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lect27, Tue 06/02
Final Tuesday Lecture: Notes on Final Course Grades, ESCIS, Lessons Learned
Announcements
Final Presentations
- Reminder that the final exam slot is for course presentations
- All members of the team should be present for the final presentation (as in live online in Zoom)
- All members may be in the final presentation video, but that’s not a requirement
- But all members should be online available to answer questions about the product.
Final Course Grades
- 50% all the lab / homework grades (including lab10 participation).
- 50% your final project (which is a combination of lab10 content, and the four other criteria listed in the lecture notes for lect26.
To clarify: lab10 counts twice:
- Once towards the lab / homework component: here we are just looking to be sure that you completed the work as requested (it’s more of a “participation grade”).
- Once towards the overall project grade. Here, we are looking at the content as part of a holistic review of the entire project quality.
Here’s how I arrived at the 50/50 split. I started with the breakdown used in W20, when there was also an exam:
| Item | % |
|---|---|
| Hwks, In Class Assignments | 15% |
| Project Grade (labs) | 30% |
| Exam | 20% |
| Project Grade (final product) | 35% |
Moving the final exam grade into the final project grade would give a 45% / 55% split; from there, I’ve simplified to 50/50. I’ve combined the homeworks and labs into one category for simplicity.
ESCIs (Course Evaluations)
You are likely getting many reminders from the automated system about course evaluations (ESCIs). I would like to also remind you to please take a moment to enter your feedback about the course. It is very important.
Response rate as of 2:17pm 06/02/2020:
| Lecture Time | Course ID | Enrollment Count | Surveys Completed | Percent Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TR 3:30pm | CMPSC 48 0200 | 44 | 16 | 36.36% |
| TR 5pm | CMPSC 48 0100 | 37 | 9 | 24.32% |
As it turns out, faculty at my promotion level only get evaluated every three years (i.e. that is the one and only opportunity for a pay raise). S20 is the last quarter before my performance evaluation, so this is the last chance for feedback from students.
The numerical scores are important, but even more important are the comments:
- What have I done in this course that has helped your learning
- Where can I improve?
Comments such as “this was the best/worst class ever” or “Conrad is the best/worst instructor I’ve ever had” are helpful to some extent, but they are more helpful if they are backed up with at least a few specifics as to why you think the course is awesome or terrible.
It is particularly helpful if you can tie those comments to learning rather than to enjoyment.
- Somewhat helpful: I really enjoyed/hated this class
- Much more Helpful: I really learned a lot/not much in this class because reasons
Also: it’s helpful if you can comment about what was good or bad about my teaching/your learning, rather than what is good or bad about me. If you have comments on me (or any of your other instructors) as a person, they are relevant if and only if they impacted your learning. Try to focus on that.
Finally, please be aware of implicit biases at work.
- I assume that most of you think of yourselves as fair minded people, and that you do your best to be unbiased by factors such as race, gender, ethnicity, identity, etc. (i.e. factors that should not impact performance as an instructor.)
- In spite of this, there are many studies that indicate that students tend to evaluate instructors of different identities differently. Even among people of good intentions, it doesn’t always turn out to be a level playing field.
Focusing on your learning rather than your expectations may be helpful in setting aside those biases.
Briefly: Some Lessons Learned.
Frequently, after a class, the staff will get together and share some of the lessons learned. A few examples:
-
During a rebase, just rebase. Don’t make changes (i.e. fix bugs, add features) during a rebase. Only focus on fixing merge conflicts. Make your changes to fix bugs or add features before the rebase, or after the rebase, but not during.
-
If you are getting lost in the weeds of mocking and stubbing while writing integration tests:
- refactoring the code to make it easier to test may be a more effective strategy.
Let’s take a moment: what are some other lessons you’ve learned this quarter? Let’s take 5 minutes and type them into the #lessons-learned channel.
- One contribution from each team (include your team name) before we go into breakout groups.
- At least one more from each team after we go into breakout groups (though you may contribute more now if you like).