Dave Tompkins :: Teaching :: 2017 Winter :: CS 136

Dave Tompkins :: Teaching :: 2017 Winter :: CS 136 - 008

Course Description:

CS 136: Elementary Algorithm Design and Data Abstraction

This course builds on the techniques and patterns learned in CS 135 while making the transition to use of an imperative language. It introduces the design and analysis of algorithms, the management of information, and the programming mechanisms and methodologies required in implementations. Topics discussed include iterative and recursive sorting algorithms; lists, stacks, queues, trees, and their application; abstract data types and their implementations.

Dave's Comments:

I had just taught CS 136 in the previous term and I had introduced numerous improvements to the notes and tutorials. In this term I was looking forward to smoothing over those changes.

As is often the case in Winter, it was a large team (six instructors) with only one other faculty member (Tim) who was new to the course, and of the four sessionals only one had taught the course before.

The rest of the instructor team was pretty good, but they did struggle creating some of the assignments. Some assignments were too easy (or too hard) or were poorly specified or difficult to test (which can lead to a lot of headaches). As team lead, I take some responsibility for these mix-ups because I didn't always successfully communicate my assignment expectations in advance and help everyone focus on the learning goals. In the end, we were able to reshape most of the assignments and it went relatively smoothly. It is rare that students give the feedback that assignments were "too easy", but a few did below.

Aside from some assignment hiccups, I was very happy with the rest of the course elements (lectures, tutorials, exams, etc.)

Once again, I showed 5 minutes of a movie right before each lecture: Zootopia (Sec 008) and Finding Dory (Sec 009).

Teaching Evaluations:

Number of Respondents: 74 / 88 (84%)

Characteristics of the Instructor:

Evaluate the organization and coherence of the lectures.
Excellent	Good	Satisfactory	Unsatisfactory	Very poor	No opinion
66	8
89%	11%

At what level were the instructor's explanations aimed?
Too high	Somewhat too high	Just right	Somewhat too low	Too low	No opinion
7	7	55	2	1	1
10%	10%	75%	3%	1%	1%

Evaluate the instructor's treatment of students' questions.
Excellent	Good	Satisfactory	Unsatisfactory	Very poor	No opinion
59	12	3
80%	16%	4%

Evaluate the effectiveness of the instructor's visual presentation (blackboard, overheads, etc.).
Excellent	Good	Satisfactory	Unsatisfactory	Very poor	No opinion
61	12	1
82%	16%	1%

Evaluate the effectiveness of the instructor's oral presentation.
Excellent	Good	Satisfactory	Unsatisfactory	Very poor	No opinion
68	5	1
92%	7%	1%

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
21	14	6	3		30
28%	19%	8%	4%		41%

Did you find the course interesting?
Very Interesting	Interesting	Not interesting	No opinion
52	20	1	1
70%	27%	1%	1%

Evaluate the overall effectiveness of the instructor as a teacher.
Excellent	Good	Satisfactory	Unsatisfactory	Very poor	No opinion
68	5	1
92%	7%	1%

Characteristics of the Course:

What proportion of lectures did you attend in this course?
90-100%	75-90%	50-75%	25-50%	< 25%
68	6
92%	8%

Was the assigned work (assignments, projects, etc.) helpful in learning the course content?
Very helpful	Helpful	Not helpful	No work assigned	No opinion
49	22	1		2
66%	30%	1%		3%

Were the printed notes (if any) helpful in learning the course content?
Very helpful	Helpful	Not helpful	No printed course notes	No opinion
34	27	2	3	8
46%	36%	3%	4%	11%

Was the required textbook (if any) helpful in learning the course content?
Very helpful	Helpful	Not helpful	No text required	No opinion
9	8	12	23	22
12%	11%	16%	31%	30%

Did the course introduce an appropriate amount of new material?
Too much	Somewhat too much	Okay	Somewhat too little	Too little	No opinion
2	11	53	6		2
3%	15%	72%	8%		3%

Was the amount of assigned work required for the course appropriate?
Too much	Somewhat too much	Okay	Somewhat too little	Too little	No opinion
3	29	40	2
4%	39%	54%	3%

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
	22	30	15	7
	30%	41%	20%	9%

Question-Specific Comments:

Evaluate the organization and coherence of the lectures.

