Course Description:
CS 100: Introduction to Computing through Applications
Using personal computers as effective problem solving tools for the present and the future. Effective use of spreadsheets to process, manipulate, and visualize numeric and textual information. Introduction to the Internet, World Wide Web, HTML, and XML. Algorithms underlying the functional components of web search engines and their influence on data access. Using wikis to publish, reshape, and organize data collaboratively.
Dave's Comments:
Teaching Evaluations:
Number of Respondents: 55 / 237 (23%)
| The instructor related to students in way that promoted mutual respect. |
| Strongly Disagree | Disagree | Neutral | Agree | Strongly Agree |
| 2 | 1 | 9 | 21 | 19 |
| 4% | 2% | 17% | 40% | 37% |
| The instructor's explanations were clear and understandable. |
| Strongly Disagree | Disagree | Neutral | Agree | Strongly Agree |
| 2 | 2 | 7 | 22 | 22 |
| 4% | 4% | 13% | 40% | 40% |
| The instructor was helpful to students seeking assistance. |
| Strongly Disagree | Disagree | Neutral | Agree | Strongly Agree |
| 3 | 1 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| 6% | 2% | 29% | 31% | 33% |
| Overall, I learned a great deal from the instructor. |
| Strongly Disagree | Disagree | Neutral | Agree | Strongly Agree |
| 4 | 1 | 4 | 27 | 18 |
| 7% | 2% | 7% | 50% | 33% |
| Course materials were presented in an organised manner. |
| Strongly Disagree | Disagree | Neutral | Agree | Strongly Agree |
| 3 | 3 | 4 | 24 | 21 |
| 5% | 5% | 7% | 44% | 38% |
| Expectations for learning were clearly communicated. |
| Strongly Disagree | Disagree | Neutral | Agree | Strongly Agree |
| 3 | 3 | 6 | 26 | 17 |
| 5% | 5% | 11% | 47% | 31% |
| The assignments, activities, and content helped me achieve the stated learning objectives. |
| Strongly Disagree | Disagree | Neutral | Agree | Strongly Agree |
| 3 | | 5 | 31 | 16 |
| 5% | | 9% | 56% | 29% |
| The assignments contributed to my learning. |
| Strongly Disagree | Disagree | Neutral | Agree | Strongly Agree |
| 3 | | 3 | 31 | 18 |
| 5% | | 5% | 56% | 33% |
| Feedback on course assignments contributed to my learning. |
| Strongly Disagree | Disagree | Neutral | Agree | Strongly Agree |
| 5 | 6 | 15 | 20 | 9 |
| 9% | 11% | 27% | 36% | 16% |
| Technology was used effectively for learning in the course. |
| Strongly Disagree | Disagree | Neutral | Agree | Strongly Agree |
| 2 | 1 | 4 | 25 | 23 |
| 4% | 2% | 7% | 45% | 42% |
| The general climate in the course was good for learning. |
| Strongly Disagree | Disagree | Neutral | Agree | Strongly Agree |
| 2 | 1 | 8 | 29 | 15 |
| 4% | 2% | 15% | 53% | 27% |
| Overall, I learned a great deal from this course. |
| Strongly Disagree | Disagree | Neutral | Agree | Strongly Agree |
| 2 | | 7 | 28 | 18 |
| 4% | | 13% | 51% | 33% |
| What grade do you expect in this course? |
| Below 50 | 50-60 | 60-70 | 70-80 | 80-90 | Above 90 |
| 1 | | 2 | 10 | 33 | 8 |
| 2% | | 4% | 19% | 61% | 15% |
| Is this course required, or an elective? |
| Required | Elective |
| 8 | 47 |
| 15% | 85% |
| On average, I spent X hours per week working on this course: |
| Much less than 10 hours | Less than 10 hours | Around 10 hours | More than 10 hours | Much more than 10 hours |
| 5 | 27 | 17 | 5 | 1 |
| 9% | 49% | 31% | 9% | 2% |
| The instructor related to students in way that promoted mutual respect. |
- [Neutral] No interaction with the proffessor
| The instructor's explanations were clear and understandable. |
- [Agree] could have added more relevant examples related to the assignment objectives
- [Disagree] Some content was easy to understand, however some explanations were long winded and confusing. The fact that the transcripts had many spelling, grammatical, and content error did not help the ease of understanding. The clarity of course content was inconsistent across modules.
