COSC 123 Introduction to Computer Science

Spring (Winter Term 2) 2011 - University of British Columbia Okanagan

Overview

The third offering of COSC 123 was significantly improved with more focus on learning basic Java/programming concepts by in-class practice. The Java performance was significantly improved. For the first time, it was quite split on whether Alice was worthwhile and useful to learn programming. The course is still very challenging as many students have no prior programming background and do not spend much time practicing outside of class. Having two of the three lectures in the lab improves student engagement and performance.

The first month of the course is learning programming in Alice. Despite some very annoying bugs in the Alice environment, beginner students generally were very positive on Alice whereas students who have coded before do not like it. The transition to Java and Eclipse went fairly well this time.

On-line Resources

Student Performance

Of the 32 registered students who started the course all received a D or higher. The average GPA was 3.61 or a A-. The students generally did significantly better with higher marks on midterm 2 and the final (Java) which is very encouraging. The marks also improved by allocating 10% to having them do in-class practice questions. This significantly improved the number of practice questions that students performed.

Mark Breakdown Percentage Mark Breakdown

Comments

The instructor rating of 4.75 was slightly lower but very strong. All course ratings were strong with a slight decrease in overall course rating of 4.4 and larger decreases in test turnaround time and fair evaluation procedures. The ratings for challenging (4.15) and high expectations (4.2) were flat. Perhaps the extra time spent working in the labs was not a good use of time from the student perspective, but that is definitely not the case.

Strengths of the Course

Weakness of the Course

Most Enjoyable Part of the Course


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