COSC 123 Introduction to Computer Science

Spring (Winter Term 2) 2010 - University of British Columbia Okanagan

Overview

The second offering of COSC 123 was more focused with less emphasis on complicated Java concepts. The result was a better and less stressful course. It is still very challenging as many students have no prior programming background and do not spend much time practicing. Having two of the three lectures in the lab was excellent and really was the difference maker in student engagement and learning. The course is no longer intended to teach all of COSC 111/121 which allows it to be done at a slower pace.

The first month of the course is learning programming in Alice. Despite some very annoying bugs in the Alice environment, students generally were very positive on Alice especially the ability to visually see their program work. Alice was useful and will be kept. The transition to Java and Eclipse was harder but better this time. As a primarily lab-based course, the material is more approachable and the issues with Java and Eclipse are better. I am still considering teaching another language besides Java perhaps Flash or JavaScript.

On-line Resources

• Syllabus

Student Performance

Of the 28 registered students who started the course, 22 (79%) received a D or higher. The average GPA was 2.69 or a B-. The higher enrolment was good, but several students who did not pass did not attend class at all and several dropped during the course.

Comments

The instructor rating of 4.93 was excellent considering all the flaws in this course (from my perspective). However, I invested enormous amounts of time with these students and on this course which the students recognized. Interestingly, all course ratings were very strong and improved from the first offering including the overall course rating of 4.67. The ratings for challenging (4.07) and high expectations (4.27) decreased. Fair evaluation procedures was 4.80.

The labs had positive comments and were done well.

Strengths of the Course

• "Alice was fun. Clicker questions were very helpful. Ramon was an excellent professor! Thanks for the candy :-)"
  


• "Dr. Lawrence has a very good understanding of the material. He does everything he can to help facilitate the students learning. Dr. Lawrence is a very good teacher. He effectively broke down a challenging subject and made it enjoyable to learn. Thanks."
  


• "Ramon was an outstanding prof. Throughout the course he made student[s] feel that they could do it, despite how challenging. The course helped explain and deal with problems I had last semester, making it worthwhile."
  


• "It introduced students to a behind-the-scenes look of things we use everyday and gave us an understanding of how these things work by having us re-create them."
  

Weakness of the Course

• "Alice project was very long and it was due the same week as one of the labs, which was tough to juggle."
  


• "Alice did not always work all the time, which made it difficult especially the midterm."
  

Most Enjoyable Part of the Course

• "The in lab lectures twice a week really helped with learning the material and kept it interesting."
  


• "I loved the in-class clicker questions. It gave a lot of room for understanding some concepts. The analogies to real world objects/events/actions were amazing and aided understanding the concepts immensely. Bravo to the Prof!"