| Systems Analysis I - Fall 2004 | ||||||
| What aspects of this course were especially successful? | What aspects of this course need to be improved? | Any comments about class management (syllabus, examinations, class cancellations, office hours, etc.)? | Additional comments about the instructor or the course. | In-class Cases | Wiki Projects | Student Presentations |
| cases | project | no | no | i like the cases | keep them | yes |
| Group work | Helpful hints on accomplishing case's | Use more time to give examples of what you teach on the slides could be used in the real world | Wit and humor made help my attention while delivering strong presentations | 1. yes, but need to give examples and explain your examples would help me more 2. yes, tried to instsall on my computer but couldnt get it to work 3.ER diagrams 4. i dont know | Still working on the Wiki, yes keep them but explain how to use them in class. i think it could become very valuable if students knew what benefits could come from using wiki for the own personal use. | they were all the exact same in many aspects. i became extermly bored after the first half of presentations. |
| The cases and project would a great tool for in-depth analysis and real-life examples of the material covered in the lecture | the case and presentation directions could have been more specific | no surprises and plenty of chances to get a good grade | I enjoyed the class. The instructor's style of teaching made learning fun | The cases were useful because thay allowed us to see how the material we learned in lecture was used in real life situations. ORACLE was useful because it helped us to organize and give us a starting point to the cases. The DFD diagrams were the most relevant because seeing how data flows through a system is useful knowledge. The cases and presentation directions could have been more specific | The wiki project should be kept because most people are not familiar with a wiki site. It can be a useful tool. The wiki project was pretty solid. We were allowed alot of freedom in what we could do. I have no suggestions for improvement. | Yes. Most careers involve presenting and most people are scared to do it. Lots of presentations was good because the more you do it the better you feel about it. |
| The group work | None off hand | The encouragement to ask questions was great. The syllabus was awesome (he followed it closely) and great use of class time! | Murali is a great instructor | I found the first cases the mose useful. With PERT and such I was able to see how different aspects of a task are affected by other things within. | I feel that they are worth-while. | YES... I leard probably more on how to present correctly in this class than in my speech class freshman year. He talked us through the proper ways of using powerpoint as well as some of the drawbacks of using technology to present. |
| The hands on learning in the labs. | I think the more time spent in the labs the better. | Everything was fine. | One of the more interesting professors I've had at Kent State so far. | I learned the most from the inclass cases compared to the powerpoint class time. Oracle and the other programs were confusing at first, but I started to get the hang of them. I just think more time should be spent acutally using tools like that rather than talking about them. | The wiki project is ok as is, but I think it would be better if an example was shown in class so that the groups could have gotten a jumping off point. | Presenting them was useful, for the most part though, listening was not. |
| I enjoyed the cases, they related to real life situations. | i didnt feel any were that bad that needed improved. | none | He shared independent thinking of the subject, and explained things to students very well. | yes,yes,DFD diagrams, the cases were fine i just thought the presentations should have been explained a little more. Didnt really know what you expected. | in progress | sort of, most of the student work was the same so it helped if you were lost, but in the same time showed multiple perspectives on the subject. |
| I liked how most of our work was done online. It gave us time to get things done in class that needed to be done. Having the test and quizes online allowed us to have extra time to do our group work, which really helped me out since I commute from home and I am only at school on Tuesday and thrusday. | I don't like how at times we would ask questions about our cases and he would not give us an answer. We were asking because we were honestly not sure of what we were doing was right. | none | I enjoyed the course overall. He listened to our comments and made adjustments that both he and the class saw fair. | I think the PERT chart was the most useful, it is also the only one that I understood fully. Using ORACLE was hard to use at first because I had never used it and not much instruction was given on how to use it. I would just give more information on the other cases and how to do them. I like how on the PERT chart there was example showed to us and then we had to do one on our own. It helped to see exactly what was needed to be done and how to do it. | For out group the wiki project was fine. Everyone did there part that they were assigned to do. | The presentations were not bad, it was just hard to get what you were looking for. On the first presentations that we gave, you told us that we didn't need to explain our diagrams. So the next presentation we just showed our diagrams and you told us not to have slides in our presentation and not explain them. So I believe all of us were confused on that. |
