COSC 123 Computer Creativity

Spring (Winter Term 2) 2013 - University of British Columbia Okanagan

Overview

COSC 123 provides a fun, creative introduction to programming using Alice and Java. The course is designed specifically for students in arts or other disciplines to experience and hopefully continue in Computer Science. The class time is held in a computer lab to allow learning by doing (coding).

On-line Resources

• Syllabus

Student Performance

Of the 31 registered students who started the course all received a D or higher. The average GPA was 3.82 or a A-.

Comments

The instructor rating was 4.90. All course ratings were strong including an overall course rating of 4.50. The ratings for challenging (3.50) and high expectations (4.10) were lower. This class had the highest overall performance of all prior years. The reason is that over 20% of the class was CS majors. They raised the effort and knowledge of all students by working in teams and helping other students. The performance on the Java midterm and final was exceptional demonstrating that the high grades were earned by programming abilities and practice. The 4 highest marks were not CS majors! This class also had the TAs help in lectures to handle some of the issues in prior years where I was unable to evaluate and help all students in a timely fashion.

Strengths of the Course

• "Course format was excellent (hands-on learning time almost every lecture). Professor & TA always available to help. Professor set clear expectations that were attainable if students did the course work."
  


• "Basic computer science knowledge was put into an easily understandable package and delivered with a comprehensive and clear presentation. Things that past teachers have tried to teach me were taught with ease that nearly anyone could understand without previous knowledge of the material."
  


• "Ramon clearly explained again and again each topic that we might be tested on. The outlines for the midterms and the final were so helpful when studying! There are never any surprises on the test and that was much appreciated! You are too kind! The exercises we worked on in class and our labs were fun and you tried your hardest to make the sometimes dry material more exciting wanting us to engage in it. The TA's were so accommodating and always there to explain what we didn't understand over and over again. The fact that the lecture took place in a computer lab really allowed us to try out the material you were teaching us right away."
  

Weakness of the Course

• "Sometimes things were not explained as thoroughly as I would have liked, but if you were ever asked to explain sometime in further detail after the fact you would."
  


• "Occasionally glitchy programs (Alice, Eclipse)."
  


• "The only minor suggestion I have is that in the slides when you give an example of some code you tend to name the classes, methods, variables with the same name of whatever topic we are trying to learn. It makes it a little difficult to try and read the notes and remember what everything represents. I would maybe suggest naming those classes, methods or whatever they might be something completely unrelated."
  

Most Enjoyable Part of the Course

• "The actual programming and creating things like the asteroids game was really interesting."
  


• "THE CHOCOLATE!!!!!!!! Thank you! It made coming to class a little more fun. You rewarded hard work and participation. You wanted us to interact and further our interest and you successfully did just that. Your positive attitude every class made us want to do better because you provided us with all we needed to succeed. It was fun working with a partner and fooling around in Alice when making our game and then again in Java. The examples you used to demonstrate different topics were funny, and it was fun to be able to see things come together for ourselves. Thank you so much! You're a phenomenal teacher!!"
  


• "Working on a story project in Alice."