[Excellent] Dave Tompkins = 10/10
[Excellent] Excellent. Linking star wars to C memory model, was the most awesome part of this course.
[Excellent] Genuinely feel the lectures were put a lot of effort in creating and simplifying for understanding. Very logical sequence of events , nothing surprising . Consistent with teaching pattern . CS class was one of the things I looked forward to during the week!
[Excellent] The slides have been the single best resource I've ever had for learning a language. I wish everyone would organize their courses and lectures so clearly. Following along was easy and the progression was natural.
[Excellent] Well organized with some anticipation of what students will think next. It shows that the lectures were heavily revised based on thought process of students from previous terms.

At what level were the instructor's explanations aimed?

[Just right] Simple yet technical. I don't see how he could have gone into more depth, and I also don't see how he could've made it simpler without missing important information.

Evaluate the instructor's treatment of students' questions.

[Excellent] "I have a slide for you"... but actually was very open to answering questions and gave clear answers.
[Excellent] Although sometimes he tries to answer the question "too well" that it takes time out of lectures
[Excellent] Answered questions well, though it was rather annoying to hear many questions throughout the term about material not in the course, as someone who is new to computer science myself. This also got us behind so maybe you could try to push those questions until the end of class.
[Excellent] Dave answered questions diligently and fairly. I just wish Dave would answer without that creepy smile on his face! :D
[Excellent] Got a slide for you.
[Excellent] Piazza trolling but it's understandable
[Excellent] Really made an effort to answer students doubts , brought in real world analogies for deeper, better understanding!
[Good] A few students would very often ask questions that were either unrelated or beyond the scope of the course. These questions put off the flow of the lecture and made me lose focus. It was frustrating because sometimes these questions would take up 10 minutes of the lecture and cause some sections to be worked through quickly. I'm all for asking relevant questions in class, but, maybe try to keep these questions to a minimum?
[Good] Sometimes goes off into tangents because students ask unrelated questions but it is always interesting

Evaluate the effectiveness of the instructor's visual presentation (blackboard, overheads, etc.).

[Excellent] I thought writing on the slides rather than the chalkboard worked well because the code was right there and the different colors helped.
[Excellent] Not every teacher uses the wall when the blackboard isn't enough. Dave's got chops!
[Excellent] Really good visual presentation, but slides could be a bit cluttered at times with all of the drawings.
[Excellent] Very clear for students in the first few rows; I once sat behind and I could still see the presentation. However, I would prefer if drawings were done on the slides instead compared to the wall or blackboard because students could hardly see from the back, especially with the reflection of lights.

Evaluate the effectiveness of the instructor's oral presentation.

[Excellent] Absolutely hilarious analogies helped make every concept instantly relatable.
[Excellent] He used many great analogies to help grasp the concept, many of the times involving food so be sure to eat before class.
[Excellent] Put in very simple understandable words so that everyone would understand the concepts.

Was the instructor available for help outside of class?

[I did not seek help] Dave's lectures were so good I never needed to get extra help.
[I did not seek help] I didn't seek help but knew you were available via many resources, your lectures are too clear, I have no questions at all. :P

Did you find the course interesting?

[Interesting] Slightly boring to start since we mostly have a cs background for iteration, not your fault, but consider speeding up the earlier iteration content, leave more time for pointers and arrays, for those who struggle.
[Very Interesting] After covering functional paradigm in CS 135, CS 136's progression to imperative, and constant comparison's between the two really helped to broaden my understanding of the different approaches to solving problems in both paradigms.
[Very Interesting] I'm not a CS major but this is easily my best class and I'm planning on continuing to take CS electives because of it

Evaluate the overall effectiveness of the instructor as a teacher.

[Excellent] Best CS teacher I have ever seen, as of now, definitely better than expected! Thanks!
[Excellent] Can't say enough about how awesome Dave has been!
[Excellent] Dave is one of the best instructors I have had in university. It is not just because this is only my second term of school but rather I am a transfer student who already has a degree. His teaching style is extremely engaging and explanations are clear.
[Excellent] Dave teaches students how to understand rather than just teaching for the sake of going through all the slides.
[Excellent] I just want say that I am grateful to my instructor as it was through him that I got a deeper understanding of the field of Computer Science, something I am going to pursue. With the help of his real world analogies and relation with practical situations , it really became simple for me to understand and grasp concepts in the course. Now I can relate to my problems in real life and program them in C language. I have been taught how to solve problems with the help of computers , something I wasn't too good at coming into the course.Really liked the way the Memory model of C was taught! Overall very effective prof. Very funny, entertaining guy!