| I thought the quizes and tests on webct were very successful. | Some of the lectures were kind of long and not very interesting. | The class was well organized. | I liked the instructor because he made the lectures understandable and interesting. | The in-class cases helped me understand the lectures more. I found the ER diagrams the most relevant. I would improve them by giving more strict guidelines and maybe some examples. | The wiki projects are nice because they are different from other classes. It is still a report, but it is easier to manage because it is on the web. | They helped explain the cases better, but it seemed repetitive because they were all similar. They might be better if the groups had different cases that dealt with the same concepts. |
| cases | nothing... | no | none | DFD was most relevant.. | we should do more wiki project stuff in class... discuss topics and how we are moving along. | some were. some presentation were really bad though.. |
| independent thinking | more clear explanations of cases | no, all very good | no, very good teacher | They were useful, but I think they should be teachen more clearly | I like the idea of the wiki project. Yes you should keep them. I dont think they need improved | Not really since we all presented the same information |
| cases were very informative | covering material in manner that students could understand | none | very nice guy, funny, personable | PERT | I don't really think they were effective | no, seemed like people presented just b/c they had to, didn't seem like there was alot of info. to present |
| projects | quiz's | no | no | the cases did not relate to the book | I think wiki sites are stupid. I dont see the diffeerence between wiki sites and an online forum | yes, presentations are very important. I like how you addressed how to approach a presentation. I dont like giving presentations but I wish more teachers would have them like you did. |
| lecture | presentions by students were not helpful | always there for help if we needed it | good class overall | i think the databases were most useful | i didn't like working with a group for the Wiki project, but i could respect the idea behind trying new things | i think they didn't really help us much. I don't think anyone really knew exactly what to do for each presentation. |
| Case projects | Provide more class time for group projects | N/A | Overall an excellent job | No, I personally did not find the in-class cases useful, because I didn't have time to understand the procedure in order to complete the case. Yes, oracle was a very effective device for understanding DFD and ER diagrams. The method I found most relevant are the DFD and ER diagrams because they relate to my major which is Accounting in terms of "Accounting Infomation Systems" | Wike projects are not a useful method of understanding the techniques that we learned during the year. I personally see no use of this assignment. In order to improve this project the teacher should provide guidelines and expectation; also making the wiki site user friendly in term of navigation task. | Yes the presentation was a useful learning experience, because it helps one prepare for real life situation, for example job presentation on new system. Moreover, it gives students courage to handle themselves in front of an audience |
| The development of E-R diagram through oracle. The explanations given during class were ok. | ALL IS OK TO ME. | Class management was perfect including class jokes he shared during his class which we hardly see it happening here in other classes that we sit in. This is why his class was packed all through the semester. Excellent job!!! | The instructor was fine with material. | The creation of PERT was not too applealling to me. But the use of ORACLE, ER diagrams, generating databases, and DFD diagrams were very much relevant. | Wiki projects are the excellent part of the instructor making students to independently think, and make contribution to development on the web for others to gain from. | The students presentations were useful because it exposes students who are not used to standing before others to talk, it makes them get away with shyness. It was fine ok. |
| Group projects | more clear project explanations/assignments | ok | no | Learned alot in regards to diagrams/oracle. | good experience. Explain better when assigning project. | yes, gave practice for presenting |
| the use of oracle case toolsto construct different data diagrams | more lab time | no | no | I liked the DFD portion, I think more time should be spent working with Oracle case tools | I like the wiki project | Yes, because you get to see different perspectives on the cases |
