2/22 lecture ratings about 102 responses 3 1KnowNewsgroup: 1 1KnowNewsgroup: 2) bad 24 1KnowNewsgroup: 3) ok 38 1KnowNewsgroup: 4) good 37 1KnowNewsgroup: 5) very good 3 1LecNewsgroup: 1 1LecNewsgroup: 0) don't remember seeing it 1 1LecNewsgroup: 1) very bad 1 1LecNewsgroup: 2) bad 37 1LecNewsgroup: 3) ok 38 1LecNewsgroup: 4) good 22 1LecNewsgroup: 5) very good 1 2KnowMatlab-Set-Path: 2 2KnowMatlab-Set-Path: 1) very bad 2 2KnowMatlab-Set-Path: 2) bad 31 2KnowMatlab-Set-Path: 3) ok 41 2KnowMatlab-Set-Path: 4) good 26 2KnowMatlab-Set-Path: 5) very good 2 2LecMatlab-Set-Path: 1 2LecMatlab-Set-Path: 0) don't remember seeing it 5 2LecMatlab-Set-Path: 2) bad 39 2LecMatlab-Set-Path: 3) ok 44 2LecMatlab-Set-Path: 4) good 12 2LecMatlab-Set-Path: 5) very good 1 3KnowMatlab-scripts: 1 3KnowMatlab-scripts: 1) very bad 10 3KnowMatlab-scripts: 2) bad 31 3KnowMatlab-scripts: 3) ok 42 3KnowMatlab-scripts: 4) good 18 3KnowMatlab-scripts: 5) very good 2 3LecMatlab-scripts: 1 3LecMatlab-scripts: 1) very bad 6 3LecMatlab-scripts: 2) bad 44 3LecMatlab-scripts: 3) ok 39 3LecMatlab-scripts: 4) good 11 3LecMatlab-scripts: 5) very good 3 4KnowMatlab-functions: 1 4KnowMatlab-functions: 1) very bad 3 4KnowMatlab-functions: 2) bad 36 4KnowMatlab-functions: 3) ok 49 4KnowMatlab-functions: 4) good 11 4KnowMatlab-functions: 5) very good 4 4LecMatlab-functions: 1 4LecMatlab-functions: 1) very bad 3 4LecMatlab-functions: 2) bad 34 4LecMatlab-functions: 3) ok 49 4LecMatlab-functions: 4) good 12 4LecMatlab-functions: 5) very good 2 5KnowAnalogy-for-Functions: 6 5KnowAnalogy-for-Functions: 1) very bad 18 5KnowAnalogy-for-Functions: 2) bad 40 5KnowAnalogy-for-Functions: 3) ok 24 5KnowAnalogy-for-Functions: 4) good 13 5KnowAnalogy-for-Functions: 5) very good 2 5LecAnalogy-for-Functions: 2 5LecAnalogy-for-Functions: 0) don't remember seeing it 4 5LecAnalogy-for-Functions: 1) very bad 14 5LecAnalogy-for-Functions: 2) bad 51 5LecAnalogy-for-Functions: 3) ok 16 5LecAnalogy-for-Functions: 4) good 14 5LecAnalogy-for-Functions: 5) very good 2 7LecOverall: 3 7LecOverall: 1) very bad 6 7LecOverall: 2) bad 51 7LecOverall: 3) ok 33 7LecOverall: 4) good 8 7LecOverall: 5) very good 2 7LecPace: 5 7LecPace: 1) way too slow 21 7LecPace: 2) too slow 69 7LecPace: 3) ok 6 7LecPace: 4) too fast general comment from tky: + i am *very* pleased that more people are participating in giving online feedback. lecture comments q> after this lecture I felt much more comfortable with processing q> functions, I wish we had this lecture before the project was due. q> I also think that with the paper airplane analogy, I would have q> understood it more clearly if you traced some actual matlab code q> alongside of it. ---- q> I thought the analogy was excellent!!!! ---- q> I'm not sure why we did't go over this earlier. It would have been q> more useful earlier on. (i'm having some trouble estimating how much time it takes to present things.) ---- q> Reviewing how to access the course newsgroup had been covered much q> earlier in the course, so that topic did not need to be included in q> today's lecture. i think some didn't attend the early software demos. also, those demos were perhaps too early for some people: it tried to teach things they hadn't tried first on their own and thus could not really follow what was being shown. also, it was a chance to remind people to read the newsgroup: despite being announced many times that the course newsgroup is a required part of the course, it is clear that some students are not reading it. q> Also, while it clarified the role of functions, q> the lecture spent too much time on the analogy-for-functions, which q> could have been shortened while still allowing for the same level q> of understanding. q> Especially after completing project 3, I would have liked to see q> more examples of functions in MATLAB. It would be helpful if more q> examples could be posted to the web or newsgroup at some point. ---- q> I usually use the addpath command rather than set path. ---- q> it would have been better if we learned these things before we handed q> in the project. ---- q> Today's lecture was very pointless. Everyone already knows how to q> set the path and write funtions, or else we wouldn't have been able q> to do the previous projects. Why aren't you teaching stuff like what q> different Matlab functions do so that we would have an easier time q> on the projects? (which functions? i believe i covered all the functions i wanted people to use on p3.) ---- q> Overall, the demos of the software were easy to follow. In discussion q> of the anaqlogies in regards to the relations of functions to one q> another, while the overall process seemed simple enough, maybe another q> review of the procedure with a specific example might help to clear q> up some of the vagueness. ---- q> The analogy with the airplanes and chalkboard was really long, q> convoluted and tedious. I did not find it helpful....perhaps q> explaining how the whole function system works first and then using q> the analogy would have been better. ---- q> This lecture would have been more useful last week, prior to completion q> of Project 3. ---- q> I think this lecture was great but would have been a little bit more q> helpful before the project was due. ---- q> Lecture was good today, but that stuff would have helped more earlier. ---- q> It would have helped my understanding tremendously if TKY could have q> used his computer in the beginning of the semester and right along. q> Having that kind of visual helps me to understand material better. q> I think it could have helped me to learn and understand a lot faster q> than I have in this course. ---- q> I didnt seem to quite understand the connect of the anlogy in