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

• Syllabus

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.

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

• "Great way to learn about programming for those people whom had zero knowledge about it. Clicker questions helped, as I read the notes more carefully to answer the questions. You get to love and hate Java at the same time."
  


• "Ramon's lectures - he is very knowledgable and presents the information very clearly. PowerPoints - information is laid out and arranged in a way that makes it easier to take in ; also very thorough. Working on computers during class times - so important, so helpful"
  


• "3D graphics using Alice ; Lots of time in front of the computer"
  

Weakness of the Course

• "Alice is great for learning the basics of programming, but I found that a LOT of the time spent in Alice was animation (ie. manuvering the camera was very tedious and time consuming). This may only bother me because I already knew the basics of Java. Alice is much more beneficial to unexperienced people (for which this course is intended)."
  


• "A massive jump in difficulty from Alice to Java. The Java code gone over in class was NOT enough to do the labs. Far too much learning on our own."
  


• "Alice is quite frankly a waste of time. It doesn't transfer over to Java very well. I know its supposed to introduce you to the programming concepts, but I don't think that's where most people struggled, rather the practical implementation of those concepts was the hard part."
  

Most Enjoyable Part of the Course

• "The assignments for the most part were more interesting than COSC 111. The games were fun to create."
  


• "Fantastic professor really cares about the quality and effectiveness of his teaching. GREAT. :-)"
  


• "Alice was fun and really helped me to grasp the basics of Java. Working on computers during class time. Clicker questions were also very helpful to reaffirm what we had already learned."