Online Teacher/Course/Text Evaluation Results
In May, 2025, students were asked to complete an online evaluation for this course. In this form, they indicated how strongly they agreed or disagreed with twenty-three statements, and had the opportunity to submit written comments on six additional questions. Evaluations were performed in-class and submitted anonymously via a web-based evaluation form.
This course uses course materials created by the instructor, presented in class, and available via the course website, with Miller & Ranum's How To Think Like A Computer Scientist textbook available (free online) as a supplement. Daily programming assignments are used as "homework" to develop students' facility both with programming and with the computer science concepts (control structures, data structures, algorithms). programming assignments were evaluated and incorporated into students's grades. By the end of the semester course, 40+ assignments had been collected and evaluated, including simple programming exercises, multi-day projects, and quizzes.
Many thanks to my students for their honest feedback on these forms.
The results of the "multiple-choice" responses are summarized here.
| STATEMENT: | AVERAGE RESPONSE (n=10) 5-Strongly Agree 4-Agree 3-Neutral 2-Disagree 1-Strongly Disagree (Values in parentheses are from previous years) |
| 4. I enjoy taking this class. | 5.00 (4.58, 4.71, 4.24, 4.63, 4.59) |
| 5. I learn a lot in this class. | 4.80 (4.08, 4.43, 4.29, 4.75, 4.82) |
| 6. The information in this class will be useful in the future. | 4.30 (4.17, 4.29, 3.59, 4.25, 4.47) |
| 7. This class is difficult for me. | 3.00 (2.92, 2.85, 3.24, 3.44, 3.24) |
| 8. This class has a lot of homework. | 2.30 (2.00, 2.29, 2.82, 2.75, 2.41) |
| 9. I complete homework assignments regularly. | 4.10 (4.58, 4.07, 4.24, 4.27, 4.41) |
| 10. The textbook in this class is useful to me. | 2.80 (2.43, 2.83, 2.36, 3.29, 2.85) |
| 11. The teacher in this class is useful to me. | 4.80 (4.58, 4.85, 4.47, 4.63, 4.88) |
| 12. The teacher demonstrates enthusiasm for the subject. | 4.89 (4.92, 5.00, 4.88, 4.88, 5.00) |
| 13. The teacher is respectful of students. | 4.90 (4.75, 4.79, 4.50, 4.44, 4.71) |
| 14. The teacher wants me to succeed. | 4.80 (4.67, 4.64, 4.41, 4.63, 4.71) |
| 15. The teacher presents course material in a clear, straightforward manner. | 4.50 (4.00, 4.46, 3.94, 4.25, 4.41) |
| 16. The teacher presents course material using variety of techniques. | 4.30 (4.17, 3.93, 3.65, 4.25, 4.18) |
| 17. The teacher checks to ensure that students understand the material. | 4.40 (4.09, 4.33, 3.88, 3.88, 4.25) |
| 18. The teacher is available outside of class for individual help. | 4.30 (4.55, 4.57, 4.41, 4.44, 4.53) |
| 19. Class time is used effectively. | 4.40 (4.27, 4.54, 4.29, 4.25, 4.41) |
| 20. Course objectives are clearly stated. | 4.40 (4.00, 4.43, 4.00, 4.13, 4.41) |
| 21. Grading criteria are clearly communicated. | 4.30 (3.83, 4.14, 3.88, 3.88, 4.06) |
| 22. Assignments are meaningful and reflect the course objectives. | 4.60 (4.42, 4.38, 4.29, 4.38, 4.47) |
| 23. The website-based presentations are useful to me outside of class. | 4.11 (3.38, 4.00, 3.47, 3.92, 4.00) |
| 24. The website-based presentations improve the quality of the teacher's lectures. | 4.22 (3.63, 4.08, 3.80, 4.19, 4.06) |
| 25. The website-based presentations in class are effective in helping me understand the material. | 4.63 (4.14, 4.25, 3.77, 4.19, 4.31) |
| 27. For assistance in coursework, students who ask other students for help: | 10/10 |
| 27. For assistance, students who email instructor | 0/10 |
| 27. For assistance, students who visit during office hours | 4/10 |
| 27. For assistance, students who ask a tutor | 0/10 |
| 27. For assistance in coursework, students who search online for help: | 2/10 |
| 27. For assistance, students who refer to textbook | 0/10 |
| 27. For assistance, students who ask a family member | 1/10 |
Results from the "free response" questions are given here. Not all written comments have necessarily been listed, but the comments that are given are representative of what was received.
