Feedback on Feedback

At the end of the semester, students have the opportunity to give some feedback for the class. I read them and will write here some comments. If you have an opinion on this, feel free to talk with me about it, but not during class.

  • I hate taking courses that I pay money for when I fell obligated to reteach myself the entire lecture. It made more sense for me to skip lecture & watch relevant YouTube videos than it did for me to come to lecture.

    First of all, I am sorry that you did not get more out of my lectures. However, you will not be able to avoid reviewing the lectures and studying the material by your own.

    Regarding the money, have you ever thought about what you are paying for? You don't pay for knowledge. Nearly everything taught, especially in undergraduate classes, is available online for free. What you are paying for are two things: a degree and some guiding. You pay thousands of dollars each semester to get a verification of your knowledge at the end.

    About the YouTube videos, you probably refer to the MIT classes. If you only consume my lecture without asking questions or using the opportunity to talk with me, then I totally agree. The MIT lectures online are in nearly any way better than my lecture. You can watch them where and when you want, you can pause and repeat them, and they are taught by a brilliant professor with more than a decade of teaching experience. The only advantage you have coming to my class is that you can interact with me. You should use this.

  • Questions on test were sometimes vague and I didn't know what I was trying to solve from what it was asking.

    If you don't understand a question in an exam, please ask. Of course it can happen, that I used a misleading formulation.

  • There isn't a practical use for a proof.

    *sight* Yes, there is. This might not seem like it for you at the moment. But I can ensure you it is important. For every calculation you make, it is important to know that they are correct. Proofs ensure that you don't fool yourself with wrong ideas which seem right. Have you ever compiled a program, used an encrypted connection, or searched for the fastest driving route? All these software required an enormous amount of proofs.

  • Only two tests the whole semester. I would have like to see more inbetween or even quizes to see progress.

    I am from Germany and I studied in Germany. In Germany it is the usual case that there is only one big exam at the end of the semester. And only this exam determines your grade. There are no midterms. And if you get homework, it has no influence on your final grade. But you need a certain grade in you homework to be allowed to write the final exam. Based on this, it is already a big thing for me to give you a midterm and also make 30 % of your grade based on your homework.

    Additionally, exams and quizzes cost time, which means less time for teaching. For SAS students it usually means that they have to schedule some extra time to write it. Thus, making to many exams or quizzes is problematic.

    However... I heard this point multiple times and talked with some people about it. For the moment I came to the conclusion to write three exams during the semester plus a final exam.

  • Subject matter was fun but challenging. I loved Arne's accent!

    <3