| I liked having the hands on experience of the cases | the case presentations. I wasn't too sure exactly what was expected in the presentations before hand | overall I enjoyed the class. Professor Shanker even made it kind of fun, which was the last thing I was expecting | I did think all of the cases were useful, especially since I plan to become a systems analysis in the future. It is nice to be able to say I have at least used the programs, if only on a basic level. | I didn't really like the wiki projects but I guess I could see how they might be relevant. In a way I thought of it as just one more thing to worry about before finals. | I didn't think the presentations were very useful because the majority of the time it was pretty much the same presentation for each group. | |
| cases | projects | none | none | all were very usefull | keep the wiki projects | yes, you learned how everyone solved the same problem in thier own ways. the similiarities and differnces between your and the other groups |
| teaching was good, but need to go over the programs better so we know how to work them. | teaching was good, but need to go over the programs better so we know how to work them. | no | no | yes | they were ok. | they were ok, graded to much on presentation and not the work itself, or not told how we would be grade before hand |
| Working in groups | Better explanation of what is expected from Case presentations | ORACLE was difficult and sometimes frustrating to use. | The wiki projects are fine, I don't think there is need to change them. | I believe presenting is a very useful aspect of a class, as opposed to sitting in a lecture hall taking notes. Hands on experience can sometimes be much more effective. | ||
| Hands on learning with the case tools. Online exams and quizzes made sure that you kept up with the reading for each chapter. | Demonstrations of using Oracle would be helpful for the cases. Most people did not have a clear understanding of the tools when we were doing cases. | Having online quizzes and tests that were opened for a week was beneficial since you were able to do them around your schedule. | Clearer explanations for cases would be helpful to future students prior to being in the computer labs. | Once we learned how to use Oracle, I felt the cases were helpful in giving us hands-on experience. I felt that the PERT and DFD were the most useful because they were clear and understandable. Therefore, it would easily be explained to others who are unfamiliar with them. The ER diagrams were relevant because they helped show relationships. I did not feel that the databases were as useful as the rest. It was confusing to do in Oracle compared to what the book showed. More emphasis should be given on explaining the forms (third nominal, etc) before doing the databases. Also, I felt the databases were confusing to explain to others especially in the way which we presented them (graphic instead of table form). | I thought that the wiki project was interesting although I feel that there should be more class time spent on it because it is often difficult to get together after class. Even 15 before the end of class every other week or so would help groups start their projects earlier in the semester. The information learned in doing the project was beneficial and it promoted teamwork which I felt was a good experience for the future when working with fellow employees on tasks/projects. | I thought the presentations were useful in helping students to develop their speaking skills but often the presentations were boring considering every group did the same project therefore, they all had similiar graphs, assumptions, and solutions. |
| even though tests and quizes are online open book, if you dont take the time to learn the material, it will show in the cases | start talking about the project earlier and assign a project idea to a group, do not leave it up to them | good | overall good job | all the diagrams were very relevant, dont really have any ideas on how to improve upon them | assign topics to the groups | not really for the class to learn, but it is good for students to learn how to properly present information |
| I liked how you involved the students in this course. It really helped in making the course interesting. | I wish I would have known that we had quizzes for the first five weeks before it was too late to take them. | I would give more time for the students who didn't print out the notes on webct | The course was very helpful and I learned a lot. | Yes, the in class cases helped force us to use a new form of technology. ORACLE was very helpful. I found the ER diagrams the most relevant because they could display a number of details about the entities. | I would require monthly meetings from the groups with progress reports so that the groups weren't throwing something together at the last minute. | Yes, I learned quite a bit about how power point presentations were meant to be used. |
| Online test taking was a good experience. Allowed for more class time being used for teaching instead of taking exams. | More examples demonstrating what will be in the cases. For example many of the examples used in class lectures and in the book didn't use examples from oracle. | the pert diagrams were very relevant, i thought. Designing databases was a little difficult to understand normalized forms, but overall useful. | The wiki projects are ok. Not too difficult and not too easy. | Honestly I don't think they were useful. Because most of us have taken oral communication as a requirement we learned all the things we need to do in a presentation. I think the lack of good presentations was due to laziness and not due to inexperience. | ||
