| Faculty: | SCHOOL OF COMPUTING | Academic Year: | 2007/2008 |
| Department: | COMPUTER SCIENCE | Semester: | 1 |
| Module: | PROGRAMMING METHODOLOGY - CS1101Z |
| Note: | Feedback on module in general |
| Qn | Items Evaluated | Module Avg Score | Nos Responded |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Overall opinion of the module. | 3.287 | 115 |
| 2 | Grade likely to get for the module. | 3.553 | 114 |
| 3 | Difficulty level of the module. | 4.148 | 115 |
QN\SCORE | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
Qn 1: Overall opinion of the module. | Excellent | Good | Satisfactory | Unsatisfactory | Poor |
Qn 2: Grade likely to get for the module. | A | B | C | D | F |
Qn 3: Difficulty level of the module. | Very Difficult | Difficult | Average | Easy | Very Easy |
| Nos. of Respondents(% of Respondents) |
| | | ||||||
ITEM\SCORE | | | Excellent | Good | Satisfactory | Unsatisfactory | Poor |
| | | ||||||
Module | | | 8 (6.96%) | 42 (36.52%) | 43 (37.39%) | 19 (16.52%) | 3 (2.61%) |
Module at Same Level (Dept) | | | 206 (12.61%) | 710 (43.45%) | 518 (31.70%) | 145 (8.87%) | 55 (3.37%) |
Module at Same Level (Fac) | | | 309 (11.23%) | 1224 (44.48%) | 946 (34.38%) | 201 (7.30%) | 72 (2.62%) |
| Nos. of Respondents(% of Respondents) |
| | | ||||||
ITEM\SCORE | | | A | B | C | D | F |
| | | ||||||
Module | | | 30 (26.32%) | 35 (30.70%) | 25 (21.93%) | 16 (14.04%) | 8 (7.02%) |
Module at Same Level (Dept) | | | 360 (22.96%) | 593 (37.82%) | 396 (25.26%) | 165 (10.52%) | 54 (3.44%) |
Module at Same Level (Fac) | | | 559 (20.91%) | 1254 (46.91%) | 616 (23.05%) | 189 (7.07%) | 55 (2.06%) |
| Nos. of Respondents(% of Respondents) |
| | | ||||||
ITEM\SCORE | | | Very Difficult | Difficult | Average | Easy | Very Easy |
| | | ||||||
Module | | | 35 (30.43%) | 63 (54.78%) | 16 (13.91%) | 1 (.87%) | 0 (.00%) |
Module at Same Level (Dept) | | | 487 (29.75%) | 818 (49.97%) | 293 (17.90%) | 30 (1.83%) | 9 (.55%) |
Module at Same Level (Fac) | | | 533 (19.35%) | 1160 (42.12%) | 956 (34.71%) | 91 (3.30%) | 14 (.51%) |
| Q1. | Please comment on the strengths and weaknesses of the module, and suggest possible improvements. |
| 1. | This module is supposedly for those who have no programming experience. However, there are quite a number of people who have prior knowledge of JAVA who took this module. It is rather unfair that they are allowed to do the module and score high marks. A placement test should be implemented or students who use things not thought in the class should be penalised heavily. |
| 2. | Pace was too fast. |
| 3. | nil |
| 4. | This module provides a good introduction to java programming for beginners with no programming experience. I feel that the module can improve by setting some time to teach students on how to form algorithm and convert these algorithm to programming codes. |
| 5. | Students who have touched on computing before will have a serious advantage over those who didn't. I was victimised in the sense that I did the lab assignments, spending 14 hrs a week and it was not rewarding because the scores from the exams were more than just demoralising. It's a totally different language and to be fair, I'm very weak in it so I find it very difficult and made negative comments on this heavy workload with no returns. |
| 6. | This module made me develop a strong interest for programming. I think that it is a smooth and interesting introduction to programming. |
| 7. | Too many topics taught within short span of time. Basis not given and students are asked to leaped before walking. More real life example needed |
| 8. | The timing taken to teach this module is too short and there is not enough time to understand the basics of programming being someone who has never learnt programming before. |
| 9. | It is too biased towards those with programming background. It is too fast-paced and people with absolutely no programming background will never excel in this module no matter how hard they work. |
| 10. | Weaknesses of module -- puts people with programming experience with people with no prior experience together, resulting in unequal starting point. However, with hard work, I think I've managed to catch up (relatively). Programming is very fun though, and my lecturer and tutors have been extremely approachable and patient. |
| 11. | The good thing was that the module started off slowly to ensure that we could cope since most of us did not have much programming knowledge. However as the lessons went on to mid point, the difficulty and pace of the module increased greatly so it became very difficult to cope then. The module could have been planned or devised better to accomodate everyone. |
| 12. | because this is my first time taking computing, i find it quite hard to understand alot of concepts and their lecture notes provided was sometimes not enough(i have to borrow the textbook from the library to do my own self study). they splitted lectures and tutorials into X,Y and Z which is a good idea but somehow people just do not follow the rules. there are people with programming background getting into Z lectures. i find that they should be more strict on this. |
