Dave Tompkins :: Teaching :: 2007 Winter :: CPSC 121

Dave Tompkins :: Teaching :: 2007 Winter :: CPSC 121 - 202,203,BCS

Course Description:

CPSC 121: Models of Computation

Physical and mathematical structures of computation. Boolean algebra and combinations logic circuits; proof techniques; functions and sequential circuits; sets and relations; finite state machines; sequential instruction execution.

Dave's Comments:

Considering this was supposed to be my last TA assignment it was nice to go out on a good note. It was great to go back and TA a first year course again -- the last time I TA'd 121 it was really rushed in the summer and the pace was much better this term. There were 3 different instructors which made consistency a little tricky at times, but it wasn't too bad. What was a bigger challenge was the timing of the lectures & tutorials with respect to the assignments, which meant I was often teaching new material to my Friday students before I knew what their assignments would be. I put a lot of effort into my post-tutorial handouts and it was gratifying to see my notes & suggestions on the "cheat sheets" students were allowed to bring into their final exam. Overall I really enjoyed the term.

Teaching Evaluations:

Number of Respondents: 27 / ???

The teaching assistant was:

Well Prepared.
Strongly Disagree	Disagree	Neutral	Agree	Strongly Agree
	1		3	22
	4%		12%	85%

Helpful.
Strongly Disagree	Disagree	Neutral	Agree	Strongly Agree
		1	3	22
		4%	12%	85%

Considerate of students.
Strongly Disagree	Disagree	Neutral	Agree	Strongly Agree
		1	6	20
		4%	22%	74%

Easily Understood.
Strongly Disagree	Disagree	Neutral	Agree	Strongly Agree
			3	23
			12%	88%

An effective instructor.
Strongly Disagree	Disagree	Neutral	Agree	Strongly Agree
		1	3	23
		4%	11%	85%

Comments:

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

My suggestions for improving the effectiveness of the teaching assistant are:

Dave did an amazing job with regards to preparing useful handouts every week, and by providing excellent explanations for tough concepts.
Dave is an _outstanding_ teacher. He was able to take the formal examples from the lectures and repackage them for us in clear and accessible manner. His tutorials were a lot of fun. And making Discrete Math fun is _outstanding_!
Dave really provided the kind of help that gave insights without giving away too much.
Dave was great. He made 121 easier to understand. I don't think I'm going to forget the "everyone loves everyone" orgy example! Thanks.
Dave was very good. He explained things very clearly. After tutorials I understood the material better than I did from the lectures.
Great job Dave! Thanks for all the help!
Great TA with a lot of enthusiasm and knowledge about the subject. Made the tutorial worth it even though it was Friday afternoon. Thanks for all the tips.
Great TA, would make an excellent professor.
- He was very clear and made everything understandable.
- He presented the material better than the prof did.
- His sense of humour made tutorials not only interesting, but a lot of fun.
- He likes food... he does.
Interactive and fun tutorials. Very helpful - stimulated students to think. Useful hints about studying.
Interesting teaching
Learned more from his tutorials than anywhere else! The handouts were really useful, helped me get through many assignments. Thanks for being a great TA!
You had the best examples!

All of the data for this page is available in the github repository: https://github.com/dtompkins/teacheval