Ana Ramírez Chang
CS 302
Assignment 13 (Evaluation of cs302)

1. What overall grade would you give the course?
   
   A-
   
2. To what extent have your expectations about and attitude toward teaching changed as a result of CS 302? Please explain.
   
   I have a better understanding of how much work it takes to put together a course. I understand which parts will be a challenge and I should give more time to them and which parts are easier. Before I thought it was all about preparing the lectures, but now I see the importance of the exercises and the projects.
   
3. Which assignments were especially good? Which were the worst? Please explain.
   
   • I really liked the assignment and reading on grading policies. This question came up many times as a TA during office hours. Students would ask about the grading policy. Now I would be able to explain the advantages and disadvantages of the different grading policies.
   • The case study was a good exercise in thinking about how to explain and layout different paths to a solution. Even though many of us didn't do this in our assignments, the discussion in class after doing my case study helped me reflect on what I would need to add to the case study to show many different paths. It also showed me which parts of the problem are most challenging.
   • The assignment on sample exercises was good to see how to write different types of exercises (Recall, Comprehension, Application, etc). Looking at other's exercises and the discussion afterward was very useful to try and understand the different categories. I think a better description of the categories in the reading would also have been useful.
   • I also liked the text book selection assignment, but I think that assignment could have been two weeks and overlapped with another assignment to give us more time to find a textbook and possibly get an interlibrary loan.
     
   • I didn't get very much out of the assignment on dealing with TAs. I'm not sure if I didn't understand the assignment or if i needed some more background to do the assignment.
     
4. Which readings were especially good? Which were the worst? Please explain.
   
   • The reading on grading policies was really good. I feel like I will keep referring back to it many times.
   • The reading on the different types of exercises could have been clearer.
5. Estimate how much work would remain for you to teach the course you designed. Should an assignment have addressed this?
   I feel like the course gave me a chance to see how much work it takes to put together a course, and gave me a chance to get my feet wet. I would way I have done maybe 5% of the work necessary to teach this course. I don't think an assignment is necessary to realize this. These are the things I see would still need to be done.
   • lecture preparation
   • write homework assignments and solutions (I will be able to use some of the sample exercises from cs302, but I will have to make sure each homework assignment matches the lectures
   • write the exams
   • Write a coherent syllabus
   • prepare labs, and solutions to labs.
6. Please evaluate the class discussions, providing examples where appropriate. Should they have focused more on homework or on the readings? What other activities would have provided a good use of class time?
   • I think class discussions should have focused more on the homework and going over the feedback on the homework.
   • As we told anecdote, it would be nice to ground our experiences or feelings in the reading.
7. Having each participant design his or her own course reduces the opportunity to work together. Do you care?
   • I felt it was great to see how each of the challenges manifest themselves in the different types of courses. We had a nice variety of courses to help with this.
   • I think it's important for each student to do a course they are excited about, so the tradeoff is worth it not to be able to work together.
8. What should I change the next time I offer CS 302?
   
   As mentioned above, I would like to see more discussion of the homework in the discussion. A preview of the next reading and homework would also be nice.
   I thought the wiki worked out well, and would recommend using a wiki the next time you teach it.