| The instructor was helpful to students seeking assistance. |
- [Disagree] Never assisted with helping students
- [Neutral] No interaction with the proffessor
| Overall, I learned a great deal from the instructor. |
- [Strongly Disagree] I had very little interaction with the instructor if any at all, all communications and course postings were done by the TA's
| Course materials were presented in an organised manner. |
- [Strongly Agree] Love the videos!
- [Strongly Disagree] The course lacked structure, at the beginning the intended format communicated was for lectures to be in the form of videos with the available transcript to read. However the video component was removed halfway through the term, which was quite annoying when the transcript referenced an image that you could not see. In addition to that the transcripts were full of errors, and were difficult to read as a result, as they constantly had words striked out and extra words added. Further to this point the course material and available course resources only covered half the material we were expected to understand fort he module assignments. Furthermore assignments were described to be posted on the Monday of the week and due the next Monday (as per the syllabus), some weeks the content didn't get posted to later reducing the amount of time available to complete the assignments. The syllabus was also very vague regarding the grade break down and inconsistent with the version posted on learn
| The assignments, activities, and content helped me achieve the stated learning objectives. |
- [Neutral] The learning objectives were formatted as being the heading of each of the sections within the module. There were often times where we were tested on content outside of what was indicated in the course material. These questions did not help achieve the learning objectives
| The assignments contributed to my learning. |
- [Agree] Since assignments covered content not included in course material, completion of the assignments required me to take the time to learn extra material on my own through other online sources.
| Feedback on course assignments contributed to my learning. |
- [Disagree] There generally wasn't any feedback for assignments unless you actively sought it out.
- [Strongly Disagree] Never got any feedback, don't even know what we do wrong in the assignments/quizzes
- [Strongly Disagree] there was no feedback given. you were just provided with a mark for each section and no reason for why you got those marks wrong.
| Technology was used effectively for learning in the course. |
- [Strongly Disagree] Faculty had so many tech error in assignments and for submitting
| Is this course required, or an elective? |
- [Elective] please don't force students to take this course
Note: This is a complete list of comments I received, listed alphabetically to avoid bias.
- A introduction to using computers and some applications
- Although the quality of content varied throughout the course some of the better lectures were actually very good, and made it easy to understand topics especially for students without a computer background
- Completing the assignments hands on, and working through the quizzes
- Content is easy to understand and learn.
- Good content
- good videos and descriptions. Easy to follow along! Great and fun class
- great lecture content, the videos were well-presented
the assignments were useful and enhanced my learning and application of course content
- Help on common errors
Assignments are application based which is great for learning
- I enjoyed the hands-on assignments where it required us to submit documents to dropbox as I feel like I learned much more from that assignment than the quizzes.
- Informative and descriptive YouTube videos
- Interesting, relevant material, usually presented in a way that is easy to understand. Transcripts provided for videos were extremely helpful for note-taking
- It is very informative and I feel like my skills with Excel and understanding of coding was definitely improved.
- it's online
- Its a great intro course to CS (because it is an intro course, i know). it eases you into coding and excel.
- none complete waste of my time
- Online format and videos are well made
- Overall, it was a great course and helped me to improve computer knowledge and software skills.
It gave me the opportunity to learn Excel, Intro to Linux Server, most importantly - HTML and website creation
- practical assignments where one needs to work with relavent softwares and codeing languages.
- The application of the module content in the Part C assignments helped in understanding and absorbing the concepts.
Having both videos and transcripts was useful for those with multiple learning styles.
