“I planned to expand the purview of this course, focusing on more than one platform of programming.”
Course: Mobile Computing Systems
Department: Computer Science
Reflection:
Check-pointing students-meetings (especially the 3 check points related to the course project i.e. project idea or proposal, project mid-point check-pointing, and final project presentation) helped students as they got more feedback on their ongoing work. It has also help the instructor (me and my TA) to closely monitor the progress of each project group and provide on-time inputs to the students. This has eliminated the gap between what is expected from the students and what they are doing. Rubrics were greatly helpful in grading the programming assignments and final projects. Student were well-informed of the allocated points and percentages for each part of an assignment and their projects. This has helped us grade students according to a standard, and for the first time we received no complaints from any student about their assignment grades.
Course Description
This course helps students develop programming skills.
The course will be structured around problems to solve using these programming skills. For instance, during the first half of the semester students are given small programming tasks as homework and in-class hands-on practice labs. Students develop individual projects in the course. They use the skills they have learned earlier on in the semester to develop mobile computing systems on their own. At the end of this course, students should be able to build an end-to-end mobile computing system.
This is the first time the course is being offered. It’s a lecture type course with a lot of hands-on programming assignments and a project. It is open to both undergraduate (typically 2nd year and above) and graduate students. It requires mobile devices which are costly.
Projected Design Elements
-Increase student-mobile device interaction (currently, 2-3 students share a single device.)
-Experiential, project-based learning in class (flipping the classroom)
-Research-focus (skills acquired in the course will help students pursue research projects in mobile systems)
sequenced versions of course (e.g. one introductory, one more advanced.)
To meet these redesign goals, I planned on lecturing less frequently (and perhaps turning more basic instructional lectures into on-demand, online videos.) To increase student’s participation in the course, I knew I would have to reduce some content. I also planned to expand the purview of this course, focusing on more than one platform of programming. Finally, I planned to have more routine meetings with students.
Incorporated Design Elements
After the redesign, I:
-Employed on-demand, online videos to teach students the basics, which
opened up class time for in-class activities, of which there were quite a few
-“Checkpointed” with students–meeting with them more frequently
-Asked students to complete projects related to the course
Used rubrics to assess student learning on those projects
Program: Finish Line Project