What proportion of lectures did you attend in this course?

[90-100%] Didn't miss a single one, mostly because of Zootopia. *cough. I meant to say because of my passion for CS.
[90-100%] I would never skip Dave's lectures. They were the highlights of the week.
[90-100%] Wouldn't want to miss

Was the assigned work (assignments, projects, etc.) helpful in learning the course content?

[Helpful] The minesweeper assignment was like walking through an actual minefield.
[Very helpful] I self studied C before this but this course helped me to reinforce my knowledge on pointer arithmetic and dynamic memory.
[Very helpful] Some questions are too repetitive, I don't like the nine-functions-in-one-question type of practice which sort of all do the same thing. I guess it is good practice, but I like variation and interesting twists, instead of lengthy repeats of similar content.

Were the printed notes (if any) helpful in learning the course content?

[Helpful] Just the last few handouts. I used the first few handouts to ensure that I did not miss out anything, especially nitty gritty stuffs like documentation.
[Helpful] The usefulness of the book becomes exponentially useful starting at assignment 8.
[No opinion] Didn't use them
[No opinion] I never bought the printed notes.

Was the required textbook (if any) helpful in learning the course content?

[Helpful] Helpful for C Programming, but not really necessary. Course can easily be completed without the additional text (I do believe it is considered optional).
[No opinion] Didn't think I needed the textbook, your teaching was clear enough that it would be a waste of time and money.
[No opinion] Didn't use them
[No opinion] I never bought the textbook, and had no issues understanding the material with Dave's instruction.
[Not helpful] The book was a bit expensive so I did not buy it.

Did the course introduce an appropriate amount of new material?

[Okay] While I never felt like the pace was too slow, I definitely would have loved to work with some graphs. Apart from that the amount of material was perfect.
[Somewhat too little] Again, I believe the content is too slow in the early half.
[Somewhat too much] Iteration is fun.

Was the amount of assigned work required for the course appropriate?

[Okay] Overall the workload seemed fair, although some assignments were considerably more work than others and more balance from assignment to assignment would have been nice.
[Somewhat too much] Assignments 9 and 10 were extremely demanding and time-consuming compared to the other ones. I feel that maybe the assignment deadlines should be shifted around so that we can have more than just a week to work on assignment 9, as well as assignment 10.
[Somewhat too much] Not that I think the questions are too much work, it is just too repetitive.
[Somewhat too much] Only at times though... you know those days when you have a paper, presentation and assignment due.

On average, how many hours per week did you spend on this course outside of lectures?

[3-6 hours] 3-4 hours on assignments 1 to 7
about 5-7 hours on assignments 8 and above, especially on creating test cases.
[3-6 hours] Just on the assignments. A lot of the time was wasted using Seashell and trying to decipher it's errors. Additionally, the lack of a built in debugging system (of the step-into variety) cause many annoyances.
[7-10 hours] Some assignments seemed easy, but once documentation and testing were factored in, they often ballooned in terms of time required. One failed test (not marmoset, but personally written tests) often meant quite a few minutes of searching for bugs.

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.