| 13. | This module is very demanding on the whole. Improvements needed could be to make less common tests, like just 1 common test instead. More emphasis on practical? |
| 14. | extremely hard to understand |
| 15. | Very time consuming but still manageable. personally i have problems scoring for the test so i would suggest that tutors could give us more practice on the tracing of codes as tracing codes with a compiler is very much different from tracing it manually |
| 16. | This module is challenging for freshmen. |
| 17. | The weightage of the labs weekly should be higher as a lot of time was actually spent on these labs. |
| 18. | More tutor/lecturer guidance especially for those who haven't picked up related topics of the module before. |
| 19. | Nice module, able to train us to develop own thinking and methods to solve problems. |
| 20. | Lab assignments do not really measure an individual's true capacity as individuals might have gotten outside help, which is not fair to the others who might have spent alot of time on it. Although the fomer might not score as well in the actual exams, the lab assignments still have a significant weightage. |
| 21. | Hands-on approach,which I think is good.However, I feel that a continuous 3hrs lecture would be too long for a student's attention span, can consider splitting it into 2 periods. Too much assignment and tests within a given period of time, eg. assignment to do and test to study for in the same week. |
| 22. | Generally speaking,this module is good.The lecturer, the assignment all can help us improve a lot.But for non-programming background student,it's a bit intensive. |
| 23. | strengths: this module trains students' logic thinking ability effectively weakness: though being a non-pre-requisite module, it is still quite hard for unexperienced students, like me and my many other friends, to get on well with it. Besides, students from different backgrounds (faculties) should be evaluated according to different basis. improvement: more preparation or advice should be given for helping unexperienced students get used to this course, as it may be the very start of their study about computing. |
| 24. | The course is too rush, especially for students like me and my friends who have no programming experience. And some students who have good programming experience can also choose this module(they are supposed to do CS1101X), which makes the competition unfair I think. |
| 25. | strengths : The lesson itself is very very useful. weaknesses : Yet, the way of teaching is not suitable for beginners. |
| 26. | It's an interesting module and help enhance students' thinking ability while the coverage of knowledge in one lecture is so wide that the teaching process seems to be a bit rapid. |
| 27. | It would be better to leave the students more ungraded problems to solve in addition to the graded labs. |
| 28. | The course is suitable for beginners to learn about programming. However, I think more kinds of problems that we may encounter should be provided since we can not foresee them ourselves. Lack of this resource can lead to bad performance in the test. |
| 29. | This module is too difficult but also very interesting. I hope I can do better than this. |
| 30. | The workload is really heavy compared to other module. I find the tutorials not very helpful anyway. |
| 31. | there is a big gap among cs1101 x and y, z groups. |
| 32. | The lectures and tutors are so kind~! |
| 33. | no much comment, just study hard, and try to make it. |
| 34. | most of the time I was studying all by myself. I do not think I got much in the lecture and tutorial |
| 35. | I think this is module is very good. |
| 36. | need more tutorials for term tests and PE |
| 37. | interesting but time consuming and a little difficult for students with no programming background |
| 38. | The module is intensive yet challenging, and I like the quality of questions set during the tests. The PE is a bit too easy though. |
| 39. | The module is not easy. Especially for students with no programming background. A good thing about this module is that i have a better understanding of OS and web applications to a certain degree. |
| 40. | Strength: For no prior programming background, does teach us how t program Weakness: Lack of time to practice and too fast |
| 41. | There should be more lab practice sessions with the lecturer present. Something like traning sessions and not just lab assignments alone. The pace of the lectures are good but maybe the allocation of students to the various lecture groups based on their level of programming skills should be accessed with higher regard. I believe that my lecture group, CS1101Z, which is supposed to be meant for students with very little or no programming background, is dominated by students are good with programming. This is discouraging to students like me who are trying their best to stay ahead. |
| 42. | is very difficult |
| 43. | The pace is very fast. There is not enough time for us to catch up. |
| 44. | Certain topics were told not important and nonexaminable by the lecturer, i think this kind of info must be announced earlier and we students are sometimes confused as in whether this is common for all lecture groups or its individual lecturer's comment about the topic. |
