Roach, Steven

CS 3432-14686

Fall 2003

Comments:

1. I understand the need for us to know low level programming and what good on inside the processor when a program is excepting. I also understand that we need to have a professor that makes us find the solutions with our own minds. What I don’t understand is why do we get so much work. Some of us have lives, things to do like working. I stopped learning in this class because I had to do so many things at once, that I had to do them with out understanding how they really worked, we do not get a chance to experiment on things. I which someone had told me not to take this class with Automata, Advance objects (Java), and Matrixes. I hope someone gets to read this so that they know not to take I with other hard courses.

Many students find this course to be challenging. The work load is not unreasonable if you structure your programs so that you can reuse parts of them for future programs, and you spend time designing solutions and testing your designs before you begin coding. Most students who have difficulty keeping up with the programming fail to start early enough, fail to understand the concepts needed to complete the code, or fail to design. This may have been the time you have had to write code that required preparation before coding. When I surveyed the class early in the semester, no one admitted to having worked on programs as long as 1000 lines before. While I, like the other instructors before, discussed top-down design, incremental coding, and other techniques for managing complexity, these techniques are frequently ignored until after the code-and-fix model of software development fails.

2. Your class has been the most challenging class I’ve ever had. The semester was very intense. But it helped me to be a more mature student. The assignments were very good but I think you should give more time to complete them because under a lot of pressure I don’t think we learn. I didn’t know you before this class, but now I have a lot of respect for you and I really appreciate your interest in your students I was afraid of talking to you, but I learned that you just want to make us better and that you are very willing to help. Thank you.
3. I liked this guy. Last semester I heard this guy was though, now I know its true, but that helped me a lot to learn. One thing in class we did not see too much about the robot (how to make it move, turn ECT). I would be good if you spend some time in class talking about this because sometimes it is not enough be reading the manual.
4. The class is ok but there should be more time to cover the communications part of the material. More time should be taken to explain the VART and it should be explained in more detail. The exams were pretty hard, the class for the exams, because I felt some questions were of topics that you didn’t cover in full detailed.
5. I have suggestions: try to use markers that work I have really hard time trying to see what was on the board. I suggest trying to use slides because your handwriting is not that good. Please try to get use new robots because sometimes I miss all class periods trying to make them work. Not all computers have the download program it will be much easier if those computers that has them we’re known by the TA. Because it is hard to try too guess which one works.

The department purchased some new robots that were used by this class. We have contacted the vendor about problems with the downloader. There seems to be some operating system dependencies, and these were discussed with the TA prior to your needing the downloader. There should have been a machine that could be used for downloading reliably. If not, I was not informed of the difficulty.

I am the first to admit, as I do in class, that my handwriting is not the best. However, I choose not to use PowerPoint in this class for several reasons. First, I will cover the material much faster than most students can absorb it. Second, I believe that at some point, you should have the opportunity to practice taking notes. It is a skill that I have often found necessary when dealing with clients.

6. Overall, the course and instructor were good; the only bad thing is that I never took advantage of getting the instructors help. The instructor should continue with the same form of teaching with the same examples and exercises.

Few students availed themselves of the help sessions offered weekly. I was disappointed by this.

7. Class was good, but maybe the labs could have been better. For example some of labs were handed back and they were just marked wrong instead of putting down a convent answer. Other than that maybe the quizzes could be harder had quicker.
8. I think this was a pretty good class I don’t think that there was nothing wrong with the class except that maybe we did not have enough time to do the final project. This is because the TA didn’t really did a good job just in the robot part, and also the robots had more failure so out time was consumed trying to fir them.

This was the first time the TA taught these labs. Unfortunately, due to scheduling, I was not able to attend the labs.

9. More group work personably I learn more working in group and I know for a fact many of my class mates do too. We started the semester with creating base groups I think we should have been in those groups more often. We should have gone over more coding in class when we were given our first assignment many of us were clueless, we did not know where to start or what to do. Dr. Roach should stop looking over our shoulders when we take quizzes and exams it is distracting and makes me more nervous.

I walk around the class and observe students taking exams and quizzes for two reasons. First, I gain valuable insights into the problems students are having taking the exam, which helps me write better exams in the future. Second, it is one method I use to detect and discourage cheating.

10. Really enjoyed the class. Very challenging difficult but feel a secure of accomplishment. My only complaint in the text. Sometimes difficult to follow. Only request would be the lack of “my” time spent on programming or studying. There is a lot of material. You have to make time for this class.
11. I found the class to be very interesting and a good spring board into what’s to come.
12. Too much work for the class the labs were too complex and hard to do. The robots almost never worked throw them out.
13. He knows a lot about the subject. He listens to student’s suggestions such as reviews out of class time weekly as well as allowing students to improve their exam grades.
14. I feel this class was very interesting. I’m not sure if I’ll ever see machine code ever again though. Sometimes it felt like just another programming class and I wasn’t really learning anything new. I liked how the labs and the programming assignments were all related to each other. That helped a lot with the final project.
15. Dr. Roach class has been the most challenging class it I’ve taken at UTEP. With that being said, he is probably the best professor I’ve had. People will say that he is too difficult and the workload is too intense, but the material I learned in this scientist. Anyone who says otherwise needs to reevaluate and appreciate this class and Dr. Roach.
16. It’s a good class but there is a lot of work to do and it takes up too much time that there is not much time left for the other classes.
17. The class is very effective, maybe make the practical part (labs and assignments) count more towards the final grade, and get rid of it please!

The grades are structured so that you must demonstrate both the ability to complete the programming assignments and your understanding of fundamental concepts. I have no way of ensuring that a student did not acquire the programs, as opposed to building them. The programming component counts for roughly half of the grade. The exams are designed to assess fundamental concepts, including reading and writing code. Given the thousands of lines of code required to complete the programming assignments, it should not be difficult to trace short, simple programs on exams or to write code that solves simple tasks. Students who do not write their own programs for the programming assignments may have more difficulty quickly writing a dozen lines of code on an exam.

18. To begin with, this was a tough class and it took a fair amount of time. However, I think it was worth it. I don’t know if I’ve learned as much from other classes as I have in this one. It was a great challenged, and to take an “A” away from this class to me is a great achievement.
19. Lab assignments can really drag on sometimes class is still a bit much for a 4 credit hour class.
20. This has been one of the few classes where I have been not just made to think, but me process has been most enjoyable. I have only one suggestion. I noticed that most students in my class do not have part time/full time jobs. Hence it is pretty easy for them to deal with the workload throughout the semester in a way that it is not all concentrated at the end of the semester.