CG1101 Survey - AY2012/3 Semester 1

opened during 1 - 4 October 2012 number of respondent: 67 Q1: What was your level of computing/programming experience before you took up CG1101? A : I had no/little experience in using computers. B : I had some experience in using application software (like Word, Excel, Photoshop) but no/little experience in programming. C : I had some programming experience but do not think it is sufficient to claim proficiency. D : I was able to program proficiently in at least one programming language. Skip: Votes 22 13 28 4
28, 42% 4, 6% 22, 33%

Q1

13, 19%

Q2: If you had experience in programming before taking CG1101, what programming language(s) have you used? (You may select more than one from the list below.) A: C B: C++ C: C# D: Java E: Basic/Visual Basic F: Pascal/Dephi G: MATLAB H: PHP I: Javascript J: Python K: Others Skip:

Votes 17 17 6 10 12 0 5 1 5 1 9 29

Q3: This year, SoC introduced an "Refresher Programming" workshop for polytechnics diploma holders before the semester began. Did you attend that workshop? A: Not relevant to me B: Yes, I attended C: No, I missed it even though I am eligible for attending it. Skip:

Votes 37 11 16 3

Page 1 of 9

Q4: Do you find the "Refresher Programming" workshop helpful to your learning in CG1101? A: Not helpful B: A little helpful C: Quite helpful D: Very helpful Skip:

Votes 2 3 7 2 53

Q5: From time to time, I may send emails to your NUSNET mailbox for important notifications or updates. Do you read emails often? A: I read email at least once a day B: I read email every few days C: I seldom read email; better SMS me Skip:

Votes 46 19 2

Q6: I expect students to spend about 5 hours per week on self-study (i.e., exclude the time for lecture, tutorial, lab and doing take-home lab assignments). On average, how many hours per week did you actually spend on self-study? A: At most 2 hours B: Between 2 and 4 hours C: Between 4 and 6 hours E: At least 6 hours Skip:

Votes 12 40 12 3

12, 18%

3, 4%

12, 18%

Q6

40, 60%

Q7: I organized a "Unix Workshop" at the beginning of the semester, to help sort out UNIX and vim issues. Did you find that workshop helpful? A: It's quite helpful B: It's a little helpful C: It's not helpful at all D: No comments as I didn't attend that workshop Skip:

Votes 34 11 0 22 0

Page 2 of 9

Q8: Do you think the lecture is effective? A: Very effective B: Quite effective C: A little effective D: Not effective E: No comments because I miss the lecture often Skip:

Votes 23 42 2 0 0 0

Q9: Do you think tutorial & lab is effective? A: Very effective B: Quite effective C: A little effective D: Not effective E: No comments because I miss the lecture often Skip:

34 28 5 0 0 0

Q10: I provide quite a number of extra programming exercises as "Supplementary Practice". Have you ever attempted them? A: I attempted most exercises there B: I attempted some of the exercises there C: I didn't have much time, so just attempted a few exercises there D: Never heard about that Skip:

Votes 7 28 28 4

Q11: Do you find the "Supplementary Practice" useful to brush up your programming skills? A: Those extra practice is very useful B: Those extra practice is quite useful C: Those extra practice is not quite useful D: Those extra practice is not usefulat all Skip:

Votes 15 41 7 0 4

Page 3 of 9

Q12: How do you feel about the difficulty level of the take-home lab assignments? A: Very tough B: Quite tough C: Just right D: Quite easy E: Too lame Skip:

Votes 2 24 34 7 0

Q13: Every take-home lab exercise comes with an "Estimated development time". Can you complete all exercises within respective time limits? A: Yes, I can complete most exercises within the specified time B: No, I often spend more time than specified C: I seldom pay attention to the "Estimated development time" section in lab write-up Skip

Votes 32 28 7

Q14: Your tutor provides feedback on every take-home lab assignment, pointing out mistakes and suggesting possible improvement. Do you think the feedback you received helps you improve your programming? A: The feedback is very helpful B: The feedback is quite helpful C: The feedback is not quite helpful D: The feedback is not helpful at all Skip:

Votes 33 33 0 1

Q15: Now that you are mid-way through the module, how would you rate your own progress? A: I feel that I have made excellent progress. I am able to understand all of the topics taught. B: I feel that I have made good progress. I am able to understand most of the topics taught. C: I feel that I have made some progress. I am able to understand some of the topics taught. D: I feel that I have made no/little progress. I am still trying to understand what was taught over half a semester. E: Not applicable, because I already knew the topics before this module. Skip:

Votes 12 19 32 1 0

Page 4 of 9

Q16: How do you find the Practical Exam 1? (You may select more than one from the list below.) A: Very easy B: Quite easy C: Moderate D: Quite difficult E: Very difficult F: Actually not very hard, just I didn't do well G: Others Skip:

Votes 2 4 16 26 13 17 10

10, 11%

2, 4, 2% 5%

Q16

17, 19% 13, 15%

16, 18% 26, 30%

Q17: What is your expected grade in CG1101? A: A+ / A / AB: B+ / B C: B- / C+ / C D: D+, D or F Skip:

Votes 43 18 4 2 0

2, 4, 3% 6% 18, 27%

Q17
43, 64%

Q18: You may add any comment or suggestion about the module, so that I can try to make your learning in CG1101 more effective and enjoyable. You may skip this question if nothing to say :-) I realized that I can do most of the take-home assignments myself around the estimated development time. So probably my programming knowledge is not that bad although I did not do well in PE1. Maybe we can go through 1 or 2 examples that are relatively more challenging during lectures after learning basic applications in order to understand how to apply the same knowledge to harder areas. I feel that I need more practice in designing algorithms. The supplementary practice would be more helpful if there was some guidance in the algorithm design or there was a flowchart of the steps taken while writing the program, in addition to the written program.

