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: 59 / 277 (21%)
| The instructor(s) helped me to understand the course concepts. |
| Strongly Disagree | Disagree | Neutral | Agree | Strongly Agree | No Basis for Rating |
| 4 | 5 | 10 | 22 | 17 | 1 |
| 7% | 8% | 17% | 37% | 29% | 2% |
The instructor(s) created a supportive environment that helped me learn
(Supportive environments enable students to feel included and valued regardless of any aspect of their identity). |
| Strongly Disagree | Disagree | Neutral | Agree | Strongly Agree | No Basis for Rating |
| 4 | 5 | 9 | 23 | 16 | 1 |
| 7% | 9% | 16% | 40% | 28% | 2% |
| The instructor(s) stimulated my interest in this course. |
| Strongly Disagree | Disagree | Neutral | Agree | Strongly Agree | No Basis for Rating |
| 6 | 5 | 13 | 16 | 18 | 1 |
| 10% | 8% | 22% | 27% | 31% | 2% |
The intended learning outcomes were identified
(Learning outcomes/objectives articulate what students should be able to know, do, and/or value by the end of a course). |
| Strongly Disagree | Disagree | Neutral | Agree | Strongly Agree | No Basis for Rating |
| 2 | 2 | 8 | 27 | 18 | 1 |
| 3% | 3% | 14% | 47% | 31% | 2% |
| The course activities prepared me for the graded work. |
| Strongly Disagree | Disagree | Neutral | Agree | Strongly Agree | No Basis for Rating |
| 2 | 7 | 8 | 26 | 16 | |
| 3% | 12% | 14% | 44% | 27% | |
| The intended learning outcomes were assessed through my graded work. |
| Strongly Disagree | Disagree | Neutral | Agree | Strongly Agree | No Basis for Rating |
| 3 | 1 | 10 | 26 | 18 | |
| 5% | 2% | 17% | 45% | 31% | |
| The course workload demands were... |
| Very Low | Low | Average | High | Very High | No Basis for Rating |
| 5 | 26 | 23 | 5 | |
| 8% | 44% | 39% | 8% | |
| The instructor(s) helped me to understand the course concepts. |
- [Neutral] TA's were helpful in providing additional clarity as needed.
| The intended learning outcomes were assessed through my graded work. |
- [Neutral] I wish I could see feedback on my assignments, I have no clue what I was doing wrong.
Note: This is a complete list of comments I received, listed alphabetically to avoid bias.
| The most important thing I learned in this course was: |
- '
- Basic computing knowledge, html, css, excel
- coding in HTML and CSS
- Everything was very important!
- Everything!
- Excel
- Excel concepts
- How basic computer processes I use every day work
- how computers benefit our everyday world
- how excel works
- How to better use excel
- how to build my own website!!
- How to deal with not receiving the proper help and guidance I needed from the cs 100 team.
- How to get the most out of Excel
- How to properly use google spreadsheet
- How to use Cyber Duck and the school's VPN.
- How to use Excel
- How to use excel
- how to use excel
- How to use html and CSS
- html
- HTML and mainly Excel features/functions
- invoke my creativity in the assignments while incorporating the content learned
- Learned how Excel is really useful! Clarified a lot of computing terminology I’ve heard before and its inner workings.
- Learning how computers and the internet works and how to use Microsoft Excel.
- Nothing
- The basics of computer science
- The basics of computer science, and how I can use my knowledge to further my experiences with computer/the internet.
- The behind-the-scenes of how computers work
| What helped me to learn in this course was: |
- additional resources
- Going to office hours when confused
- having many availabilities for office hours when needed
- Help offered by office hours in MS Teams, that answered questions whenever I needed assistance.
- Lecture videos and transcripts explaining the content.
- Nothing
- Practicing concepts as I move through the modules, rather than just reading through the content
- Referring back to the Modules
- TAs made the online experience work! Very helpful in clarifying concepts and sent timely responses. The modules were straightforward and the videos were great at explaining the concepts in layman terms, which made it quite engaging!
- The assignments allowed me to explore beyond what was taught
- The assignments were really great at assessing understanding.
- The assignments were useful, but the lectures could be improved upon.
- The gracefullness of other people that were willing to help me as I did not receive the proper help from anyone else.