A great professor! Dr. Tompkins literally stretches his limbs and back before each lecture. Teaching is more than a job for him. It's a sport, an art, a performance. With the biting wits of a standup comedian and a great deal of common sense, he made lectures a sitcom with "Previously on CS 136" and all the relatable metaphors. He is also a very sensible professor. Never hesitant to share his own struggles with mental health in class. He is made for teaching. Please give him tenure!!!
Amazing experience I had in this course, being able to attend this CS 136 lectures every week is one of my joys at Waterloo so far.
An amazing instructor who's funny and tries to get students to come to class early with creative methods like playing segments of a movie at the beginning of lectures
Analogies are the way to teach computer science and Dave has done a great job of relating funny analogies to help us understand abstract concepts such as data structures and other computer science topics.
Best instructor in UWaterloo so far. Keeps it interesting. Love coming to rthis lecture.
Come on, it's Dave.
Commendable job addressing students of different skill levels (and their misgivings) and ensuring their on the same page and playing field in class, which is NOT an easy thing to do in an intro-level CS course. Professor made good use of analogies as well and generally did an appreciable job illustrating concepts.
Dave made the classroom a relaxed environment and added a lot of humor into his teaching. He did this while still providing good explanations of the course content. He also used many helpful real-world examples to help the class further understand challenging topics.
Dave made the course extremely engaging and fun. Also, ll the material was explained in a way that was easily understood
Dave was an extremely enthusiastic instructor and I am very grateful to have had him to teach this course. His humour and wit is unparalleled.
Engagement with the students was really well done.
Engaging students by playing movies <3
Engaging.
Enthusiastic and keeps me awake.
Everything
Everything
everything
Everything! Dave was knowledgeable, funny, friendly, and helpful.
Everything.
Excellent presentation, makes the class funny.
Excellent way to introduce the C lang. I love how animated you are in the classroom, it really helps me pay attention.
Explained well. Funny.
Explanations of course content were really great
Good oral presentation
Great job engaging students and explaining course content. Really made the course more interesting than it really is.
Great lectures with perfect examples and introductions
Great lectures, very interesting and funny. Assignments well made and very fair. Course very organized as well.
Great lecturing skills interaction with students. Always answers questions to the full depth required and is very funny.
Great oral explanation
Great presentation, very easy to follow and understand
Great tone, pace, and explanations
He explained so well and made the course interesting.
He explained the concepts clearly and he clearly loves teaching.
His lecture is very interesting and well organized.
I always looked forward to CS class with you, Dave. You always kept class entertaining with your jokes and stories, you explained concepts and code examples really well, you were really enthusiastic and spoke very clearly, and I felt you made the course entirely accessible for all levels of experience in the class.
I believe that Dave has been very good at engaging the class and explaining concepts at a level that is easy for the class to grasp, while still being meaningful. He has always been approachable and helpful and has made the course very enjoyable.
i learned that you can sometimes trust a fox
I love the advanced slides!
I think the lectures were very interesting and concepts were explained with very good analogies, at a level everyone in the class can understand.
Interesting lectures with appropriate notation on ppt.
jokes were interesting and attractive, I mean, those were great attention grabber, and the instructor is funny. In all, best lecture I have ever taken! btw, what other courses does Dave teach?
Lectures were really engaging and interesting, thanks for answering our numerous out-there questions!
made me want to attend lecture solely because he was teaching it.
Made problem solving easier. Taught how to break down problems into smaller parts and solve for answer.
Made the course very interesting and was willing to help
Made the lectures more fun
Making the course interesting and easy to follow, explaining things with analogies.
Passionate about teaching, very amusing and keeps my attention.
phenomenal in every regard. Dave's clarity and humor made this course my favorite class,
Take a bit too long to field the advance questions that made the lectures really long
This is the first course I've taken where I've never skipped a single class, and I owe it to you, Dave. Thanks!
Tompkins is animated, fun, energetic, entertaining, coherent, clear, and makes lectures entertaining. The slides are pretty good too, though I'm not sure how much Tompkins was in charge of that.
Very clear explanations, keeps it interesting. I looked forward to this class every day. Best lecture I have.
Very fun and interesting
Very funny guy and very engaging as a result. Always made us laugh and easy to follow
Very helpful to highlight key info and write additional info onto slides during lectures, very helpful analogies when explaining abstract concepts, lectures were very clear and engaging, very enthusiastic instructor
Visualizations and analogies. Engaging too.
You joke a lot, make the material interesting, makes the class feel quite fast. Thank you! (I have cs during a very long day of about 8 hours of lectures sometimes, your class really helps me out.)

