CIS3355: Business Data Structures
Fall, 2008
 

Summer 2004 Final Comments

Pseudonym: Oakland
Date: 07/15/04
Time: 03:44:22 PM

Good_Points

Overall, this is an excellent course.

Bad_Points

Not bad comments

WebisteComments

The only suggestion I can make is that for evaluation purposes, either more programming and more practical assignments should be given or more weight should be put on those methods of evaluation. I, personally, am not that good at taking quizes, but am open to do more projects.

Pseudonym: Oakland
Date: 07/15/04
Time: 03:45:09 PM

Good_Points

Overall, this is an excellent course.

Bad_Points

Not bad comments

WebisteComments

The only suggestion I can make is that for evaluation purposes, either more programming and more practical assignments should be given or more weight should be put on those methods of evaluation. I, personally, am not that good at taking quizes, but am open to do more projects.

Pseudonym: benchireto
Date: 07/19/04
Time: 02:50:17 PM

Good_Points

The best part of the course to me was the fact that even though it was a very short semester we had the opportunity to work on some programs, and it was funny how because of a simple { I got to spend 3 hours working on a program.

Bad_Points

The bad part about the course was that some of the review questions had the wrong answers and I wasn't able to check and make sure I was doing them right, also the online quizes were very helpful but unfortunately weren't available for all the chapters, that would have been a big help.

WebisteComments

It would be great if you spend some time going through the reviews and to update them with the right answers. Also because of a misunderstanding I didn't do so well on quiz #2 I thought you had said a certain chapter wasn't going to be on the quiz and to my luck almost half the quiz was about that chapter and I did not study anything on that chapter. Maybe specify more clearly what each quiz will cover and perhaps even build a link for the website where you tell students what each test will cover.

Pseudonym: RUSH10K
Date: 07/19/04
Time: 02:56:36 PM

Good_Points

I personally like the textbook a lot. It may need some refinement but it is very well explained. I like it because it concise and to the point and it only includes the information that we need to know. The Powerpoint presentations are probably the best that I have seen ever since I started coming to UTEP. Finally, Dr. Kirs explains everything and then he allows us to ask questions. The class is great!

Bad_Points

I really would have liked to take this course during the regular semester. Simply, because I would have had more time to understand and enjoy the material. I would also have liked to write a program that illustrated and applied the material in every chapter. Four weeks compared to 16 is a lot of difference. However, we have the book, the notes, and the slides. And most important the website, so we can always go back and study what we need.

WebisteComments

The book needs some refinement. Some of the answers in the review questions are wrong so it is confusing.

Pseudonym: jaztin
Date: 07/20/04
Time: 04:45:25 PM

Good_Points

i think that the best part of this course is the fact that you provided everything on line.

Bad_Points

i taught the ugly part was that we covered everything so fast and that you just lectured slide by slide and it made the course a bit boring.

WebisteComments

i think that you could improve your course by allowing more class discussions for the students to have a chance to ask and discuss the review questions during class.

Pseudonym: LK
Date: 07/21/04
Time: 10:03:23 AM

Good_Points

The best part of this course is that you can get everything you need off the internet and that you can see your progress on the Class Standing so you know exactly what you need to do to get a better grade.

Bad_Points

For a summer class there is just so much information to cover, i know everything is important to learn, but i think if you were just to break it down to the most important things to learn, hopefully would cut it down just a bit.

WebisteComments

Probably putting some of the example code on the web so we can go back and look at some of the stuff you did in class and just refresh our memories.

Pseudonym: lgm6314
Date: 07/21/04
Time: 12:49:05 PM

Good_Points

The best part of the course was that we were able to learn from both the lecture slides and the book, and we could study using both references. Also what I liked about the course is that we submitted a lot of homework which makes the percentage of our grade stay higher. We had tons of homework, but in the end hopefully it will pay off.

Bad_Points

The bad part of the course is that it is in such a short time, and it is hard to get the concept of this class as a first timer. Now if this class was a refresher, then the course went fairly fast and was okay for 4 weeks. Other than that, everything else was fine.

WebisteComments

This course can be improved by making the slides work effectively even though it didn't affect us much. We could also do more examples than just reading through the slides. Overall this class was a good class. I enjoyed it, but I hope I don't have to retake it. It is a difficult course.

Pseudonym: fratboy
Date: 07/21/04
Time: 01:46:47 PM

Good_Points

The best part of this course was the fact that we could turn everything in online and the website was fairly easy to use once you got the hang of it. Also, the review questions covered a lot of the material on the test, which gave a better idea on what to study.

Bad_Points

The bad part of this course was the fact that it was taken over the Summer. Even though a class taken during this time is always crammed, I felt as though we rushed through many of the topics and only got a general idea of the subject.

