COSC 122 Computers in Society

Spring (Winter Term 2) 2008 - University of British Columbia Okanagan

Overview

Of all my courses, this course holds a special place for me. I love teaching first year students, especially students just learning about computers. The class size was 34 students, but often only 40-60% attended. Although I announced the importance of attendance to get these "easy marks", many students did not do as well as they could because they just did not show up and do the work. That will be a focus for next time.

This course goes beyond Microsoft Office and teaches about computer hardware, some programming, and other topics in a broader instruction to Computer Science. Students did some basic programming in HTML and JavaScript. Many students really liked the HTML, although the JavaScript was a little harder as it is exposes some of the initial difficult issues with programming. My acceptance rate for the programming was higher this year than last. I tried to only focus on the key concepts and do as much practice in class as possible. We also covered computer organization, data representation, spreadsheets, databases, and some security. The textbook is good, but almost everyone just used the notes. The content of the course was very close to Spring 2007 except some concepts were simplified, and the labs were transitioned over to Office 2007.

Student performance was good for an optional, introduction class. There was a major difference in performance from those attending (and engaged in the lecture) and those that were not. I emphasized at every evaluation point the importance of attendance, but it was an ongoing challenge throughout the class. Next year I expect to make participation/attendance worth some percentage of the marks somehow. For those who did attend, we had very good discussions and interactions especially when stopping to do questions in class to help re-enforce the material. Overall, an excellent, fun course that I look forward to teaching in the future (especially now that all the preparation is completed)!

The course involved lab assignments on the computers, two midterm exams, and a final exam.

The class was at 9:30-10:30 a.m. Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays in Science 247. The lecture room is awful. The projector often failed, and the room was too large given the size of the class and the attendance. Several students noted this in the reviews which almost never happens. Students were led by a TA in 2 hour labs at various times.

On-line Resources

Student Performance

Of the 34 registered students who started the course, 26 (76%) received a D or higher and 22 (65%) received a C- or higher. The average GPA was 2.12 or a C. Charts showing the mark breakdown are below. The breakdown shows a bi-modal distribution. Students who attended class and did the work did really well. Students who did not found the course much harder than it is. The marks were actually lower than the previous year. The difference is most likely due to the poor attendance. There were fewer students who did exceptionally well on the programming compared to the previous year, and many students who basically skipped too many classes to get high grades.

Mark Breakdown Percentage Mark Breakdown

Comments

The instructor rating of 4.70 was a significant improvement over last year as was the course rating of 4.50. However, the course got low marks for challenging (3.60) and difficult (3.55). The last two is partly because on the first class I lower expectations by saying it CAN be an easy credit if you attend and do the work. Interestingly the difficulty rating does not match with some of the comments where programming was said to be "hard". The overall ratings were higher due to a more focused presentation with some "too hard" areas removed or de-emphasized. The overall goal was understanding the fundamentals first and trying not to teach too much. The programming was better accepted, and there were more positive comments about programming this time. The difference was the emphasis of programming as "creative problem solving". Many students, especially arts majors, appreciate the creativity even though it may be challenging at first.

The labs had very positive comments and were done well. The HTML lab is especially liked. The programming was liked a little. Interestingly, I had no comments about the labs being worth too little. I emphasized that the labs are there for learning and for preparation for the exams. They are "worth" more than the 20% to your grade - the practice is critical!

The course will always be challenging as it is considered an "easy science credit" (and I do not dispute that label). However, there is no reason that it cannot be inspirational, fun, and students learn a lot about computers that will be extremely valuable to them.

Strengths of the Course

Weakness of the Course

Most Enjoyable Part of the Course

General Comments


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