| 45. | Students are required to submit the weekly lab assignment through Coursemarker, which is based on the server SOC-VPN. The connection speed of the SOC-VPN in most study rooms located at Prince George's Park Residences(PGPR) is unstable and very slow, causing great inconvenience to students in submitting their programs. Students from other faculties should be warned that programming experience is essential for this module. Many students reflected their regretness and difficulties after they performed unsatisfactorily in this module. |
| 46. | strength : challenging lab questions weakness : tutorial is not effective improvement : more resources on material |
| 47. | strenths: good starting point for a student with no programing background. weakness: is it unfair to let student with background to take this module. Too easy for them. |
| 48. | the three hours lecture is too long it is hard for me to concentrate in the third hour. |
| 49. | The module is interesting as well as essential. It would be good if students are given more challenging problems that they may try at their own leisure time. |
| 50. | For those with no computing background, it is quite demanding for students with their workloads of other modules to clash with this. |
| 51. | The tutorial is not that helpful. |
| 52. | good. |
| 53. | this module is very difficult for students like me with no computings background at all. therefore i think that there should be more examples given to help us understand better.also the 3 hr lecture should be split into shorter lectures because we have short attention span and usually we are not able to focus and digest everything in 3 hrs as it is too overwhelming. |
| 54. | It is difficult for students without programming background to catch up with the rest of their peers from polytechnic and JC computing background. It is also discerning that it is heavily debated that approximately 2 years of JC/Polytechnic computing syllabus is crammed into the short period of 1 semester of 4 1/2 months. Lab assignments eat up too much time, while giving only minimal contribution to our overall grade. Normal average students without computing background usually takes at least one whole afternoon to do a lab exercise. |
| 55. | Lecture sessions are very long and find it quite hard to absorb hard chunks of information, especially when it is after another earlier class. |
| 56. | The overall conducting of the course is good especially for a beginner. Well done! |
| 57. | Majority of the questions were written specifically with traps to disable students, but in reality, these code hardly ever appear when anyone codes. |
| 58. | This module is difficult for students without any programming background as the pace of the lecture is too fast. Maybe it could be improved by going at a slower pace and probably have more handson direct application. |
| 59. | As I do not have any programming background, I feel that it is hard to pick up initially, but things got alot better. However, I feel that the speed is too fast. Before i have any time to practice on what i have learnt, a new chapter is introduced. As a result, I feel that my foundation is still very weak, resulting in the inability to understand other chapters. |
| 60. | Strengths: Lecturers and TAs were very helpful. Weaknesses: Lectures were too long. 3hr stretches not very conducive. Improvements: Break up lectures with more breaks(45-50 min sessions) |
| 61. | Strength- Progressive training through labs. And tutors to students ratio is very good. Weakness- i SERIOUSLY think there is no fair ground in programming. Obviously those with background (say students from poly) have a edge over Jc students, most without any background. Not forgetting foreign talents. It's really very difficult. Especially when we're all taking the same paper!! Pace is too, too fast forsome people. |
| 62. | Strength - Concepts are generally well taught with good supporting textbook, lab assignment is generally reasonable in nature. Weakness - lack of timed practice session both for programming lab and for the practice for written exam. There should be more time spent on teaching the finer points normally being tested in written exam. Some of the last few lab assignments are incredibly difficult and not much information is given to help |
| 63. | it should be taught in a manner that is more easy to understand. the module pretty much assumes that we know certain information already, although we don't. |
| 64. | It would be good to go at a slower pace as it is pretty difficult for one who has totally no background to grasp it. |
| 65. | The module is fun. It's just that there are too many things to absorb within such a short span of time. Basic concepts can be grasped with ease (after reading lecture notes and textbook). |
| 66. | Alot of assumptions are made that students would know certain information or knowledge, hence not all contents (in details) of the curriculum are covered. Many students have no background in programming, it'd be good if lecturers and teachers teach us using layman terms first. |
