. |
|
11. Not sure how to go about this, but could have more
lectures with interaction with Prof Ben so that it
really doesn't feel like a (almost) full-fledged
self-study module. |
|
12. More structured approach for students from other
faculties to contribute meaningfully to the projects.
Most not integrated very well and some poorly
distributed and preventing intended synergy of a good
mix. Result is ugly apps or poorly coded app. |
|
13. I think working together with teammates is a
efficient way to learn. |
|
14. Peer Appraisal can be made online earlier since I
can't really recall every single memory about all my
teammates in previous assignments at the end of the
assignment 2. |
|
15. I think it is fairly efficient and interesting as it
is. :D Mini marathons would be extremely interesting.
Like the hackathon etc. Where we have small groups in
class code overnight and produce something
extraordinary. :D |
|
16. the most efficient way to learn is like what we are
doing now, but doing a lot of repetitive work will
damage this learning experience a little bit. |
|
17. Introducing the external people to pitch is really
good. May introduce more web developers to the class. If
possible, we can work with the real web programmers in
the final project |
|
18. Some of the lectures are not quite relevant to the
projects, and students do lose their attention for
during these lectures. This is because the projects are
the main source of marks for the students, and as a
matter of fact, most students will be more interested in
lectures that would help them towards in getting the
marks. Thus, it would help if the lectures tie in more
closely with the projects, maybe have prof to ask about
the progress of each group with each lectures, which
would then allow other students to be aware of each
group's progress, and in turn hopefully motivate every
group. |
|
19. The first half of the course has been quite ok. I'm
a bit confused for the final project, because it
involves "extra parties" and the restriction on teams is
quite loose (like no limit on number of members?).
Hopefully it will work out well. |
|
20. This is interesting enough for me. |
|
21. Could force cross-faculty working, i.e. CS students
do business and marketing while other students do
coding. |
|
22. Cut down on 1 assignment so we can put in more
effort and time on perfecting the other assignments. |
|
23. leave out the application seminar. I think anyone
interested in making apps would have thought about this
thoroughly already. no need to make everybody go through
the motions. |
|
24. The lectures can be held in the afternoon. Usually
after the night class, a lot of groups stay back for
project meeting. The meeting usually end up quite late
and many a times, I have to stay overnight in school
because I can't afford to cab home. In the days I need
to cab home, I wasted a lot of money. The group can be
randomized because I feel that it is really unfair. Even
though, the course is based on HTML5 but I feel that
when teams are formed, they usually consists of friends
whom they have worked with effectively. And this is
especially unfair when the group comes from SOC and
taken CS3217 and everyone knows about each other coding
style well. For those from other faculty, more often
than not, they have difficulty finding a team. So
grouping should be randomized so that it is fair for
everyone and it promotes the "real life" situation where
people have no power over who to work with in a team. |
|
25. (1)Although the class size is small, it's not really
easy to get to know everyone of the fellow interesting
classmates given the time constraint. If possible we
could have more then one pitching party, or just a
party, to gather people and come up with some more cool
ideas. (2)We've had quite a lot of experience passed
down by former CS3216 students. If possible each of the
team can have a former student as a tutor to share some
ideas? |
|
26. Less business stuff, therefore we are more willing
to do some cool but currently may be useless (or no
customer) stuff. |
|
27. Invite more guest speakers to share their
life/career experience rather than teach us things. |
|
|
|
|
Skip: 12 (29.7%) |
|
There are some people who think that the non-coders should be removed
and some non-programmers who find that they don't know how to
contribute. This, is a problem with the non-programmers. You see, CS3216
has had some really good non-programmer students in the past. In fact,
in one year, the top student for the class was a non-programmer. We've
never actually given instructions on how the non-coders should
contribute, because we also don't know exactly. Much depends on the
individual. The good non-programmers of the past have always been able
to figure it out. The admission of the non-programmers have always been
a bit random. It goes like this: first we figure out how many
programmers we have. Then we throw in the designers. Once we have the
critical mass of programmers + designers, we figure out how many
"random" people we can take without causing the system to collapse.
Among all the "random" applications, we try to pick the ones who look
"different" so as to provide diversity. Diversity has always been a
strength for CS3216.
The cost of diversity means that classes have to be held at night so
that we can avoid scheduling conflicts. Also, the fact that I have many,
many guest lecturers almost makes it a necessity for the class to be
scheduled in the evening? People think that I like to stay back late at
night or my wife really likes me to stay in school until late? If
staying back late too costly, then figure out some other arrangement
instead of staying back after lesson? Find another day? Harlo??
I'm actually quite irritated with comment 24 because it comes across as
v whiny and particularly self-centred. I'm not very fond of whiners.
Randomized groups are even more unfair. If some people are particularly
good at networking, they are certainly ENTITLED to do better than the
rest. CS3216 is trying to encourage students to do things of
significance. Things of significance are necessarily hard and failure in
common. Under such circumstances, it is imperative that people learn to
work smarter and quickly identify the good people and the lousy people
and form teams with the strongest players so as to maximize the
probability of success. THAT, is life.
To respond to comment 18, I hardly care about marks. I care about
learning. Students who don't care about learning are welcome not to come
to lectures.
