Dave Tompkins :: Teaching :: 2012 Winter :: CS 115

Dave Tompkins :: Teaching :: 2012 Winter :: CS 115 - 001

Course Description:

CS 115: Introduction to Computer Science 1

An introduction to the fundamentals of computer science through the application of elementary programming patterns in the functional style of programming. Function definition and application. Tracing via substitution. Design, testing, and documentation. Recursive data definitions. Lists and trees. Functional and data abstraction.

Dave's Comments:

Unfortunately, the sessional instructor who was teaching this section was struggling and the class attendance had dropped to less than ten students. I took over his section for the second half of the course and I was able to moderately boost attendance.

Teaching Evaluations:

Number of Respondents: 15 / 89 (17%)

Characteristics of the Instructor:

Evaluate the organization and coherence of the lectures.
Excellent	Good	Satisfactory	Unsatisfactory	Very poor	No opinion
11	4
73%	27%

At what level were the instructor's explanations aimed?
Too high	Somewhat too high	Just right	Somewhat too low	Too low	No opinion
1	2	11	1
7%	13%	73%	7%

Evaluate the instructor's treatment of students' questions.
Excellent	Good	Satisfactory	Unsatisfactory	Very poor	No opinion
13	2
87%	13%

Evaluate the effectiveness of the instructor's visual presentation (blackboard, overheads, etc.).
Excellent	Good	Satisfactory	Unsatisfactory	Very poor	No opinion
11	4
73%	27%

Evaluate the effectiveness of the instructor's oral presentation.
Excellent	Good	Satisfactory	Unsatisfactory	Very poor	No opinion
12	3
80%	20%

Was the instructor available for help outside of class?
Always	Most of the time	Often enough	Not often enough	Never	I did not seek help
9	1	1	1		3
60%	7%	7%	7%		20%

Did you find the course interesting?
Very Interesting	Interesting	Not interesting	No opinion
3	11
21%	79%

Evaluate the overall effectiveness of the instructor as a teacher.
Excellent	Good	Satisfactory	Unsatisfactory	Very poor	No opinion
12	3
80%	20%

Characteristics of the Course:

What proportion of lectures did you attend in this course?
90-100%	75-90%	50-75%	25-50%	< 25%
8	4	2		1
53%	27%	13%		7%

Was the assigned work (assignments, projects, etc.) helpful in learning the course content?
Very helpful	Helpful	Not helpful	No work assigned	No opinion
7	7			1
47%	47%			7%

Were the printed notes (if any) helpful in learning the course content?
Very helpful	Helpful	Not helpful	No printed course notes	No opinion
4	9			2
27%	60%			13%

Was the required textbook (if any) helpful in learning the course content?
Very helpful	Helpful	Not helpful	No text required	No opinion
1	2	8	1	3
7%	13%	53%	7%	20%

Did the course introduce an appropriate amount of new material?
Too much	Somewhat too much	Okay	Somewhat too little	Too little	No opinion
	3	10	1
	21%	71%	7%

Was the amount of assigned work required for the course appropriate?
Too much	Somewhat too much	Okay	Somewhat too little	Too little	No opinion
	2	13
	13%	87%

On average, how many hours per week did you spend on this course outside of lectures?
0-2 hours	3-6 hours	7-10 hours	11-15 hours	> 15 hours
1	5	7	1	1
7%	33%	47%	7%	7%

Comments:

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

Please mention anything that you feel the instructor has done well in this course.

Dave Tompkins was an awesome prof. Really good explanations & examples given in class.
Enthusiastic about the course. Made class enjoyable. Explained examples very well.
Excellent jokes.
Excellent oral explanation of content.
Explain the abstract content into concrete content.
Explaining and to help everyone understand the material.
Explanation of course materials was well organized and understandable. Good use of visuals & colourful markers.
Explanations are vivid and useful. More examples are needed.
Great presentation skills. Keeps the class interested. Lively and energetic. Cares about the students' concerns. Helpful during office hours.
Great visual presentations and very interactive class presentation. Answers questions well.
The instructor's presentation is funny and not that boring. He always point out some important detail and explain it.
Very clear in lectures, used helpful analogies in lectures, helpful in office hours and very respectful of students.

Please make constructive comments about anything in the instructor's technique or style that could, in your opinion, be improved.

Details probably. Actually, everything is great.
Everything he does is excellent. Stay the way you are!
Good enough.
He was very engaging in lectures. Made the course more fun, less boring.
No comments :)
Nothing.
Spend more time explaining new concepts, but overall no other comments.

What were the strong points of the course?

Course exams are easy if assignments are done. Most of material understandable if studied.
Great class presentations and easy to learn.
Interesting to see how programs actually worked, how much effort goes into them.
It was cool learning about how programs work.
Very interesting.

What were the weak points of the course?

Boring by design, scheme is a stupid language for learning or general use.
Boring content. However, instructor kept it interesting.
Not extremely interesting.
Too much new information for a first time CS student.

Was the class atmosphere affected either positively or negatively by attitudes of the instructor or students, e.g., with respect to gender, race, ability, appearance? Please explain.

Affected positively due to small class.
Dave kept it very positive, funny lively and enthusiastic.
Focused students and Dave Tompkins has a good balance between work and fun in class.
Positive, always quiet.
Positive. There were never any problems.

Any other comments, e.g., class size, suitability of room, noise level, etc.

Class size is small since old prof scared everyone away and no one comes anymore! Dave has brought some back though :)
Quiet class.

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