Course Evaluation - Spring Break Edition

The problem. The responses you submitted to the Cornell-administered course evaluations were amusing — some TAs scored a perfect 4.0 across the board, albeit with a sample size of 1 — but less helpful than I'd like. Every aspect of this class can be improved, from the choice and scheduling of projects, to my awful handwriting. I really, sincerely, would like your honest input to help improve this class.

Ideally, this would be assigned as a homework for credit. This is class participation, after all. But past experience shows that coerced feedback is not often honest or helpful. Moreover, some people will only feel comfortable sending this kind of feedback anonymously, so it is hard to use grades as an incentive.

The incentive. Instead, I am asking you to submit your feedback anonymously. As an incentive, I can at least offer this: in addition to feedback, send one or more questions of your choice on any topic whatsoever. I will choose the most interesting questions and answer them in class during the second half of the semester. This might be just a minute or two at the start of class for simple questions, or longer for tricky (yet interesting) questions. I can't promise to answer, or even attempt to answer, every single question. And yes, this is your chance to make me do my own homework, or just find out where that awesome banana shirt came from.

The questions. Your feedback can be free-form about any aspect of the class. But to get you started, here are a few typical comment topics from the past.

• Lecture (or section (and say which day or TA — Deniz, Hussam, or Nandakumar)):
  • content is helpful / boring / too fast / too slow / disorganized / not enough side-topics / meanders / just perfect.
  • too much lecturing not enough examples / too many examples not enough lecturing.
  • should ask more / fewer / easier / harder questions.
  • should solicit more questions / should ignore off-topic questions from students.
  • please don't call on me again / please call on me even though I won't raise my hand.
  • handwriting and slides are disorganized / too detailed / please write neater / don't write at all / try the chalkboard / I hate your fonts, colors, and powerpoint in general.
  • please show us the fully correct "right way" to do things before the examples, instead of the other way around.
• About the instructor, specific TAs, or specific consultants:
  • needs to speak louder / softer / faster / slower / in English / less / not at all.
  • is not approachable / is my best friend.
  • is knowledgeable / is easily confused / gives out wrong information / contradicts lecture / contradicts themselves.
• Homeworks and projects:
  • too hard / too many / not enough time / too early / bad timing.
  • project x was helpful / useless for understanding the material.
  • working in a group is good / bad / painful but useful.
  • can we have more but smaller assignments instead of fewer but larger projects?
• Other:
  • Office hours (I go every week / need more or different times).
  • Book (contradicts class / why did you make me buy this thing?).
  • Prelim, grading, web site, email, CMS, Logisim, etc.

How to submit. Submit your feedback, together with your question(s), using the survey on CMS.