| no comment | I think that the concepts that are used in the cases should be especially emphazied and focused on during lecture. Maybe do some in class examples to stimulate thinking on those lines of thought. Sometimes the information for the cases were consdered like say on a Thursday and then when it was time to apply it, it was kind of hard to remember. | no | none | I think the cases were useful, I just think we should have done more in class exercises related to the case to get us thinking in that direction. I think ER diagrams are more useful..eaiser to understand. | I like the Wikki Site. Keep them. | I think giving presentations are important becasue we have to be comfortable with presenting before groups. Sometimes it's eaiser to understand a project if your forced to vocalize it. I just think more direction of exactly what you want in the presenation should be explained ealier. Our first presenations didn't get to the point and i think that is becasue we weren't sure how to present the information. Some cases we didn't even understand the information so I guess we coudln't present it. |
| group work | explanation and clarity of material | all were appropriate and well organized | cool cat | yes i found all the material useful and relevant. The DFD diagrams were probably the most useful. I wouldn't change anything about them. | yes i would keep them because they stimulate independent thinking of analyzing and producing systems. | not really because they were redundant |
| I liked that the tests and exams were online and that we were continuously kept informed of our progress in the class | I felt that throughout the whole course, the idea behind the cases and project was very vague. Nothing was explained and it seemed like no one in the class had any idea of what we were supposed to do. | I felt time management in class was good and we closely followed the syllabus, which is good for the students so we know what is going on. | Just to give the students a better idea of what the course is supposed to be about, objectives of the course, and clearly explaining the projects and cases. | No, I didn't understand the point of them and I thought that the instructor did not give a clear explanation of what we were supposed to do for them. | I don't even understand them or what the point was. No we should not keep them, what do we learn from them??? I would say give a different project instead of that, that's what I would do to improve it. | Yes and no, I think most people probably had to take the Theory and Practice of Oral Discourse class, so they already have a class for learning how to present, but practice for class presentations is always a good experience. |
| The cases really helped out, but I think more explanation is required from the instructor for the students to better understand the assignment. | More time needs to be spent explaining cases and what the instructor expects from the students in the cases and in presentations. | No | No | ER diagrams were good because it taught me how to make a problem fixable. I mean it really made you think of the best way for the solution. The DFD diagram needs improvement on what the instructor expects from us. We were confused on this assignment because it was a little difficult. | The wiki projects are a good way for the students to express and gain knowledge on any topic they would be interested in. If the students want to learn about a topic rather then just pick one because they have to do it, I would keep the project, otherwise I wouldn't. | No, because I really didn't understand how to explain something I barely know anything about. |
| Learning the different diagrams and what they mean. Gaining experience with different software | Need more clarity for what is expected in the cases. | Syllabus was very accurate. Practice quizes very helpful | Very interesting discussions sometimes | I found the PERT charts were the most relevant. I thought the other charts were kind of confusing. The others were interesting though. | I didnt really like the wiki page because it is hard to make it look good. If you dont submit the page right, it makes the whole paper one long sentence. | The presentations were good for our personal skills, but they were extremely boring. I think they would be more effective if we were all presenting different cases, but it is difficult to sit through the same thing over and over. Maybe next semester, dont present the cases, but make it mandatory to present projects. |
| I liked the Wiki because it introduced me to a tool i have not used before | maybe diffrent projects for diffrent groups would make it more interesting | |||||
| Cases and hands-on projects. | Prestation of cases and chapter slides. | Cases were usefully and gave me an idea of what to except in the field. Oracle was confusing but overall a good program to make charts. I think Pert were the most relevant to the field. They could be improved by adding more explation from professor before they are presented. | wiki project was good. It was a good way to get group work done when many college students have conflecting schedules. They should be kept. | No, Most weren't prepared and didn't offer much information | ||
