Courses/Computer Science/CPSC 203/CPSC 203 Template/Scrum

Fall 2008. End of Semester Forensic Review

This area documents suggestions for improving the 203 Lab (Tutorial) Programme. It will be used to define development priorities for the following semester.

Resources

• Update Jes in lab to Jes 3.1 (or latest version).
• Alternative Programming Environments
  • Python + Quickdraw (consisteent with 217).
  • WindowsLogo, *Logo .... someLogo.
  • others ...

TA Meetings

• have a single TA meeting, suitably scheduled so all (majority) of TAs can attend. E.g. Fridays.
• This is a "pace setting meeting" which all TAs and instructors attend.
• One instructor is in charge of that section (TA Meetings).

Grading

• Announce Deadline for Reporting Grades -- across all sections. Made Public.

Lab Manual Suggested Changes

• Spreadsheet Module
  • Add more to first few tutorials, less from last few
  • Minimize domain knowledge needed to understand formulae in spreadsheets
  • No magic numbers in formulae (and if they are there -- DOCUMENT).

• Database Module
  • Lab that teaches templates of all the queries is long (spread over 2 tutorials)

• Programming Module
  • Source document for some of the programming examples has 2 mistakes
  • Have an introductory section to programming (what a program is; what instructions are; how a program runs on a machine)
  • Make programming section longer (could shorten Design section).
  • When using Jes -- do not use dot notation for functions. Do everythin with function calls.

• Design Module
  • Fill out the Design Modules
  • Tie Design Module materials to TBA 4.

Assignment Suggested Changes

Include changes to assignment document, marking templates, etc.

• Assignment 1

• Assignment 2

• Term Project
  • Term Project Vetting Process. If any term projects have "controversial" topics -- we should consider an official vetting process, where the oral presentation is first given to the TA or Instructor.

TBA Suggested Changes

Include changes to TBA documents, marking templates, in-tutorial procedures etc.

• General
  • Having a Practice TBA (that is longer and harder than TBA) available before TBA. (guarantees people can do it fast)
    • Everybody has same standard set of practice questions.
  • Make TBA shorter -- 40 minutes. Submission post 40 minutes.
  • Make sure data needed online (rather than being typed in).
  • Revise marking templates so they do not reveal the questions.

• TBA1 (Spreadsheet)

• TBA2 (Database)

• TBA3 (Programming)
  • Sepearate document you write programming materials in, from document you write "answers" in (e.g. numerical values, what the program is doing).
  • Needs to be re-designed with simpler examples -- e.g. for loops; e.g. grey scale code confused students -- didn't realize all they had to do was call the function.

• TBA 4 (Design).
  • Can we make output criteria more close ended

Other Suggested Changes

Any ideas that do not fit into the above categories; or start a new category withinin this section.

• Take into account holidays.
• Lock Down some wiki pages/ or use links.

Lab Manual Suggested Changes (Summer 2008)

Week 1, Lab 1

• Add link to Wiki tutorial (Lab 0)-- noting it's student's responsibility to go through tutorial.
• In class -- as a getting started exercise, they'll add their name to a "People" Page. (Create Link in Tutorial)

See: http://wiki.ucalgary.ca/page/Courses/Computer_Science/CPSC_203/CPSC_203_2008Winter_L03/CPSC_203_2008Winter_L03_People

• Otherwise, looks complete

Spreadsheet Week 1, Lab 2

• Add screenshot examples for Nested If ... Then, Pivot Table, Lookup.
• Can draw on (from Blackboard) "Spreadsheet Lecture 2 -- Simple Calculation Examples" and "Spreadsheet Lecture 3 -- Iris Data with Lookup Table" (will have to convert over to Excel 2007). These examples use the "Lookup" fn, rather than VLookup.
• In particular, provide an example of a numerical Lookup table, and how excel interprets the cut points (as >=).

Spreadsheet Week 2, Lab 1

• Intro is Missing
• Again -- some examples would make this concrete. In "Spreadsheet Lecture 3 -- Iris Data with Lookup Table" I illustrated successively more refined charts for the iris data. You might want to use that, or another data set and do the same. Essentially, removed Gray background, Highlighted Borders, Changed Scale to roughly Golden Ration of Height to Width, and finally created a small multiple display of the iris data.
• Would be nice to have some visuals in a section on visual design.

Spreadsheet Week 2, Lab 2

• You can illustrate a Well Designed Spreadsheet with "Spreadsheet Lecture 3 -- Presidents Analysis Iterations 1 and 2". Beginning with a simple spreadsheet, gradually refined. The "final" version of the Presidents Data Analysis, conforming to the Spreadsheet Design Priniciples is under "AnalysisExamples for Assignment 1" on Blackboard.