Fahad and Alison were very helpful.
- The course material was well organized.
- The hands on assignments for the course really help solidify knowledge
- The lecture videos helped greatly.
- The modules explain the concepts clearly and the assignments further the understanding of the concepts.
- The option to go through the modules through video format or by reading transcripts was very helpful, especially for students who have different learning styles. I also appreciated the humor that was embedded into the modules. It made the course much more fun and amusing, and made me a fan of the professor.
- The organization of course material
- The video and transcripts module presentations
- the videos
- The videos are easy to follow along. The examples used were good for students who have no previous experience/knowledge of computer science.
- the videos were awesome, and having the transcripts available helped a lot as well. This really catered to various types of learning.
- Useful and interesting content. Very organized and interesting. One of my favourite courses of my entire undergrad so far. Assignments were very useful and practical and encouraged further learning.
- Useful with practical, real-life applications.
- Very informative in learning basics of computers and the internet. It is a good elective to take because the effort to result ratio is good (if you take the time to learn concepts, it isn't too difficult to do well).
- - weekly assignments helps students stay on top of course content
- 1. the assignments were so lengthy in a non-useful way. there were repetitive questions (i.e. finding HEX# for HELLOMRGOOSE) yet some special emojis(font) couldnt be found anywhere
2. there were so many technical errors, i.e. the hyperlink wasn't working, and the marking rubric was so harsh on students.
3. feel instructor purposely made this course more difficult because it is an elective
4. Retarded how TAs force us to post our website/assignments/pic on the UWaterloo public domain. As a student I'm more than happy to do so, but there were so many technical steps and error (Such a lengthy process) for students to do so, i.e. we have to change our command options, then download VPN so we can VPN to school network, etc.etc.
The difficulty level to complete that is harder than ANY assignments that I had to do this term - what's the point? Why are we losing 5 marks (out of 30-40) if we don't upload it correctly? The marking weight to that is just so high, and it's a recurring issue for any assignment, so students constantly lost 5-10% on assignment because our computers aren't working to upload it. It's just so unfair
- Communication with the students and feedback
- Each module is available on a weekly basis only, so there is no opportunity to work ahead. The assignments can still be due on a weekly basis but students should be able to read/watch the next modules content if they finish the previous one early.
- hard to study specific examples
- I believe the course should elaborate more on HTML and CSS.
- Instructions for some of the instructions were unclear or left for the student to interpret. The feedback that was given could be more detailed and it would be nice if we got grades back from the previously assignment before submitting the next. The time to do the assignments were slightly shorter would be better if they were longer.
- ISAs do not reply to questions in a timely manner, don't often answer all your questions and said "office chat hours" were not true. My questions were not answered when I tried asking during that hour. As well, many students who take cs100 online are often on coop terms and therefore only have time to work on these assignments during weekends which ISAs do not reply to emails. Sometimes things we are stuck on leads to another part in the assignment which we cannot complete until we have our question answered and assignments are due on monday nights. however, again, if on coop, we can only finish the assignment after having the response and during after work hours. TAs from other classes I have previously taken were able to reply to questions in a timely manner.
- It could have introduced more advanced material, however the course can obviously only cover so much.
- It's online
- - lack of feedback at times
- Lack of video/audio lectures for an online course. Text information was vary dry and unmotivating to focus on. It felt like the qualiy of the modules dropped further into the semester. (perhaps around when the penalty for dropping the course becomes worse)
- Long videos can be a bit boring and dry, and can be hard to take notes from.
- Modules that were plain text
- N/A
- None
- None.
- Nothing
- Questions in quizzes are too technical
Quizzes are difficult
Some transcripts especially for boolean and hexadecimal conversions are hard to follow, have to watch video. Video isn't the bests.
The worst thing is assignments are released at particular times. It would be better for schedule basis if they were released earlier for those who want to get a head start. It's hard to do the assignments when they are in a window.