| It is always helpful to have grades available. The main factor I like was that we were given a chance to do hands on experience. | On some of the group works we were all very confused. Maybe if we could have did one together as in go step by step and not by power point that would help. | Everything was organized well and you could follow along with the course easily. No questions was left up in the air, which is a good thing. | He did an overall good job, better than what I had expected on first sight. | yeah, they helped me get hands on experience. Oracle was helpful, because I have to get use to using programs such as that in the future. Pert and DFD I could relate to more than the others. I would improve them by just making the charts in the book look not so complicated.. They are actually a lot easier than they look once you get the hang of it. | The wiki project is okay, but i think that with that added to the course, it makes it alot more work than needed to be. I think it should be eliminated. Maybe having it earlier on in the semester might help. It's really hard to get people motivated towards the end, especially all the other things thas going on. | I see the logic in presenting the projects, but most of the time people had the same thing, so it wasnt interesting. It makes it more interesting when people have different topics they are talking about. |
| Application projects | Quizes and exams are very easy and require no study time. This doesn't help the student grasp the information as well. | Exams and quizes could have been more difficult or required more study. Class time was used effectively. | Knowledgeable, just needs to get the information to the students in a better way. | The in class cases were useful and to some might be the only information they retain from the class. The cases could have been explained better along with the use of the software. DFD diagrams seemed most relevant, and most likely to have a business application. | The wiki projects seem to be good, but their content does not go any further than simulating a term paper. It requires no application, which might be more beneficial. Possible have students create a website rather than use a collaberative tool. | I think students need to present more in all classes to get more communication/business experience. They were useful, but at times the instructor did not convey what he wanted very well. |
| group projects | sometimes went alittle faster | they were useful, i would improve on them but giving the relationship to the real world or something like that( the reasons why it was done) | we should keep them. i would give certain topics to talk about. | yes. because we will need that in the future | ||
| learning about the way systems are created, implemented, and what skills are needed to be an analyst. | none | no | He taught well and was very entertaining, made it interesting. | The generating databases section was most relavent. | I have found that the projects gave me an opportunity to see how working with others can be beneficial and also see how hard it is to get everyone to pull their own weight. | As stated before, this is what you will be doing if you persue this field so it is informative and beneficial. |
| availability for help and grading | amount of quizes | none | makes class fun to be at, not too serious but still is a good instructor | I did not like oracle, cases were useful, i likes the databases, nothing to improve | Yes, liked it but the wiki site was not fun to use | sometimes they were helpful, but after the same presentation were presented, you hear the same things |
| The group work and availability of material online. | None! | None! | Course was well done and like the humor during the classes as it added to it! | The in-class cases were pretty good and ORACLE was alright also, nothing special about them. I found databases the most relevant since I work with them frequently. I am not too sure how I would improve them. | The Wiki projects seemed to be just a thing off to the side and nothing anyone took 100% serious, but is something that was ok to have. To improve them, just have a project that is more in detail as what needs to be done. | Student presentations were not a very useful learning experience since it was boring for the most part. All of the groups sounded the same and did the same stuff overall. |
| I really liked the fact that the tests are online and that the CASE tools we used weren't very hard to understand once you know how to use them. | I'm not sure, I think that everything went ok. | nope | Nope | I wouldn't know, I only got to watch the others use the CASE tools. But they are all easy to use once you know what you are doing | I think they Wiki projects should be kept. In my opinion they are an easy grade to earn | Not really, I mean everyone pretty much had the same thing in the 1st one. plus there are people that don't want to be there during them. |
| Integration of WebCT; learning about Oracle. | The professor may wish to communicate more clearly the expectations and grading process associated with the cases, project. | Professor was accessible. | None. | Learning about Oracle seems quite useful. Learning to develop the ER diagrams and convert them into tables seems most pertinent. The method of grading the cases could have been more clearly communicated prior to submission. | The wiki site is unique and interesting, yet expectations of the report seem ambiguous. | The most useful part was the practice in oral presentation, much more so than the content of the presentations. |