| 67. | If possible for all tutorials and lectures, for all the lab practices, provide some possible solutions on IVLE, because most of the time we don't have time to finish it, or it is too difficult for us to even start doing the lab. |
| 68. | There are different labs every week which test us on different chapters we are taught each week. It allows us to practice. We should be taught the JOptionePane more. We should be taught the chapters accordingly. The time between each term test and practical test needs to be more spaced out. |
| 69. | It is too difficult for me to master the module within one semester. Still not very clear of the concepts. |
| 70. | It will be simpler to catch for students with strong logic and analytic sense. It is very tough for students who have no previous background in programming as everything is taught too quickly. |
| 71. | need more explaination via examples |
| 72. | the weakness is that the module moves at a fast pace that it becomes rather difficult to catch up. |
| 73. | The module is very difficult in the sense that they expect us to master the program in like 13 weeks which some of us like me are new to programming. The strength of this module is that it enhances creative thinking. |
| 74. | It is hard to learn in groups and this module is very time consuming although it is interesting. |
| 75. | nil. |
| 76. | I think overal the faculties have tried to guide the students well along the way make this difficult module interesting. Sufficient practices and helpful guidance are given. However, i think teachers may still need to help the weaker students more because there are those without backgrands are competing with those with. |
| 77. | More hours should be spent for lectures |
| 78. | It is relatively difficult to score, especially for starters who are very new to the module. It will take a painstakingly long time to do our assignments while it is so much easier for the people who are more experienced with java. It takes a very long time to understand the concepts and labs itself, therefore we don't really have much time to do additional revision on it. The module is good, however, to have UDLs as they really serve a great help to the weaker students as they are more dedicated in helping you and reconsolidate your ideas on a certain concept by explaining them again, rather than the 'just ask questions when in doubt' basis as sometimes we might just be too confused to ask. |
| 79. | good lecturers and good discussion leaders. Nice to be students of them. But things are taught really fast. Lecture notes are almost a complete duplicate of points form the textbook. Perhaps, lecturer should add in more of their personal advice for students to learn. Very little practical practise actually too |
| 80. | Tricky MCQs are the true test for those who really know their stuff well. Time issue is really a problem for me in every single test. |
| 81. | provide more ways to help student |
| 82. | THIS IS NOT A GOOD MODULE FOR A BEGINNER. FOR A BEGINNER LIKE ME OR WE CAN SAY FOR A TOTALLY NO BACKGROUND PERSON, THIS MODULE IS TOO TOUGH. WHY WE CAN SCORE SINGLE NUMBER IN ALL THE TEST. IT IS BECAUSE WE NEED TO STUDY ALL OF THIS BASIS IN THREE MONTH ONLY. YOU THINK WE ALL CAN DID IT PERHAPS SOME TALENTED STUDENT MAY. MY SUGGESTION IS GIVE THE NEW STUDENT AT LEAST 3 MONTH PREPARATION OR THE RESULT WOULD NOT COUNT IN OUR MC BUT I THINK IT IS NOT POSSIBLE. |
| 83. | The module is so tedious and requires so much effort, it should be 6 or 7 credits instead !! |
| 84. | The strength of the module is that it is in the form of small group and students can study in computer labs. That means we can understand the lecture easily. |
| 85. | The 3-hour lectures often make student tired, i think it will be better if can be changed to two 2-hour lectures each week. Expect the above point, the module is excellent. |
| 86. | The module is quite interesting, but the PE and test 2 are so close to each other that we cannot be fully prepared. |
| 87. | the course is quite good,and our lecturer is interesting |
| 88. | the module of cs1101z is already good enough. in particular, the lecturer dr.tan is very responsible and humerous adn students like his classes very much. the discussion leader is also very nice. |
| 89. | pay some attention to the alogrithem |
| 90. | 3 hour lectures could be broken down into 2hr + 1hr sessions. |
| 91. | Extremely hard for new computing students, especially those who have not taken Computing in A level such as myself compete on a equal level or to catch up in this short time frame. |
| 92. | Skills required for the lab exercises are often not yet covered in the lecture. Since we are often required to do much self-study or reading, suggest having a shorter lecture to allow more time for self-study and discussion. |
| 93. | Pace is too fast. I am unable to cope with the basics and the more advance stuff just keep getting thrown at me. Lab exercises should be slightly easier for beginners to understand. Just getting the concepts right first should be the priority |
| 94. | It is the same paper for all groups...those with programming background will get better marks..so the level of difficulty is same for all groups.Not too fair.. |
| 95. | long yet unproductive lectures. i dun understand most of the lectures. |