Feedback from meeting with student representatives 2013-10-02

Some students feel that the course is too hard for beginner programmers. For example, the concept of if-then-else is assumed to be known to the students.

Some concepts are used without first being properly introduced. Example: case statements.

• Suggestion for improvement:
  • Make sure that all relevant concepts are introduced somewhere in the slides
  • Start each set of slides with a list of the concepts that they cover

Many students haven’t got lab feedback in time.

• Possible causes:
  • The lab was submitted before the deadline, and the graders were not prepared to start grading until after the deadline.
  • The lab was submitted before the deadline, but the graders was not aware because Fire did not send out emails.
  • The lab was submitted several times, which means that Fire only shows the last submission.
  • I (Emil) haven’t seen any specific case that doesn’t fall under the above causes. There may be some such cases, but I think they are rare. If you have such a case, plase email me your group number so that I can find out what went wrong. This is the only way I can fix the situation.
• Suggestions for improvement:
  • Provide some means for the students to check their solutions themselves
  • Avoid labs where part II depends on part I. That way, if the feedback for part I arrives late, the students can still start working on part II.