| working together in groups | how grades are assigned in group work | projects helped understand course better | it overall was good | in class cases were useeful, at first the oracle and pert charts were confusing and we weren't sure exactly what you wanted but a little more explanation of how to use it and it should be easier | they seemed more like individual work put together into one project | sometimes but they were all the same, i think projects should be different |
| The hands on software utilization | none | All wre found useful | yes keep the wiki projects | |||
| Use of computer programs to demonstrate what we were learning. | Be more descriptive in the instructions of the projects. Could also be more punctual with grading. | Made good use of class time. | Not sure if I really understand the purpose of the class. Don't think I want to be a systems analyst if this is what they do. | The in class cases tied in well with the book. Oracle could have been more user friendly but got the job done nonetheless. DFD and ER diagrams were more relevant to the context of the class. Not sure how they could be improved. | Still not sure if I like the wiki system. Without it I think more group interaction would be mandatory and possibly a good thing. Just having a better idea of what was wanted out of the project earlier on would have been helpful. Maybe spending a little lab time getting familiar with wiki would have been good. | Yes, especially the second time around since we knew what to correct. Practice in front of a group of people is always good. |
| exams and quizzes were online...which is always much more accessible, and classes were not drawn out | the course itself seems as if it's not very useful | syllabus, exams, class cancellations and office hours were all available to us via web ct or murali would send us an email. communication was very good. | great instructor, very knowledgeable and made the best out of very dry subject matter. | sometimes it was hard to relate what was in the book to ORACLE since each program uses different things, but once you adapted yourself...it was pretty easy. I think they make sense but I don't think the class information and ORACLE is useful unless that is your specific job. If it is a specific job I think that's what job training would/should be used for. | I think they are ok...but group projects are always difficult especially at the end of the semester with everyone having different schedules. I like the idea of wiki and being able to change things right on the page though. | yes, it's always good to see how other groups assess things and how they present them, you can always learn from other groups...good and bad! |
| Dr. Shanker was really able to relay his message in class. | The Wiki site is really hard to get in and out of. | I really enjoyed this class. | None. | All of them were equally useful. | No, we could do away with the Wiki portion of this class. Writing a report on a topic is fine, but having to do it on the wiki site didnt really do anything special for me. Also, writing a report as a group isnt that fun either. | Yes, having to get up and talk in front of your peers is always a learning experience. |
| The cases that we worked on. It helped to show us how to use Oracle in different ways and to make us think and use our heads. | Maybe a little more clarification on the final project initially, so people know what they are looking for before they talk to you. | They were all very clear. | He was very knowledgeable about the topics we were discussing and the questions that people had. | I did find the in class casees useful, they showed us how to use Oracle and how to use our heads to put things together. | I think the wiki projects are useful. They are helpful to get people to learn about different things, things I didn't know about before. Yes I would keep them. I would improve them by giving a little more guidance on what you are looking for from the beginning. | Yes, it helped to show people how they should present projects in real life, and to help them in that aspect. |
| The information taught in class was very familiar to the instructor. | A touch of DFD and ER diagram examples in class. | Good Stuff well organized, really new his material | no | Yes it helped to work in groups. Useful but alittle difficult for persons not familiar with the program. DFD. Examples in class and maybe go over the programs being used for the class. | Not a bad project. Sure. Its a good program havent really worked with it besides for class. It may be beificial down the road. | Yes but you need to tell the class what u want before presentations. Maybe an outline for the presentation. |