Spreadsheet Week 3, Lab 1

• This seems to be just a stub, with no content.
• Examples can be found in: "Analysis Examples for Assignment 1", and "Spreaddsheet Lecture 5, EDA Examples".
• A forecasting example would be nice: for example a student loan calculator. Enter Loan Amount, Interest Rate, Compounding, How Much You can Pay a Month, forecast Years to Pay Loans and Total Amount paid out.

• A couple of very simple textual Analysis examples would also be nice to illustrate: 12. Some basic text functions (examples are concatenation, count-if, and matches to a particular text value)

Database Week 1, Lab 1

• Screen shots need to be updated to Office 2007
• There isn't an actual example of an ER-D Diagram here, though it's listed on the skills list. Could use the Final picture with Persons, City and Province table, and add in a quick shot of an ERD. Essentially in the course, we use a very stripped down version of ER-Ds. Just arrows. A very simple intro at: http://rapidapplicationdevelopment.blogspot.com/2007/06/entity-relationship-diagram-example.html. Even simpler ok for this course.

Database Week 1, Lab 2

• Add screenshots from one of the sample databases
• Seems to overlap material of Lab 1 a bit

Database Week2, Lab 2

• Spelling mistake in last word of link: should be "Queries"
• Otherwise Good.

Database Week 3, Lab 1

• Need to add the sample db used in the example
• Otherwise, EXCELLENT. Very clear.

Database Week 3, Lab 2

Preceding database labs should cover all the skills listed here -- might want to add that in brackets. E.g. after skill 1 description (Database Week 1, Lab 1) -- or just a link back to that lab. We should do something like this for all the TBAs. Helps us to also double check we have indeed covered in labs the skills required for the TBA.

Problem Solving, Week 1, Lab 1

Ryan and I discussed the Problem Solving and Design labs on August 28th. I'll wait a bit until more content is added before commenting.

• For Heuristics, see Polya's work online, for a "list" of the key steps in solving a problem -- http://www.geocities.com/polyapower/TheList.html
• Polya published a small book in the early 50's, "How to Solve It" -- I've got a copy somehwhere in Vancouver -- but we may be able to find a copy on campus, or I'll order one.

SCRUM

Sprint 1 Lab manual 2 (June)

Sprint 2 lecture notes (July)

Sprint 3 revise both (August)

Points from meeting 14/07/2008

• next meeting (Ryan and Navneet) is Monday the 21st
• meeting: Friday the 25th 1- 3 pm (meeting on campus)
• goal for this week: wrap-up the labs, and look at the labs together
• goal for next week: Navneet and Ryan make 2 lectures each following the sample lecture (have these prepared for Friday the 21st)
  • lecture notes that a student could study from
• ask Susan/Darcy about webspace to store files and make them accessible for lectures/labs

Initial backlog list

• Refine Marking Sheets
• Revise Assignments, Data with Assignments
• Pick Some Student Examples to use to create "Good Assignment" examples -- modify so not the students work.
• Close tie in between Labs/Lectures/Assignments/TBAs

20 minute lecture & 20 minute exercise tied to the skills lists. (LOOK AT SKILLS AND CONCEPTS, and BLACKBOARD) intro database lab lecture intro spreadsheets lab lecture

Spreadsheet Module Backlog

• 3 Weeks
• Week 1
  • Intro to Spreadsheet (quick)+ Basic Calculations (e.g basic stats)
  • More Complex Calculations (tie to example spreadsheets)If .. Then, Pivot Tables

• Week 2
  • Charts & Visual Design Rules
  • Intro to Ass 1 + Spreadsheet Design Rules

Week 3

• • Analysis Examples (including some textual analysis). Review for Assignment 1
  • Time-Bosecd Assignment on Spreadsheets.

• Spreadsheet Examples on Google Spreadsheets -- so easily available to students.
• Where do we teach referenial integrity
• Where do we incorporate DB design guidlines (from lectures)

Database Module Backlog

• 3 Weeks
• Week 1
  • Intro to Databases (quick): Basic Parts of a Database (Done)
  • Fields, Keys, Simple Queries (single table)Intro to Assignment 1 (Done)

• Week 2
  • Multi-table queries, Aggregate Qureies (Almost finished)
  • Crosstab queries, Custom Calculations, If .. Then (use example databses already created)

Week 3

• • Query Analysis Examples (including some textual analysis). Review for Assignment 2
  • Time-Bosecd Assignment on Databases

• Try and build in link between "Access" db's and more web oriented DB's.

Problem Solving Module Backlog

• Week 1
  • Introduction to programming + defining how you may solve a problem (heuristic and algorithm), link these ideas back to spreadsheets and databases, and pseudocode
  • Introduction to JES + variable and constants (what do you need to know), conditions (are there branching points; logic AND, OR, and NEGATION), and loops (can any steps be repeated; while and for)
• Week 2
  • Code organization + input/output (data that goes into an algorithm and the data that come out), code documentation, and testing
  • Datastructures (variable and list)
• Week 3
  • Review
  • Time-boxed assignment on problem solving (turn a colour photo into a black-and-white photo in JES)