From Student Evaluations of CE361, Fall 2015
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Q19 - We welcome your written comments below. What is something/are some things that the instructor does well, e.g., something you hope that the instructor will continue to do in the class in the future?
- I really enjoyed the style of teaching in this class. Having to do the reading ahead of time before class on the material we would be talking about in class made me stay on top of my work and I felt like I learned the material much better that way.
- Asking students at the beginning if we have any questions about the chapter, is great. Working examples on class is also very helpful and discussions about the problems also helps a lot
- The way the class is set up where the reading is actually the lecture and the class time is used for review of specific topics. [This student gets it!]
- I like the open discussions for class and the out of class projects that we completed, because it spurs curiosity and helps me to apply my knowledge outside the classroom.
- I feel as though the frequency and quantity of homework is great. Not too much, but enough that we practice all the concepts that could be on an exam.
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Q20 - Make a suggestion(s) for improving the course (a criticism alone is not helpful; tell your instructor how you would fix any problem).
1. The method of reading ahead the material before the class doesn't work well for me.
2. Instead of leaving all lecture discussion topics to the student captains, it would be helpful if the professor comes to class with plans to lecture on at least a few important topics, regardless of student suggestions. That way, the professor ensures that all important topics are covered.
3. The whole read before you come to class isn't a bad thing, but I think it should be noted that the reason I come to class is to be taught, and not to review a reading where you seemingly expect us to have a full comprehension over every topic covered. To me it's just not a realistic expectation. I think a more effective use of the book is simply as a reference material. The book should be the second place a student goes to find help on a topic, not the first. I think for this to be the case a more note based lecture style should be utilized.
4. I also would like to see a bit more structure to class time.
5. I do not like the heavy focus on homework due to high collaboration giving a heavy bias towards people who 'work' together, aka just take other's answers. It hurts people who don't have that luxury of help, especially when the homework has had the highest percentage of any class I've taken to date. I did great on exams but poor on the homeworks and thus fear a low grade, although partly that is from not being able to turn in a few assignments due to issues unrelated to the course.