Early Feedback Questionnaire
Completion requirements
Opened: Tuesday, 6 February 2024, 12:00 AM
Closed: Tuesday, 13 February 2024, 11:59 PM
We are very happy with the overall very positive feedback which implies that students who engage with the module are generally quite happy. Please note detailed responses to the text comments in the table below.
Full responses are now available in the analysis and responses options of the questionnaire itself.
Thomas and Lennart
Student Comments | Our Responses |
a. What do you think the lecturers should start doing? | |
be cooler | be cooler vs stop not being cool vs being cool vs be cool - yes, we read it all |
I know the lecture notes are in Jupyter, but some of us cannot carry entire PCs to lectures. Could the lecture notes be uploaded as a pdf as well so we can open them on our tablets or phones? it would be easier to follow you and take notes of your explanations. |
Jupyter notebooks can be transformed to pdfs using print to file from browser. There are also apps available on Android and iOS to read Jupyter notebooks (e.g. Carnets on iOS, ipynb viewer on Android) |
Professor Thomas just needs to pick up the pace a little. I also feel like the lecture notes in general need more difficult examples for the things we're learning because we learn simple things but then the IT lab work is so much more complicated. |
Regarding pace, the overall feedback was that most students are happy with it. Some (like you) asked to go faster, others (see below) to go slower. Unfortunately, it will be impossible to get the balance right for everyone. The lab is difficult by design, we need you to encounter and overcome common misconceptions when coding - simply talking about these in lectures will not help. Also note that there is a difference in how you as the students consume these contents. The lectures are designed such that you can follow the presentation in real time, hence overly complicated examples would make it much harder for you to keep up. For the lab sheets, by contrast, you can go through the material at your own pace and make sure you understand everything before you read on. Therefore, these cover more complicated examples. Remember that you can always ask for explanations in the lab sessions and learning cafe. |
Give more of a basic outline in the lectures and labs as for many students this is the first if not one of the first times encountering python and it would be helpful if things were explained more in detail and at a slower pace. For example I was not sure on the different types of modules other that 'math' and was stuck on modules such as 'numpy' and 'matplotlib' and some concepts were gone through very fast. | Regarding pace, the overall feedback was that most students are happy with it. Some (like you) asked to go slower, others (see above) to go faster. Unfortunately, it will be impossible to get the balance right for everyone. Remember that you can always ask for extra explanations in the lab sessions and learning cafe if you get stuck on a problem or concept. |
-They should have more practice for jupiter notebook and post more walkthroughs on how do to certain questions. | We're happy to provide specific walkthroughs on request. |
Slower, more examples |
Regarding pace, the overall feedback was that most students are happy with it. Some (like you) asked to go slower, others (see above) to go faster. Unfortunately, it will be impossible to get the balance right for everyone. Remember that you can always ask for extra explanations in the lab sessions and learning cafe if you get stuck on a problem or concept. Regarding additional examples, did you try the extra exercises we provided on the QMPlus page (see "Module content by week")? We're happy to field questions on them, if the solutions are insufficient. |
Talking about the lab work exercises a little more in lectures as I feel like there is too much of a discrepancy between lecture material and lab work. | Please watch the lab walkthroughs (after attempting the labs)! They explain the expected solutions and common pitfalls in detail. In essence, these are bonus lectures on the lab material. |
Go slightly faster during easier topics and go over less examples (e.g. too many examples of lists and not enough for more comprehensive sections) | Noted. We will continue to try and find a good balance, using as much time as needed to explain concepts, but not more. |
b. What do you think the lecturers should stop doing? | |
I'm finding that the labs are significantly harder than the lectures, and usually have not much correlation, and am completely lost and overwhelmed in the labs. | That is by design. Lab work is not just filling in the blanks in modified sample problems from the lectures. Note that there is a difference in how you as the students consume these contents. The lectures are designed such that you can follow the presentation in real time, hence overly complicated examples would make it much harder for you to keep up. For the lab sheets, by contrast, you can go through the material at your own pace and make sure you understand everything before you read on. Therefore, these cover more complicated examples. Remember that you can always ask for explanations in the lab sessions and learning cafe. |
Going through the content quickly would be greatly appreciated | quickly vs slower - it's impossible to get this perfectly right for almost 400 students |
Professor Thomas needs to sidetrack/go on tangents less. | noted. |
stop not being cool | be cooler vs stop not being cool vs being cool vs be cool - yes, we read it all |
N/a | Thanks, we guess… |
c. What do you think the lecturers should continue doing? | |
Countinue teaching pace and explanations | |
being cool | |
Presenting clearly with good readability of lecture notes and labs etc. Also having others in lab sessions helping out is very beneficial. |
|
Whatever Dr Lennart does, because I can understand him very well and his pace is perfect. Dr Lennart doesn't need to change at all. | Thank you! |
If you could, then how would you improve the module? | |
read out loud a code and its shorthand, e.g. a tuple is (explanation) this in basic just means (clear explanation with a nice example shown). | |
As above | |
Have more teachers in the IT labs, or have a smaller amount of students in IT labs, as it takes a long time for the teachers to come round to you | Some labs are very empty - we shifted helpers around to even the load. If you want more support, come to the 9-11 time slots on Wednesdays or Thursdays! |
One query for me is that computing requires a device like a laptop/computer etc however I am not sure whether taking notes will be beneficial to me or whether to practice Python via quizzes and IT labs, so advice on this would be greatly appreciated! | This depends on your learning style - we suggest you come to the Learning Café to discuss this. |
Make the lectures include a bit more content that the lab work has so we can see live examples of the more complex lab work. | It really is beneficial to do the lab work first - please watch the lab walkthroughs afterwards. As explained above, the different complexity of examples in lectures and labs is by design and aligned with how you are expected to consume the material. |
be cool | be cooler vs stop not being cool vs being cool vs be cool - yes, we read it all |
I would add lecture notes as a pdf as well | You can easily create them yourself or download browser extensions (Chrome) or apps (iOS/Android) to view Jupyter Notebooks. In fact, we want to encourage you to explore and play around with the notes and lab sheets as much as possible. Therefore, they are designed for you to interact with them, not to just read them! |
More difficult examples in the lecture notes so that the IT labs feel more intuitive/easier to know what it is the work is asking us to do. | It's hard to get the balance right - explaining things in more detail and adding more difficult examples cannot really be done at the same time. Remember that you can always ask for extra explanations in the lab sessions and learning cafe if you get stuck on a problem or concept. |