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

A lot of people asked a lot questions that were well above what we needed to know. By answering these questions a lot of class time was wasted for other students, and we had to rush through slides the next class. I understand that it is important that these students get their questions answered, but they can use office hours for these.
all those coke cans made me worried for your health and distracted me slightly
Although the answers to students questions are very in-depth sometimes they trail too far away from what is expected of a regular student in the course (sometimes we spend too much time on advanced topic slides and hypothecial situations). Don't get me wrong I think student teacher relations are great but maybe these more advanced discussions can be held in office hours.
Bring more attention to deep mistakes students make on assignments and places where students can get stuck
Content in lecture maybe a little higher.
Continue drawing on the slides! And it's too dark during the movie at the beginning of the class.
Could make it slower. Easier to catch up with.
Dave's perfect just the way he is
Drink less coca cola because health is number one! Especially for a cool prof like you!
Drink less coke
Drink less coke.
Drink less diet coke.
Drink more water
Feel the later half of the course is a bit heavier and a bit more time could be spent on that .
I have nothing specific, but there were many times in class where I found it going very slow. Sometimes when I started to lose focus, a clicker question or an activity would act as "pick-me-up" and I would regain focus again. With long classes, I think future sections could benefit from more activities or class interaction.
I think it would make the class more interesting if you could interact with the class more, ask questions, or give us some little examples to practice during class, or maybe have room for some possible questions before going over everything. I know you have a slide for all our questions, but sometimes it boosts our self-esteem to ask and answer meaningfully at appropriate times. On a separate note, could you possibly label the class slides a bit better, maybe have a small point form of what it covers on the first page, so that we don't have to search for key words every time we try to find a specific slide for help.
I would hate for future generations to miss out on the brilliant teaching style of the one and only Dave Tompkins. For this reason, I cannot help but mention that I would highly appreciate if he could "lay off the coke zero man", as this may impact his career length. Furthermore, I believe that Dave has a winning smile, and he does not share that with us enough. He mentioned his self-awareness that was brought about by another student's evaluation, and I would like to share that he has no reason to feel that way. Smile more Dave! I love seeing those pearly whites.
I'm not sure if profs have a meeting to discuss how everything's going but I'm sure everyone's angry at Dave for being too good. Also, you should get some sleep fam
It's hard to critique a masterpiece.
more free clicker plox
N/A
N/A
N/A, maybe less racket
Nah, you cool fam
No comments. Everything was just perfect !
No, I think the instructor is so excellent.
Not much
nothing
Nothing :)
Nothing at all. Dave is the coolest of the coolest of the coolest of the coolest of all. No change needed, please Dave!
Nothing.
People who are sitting at the back find it hard to hear all the questions (of which there are a lot of) and you try to repeat all the questions but please do it on a more consistent basis.
Personally, I'd like a bit more time on clickers. I know I can answer the clicker questions usually, but I feel I get many wrong due to the time restraint. Could just be a personal thing.
please stop drinking coke
Please stop drinking three cans of Coke Zero per lecture. Seriously, cans are distracting. (Bad for your health).
Presenting from a blackboard would be much more engaging than using powerpoint slides.
Repeating the concepts too many times in some cases
See above.
Some slides were very heavy, but this was regulated (not instructor specific) and often wasn't easy to do much about as it was the nature of the material (sorting algorithm implementations, etc.)
Sometimes it's so entertaining with the doodles and stuff I get distracted from the actual material.
Sometimes you talk a little too much about out of course concepts motivated from questions from more advanced students.
The only thing that I can think of is that your diagrams on the slides could get a bit cluttered/messy at times.
There are times when the material is sleep inducing. More interesting analogies for those parts please.
Use of analogies

What were the strong points of the course?

A good introduction to C language
A lot of new content, which is applicable in real life.
A solid introduction to thinking like a programmer especially on how memory in the computer actually works.
Arrays and pointers
Assignments are topical and teach concepts very well, without too much fluff.
Coherent and logical progression through material.
Comprehensive, intuitive, thoughtful
Dave.
Dynamic memory, some basic algorithms.
End of the course seems interesting as we are learning applications of what we've learned prior. Before the application portion, there was a solid foundation on the skills needed. Also, I loved there being minimal racket.
Everything
Everything
Everything.
Focus on applicable programming skills, techniques that are used IRL
Fundemental knowledges for CS
Good amount of info and detail.
Good comparison and introduction to imperative programming while contrasting to functional paradigm.
Good introduction, introduces students to some lower level concepts, such as memory management
Great presentation every lecture
Help us gain basic programming knowledge of C.
I learned stuff to impress my employers, it was cool.
I think the course has been well constructed to give students the skills for both academics and real world use.
I thought the course was very well organized, I enjoyed 136 more than 135.
In-depth coverage of many topics, much more advanced than other unis/faculties
Interesting and useful content
Interesting assignments, many code examples in course notes
Interesting material with an excellent professor
Intro to a variety of topics that were quite interesting and useful going forward.
It was a great course that introduced C while transitioning from Racket.
It's fun, the assignments are cool
Loops
Material was structured in a logical way
Movie.
Praise be for no more steppers!!!!
Really fun material taught in a clear way.
Really useful course, not just for industry but deeper understanding of CS. Data Structures is strong point of the course.
Second half was really intriguing with how it delved in to time complexity and balanced trees.
The class was rarely dull. It is very interesting and kept me engaged.
The content
The course introduced a lot of interesting material in a really logical manner, and all of the new material introduced was always backed up with lots of terminology and examples, such as why doing certain things would produce an error.
The electronic representation style is really clear and easy to understand. It also helps us review the content. Electronic assignments and infinite re submissions are also very convenient.
The TAs are helpful and the tutorials are helpful.
Very fun course especially moving on to an imperative language. The ADT assignments were the most fun and challenging.
Very important course for building imperative fundamentals. Interesting assignments.
Very interesting and applicable... As someone who had no experience in imperative programming and C, I feel like I've learned the main concepts fairly well.
We go deep down to the machine level.
We learned a lot.