| By far the cases were very helpful. The chapter on normalization of a database actually gave me a battle plan on work in real life so that was a benefit. | I believe the project should be replaced with a fifth case. The project has been a struggle - not because of the professor - but because of the type of individuals in the group. Also, I would try to challenge the students on how to normalize databases on some different examples. Getting the database right is so important. | I think it was very fair. | He was very positive and tried to get the class to participate. I felt I did indeed learn more than a few things - which is really the intent. | I found them useful - though it is hard to work together in the lab with 4 people in a group. The cases made you think which is good. Sometimes they would drive you up a wall (like the ER / database cases with the UPS projects). | No - I believe this should be replaced with another case. Class participation as a group was hard enough on cases. It is a shame because the professor provided enough time but the reality is too much is last minute now a days. | Yes. I think speaking in front of a class is always tough. Especially when you don't do it very much. It also shows how different groups did attack a problem. Though sometimes in was hard to focus in the slides. |
| Case studies, showed real world effectivness | Oracle software is horrible | Clear thanks to syllabus and webct | I liked the real world relationships | Cases were great, though oracle seems to be out-dated and limited | Not necessary for course content. | Yes, because the made me more aware of what is actually being conveyed. " It is not what you say it is how you say it" |
| I liked the fact that we used Oracle Designer, I feel that it is important to introduce students to real software, just not concepts. | Thursday's lectures tended to be short. I have an hour drive to KSU and to have to drive 2 hours round trip for a 30 minute lecture is very dissatisfying. | The class was run very well, and I really liked the fact that quizzes and tests were online. | none | I did find the cases useful, but working in the 'real' world something's just don't really happen. ER diagrams are useful and you often get a real ER diagram from the development team. However; in all of my years (9) as an Oracle DBA I have never received a DFD. | I think Wiki is a great idea, but I don't think it should be the final project for a Systems Analysis class. I think that the idea of the project should be kept, but just a different format and not so heavily weighted. It is far more important that a student learn ER diagrams and relational database design. | I do think it is a good idea for students to be up in front of a group of peers, it happens often in the work world. |
| I believe working in groups and presenting the information from the cases were successful. | Making clearer instructions on what needs to be done, and how to do the programs, a lot of people were new to the programs, and didn't know where to start-like me. | I believe class management was good. | Other than making clearer explanations, then no. | The PERT, DFD diagrams, and the ER diagrams were useful once we got the hang of how to use them. It was just confusing compared to the book and oracle. I would improve it by making the symbols from the book and the website the same. | I personally don't like the wiki site because it's confusing on how the layout is, and reconstructing it, especially if you have never been introduced to it before. I like the project idea though. | Yes, because in the future we'll have to present information to a group if you're in that job field. It helps you to practice in front of a large group. |
| group activities web ct | oracle program, because nobody knew how it really works | web ct was very useful | great teacher | give an overview of the oracle program and give more time for cases | again hard to learn how to use the site and do homework well | yes, because it help better understand what exactly was expected |
| nothing was particularly better than anything else. | nothing in particular. | I think the class would be better taught if it was on a MWF schedule instead of TR. Not enough time in class. | no. | I didn't like the oracle portion of this class, just because it seemed like it would be easier to just draw the Diagrams by hand, and that I spent more time looking at how the diagram was layed out more than concentrating on what the diagram was there for. | I don't like them because there aren't any black and white rules about how they should be done. I like assignments with clearly defined rules about how they should be done. | Kind of, because we got to see how the other students did their projects and compare them to our own. |
| The projects assigned were very informative and sparked thought on the subject matter. Just enough information was given to the students to complete the assignments. It would have been helpful to instruct students that they needed to truly probe for more complete instruction on the first assignment. | I would have benefitted from a more comprehensive overview and demonstration of the oracle software package. Also, the Entity-Relationship Diagrams are easier than the Data Flow Diagrams and the order of presentation could easily be reversed. | The class management was good; however, the lectures were fast-paced. This was great when the material was easily absorbed. I think more forced discussion could have helped with some of the lectures presented later in the semester (earlier discussions were lacked participation). Database and diagramming discussions would help more than system development life cycle discussions. | Overall, the course was very informative and a solid base for system analysis. The instructor did a good job getting the students to think critically. | Using Oracle was useful. The Database project was the most relevant. I would have liked the opportunity to work more with Oracle and gain a better understanding of it's overall functionality and limitations. | The Wiki project is a tough project. I think the project would be improved if the entire class used the same page and each student was required to make a weekly or bi-weekly entry. | The presentations were excellent practice. The feedback from the instructor was especially useful. I suppose that more similar feedback from the instructor (similar to the feedback on case 2) would have been extremely valuable. |