22

Page 5 of 9

It would be good to have more contact hours (3hrs instead of 2hrs) set aside for the lab component (the tutor can guide us along the way in explaining difficult concept). I propose you can discuss some of the more challenging supplementary exercises during lecture, for students to understand and appreciate the beauty of algorithm design. Nevertheless, you have been a great lecturer as you will give us practice questions for us to try out during lecture. I think the bulk of the module lies in methodology. Lectures are heavily spent on usage of syntax and applications, but when the real test comes, its catches us unexpected. Might be good to run through difficult algorithms (top-down approach, thought process) after syntax lessons; it might give a taste of what to expect in terms of methodology I do hope you could teach some effective debugging skills in UNIX! Sometimes, I really find it very hard to find some nonsyntax errors in UNIX compared with using Turbo C , VB and so on. Anyway, your teaching is quite good! Jia You! I am a fresher to programming and am enjoying this module and programming as well, however, the only difficulty I am having is the time constraint, which cost me a lot of marks in my PE as I couldn't complete the code. Also, I feel that the questions which we do in the take-home labs and in the lectures and tutorials are easier as compared to those coming in the exams. So, I feel that it would be better for us to solve the questions of the same level of difficulty! But as a whole, I am enjoying this module and looking forward to do well! For students like me, who have no prior experience with programming, it would be beneficial if we go slower in the beginning and then faster towards the end of module. The pace is just right but slower in the beginning would give students more time to be familiar with programming before the main content starts. Thanks I have some problems about my programming, but I do not know when and who to ask. So these problems are still confusing me.

Page 6 of 9

It will be better if the weekly tutorial included some challenging questions(questions of PE standard) that may be optional for students. Those interested may attempt the challenging questions. I feel that doing challenging questions will help us improve our logical thinking. In addition, good coding habits are required in solving challenging questions. Therefore it may help us improve our coding style too. I feel that giving us questions to attempt during lectures is a good idea. With regards to the bell curve, I think it may be better to have different bell curves for local students and foreign students, because I realised that all the foreign students that I've come into contact with all have very advanced background, so the competition for grades for the local students is very unfair. Perhaps we can have mock practical exams before the real one so that we can be more mentally prepared. It would be good if we can learn some algorithms/derivations that can be used in problem-solving questions. :D After PE1, I realised that I should spend more time in this module such as practicing the supplementary exercises etc. Rather than just understanding what is covered in the lecture and forget about it. I really want to get an A for this mod, because a strong foundation is important in my opinion to survive the rest of the course. I've revamped my study timetable to dedicate more time for this module, starting from Week 8 onwards. Week 7 midterms, a bit packed. The things that are installed for us is good enough, such as Take-home labs to force me to do some programming. The rest is on my part already, which I will do something about it. Only thing is that I'll continue to flood your email. You respond really fast to emails! Would like a portion of lectures to be focused primarily on problem solving as opposed to just syntax and simple examples. I find lectures very useful in teaching us the different concepts of programming such as creating functions outside the main function, if-else statements, switch statements, loop functions, etc. My issues is that although I understand the theory/concepts behind all of these, I find it hard to apply them and come up with algorithms. I believe that this is due to the lack of practice on my part. However, I also hope that lectures/tutorials will be able to teach us more on formulating algorithms and how can we identify the relevant things that we have to use by reading the question. I also hope that lectures will expose us to more questions as well.

Page 7 of 9

Problems discussed in lab practicals were not as mentally challenging as the ones given in PE1, part B. It would be good to include at least 1 mentally challenging problems to discuss in weekly lab sessions so as to expose students to various programming algorithms and techniques. The CG1101 coursework is very well structured and planned out. While I really want to spend a good amount of time in programing, I am often burdened by my lack of proficiency in other subjects; which resulted in more time being spent on those subjects than in Programming. I do want an "A", but I have to strive for a balance between all other subjects; this is University after all. On the other hand, perhaps for us Polytechnic student, while we came with some experience, there were different coding styles and expectations from different teachers. For example, if() { ..... } else { //do nothing <-- this="" was="" taught="" to="" me="" as="" being="" allowed,="" but="" penalized="" here="" as="" adding="" unnecessary=""> } These are just some small details, It is not a huge deal. Because ultimately, it is about really programming when we enter the workforce. Thank you for reading and gathering our feedbacks! Just some thoughts. no

Page 8 of 9

I think that the module is such a rigorous subject that sometimes you just make a small fault and then the fault could lead to the entire run-time error. At the first several times when I code on my own , I had even spent almost four hours finding a fault like forgeting a "&" . But when my programs actually works , I feel the most happiness~ In a word , the learning of the module let me to find a sea of happiness through writing codes. Generally I find females are a little bit weaker in this subject, maybe try to focus on them more :) I love your lecture :)

Page 9 of 9