WebisteComments

We could have used a couple more class periods in the computer lab. That way, any questions that would come up could be answered right away. Also, the website was down a few times, which would make it frustrating after writing the topic questions and receiving a "frontpage error" when trying to submit. Besides that, it was a great class and I enjoyed taking it.

Pseudonym: wicho
Date: 07/21/04
Time: 01:59:16 PM

Good_Points

The course provided a lot of information, working aids, and references necessary for the students to learn. Overall, it was up to the students to grasp the material provided.

Bad_Points

In sum, there were too much work to be accomplished within the time allotted.

WebisteComments

Like I mentioned above, the course provided a lot of information, but the numerous errors found throughout the lecture slides and website need to be corrected as soon a possible. Therefore, making this course top-notch when it came to the data provided to the students to learn the subject well. Of course, the errors need to be corrected to make this possible.

Pseudonym: Astolio
Date: 07/21/04
Time: 08:14:16 PM

Good_Points

The course is ease to follow since most of the material used in class is available online to students.

Bad_Points

I would like to spend more time of the class in the lab with the proffesor practicing the programs disscussed.

WebisteComments

Mosf of my current proffesors are implementing group projects. I would like to work with other people in one single project. In real life situation most proffesionals tend to work with other people.

Pseudonym: Gog
Date: 07/21/04
Time: 08:25:08 PM

Good_Points

The website was the best for me, of course it has errors because it is very dinamical, but it is a very useful site, the best I've seen @ Utep (do I get a better grade now?, :^), just kidding. ), Seriously, website is OK! everything else has been said.

Bad_Points

MMh! I believe it would have been a lot easier for me to have the Visual Studio program the first day, because I don't have a lot of time to come to the Utep lab, (In Cobol, we got it from the instructor) I got it barely the end of last week from a student, Thank her for that!, therefore I get a chance to practice what's seen in class.

WebisteComments

Give the software beforehand. Ah, and maybe you could give us partial credits on the problems in the quizzes, I made very simple mistakes, even though the procedure was correct, and got no credit there at all, even when a problem was worth 10 points. I would have done a lot better if you would have considered partial credits. ( 3 procedure, 3 calculations, 4 final result?). TTFN

Pseudonym: Firearms
Date: 07/21/04
Time: 09:00:40 PM

Good_Points

The best part of the course was how straight forward the programming was. I also was interested in the course material because it actually made sense to me.

Bad_Points

The shortened time frame of the course was a drawback.

WebisteComments

More lab sessions would have been nice since the entire course wasn't about programming, but they would help when it came time to do the programs

Pseudonym: jaztin
Date: 07/22/04
Time: 09:15:03 AM

Good_Points

the best part of the course is that everything was provided to us on line.

Bad_Points

the bad part was that this was a lectured course only i needed more practice to enhace my programming skills.

WebisteComments

this course needs to improve by allowing more class discussions and updating the website faster and more often.

Pseudonym: LambdaChi708
Date: 07/22/04
Time: 12:00:05 PM

Good_Points

teacher was organized, very clear, and assisted students well when asked. very straight foward and let us know what we had to know. did not teach any un-useful stuff

Bad_Points

we never met the T.A. How do i go and argue about my grades when i don't even know what the person that is grading my papers looks like.

WebisteComments

it can be improved by going to the lab more often as a classroom. also by having the T.A. there to help us do our projects would be good. They are getting paid right, they should at least earn their pay. make them help students as well. they are teaching assistants. our T.A. should be called the grading assistant becasue thats all that he did.

Pseudonym: bulldog
Date: 07/22/04
Time: 05:30:05 PM

Good_Points

I believe that the best part of the course was the projects that we had to do. I think that they were a lot better and more interesting than the cobol class. Made the class more interesting to me.

Bad_Points

I think that the bad part about the class is that it was only four weeks so everyone gets cramed with tons of work, and its hard to balance everything. But i know it what we signed up for.

WebisteComments

I think that maybe there should be some type of interaction with the students like some group work or something. Maybe doing programs together in class in the computer lab or something that way your not doing the same thing everyday.

Pseudonym: dev
Date: 07/22/04
Time: 06:00:53 PM

Good_Points

At the beginning of the course, I was confused and toward the end it all came together, the best thing is learning how to read the program.

Bad_Points

The bad thing is remembering how many bits and bytes go for each character, integer, long, short, etc.

WebisteComments

The course went by so fast that the only improvement would have been to take our time learning, but that would have been imposible.

Pseudonym: Buddy
Date: 07/22/04
Time: 08:31:56 PM

Good_Points

It was done in four weeks, so you really didn’t have time to procrastinate on assignments and on quizzes.

Bad_Points

it went to fast to really understand all material covered.

WebisteComments

The course seems fine the way it is.

Pseudonym: lacunacoil
Date: 07/22/04
Time: 10:52:57 PM

Good_Points

The course was very organized 95% of the time and the power point nots helped a great deal. The course had a lot of material to look over like the review questions and the student review questions. Everything was provied very well.