What were the weak points of the course?

Almost perfect
Assignments 1-6 are incredibly easy, but the jump from 6 to 7 and onwards (8 was ok) is a little too steep in my opinion. Maybe make assignments 1-6 harder to ease into the later assignments.
Assignments could have focused more on practical problems.
Assignments increase in difficulty too sudden
Assignments near the end are very long compared to previous assignments, shift things forward a bit

Functional Introduction to C is not a good way to introduce people to C
Assignments slightly felt like grunt-work.
Assignments usually take very long to complete
Beginning was slow
C is a great language for learning the basics, but for a course with the label "Algorithm Design", there's very little taught on the subject.
Does not explore much advance and applicable stuff. The textbook should be used more.
Dr. Dave Tompkins still being on contract.
drink less coke.
First 80% of the course moves way too slowly, could definitely fit in additional information about more interesting things.
I believe that the earlier content could be sped up in order to make more time for the more challenging content in later courses. Concepts like linked lists and tree traversal are fundamental to CS, and I believe that it is important to ensure that students fully understand these concepts.
I disliked assertions, as it was unclear sometimes how to do asserts in questions.
I don't like C
i'm not really sure in all honesty. i got wrecked and just took it like a champ.
If the starting sections could be done a bit faster, but the later sections a bit slower.
- Lack of assignments which are interactive. I feel that CS 135 should be a mixture of Racket and C, whereas CS 136 should be an introduction to algorithmic thinking, more on implementing data structures and algorithms as well as solving problems. (Upper year courses usually prove them, and they have lesser opportunities to actually implement those in a specific programming language, though I might be wrong.)
- Hmm..probably a win-win situation would be to have a new section after ADTs on solving interactive problems with the knowledge that students have learnt. For example, instead of just creating functions which does just one specific job such as add_node, delete_node, etc, it could be better by introducing real life problems and get students to think which data structure should they use, and how do they use it to solve a given problem. It might be similar to interview questions? (LeetCode, HackerRank, etc.) That way, on top of just learning how data structures such as arrays, linked lists, trees, etc, work, we actually learn what can each of these do to solve problems (applications).
- Graph problems
Less of C libraries.
Miss one lecture = fail the course
N/A
N/A
Near the end everything was focused on ADTs, not much variety but still interesting
Near the end of the course, particularly with linked lists and trees, I felt that the course was going by a bit quickly and that it was hard to keep up. Even as someone who never took computer science until CS135 and CS136 in my first year, I still felt that the first half of the course could have been done faster. In addition, the constant errors and crashes that I got with Seashell were quite frustrating at times, even after repeatedly resetting it.
No materials to study for exam other than course note.
None
None specifically come to mind.
Not Dave.
Nothing.
Only one slide for graphs! :(
Piazza still needs some sorting through, maybe you guys could do a pin thread similar to some other forum type sites where if someone asks a meaningful question you can pin it, or perhaps filter questions before posting them all on piazza, making the posts cleaner. This way we will have less unnecessary questions about the same thing.
Some of the assignments were too long, and not all content was taught on the Friday's that the assignment was released, meaning we did not have the weekend to do the assignments. Make the assignments due on the Monday or Tuesday
Somehow fast paced.
Textbook was never used, course notes pretty much make them redundant.
The amount of complication on some of the later assignments
The beginning of the course is too slow compared to the end of the course. It took a while to get to iteration, and I'm not exactly sure all that time was needed.
the course notes could be more straight forward
the heap part
The syntax part of the course with C was very slow and boring. Also doing recursion in C before imperative causes students to try and relate Racket with C but later on you always say to not get both of them mixed up. Why not skip the functional aspect of C altogether?
There is like no cell reception down here.
Too many assignments
Too much time spent on basics. Not enough time to digest last few chapters.
Weakest point is pacing. I feel as if it goes too slow, but I'm sure people unfamiliar to coding would not want it to go faster.
Wish we had more freedom in choosing what we can use in homework. what functions etc.