| 28. List a few of your favorite things about this class. |
I really like the class vibe/atmosphere and structure. I also like how we are able to work on our own thing while also having larger projects we do together. I love the class dynamic and the projects that we work on. I love Mr White's enthusiasm for the subject and it inspires me to be more passionate for this class. I loved making the storytime.py and 8ball.py. My favorite thing about this was the way the class was run and the classroom atmosphere. I loved the jovial environment of the classroom, always having a fun time while learning how to code. I also loved how the class structure focused on students learning how to code themselves and not just copying what the instructor did. I love that Mr.White is so active in class and is always helping us with code when we don't understand it. It makes the class much more interactive, and I'm much more motivated to learn when a teacher is doing the work as well. One of my favorite things about this class is the mini projects that we did. I also enjoyed the collaborative quizzes. I also enjoyed watching the movie about the game "go." My favorite thing about this class is the group and individual projects. In my opinion, they allow us to fully test the skills we have learned to our fullest abilities while having fun. Some of my favorite things about this class are how we do work in class. The style of working individually but having to turn to your peers to brainstorm and work off each other to combat errors is rewarding and very educational, and also fun. I loved the upbeat and casual atmosphere the class provided, which always felt conducive to asking questions, phoning a friend, and thriving in a shared learning space. I really like the Crash White website because it has a lot of sources and instructions for what I need to do when I am struggling or just want to read more about a certain topic. Another thing I like about the course is the way we work on code together. Mr. White makes it a collaborative effort for us to understand the code instead of us working on it by ourselves and making it a solo project. |
| 29. Which achievements in here are you most proud of for the year-to-date? |
I am very proud of my craps.py and Processing image programs. I am most proud of my storytime.py mad lib. I am most proud of my game_of_life.py because it is really interesting to watch the patterns and I am happy that I was the one who created something cool. I was most proud of my craps project as I learned to apply all of my knowledge into one game. What was rewarding was that after lots of trial and error, I finally got the game working! I'm proud of the projects we have been doing, such as game of life, craps, and spring hexathon. Spring hexathon was especially rewarding because I understood all of it throughout the project, and any questions I had, I worked through very quickly. I learned how to code any sort of program for the very first time. One of the most rewarding things for me was the satisfaction of getting a program to run in the way I coded it to. I am most proud of my craps program as I used no outside help other than myself to create a program that functions in the way I designed it. This program really opened my eyes to my abilities and autonomy as a coder. I am very proud of my craps program. It took a lot of work and required combining everything I had learned this year at the point to make a working game. I successfully created and very quickly. I then attempted to add some cool features. I was able to get a betting system that worked, but I had no idea how to write things on the disc, so after each game, the money were lost, unfortunate because I wanted to keep my net worth, but I was very proud of what I had done so far. Coding Game of Life and Craps was especially cool because it gave me a chance to test everything we learned in class. I was most proud of SCRAPS because I really tried to go in my own direction when coding that project, and even though it didn't work out the way I wanted it to when I was trying to code it. It was purely my own work and effort put into something, and I found it really rewarding. In the end, I ended up using Mr. White's video for instructions, but I was still really satisfied with the amount of effort I put into trying to code it myself. |
| 30. List a few of your least favorite things about this class. |
I did not like how few quizzes we had. I did not love when we had to do multiple codes per night of homework, sometimes I found it to be a tad over-bearing. nothing Although in general I loved the class, my least favorite thing from this class was when, after I finished coding something, I would have to wait instead of being challenged with another project. My least-favorite part was having multiple codes for homework, I found it a little bit difficult to work through different codes while making sure they were all quality, efficient, and correct. I think the class goes slightly fast but its not that bad. Also I feel like some of the lectures are just telling rather than teaching. Sometimes I would be disengaged because I got confused and it would just keep going more in-depth to where I didn't understand anything at all. I think that going through the programs (especially the projects) in class with solutions can be kind of annoying as I feel that letting the students work through the project by themselves would allow students to absorb and learn the information better. I did not like the lack of assessments. I can't really think of anything... sorry! I think one of my least favorite things about this course is that we get off topic sometimes, but it's not that deep of an issue. It just disrupts the flow of the class, especially when we are deep into code. |
| 31. What has been most difficult or challenging for you up to this point? What strategies have you considered for meeting those challenges? |
I think my biggest challenge is staying on task and/or catching up with everyone else. It seems I sometimes fall behind during class time because I make an error and have to spend twice as long correcting it. My most difficult point in this class was working on game_of_life.py since it challenged me and when I was struggling I found myself rather frustrated but Mr. White helped me and guided me through. For loops are a bit difficult for me and I ask my peers for help when I need it. The most difficult part of CS up to this point is how the class system works, as I'm still slightly confused about how it works. To meet these challenges, I will continue to work on learning how class works. The most challenging thing for me was for loops, but when I vocalized this to Mr.White, not only did he tell me how to understand them, he made sure to call on me whenever we had code with for loops involved so that I could work through it with him. Now, for loops are a breeze for me! Some of the challenges I had were that I had absolutely no experience at all coding beforehand and others in the class did. Another challenge was the very first quiz. It was one of the hardest quizzes that I've ever took just because I was unfamiliar with the material. The most difficult challenge this year was going through and understanding the game of life. At first, I was completely lost with no bearings on where to go. I eventually folded and used the class template, which worked, but I feel that I didn't really complete it by myself with my own skills. The most challenging thing was probably understanding for loops at the beginning. The more code we wrote with for loops the better I understood and and I got much better at them. When we began learning for loops, the logic that was being used in class began to become a little more complex. I overcame this by asking my peers and teacher for assistance. I think one of the most difficult parts of this course for me was loops and the for i in range concepts. It's a little difficult to grasp since a lot of our code was built upon the foundation of understanding that, but once I got it got much easier. |
| 32. Suggest some improvements to make the class better. |
More group activities (although I like the ones that are already running!) and more quizzes. I think Mr. White should bring back giving us red vines but other wise I have no suggestions for improvments. write some more on the board maybe? (but you're alr doing that) To improve this course, create extra credit challenge projects for students who love the material and want to excel. I don't feel like there should be any changes, I love this class! Maybe go slightly slower and make a little bit more of an engaging way to teach. I think a good method was asking questions to us students while making the code instead of use copying your code. Maybe going a bit slower when introducing new material, and letting us work a bit longer by ourselves during individual work. More group tests. More days when you bring snacks or treats I think a suggestion is maybe some videos explaining some of the concepts other than in class. So if we are struggling with code then we have some thing to watch to give us hints or things of that nature. |
| 33. Other comments? |
I like how there's often food in class. Amazing class with amazing vibes <o/ None other. Thank you for the semester of Computer Science. I think this was the most fun class I had this year. :) I'm serious about the snack thing Nothing else, thank you so much, I had a great semester with you, Mr. White. |