class q> (it didnt help clear up my confussion about using functions. I am q> still unsure about format and getting errors - am not seeing the q> logical setup yet - the newgroup info was very helpful, but i wish q> it had been presented at the beginning of the course! (it was, but i recognize that i might have been done too early.) ---- q> First of all, it was good that Matlab was finally set up and we q> could see actual examples of how to use it. BUT... by this time q> in the course, EVERYONE has used functions, scripts, etc., and we q> didn't need to see it all spelled out, especially after turning in q> a very difficult project on those very topics. Showing us how to do q> it BEFORE expecting us to do it would make more sense. Lastly, the q> analogy-for-functions was a bit excessive. i hoped seeing an analogy using familiar elements (people, paper airplanes) would make the technical presentation on 2/27 more accessible;i hope people give feedback on how well that worked. ---- q> I know we were running out of time, but answering questions about q> the student/function analogy would have been helpful. ---- q> The analogy-for-function segement of the lecture was confusing and q> failed to connect to Matlab. I feel I would understand functions even q> better by seeing examples on the screen, how changing one thing or q> another in the function alters the outcome, and other such tangible q> demonstrations. You lost me during the analogy-for-functions talk q> because I could not connect to it and because it was confusing. ---- q> This lecture was very helpful. It clarified a lot of things that I q> was very confused about when I was doing my project. The only thing q> I thought was unclear today was the idea of set path, which was a q> little hard to follow. Overall it was a very good lecture, though. ---- q> When using analogies, sometimes less is more. ---- q> The analogy was too complicated. It would have been better if you q> just explained what the functions do, not make an analogy. ---- q> The Matlab stuff might have been even more useful if it came before q> the project... ---- q> The lecture today was the most useful one I've been so far... ---- q> Good lecture today, I thought the function analogy was a little slow q> and drawn out though. Question: In Matlab, do functions only pass by q> value, or can they also do it by reference? as described in the analogy: the values are copied, so matlab passes only by value. (in fact, matlab has no references at all, but java does, so we'll see pass by reference later.) ---- q> i think that the information you covered in lecture would have been q> much more helpful at the beginning of the course, as opposed to showing q> it to us right now. i think that things are a lot more clear, at q> least for me, if i can see them actually working. i don't learn much q> from theoretical programming on paper. i think that showing things on q> the computer along with the paper would be more helpful. also, some q> of the material covered today, such as the function information, if q> covered before today, would have made project [3] a little easier. ---- q> It would have been better if the newsgroup demo was a lot longer q> before, and if more ways of accessing the newsgroup (e.g. through q> NewsXpress, which I think is the most commonly-used one since it's q> provided with Bear Access along with WinVN) were demonstrated. q> The whole analogy thing was pretty boring, but I guess it's good to q> put it in layman terms to enhance our understanding. Less time could q> have been spent on that, though, and more examples of actual calling q> of functions done. I think this lecture should have come before the q> project was due. ---- q> I thought the software demos were meant to show people how to use the q> software necessary for this course. I went to the demos and I went to q> CIT's web site and learned how to do use MATLAB and the newsgroup. I q> didn't need to hear it again. The student-function analogy was good. ---- q> I think we should go over more about how functions give info to q> other functions ---- q> Frankly, I think this lecture was an insult to my intelligence. Not q> that it was a bad set of topics, but the timing couldn't have been q> worse. It's the fourth week, the project was due in the morning. If q> I didn't already know the difference between a script and a function q> or how to use the newsgroup, I would have needed to know long before q> now. And since everyone who shows up for lecture probably did the q> project, none of us need to hear about the website and the newsgroup q> AGAIN, plus learn all the things we just did for the project. Teach q> me something I don't already know (and just so you know, I have no q> prior programming experience). ---- q> Concerning the analogy...It was confusing at first to figure out what q> each action represented. It would have been more helpful to explain q> the analogy as you creat and run an actual function in matlab. Having q> the computer set up to show up what you are talking about helps us q> to understand an whats going on alot better (especially the visual q> learners). Please provide more demos and illustrations in class. q> This was a very effective lecture in describing functions, however, due q> to when it was given with regard to the project, the effectivness of q> the lecture was not maximized. Students had to learn about functions q> on their own in order to do the project. It would have been much much q> more helpful to have had this lecture before the project. ---- q> Good lecture and detailed info on how to use functions. ---- q> The analogy was a bit confusing, but i think i got the overall picture. ---- q> I was really confused about the