We actually have quite a few activities in CS3216 to promote
interactions between the students. A lot of it is through free food at
the workshops and the pitching party. Not sure that we actually have the
time or luxury to do too much more. The "forced diversity" in the
groupings of the assignments also help to promote interactions. I think
it's not practical to have everyone know everyone in the class. Like I
said above, we can have an end-of-semester BBQ to see how we have more
time to chit chat and talk about life.
|
|
Essay |
|
5)
Any final words about CS3216? This is your chance
to tell us anything you want that is not already covered by the
previous questions. |
|
1. Please don't stop this module =) |
2. Really great module for trying out what I wanted to
try doing. With the right marketing, this module has the
chance to attract better students and produce better
results.
seriously way too many surveys. and why the hell do we
have to do peer reviews, it never helped seriously. Only
weak ppl care so much abt how others think about him :< |
|
3. Maybe a little more help or guidance would allow more
submissions to be more complete, functional and cool.
Honestly had high expectations, would love to have seen
more awesome apps from my course mates so far. |
|
4. I was quite disappointed to see that some of my peers
were not putting in effort for the first two assignments
partly because it was made known to them that both will
not impact the final grade. Breaking such news would
only serve to discourage people from putting their best
into the projects. I personally put in my best effort
and time into it and was really discouraged by what I
witnessed :( |
|
5. I hope to get some free Mac in coding camps like last
year :( |
|
6. Awesome stuff. I'm just sad that I took this module
not at the rightest time with my commitments. |
|
7. I like this module. My girlfriend hates it. I haven't
seen her in awhile. |
|
8. It's fun to work with awesome people here in CS3216! |
|
9. I think the module is great. I think though that the
people I've worked with aren't always the best. Can't
expect that. But think non-programmers seriously do
little while programmers die. Find it a little odd and
is there a way to fix this? |
|
10. I'm sad that this is the last offer of CS3216 :( I
want to take it again badly... |
|
11. This course structure is good. As a student, I am
more willing to learn. I hope that this type of
structure can be implemented in engineering because the
module are so uncool |
|
12. Its a really fun module and I hope it stays fun! |
|
13. Rock on. |
|
14. Cannot do better |
|
15. CS3216 is really a unique module in terms of lecture
style and assessment. I really enjoy this kind of
self-driven learning, which is efficient and fun. |
|
16. 3216 makes me think deeply about my life. Thx. |
|
17. CS3216 is awesomely awesome. Thank you for the
course. |
|
18. Loving it. |
|
19. It is painful for the students to have to do so many
long surveys, which were supposedly optional, but always
turns out being compulsory... I think the surveys could
be shorten to just 1 to 3 very open questions, allowing
the students to express their thoughts freely about the
projects they have just completed. |
|
20. I think the general direction of this module is
about entrepreneurship and solve real problems to make
money. This may not fits everyone who come here with a
childhood dream. We should give more freedom in topic
choice and less focusing on entrepreneurship. |
|
21. The emphasis on peer learning is pretty awesome. |
|
22. good call screening the students. they are truly
outstanding and I learn a lot from my peers. possibly
more so from the teaching staff. |
|
23. I want more lectures! They don't have to be
technical lessons (but if they are, it's even better!).
The lessons can be about design, UX, or user's
psychology. Case study by guest lecturer like one from
VSee is also great! |
|
24. CS3216 deserved to be 8mc not 5mc! |
|
25. Too many assignments; it's merely about making stuff
work, most end up with subpar quality for most
assignments that will not survive the real world; its
like the output of 3 separate project modules over a
single semester all rolled into 1 module over a single
semester. |
|
26. One word. Awesome. :) |
|
27. nice class |
|
28. Oi, allow us to give general comments about the
lectures & assignments after you ask us to rate, leh. |
|
|
|
|
Skip: 10 (25.6%) |
|
It turns out that this semester is very likely to be the LAST offering
of CS3216. I would like to take a moment to offer tribute to the man who
has contributed much to the fact that CS3216 even survived the last
three semesters to begin with and that man is our TA Kok Wee. Without
his hard work and support, CS3216 is *impossible* to teach. Maybe it
looks pretty effortless with me doing so much "outsourcing", but frankly
the preparation and execution of this class really involves too much
work. Typically lecture-tutorial classes are *so much* easier to teach.
All good things must come to an end and it's good to end on a high note.
All in all, I'm quite happy with how the current semester is going. Most
Final project groups, except one, seem to be on track. I'm not too
concerned about that one because like I said, there's always one group
that will self-combust every semester. It's like the law of nature....
and even in failure, there are lessons to be learnt.Re: comment 2, it
is not true that "Only weak ppl care so much abt how others think about
him". Self-awareness is very important. Not many people at your age have
fully achieved self-awareness. Almost certain the student who put down
comment 2 hasn't, so peer appraisals are definitely helpful. :-)
Re: comment 3, I am not too concerned about completeness for the
assignments, because the point of the assignments is for skills
training, not product development. A lot more attention and guidance is
given for the Final Projects.
Re: comment 4, it's actually a good thing. This allows you to identify
the "slackers" and avoid them for the Final Project. There are quite a
few highly motivated individuals in the class and these are the folks
that people should try to pick as partners, not just in the assignments
and Final Projects for this class, but probably as partners and/or
co-founders in the future.
Re: comment 20, there is quite a large spectrum of Final Projects that
are currently being done. Most of them are not going to make money, so I
think this comment is invalid. The focus of the class is learning how to
think through problems and identifying problems of significance. It
turns out that much of entrepreneurship is about identifying problems of
significance and not about wooly ideas.
As with all things in life, IT DEPENDS. CS3216 isn't the right class
for everyone. For some, it's the best thing since sliced bread; for a
small number, it's meaningless torture. Hard to believe, but we only
have another 2+ weeks to go. I hope that everyone regardless of which
class they fall into, would try to make the best use of the last two
weeks to learn whatever he/she can.
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