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.

Amazing atmosphere
Atmosphere was efficient for enjoyment and learning
Dave always had a smile and he created a positive learning environment.
Everyone was curious, friendly, and fun. Nothing but good things to say about the section.
Feels pretty inclusive overall. Atmosphere is always on a high after watching zootopia and Dave running around in the class.
Fun teaching style of instructors made atmosphere very positive
I think it was chill, probably because of the people in the class being nice mixed with a good instructor.
I think the students in our section makes the atmosphere very at ease with the jokes and whatnot, but as an instructor, you could try to seem more open and less serious during the early parts of the term. We know you are not exactly the most serious of instructors, but, to me, you didn't seem that approachable at first.
Instructor used humor well & appropriately and took time to address mental health (albeit when the whole campus was, but did so candidly nonetheless)
it was just prof talking so there wasn't really much going on
Jesus, with the race baiting bullshit. No, your instructors and students are not bigoted. Why is this even a question? Seriously, you people should have a modicum of faith in your faculty and students. Gender, race, appearance, or anything this superficial shouldn't be a point of discussion in academia at all unless it is the academia of those particular issues.
N/A
n/a
N/A
nah man Tompkins is a G. love that dude.
No
No , everything was smooth
No comment.
no idea
No opinion.
No, none of his jokes were overly offensive. only the weak hearted will be offended.
No.
No.
No. Class atmosphere was great, because the class was constantly funny!
Nope.
Not as far as I can tell.
positive
Positive!
Positively
Positively
Positively affected! :)
Positively, no negative comments.
Positively.
Positively.
Positively. Dave is awesome!!!
The atmosphere was great. Gender? race? appearance? Dave doesn't care about anything. He just cares about the quality of questions asked.
The class atmosphere was amazing. Both Dave and the students were eager to learn in a fun way.
The class atmosphere was really positive overall and was perfectly fine.
Very Positive
Very positive.

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

!!!
class size is too big. It doesn't matter much in lectures but definitely need more TAs! It's hard to get help from TAs in office hour...
Class size too large but guess that cant be helped.
Class size was good. Could've been better if Dave could teach more sections. Some of my friends were forced to attend two CS lectures per day.
Class size, room, and noise level were all appropriate
Good
Good class size. STC is perfect for CS lectures because of the dual projectors, plugs, and comfortable seats.
Good room, way rather be in STC than MC.
Good.
HI MOM :D
I disliked how it was dark before entering the room from the movies, as I would trip and fall on the stairs as my glasses become dark from outside.
I felt that the class size was just right, and that having the class in STC 0040 felt really nice, compared to my CS class in MC last term. However, it was still a bit annoying when there were people that were talking in front of me throughout the lecture, who tend to be those that have had a lot of programming experience, and that made focusing on your explanations difficult at times. I also think that the course should include a component where people will know how to program and run code in C outside of Seashell, especially for beginners.
Keep teaching! Being in your class made me glad I chose my major. Hopefully you'll be teaching upper year courses too!
More Dave classes, his lectures are very good for teaching, and this course sets a basic understanding which is crucial to done well
N/A
N/A
N/A
No comment.
No phone coverage
No.
NO.
Nothing.
Seashell still buggy
STC made for a pretty good room.
The lab system is not working. It's just not. Went there twice, had to wait for 2 hours, and had to leave for class coz my turn didn't come. ISAs were helpful but too helpful. In CS135, ISAs would just glance at the code, and tell you what was wrong, and not how to fix it. In this course, ISAs would sit with students to go through the code until it works, delaying a whole bunch of time, and even if you wanted to ask a simple one line question, it would take 3 hours, and people who had class could never use that lab. Also, just saying, most ISAs being chinese male, if anyone who was either, chinese, or female, went over to ask them question, they mostly didn't, but sometimes they ignored the lined list to answer the questions. THIS IS A SERIOUS MATTER. It would be better if the ISAs would be just glancing over at the code to say "Oh, that's wrong" and done, and none of these problems would've occurred. I believe lab is trial and error time anyway, right? Not do everything for me sir time.
The room looks like a jail cell.
The room was perfect for Dave's lectures. I really appreciated the open space in contrast to the tight classroom I had in CS 135.
This course convinced me to stay in my program
This room is great, I think class size is irrelevant in cs if you don't really interact with us that much. Overall loved this class.

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