Following up regarding the mid-semester feedback, I received 11 responses (27.5% response rate) and the feedback appears verbatim below. I’ve included comments to some of the feedback, but know that I appreciate and consider all feedback even if I didn’t respond to it directly.

What is going well in this course?

I like how much I am learning about git, and project development

I appreciate the reading guides that go along with the reading notes, which help me feel more involved in the course, as well as better prepare me for the quizzes.

The textbook is good.

Learning real life applications

I’d say that it’s going pretty well, I wouldn’t say amazing or absolutely horrendous, but time is the major concern; organization; general consistency (excluding projects); instructor sense of style; instructor occasional Teams backgrounds

I’m curious about the comment regarding “general consistency (excluding projects).” If there’s a component of the project that’s problematic, I’d like to fix – or at least address – it.

Asynchronous classes, project

The workload is manageable and the grading isn’t too harsh, which alleviates some of the stressors that this semester introduced.

I enjoy the a-synchronous aspect!

The small quizzes are pretty helpful

I am glad that we are meeting almost every class period even though this is technically an asynchronous course. The class time definitely helps me to stay on track with this course.

The later sections have been going better than the start. With more exposure to each thing/ model and more practice I feel like I am getting more of the nuances, though not all of them.

How could this course be improved?

I understand, but don’t enjoy the uml as much. Doesn’t seem as relevant

Due to time management, I often finish the reading and the reading guide and feel less-inclined to watch accompanying videos. Perhaps adding questions to the reading guide that are specific to the videos would guide my watching of the videos and focus my time more similarly to how it is focused during the readings.

That’s an excellent suggestion. Thank you!

More focused GR questions and objectives. The consensus from my lens is that the GR didn’t test the course material very well. I know there was a curve, but most of us want to learn the material and become better developers.

Again, I’m curious about this comment because every question on the graded reviews (GRs) is directly aligned with a learning objective.

Nothing I need to manage my time better in general

More “straight to the point” learning activities (time management: yes, it’s a 3-credit hour course, but cadet reality does not allow that to be the case most of the time); quality > quantity; due dates could also be at the beginning of class time; quizzes with content that is gr-potential(ish); seemingly lower instructor expectations?; other extra credit activities to give the not-so-genius students a chance

Most material is covered twice: one by the reading and once by a video. I do that because some students have strong learning preferences and because repetition improves learning. Knowing this general design, a pragmatic approach is to start with whichever modality you prefer and follow-up with others as time permits (e.g., watch the videos first and possibly skip textbook reading if you feel that you understand the material and have a lot going on that week). That said, you skip learning activities at your own risk: some aspects of a topic are better covered by one activity than another, and I didn’t include activities for the sole reason of requiring 3 hours of involvement every lesson.

The quizzes are currently designed as a quick way to check basic recall and understanding of a topic. I’ll try to include more application-oriented questions in the future, though.

I don’t understand the last comment. The extra credit is open-ended. I’ve awarded points for typographical mistakes (e.g., a misspelled word on a quiz) and other trivial issues like reporting a broken link. I also don’t think it’s too difficult to send me solutions to a worksheet on the website that currently lacks them; in the worst case, they might be completely wrong, but at least I’ll give you feedback so you can correct your misunderstanding before the material is tested (and I’ve always found a way to award students something in the past).

Communication about assignments. I feel like I need to attend the optional sessions to get necessary information about how to get a good grade on the assignments (project sprints, design, etc.), which means they are not optional.

I try to ensure that everything is posted on the course website. Please draw my attention to specific cases when I provide communication in a synchronous session that isn’t available elsewhere so I can remedy it (and probably award you extra credit in the process!).

Having lessons dedicated to group collaboration/work for the project would be immensely helpful considering our already tight schedules.

Noted. I’ll see if I can cancel some of the optional synchronous sessions later in the semester to accommodate this request.

Sometimes we are expected to know some JAVA that we have yet to learn yet and that’s a little difficult. Maybe if this course was a little behind 330 that would be nice.

The project is what I have the biggest issue with. Some members are putting in way more work than other members and there is no way to force those members to do their part. Im not sure how to solve this but it is an issue right now

Admittedly one of the worst aspects of team projects, but one that you’ll deal with throughout your career. As stated in the participation expectations, there will be a peer evaluation that will be used to reward / penalize individuals based on their contributions. Stay the course!

I enjoy the mini-reviews that we have each lesson that goes over the material that day, but it would be nice if it was a little more expansive (e.g. not just reviewing one design model, but multiple).

More feedback on the GR/ quizzes. Why something is the best answer, because there have been many questions that could have more than 1 correct answer from most of our perspectives, but we guess wrong which is the best. So more explanation after the fact and more explanation of the nuances between each thing. Also like 5 minutes in class to go over the associated quiz would be nice.

Feel free to schedule extra instruction (EI) to review quizzes and GRs with me in detail. I’m also happy to take questions about quizzes during synchronous sessions the lesson after the quiz is due.