- skims the surface of a few things without promoting a full understanding of any one
- Some concepts are purely explained with examples, which were hard to apply when we had to answer the questions in our own words for the quizzes.
- some modules were particularly difficult, and the instructions for the assignment were sometimes confusing.
- Some of the material is very dry, because there is no way to do any assignments.
- Sometimes I see a disconnect between the modules as I'm not sure how they all connect together.
- sometimes the transcripts were not extremely clear
- Sometimes there are some technical issues for the quizzes. For example, the link in the quizzes cannot be opened.
- The application assignments tend to be a bit unclear on how to complete them.
- The course more or less seemed to be run by the TA's who seemed to lack experience in the intricacies of running a course or creating quizes
- The modules without the video presentations
- this course is very heavy, some of the assignments took hours to complete regardless of the topic. Compared to my other online courses I had to work extra hard in this one to succeed.
- Add more memes into course content for the good laughs.
- Add more Rick Astley memes
- Certain assignments were very time consuming and more challenging than others. The weights for the assignments should be shifted to reflect this.
- Consider making all the course modules available at the beginning of the term but releasing the assignments on a weekly basis as is already done.
- Design better assignments. Stop putting redundant questions like changing an entire sentence like Hello Mr.Goose into code. Or the conversions to hexadecimals and such. A 3-4 letter word would be sufficient to test knowledge and make sure students have learnt how to do it. Transcribing sentences is tedious is meaningless, felt that I was wasting my time and not learning anything.
- Fix up the transcripts as they are kind of hard to read sometimes.
- For some concepts, maybe try to give more concrete explanations rather than using examples so it is easier for students to apply the knowledge. However, the examples are still extremely useful.
- For someone who had almost no prior knowledge to coding, I found the 1 week deadlines for the html assignments to be quite stressful as I would always run into issues quite last minute even starting early. Maybe extending the due dates for the html assignments would be helpful or maybe a document for each assignment with common mistakes or trouble shooting solutions would be helpful
- I think the course content can be improved. More video lectures and use of image on the text content. I think free online courses are more engaging in this aspect. I don't think this whould be the case for a university course where one does not feel comfortable dropping a course half way through the semester.
- instead of supplying transcripts to videos, there should instead be notes
- Instead of using text as learning materials, videos or other methods would be better
- Make it an on campus course rather than online
- Maybe add optional practice quizzes that can be done before the actual assignment to review essential content.
- Maybe post more announcement on learn.
- more videos!
- My main issue with this class is the ISAs. Multiple times, I emailed them because my answers for assignments did not match the answers provided. It turned out that I was correct and the answers were wrong, but instead of informing me they just reuploaded different answers, therefore wasting my time. On other times they just would not answer my questions for a week. And my third issue is that they have posted that a module has been uploaded when it has clearly not been, therefore going against the course schedule and forcing me to rework my workload. Individually none of these things are a huge deal, however after I while I felt as if the ISAs did not care to perform well in their job or aid students, and I felt like I had to berate them into being helpful at all. Thanks.
- Nothing. I loved this course and learned so much useful information that I can apply in the future.
- pls see comment above. ironic how it's a CS course and there are that many technical errors.
- Possibly hold an optional tutorial session to answer all possible questions one might have.
- provide more clear instructions to the specifics of the assignments.
- Rather than having Multiple-choice Quizzes, there could be proper assignments just like other courses.
- Send out more emails so the students who are not always logged into learn can know about things such as early assignment due dates. Also create a way for students to see what they have done wrong on quizzes without having to ask a TA
- The only thing I can think of would be to allow students to read the modules ahead of time. If you would like students to not do the entire course in a week (which I feel like is the idea behind locking it week by week) the assignments can stay locked. This is not that big of a deal though. One of the most organized and best courses I've ever taken with wonderful TAs and a funny, respectable , and caring instructor.
- Update transcripts for those who prefer reading
- Uploading directly to dropbox would be better than uploading to server.
- was mentioned in the weakness section.