| The projects were the most helpful. | It would help the students if the instructor would take more time in class to go over how to use the programs needed for the projects. | Syllabus was very good. Examinations via the web and quizzes via the web are great. | Excellent instructor. I would take another course of his over another professor if I had a choice. | I was not real sure about Oracle when we started to use it, but then I looked online at job openings and found that there are many jobs that require the ability to know Oracle i was pleased that I was expossed to it. I feel that any project that the instructor feels teaches a necessary skill within Oracle that can be used in work practice is good. | Wiki projects are good for the simple fact of exposing students to a wiki site and how they operate. The group projects are especially hard for myself, the most nontraditional student ever, because of living almost two hours away and work a job another hour away that required a little travel. | They were helpful because we were able to see how someone else approached the same problem. |
| lectures and cases | nothing | none | team work is very difficult in a "student" atmosphere since one of the biggest motivators to team work in the workplace is $. It was difficult to get people motivated and put the equal effort into the cases and projects that should have been. | DFD were most relevant, however I was more interested and knowledgeable about the database portion. | The concept is good, but like I said in a previous question, it is very difficult to get people motivated (why not wait until the last minute?) in order to be able to give it justice. A little more guidelines would have helped too, how many pages or at least a suggestion, maybe require a link or a graphic , etc. | Since presentation skills are not one of my strong points, they were useful to me. The only way I will ever get confortable is just to have to do it. I guess it would depend on the experience level of others. |
| the case studies help grasp the understanding of concepts | take a little more time to go over what the case is about before each case | I found the cases useful in helping me understand the material | I find the wiki projects a pain, and I don't see a real use for them. It is interesting that the Wiki concept is out there, but I didn't find that it really added to the class. | I found them useful. Giving presentations and speaking in front of people is an important skill to master. I feel the more practice the better | ||
| The cases forced you to think and work well with others. | none | none | none | I thought that the in-class cases were effective. I believe that all of the cases challenged the groups and gave important knowledge that can be used in the future. | The wiki projects were confusing at first. Our group was kind of unsure on what we were suppose to do but after we sat down and figured it out, it went well. I think being more specific on requirements would help the project. | I think presentations are always good because it forces people to work on their public speaking skills. It also gave others groups insight on how you did your cases. |
| Cases, Projects, and weekly quizes were all good learning tools. | More detailed lectures would help in understanding the material. Using two different books caused some confusion. Specifically I felt some test answers could not be found in the 'multi-colored' book or in the slide presentations. I feel that cost me some points. | all were done well | Very pleasant to listen to. Lectures were a little too brief. | Cases were very useful. They required some 'self teaching' from the book - that took time, but seemed to be good in the long run. Using ORACLE was a good experience. All were good and relevant. Short walkthroughs of a similar case during the lecture would be helpful. | Give a list to choose from and offer more initial direction. It was a vague project and the groups seemed to be slow to get going with anything meaningful. Make the groups select a leader. This could have been a much better experience. I would keep it, and try to improve it. | Not really, unless you've never given a presentation before. I did not expect to learn how to give a presentation in this class. |
| This course introduced the basics of analyzing systems well. | I didn't see any big problems. | No | No | Yeah, the cases provided good examples of things we would do in the real world. Especially ORACLE, after doing work with that in class, I have noticed a number of adds in papers and on sites for companies looking for people familiar with ORACLE. | The topics for the wiki projects were not defined well enough, it took a long time for my group to figure out what we were supposed to do. | Yes, and albeit I'm not a big fan of presenting things, making presentations is good practice for things we will have to do in the future. |