Bad_Points

The course was to compressed and some of the chapters could of been explained a little better. The time restraint was the only problem and maybe some minor website gliches, but other than that its good.

WebisteComments

The website helped a lot and was easy to navigate, except some minor link problems. Other than that it was pretty straight foward and easy to follow.

Pseudonym: Batman4Ever
Date: 07/22/04
Time: 11:18:22 PM

Good_Points

The best part of this course is that all the material that we need was provided to us. We did not have to worry about purchasing any materials for this class. Also the resources available on the web page are help full.

Bad_Points

Like I stated before, the time of this class is not at all appropriate. We can not concentrate on an empty stomach.

WebisteComments

This course could be improved by making the class more alive, sometimes the monotone voice can put you to sleep.

Pseudonym: yakimaya
Date: 07/23/04
Time: 10:38:52 AM

Good_Points

The best part of this course is I made more new friends from classes and did more practices on programming.

Bad_Points

The bad/ugly part of this course is there are too many errors in materials which sometimes confused us when study.

WebisteComments

If professor will give points for student who post the error part from the materials, then that will encourage to spend more time to read the materials and find those errors....at the same time, students read that materials completely already. That sounds a fair deal.

Pseudonym: shortyjf
Date: 07/23/04
Time: 11:14:32 AM

Good_Points

I liked the way this course was structured. All of the material flowed very well.

Bad_Points

I didn't like that this class was only 4 weeks long. It was a lot of material to be covered in such little time.

WebisteComments

I think the course is best taking it in a regular semester because you have more time to absorb the material

Pseudonym: c5f0f6fe58
Date: 07/23/04
Time: 12:48:08 PM

Good_Points

I liked the course because I got to learn about computers. Although it got boring at times for the most part the course was pretty interesting and I liked the lectures.

Bad_Points

Well, sometimes on the more boring topics I started to fall asleep because I wasn't really interested in what we were talking about. But really the course didn't have much of a bad part.

WebisteComments

I think it's just fine the way it is, I learned a lot in the course that I never knew about computers and C++.

Pseudonym: Billy
Date: 07/23/04
Time: 01:14:26 PM

Good_Points

The best part of this course was that a lot of the information for this course was available online. Help was also available when needed for the programs.

Bad_Points

One of the worst parts of this course was that it was very fast paced and there was a lot of information to cover in a short period of time. The grading schedule should also be distributed a bit more evenly with the other assignments and projects.

WebisteComments

This course can be improved if during the lectures you were to give a 5 minute break to relax or stretch out becuase of the length of the summer lecutures. Or make the lectures more intresting because at times they tended to get monotone and everything would sound the same. Offer some sort of extra credit assignment such as an additional program.

Pseudonym: pyro_7
Date: 07/23/04
Time: 01:38:45 PM

Good_Points

The best parts of the course would have to be those times when I was sitting through the two hour class thinking, "Geee, I really have to pee right now." Overall, it was nice meeting and working with new people.. and realizing that everyone was having the same struggles as I was.

Bad_Points

The absolute worst part is just how much the quizzes are rated! I could do awesome on the assignments and programs yet the quizzes can still chop off my head in the end! What if people just arent good test takers, and yet they still understand all of the information given in class? AH, its a harsh harsh world.

WebisteComments

please see above.. the weight of the quizzes is kind of ridiculous.

Pseudonym: Oakland
Date: 07/23/04
Time: 01:43:09 PM

Good_Points

Excellent way of introducing students to the complex concepts of data structures.

Bad_Points

Not bad comments.

WebisteComments

Perhaps, it will be good to have small projects so that complex concepts be easy to grasp through the exposure to the C compiler more often.

Pseudonym: taquito
Date: 07/23/04
Time: 01:46:13 PM

Good_Points

best part of the course was getting the high score on test 2, and getting an A in the course overall. I BETTER GET AN A!! there isnt much else. i like that the final was optional, and that i get to drop one quiz grade. website was very good, i also liked not having to buy a book. thats all i can think of right now, if i think of anything else good, ill come back and post it again.

Bad_Points

you should definetly look into fixing all errors on the powerpoints, as well as the textbook. especially wrong answers, its pain to learn a concept if you dont have a correct answer to a question. a lot of the topic questions were pretty crappy. what you should do is have the TA or yourself go over them as they are received and only post the good ones. a lot of people write crap for questions, and a lot of them are duplicates, and if you see a good question you could give that person and extra point or something. also with tutorials, except with the first few, to show people how to do them, get rid of all bad tutorials, if someone did not do a good one then dont post it. thats all i can think of right now, if i think of anything else good, ill come back and post it again.

WebisteComments

well just adjust the things i talked about in the bad parts of the course section