analogy for functions part of the q> lecture. Also, it seems odd that you explain functions AFTER the q> project based around functions was due. This lecture might have been q> more helpful last week. ---- q> The analogy (for functions) was kind of confusing at first. It was q> quite long, but in the end, it all became clear. ---- q> i liked the demonstrations. keep them coming, but try to make them q> follow immediatly after introducing a major command in matlab/java. ---- q> I felt like i had a better understanding of the material at hand q> today than the previous lecture. ---- q> I don't understand how anyone could have gotten through this course q> and its projects up to now without knowing how to use scripts, define q> and call simple functions, set the path, or read the newsgroup. q> These topics seemed like a waste of time to me. The analogy was good, q> but what are the corresponding commands/codes to throw airplanes and q> shout names etc. in MATLAB? The application got lost in the drama. q> On the plus side, using the computer was good. Actual screen shots q> and outputs are a welcome addition to the lecture. ---- q> The analogy was a good way to demonstrate how to use functions, but q> it would haev been better if you had made more references to what you q> actually do in Matlab as you went along. Also you made the comment q> that a lot of people have an unfair advantage with previous programming q> experinece so I hope you can do something to balance that out as far q> as grades go. ---- q> i guess the lecture wasn't that bad, but there weren't too many people q> attend though. Coz P3 is just too exthuasting ---- q> i just wonder which chapter should we read in the book? no new assigned reading: the reading assignments got a bit ahead of lecture. ---- q> I conceptually understand many of the topics. However, for some reason, q> when I apply those topics through MatLab, they never seem to work or q> don't work until I play around with them. So, perhaps it's something q> I'm doing? passively listening is very different from actively programming, so many people do find it takes lots of practice. also, keep in mind that lecture makes sense to you because you're a person, and people are smart, but when you try to do it on the computer, matlab doesn't always cooperate because computers aren't so bright: many things that would make sense to a person, make no sense to the computer. ---- q> The course staff has been good in general with adjusting the course q> according to people's comments. ---- q> I didnt learn anything i didnt already know. Also that analogy just q> made things worse. But having the laptop in class was good, to see q> you run code. ---- q> I feel that this lecture was a bit too late in the semester. q> Many of the topics covered were topics that I had to learn of on q> my own and I don't know how anyone hadn't accessed the newsgroup or q> learned "setpath" or how to do functions, since they were all such q> an intricate part of P3 and others. The lecture would've provided q> much more help had it been given the first day of classes (at lest q> about the newsgroup access and setpath) ---- q> This lecture was very well done. I was very comfortable with the pace q> of the lecture and I am glad that it was done this way for such a q> confusing topic. The analogy was great. ---- q> The demo that you showed us in lecture was very helpful. Doing demos q> like that in class are very helpful and I think that they should q> be done more often. Also, the demo that you showed us last lecture q> should of been done earlier in the course, but still a couple weeks q> after the mandatory demo. ---- q> I don't really understand your analogy. It got me more confused. q> I don't understand how the paper airplane has anything to do with q> pass/return values. ???? Help? how does one student(function) send values to another student(function) without shouting (not allowed) or writing on the blackboard (remember, we're pretending students can't read the blackboard)? answer: they write values on pieces of paper, fold them into airplanes, and fly the planes to each other. at the computer level, these two things are done at the start and end of a function call. ---- q> i don't like the analogies too much! They can get so complex and q> confusing, it might be easier to just get to the point!! yeah, different people like different things: often i'll try to explain the same thing two different ways. hopefully, you'll like at least one of the ways. ---- q> The explanation and demo on how to create functions was very clear q> and helful but too much time was spent on the analogy for functions. ---- q> The lecture was very useful in explaining how functions worked. Showing q> how to create a function and running it on matlab gave me a better q> understanding of the topic. ---- q> But why are such essentials taught only after project date dues? ---- q> The lecture was primarily over functions which in order to do P3 you q> had to know, so many people already knew everything you taught. the details of how values are passed was not required to do p3. ---- q> i liked the student-function analogy a lot. ---- q> I didnt understand the functions, especially naming and calling ---- q> A very good lecture. The Matlab demo really helped to explain things, q> and I hope to see more of them in future lectures. ---- q> The course material is presented a little too fast. The speed of the q> course was exceptionally too fast at the beginning. I had no computer q> experience before this course and found it difficult to understand q> all of the computer concepts at the beginning of the semester. q> More work with Matlab in lecture helps. ---- q> it was a good review