CS765 was last offered in Fall of 2017. I think the class went generally pretty well, and overall got good feedback from students. There are still some things I want to improve for Fall of 2018.
I am posting this list partially as notes to myself (to remind myself what I am doing).
- Improve the order of topics: I will try to get to designing visualizations earlier in the semester – which means some “basics” need to get to be pushed until later.
- Lecture less: there are better ways to use our time. Lecturing is actually less work for me, but it doesn’t work for everyone. And the room we have is terrible for lecturing.
- Make use of the unusual room: this means less lectures and more “collaboration”. For better or worse, we have a “collaborative classroom.”
- Be more consistent with “in-class excersizes”: this goes along with less lectures and using the room. This will be a bit of a challenge to come up with good in-class exercises. It will also be a challenge for assessment.
- Plan the in-class exercises better: last year, they were a bit ad hoc.
- More critique practice: I am increasingly believing this is the key to learning.
- Make the readings more focused: I like to read alot, and I think its good for students to see multiple perspectives. But at the same time, there are limits.
- Make the online discussions more focused: last year, each discussion had 2 topics intertwined. It mixed reflection and thinking about the topics with demonstrating what you read. I want to try to split that this year. Each week will have a single, more focused discussion topic – and we’ll use more time for class discussion.
- Use other mechanisms to assess whether students are getting the lessons from the readings and lectures: I really had no idea whether people were getting the lessons or not. While I hate the idea of quizzes, I think they may be a necessary evil – providing me a way to make sure people are “getting it.” I view it less as a way of assessing students, and more of a way to help students see if they are getting it.
- Make use of the TA: we didn’t have one last year. Having one should make grading more consistent, and allow us to provide better feedback to students.
- Put more effort into getting to know students: last year I felt pretty disconnected from the students (even though the class wasn’t that big).