- The hands on aspect (actually coding a website and applying excel formulas in a realistic manner).
- The illustrations in the video lessons and examples
- The interesting lecture videos with the narration
- The interesting videos.
The instructional team was incredibly acomodating and helpful when I got injured
- the lecture videos, and labs
- the other students who suffered with me
- The prepared content modules
- The TAs for sure! I want to thank Kunal for always being so polite when helping me with any questions I had about the coursework. He was always patient and welcoming every time I had a confrontation with him. He might be one of the main reasons I enjoyed some of CS and got me thinking of getting a minor in CS. Thank you so much for helping me have an enjoyable journey and I hope you read this! Keep up the great work and good luck with your future endeavors!
- The video demonstrations within the modules combined with a written transcript as well as TAs being available to answer questions
- The video's with visual explanations were extremely helpful. Also having the transcripts of the video made it easy to look back on the notes and find the answers I needed to complete the quizzes. I also appreciated the late days because I had a couple of weeks were I needed to focus on my other courses so having the room to submit late was extremely helpful.
- The videos and readings
- The videos that were easy to follow and clear
- The videos were pretty engaging
- Videos are very intuitive.
- Weekly assignments
- YouTube videos
| What changes, if any, would I suggest for this course? |
- Better explain excel
- changing the quiz expected time to more accurately reflect the actual time they take
- everything
- I don't think it needs any changes.
- I think the videos need to be updated. Within the videos themselves, the prof mentions they are a little outdated now and I know these videos were made a few years ago now so they should be updated. This is especially true since IT moves so quickly.
- I wish I could see feedback on my assignments, I have no clue what I was doing wrong or where I lost marks.
- I would actually make the whole course based on Excel instead of introducing HTML for the second half of the semester. I found that learning HTML is less useful for my future jobs.
- I would suggest a higher weighting of assignments and lower overall weight for the final exam. Alternatively, the exam weight could be split with a midterm.
- It would have been helpful to have some video tutorials for HTML and CSS modules.
- make the exam not worth a massive 50%
- Making the exam worth 50% is ridiculous. It doesn't serve as a cushion for those who did the class work as the exam itself is worth 50%; you need to pass the exam to pass the course. The class work only serves as a way to increase your overall average and doesn't benefit you in any other for the course itself.
- More emphasis on html and css
- More opportunities for interaction with the professor, currently only interact with TAs via email and discussion section.
- n/a
- n/a
- Not making it mandatory, this course was pretty much useless for me and I don't think it should be a requirement for Science and Business
- Nothing
- nothing, it was very enjoyable
- Online exam would make much more sense
- Please don’t make the exam 50%
- Please update the lectures, they are outdated!
- Potentially reduce the load nearing the end of the term. HTML, CSS, and Javascript are not easy and require a lot of time to learn and complete. For a 100-level course, the ending was a bit much.
- provide extra help when it comes to heavier topics for ex. excel.
- Sometimes the quiz questions felt a bit too complex/weren't fully covered in the lectures and were hard to figure out by myself.
- The assignments to be weighed more as I found them taking up too much time of my weeks especially the excel and html ones. I felt that for the amount of work I was putting in for them to be only 4.55% of my overall grade was not fair at all.
- The content was pretty boring. I wish there more videos with humour or additional learning tools like practice quizzes and more engaging/interactive modules
- The courseware is useless. It's very simple. But the homework was very difficult.
- This course needs to be in person and have a tutorial that allows people to ask questions and work with the ta's. It is ridiculous to expect the assigned work to be completed without any help what so ever. The emailing your ta's and asking questions section in brightspace is not helpful whatsoever ever and does not get you anywhere.
- To ensure the quality of different course aspects is organized and consistent. For example, there were a couple weeks where the downloadable template for the excel module was changed halfway through the week. This was frustrating for me as I would generally start assignments at the beginning of the week but by the end the template would have different numbers and I would be unable to confirm I used the correct formulas and values. I would suggest ensuring all components of the module are complete and correct before making it available to the students. Furthermore, for one of the modules my weekly quiz was marked incompletely yet the grade was still published. This caused unnecessary stress and confusion for me. I would suggest that all marks are complete before making them public.