Evaluation Comments
Course:Object-Oriented Software Development
            (SE-450-910)

Quarter:Spring 08/09
Time: ::: - :::
Location: Distance Learning
James Riely PhD

Associate Professor
jriely@cs.depaul.edu
Instructor homepage

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What are the major strengths and weaknesses of the instructor?


1.   Strenghts: Teaches well, gives good feedbacks, grades on time.Weaknesses: well the course is a difficult course and that doesn't depend on the Professor that is just how the course is. The midterm exam was a little too difficult , and the midterm practice didn't prepare me to do well for the midterm.
2.   He's great.
3.   Strengths:Is uptodate in his knowledgeWeakness:Cannot effectively transfer knowledge to students. Students are unsure of what to do in the project.
4.   Great attitude, engaging
5.   Homework and exam grading time was quicker than average.
6.   Sometimes a little too fast in explaining. Choice of words could be simpler than abstract. I did like how the instructor could relate object oriented concepts to real life matters.
7.   The instructor clearly has mastered the subject matter and was able to convey that clearly and in a very structured way. I could tell right away this was going to be a great course given how well everything was prepared.
8.   The instuctor was very good at getting the students to think and interact during the class time (and on the website)
9.   Clearly, the instructor seems like a very-knowledgeable/experienced expert in his field. The lectures were interesting and informative. However, I didn't feel like he dedicated nearly enough time to managing this course outside of the lectures. I never had any instructor feedback on my homeworks, not a single word of comments. Same for the exam -- there were check-marks and X's, not a single written word on the entire exam! If there were comments like "good" or "I gave you the points, but you kind of missed the point of the question", I would have known where to allocate the amount of time I had to give to this class and I feel like I would have gotten more out of it. There was also at least one instance where I emailed the instructor a homework-related question about 24-hours ahead of the homework due date and did not receive a reply until after the homework was due/already-submitted.
10.   Knowledgeable on the topics, however, there is a lot of ambiguity in the course...it was difficult to determine what "good" is since it seemed to be somewhat subjective.
11.   Very Knowledgeable of the material but sometimes went over a subject a little to fast. Very good instructor.
12.   Strengths: articulate, good humor, thoroughIf an ideal instructor is indexed at 100, this instructor was a 94.

What aspects of this course were most beneficial to you?


1.   I learned object oriented programming in more details that other java courses that I've taken.
2.   It's all good.
3.   none. I found myself frustrated during this course, spending more than 18 hours per week on this course.
4.   Real world applications
5.   I found this class extremely difficult and I don't think I absorbed that much of it.
6.   Amount of programming I was able to explore.
7.   I found the discussions on Design Patterns to be very informative. The project, while time consuming, required students to really dig in and learn and internalize the material. I am definitely a better programmer because of this course.
8.   It was very helpful have the homework which built on earlier homeworks.
9.   The lectures were informative and interesting. The covered topics spanned a good spectrum in the sense that I didn't feel like anything was beyond my grasp, but I still had to work to pick up/retain some of the concepts that were new to me.
10.   It was all beneficial. It is a good course overall.
11.   The design patterns and the project I wished we would of spent more time on them. I like the JUnit test. I learned a lot about this important feature.
12.   The presentation of OOP in this course was top-notch. I could not imagine the instruction in this topic being better.

What do you suggest to improve this course?


1.   I don't know, the class was hard and I don't think it can get any easier.
3.   Get someone who can transfer knowledge effectively and when the project is assigned, provide insight into it. Here we were given the project first, and then were told that we had to complete it within 3 weeks with no hint whatsoever. A full week went by, after which guidance was given. That is a week wasted, in my opinion.
4.   Pretty solid course, I can't say I'd change anything
5.   Slow down and keep lectures more focused. The professor speaks very quickly while going off on side thoughts. For DL, he points to the board, but this can't be seen online.
6.   I think deep cloning and type casting were fine subjects to cover. Type casting seemed to be quite specific to Java, though.
8.   More written work with UML and product design.
9.   See above comments about the professor not dedicating enough time to this class -- a.k.a. complete lack of individual feedback.
10.   Try to make things clearer in terms of what is expected, esp for the project. As a DL student, we're not able to ask questions after class.
11.   the three homework assignments at the beginning of the class should be done from scratch. The portion that was give gave to much of the design pattern away. You could get the homework done and not understand the Pattern it was trying to teach.
12.   De-emphasize the exams. Use those only as a quality control. Evaluation of students should be based on programming. If there's going to be a 4-week long project, there should be an interim evaluation of our progress before the final version is due.

Comment on the grading procedures and exams


1.   Grading was pretty fair even though the exam was very difficult because there were some surprise questions that I don't think many students did well on.
4.   Fine
5.   Exam grading isn't clear, there's occasionally points marked off, and that's not the case for all of the points deducted yet alone what's incorrect.
6.   Quicker turn around would be preferred for regular assignments.
7.   I felt the grading was fair. The exams while challenging were not a surprise.
8.   Everything was very fair.
9.   See above comments about the professor not dedicating enough time to this class -- a.k.a. complete lack of individual feedback.
10.   none.
11.   Grading was fair.
12.   Instructors, in this and call courses, MUST provide a higher level of personalized feedback on assignments and tests. Understading what we did wrong is crucial. DL students can't just make an appt or talk to the instructor during a class break.

Other comments?


1.   I hope I can get a passing grade so I can move on and not to have to worry about taking this class over again.
2.   Love the Head First Design Patterns.
5.   I spent 20 to 40 hours a week on this class and I don't know if I'll pass the course.
6.   Update assignment descriptions and requirements on the class website, as some of the items were outdated. It was particularly confusing when some things did not need to be done.
10.   The amount of work on the project was very high. It was beneficial, but difficult to manage with work.
11.   Instructor was very accessible through email, really wanted to help the students learn.