SSLC Feedback

Thanks for your detailed and constructive feedback. We have a class enrolment of about 50, and 44 students wrote comments. This is very helpful!

Kean has done a great job in distilling your comments into some broad themes, which I outline and address below. Please deel free to discuss any of these points with me, or with your representatives.

1. In reply to question 1 (the pace of the subject), some are finding it fast. I know you ask if anyone has any questions about it, maybe it should be encouraged to ask more questions if there is something not clear about it.
   • Ok. Only a few students ask questions regularly. I'm not sure how to elicit more questions without really dragging the chain. I will put this question to the class.

2. Question 2: Approximately one fifth of the class find certain aspects confusing, maybe you should encourage them to e-mail you or talk to you in your consultation hours.
   • Ok. I will re-advertise my office hours and my willingness to meet people with appointments.

3. Question 4: You suggested that more students come on the second hour, but the results were the same as previous weeks, with most students coming in the first hour. I've noticed people with questions have to wait 10+ minutes. In today's tute, only a small group came in. And Alison actually went through the whole question, which is good. But it was mentioned before, that Alison does treat it as a 2 hour session, instead of 2 separate one hour sessions. Perhaps she should spend the first half letting the students do the questions, as well as answering questions. Then the second half be spent by answering the questions on the board, or on the overhead computer.
   • Ok. I have chatted with Alison, and we agreed that she would try to delimit the two hour timespace into two hours.

4. Somebody suggested if it was possible for another day to be held for prac class, not straight after the first one. This might solve the overcrowding problem, but might not be possible due to lab booking and Alison's schedule. The Nanson lab might be a substitute. I might be going out on a limb here, but maybe if you turned one of your consultation hours into a prac class, and booked out a lab if available, people would appreciate it? I'm not sure of lab bookings or how the uni is run, but it might solve some problems with overcrowding as well.
   • Actually, I have already been doing what you suggest all semester :). My consultation hour at 12-1 on Monday is in the Nanson lab, which is booked for that very purpose. So far all semester I have seen 1 student from 371.

5. There have been approximately 10 people who have struggled with learning R from the beginning. Some have not used it before. You have suggested using IcebreakeR, which is a good document. But it is quite large, and perhaps not every single aspect is relevant to this class. Perhaps you could highlight certain sections on which confused beginners could read upon.
   • Ok, that is a very good suggestion. I will construct a "quickstart" guide for the icebreakeR.

6. There have been some complaints about lecture slides not being in the book. These people might need to be reminded that you remake the notes after the book was printed, and that notes are available from the site. It might be handy to print out the new lecture notes? I'm not sure if its feasible, as you might not have the budget to. But it could be an extra incentive to come to class.
   • Ok. As the lecture notes that are posted on the web are always up to date I think that that should be enough. I agree with your position otherwise :).