Some Teaching Info

• COMP123: Introduction to Information Technology (1999)
• COMP225/COMP2010: Algorithms and Data Structures (2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024)
• COMP238: Numerical Computing (1999)
• COMP248: Language Technology (2004, 2005)
• COMP323: Optimisation (1998, 2009)
• COMP333: Algorithm Theory and Design (2012, 2014, 2018)
• COMP348: Document Processing and the Semantic Web (2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2013)
• COMP432: Special Topic in Computational Linguistics (1996, 1998)
• COMP451: Complex Systems and Agent-Based Simulation (2002, 2003, 2004)
• COMP473: Optimisation Problems, Ants and Networks (2005)
• COMP473 (new): Advanced Algorithms (2006, 2007, 2009, 2011)
• COMP496/401/899/901: Research Methods and Communication (2002, 2003, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019)
• COMP777/COMP7860: Computing Methods for Research (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024)
• COMP783/COMP7220: Data Science and Machine Learning (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024)
• ITEC876/COMP8240 Applications of Data Science (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024)
• ITEC873/COMP8220 Machine Learning (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024)

Here are the summary sheets of my student evaluations, carried out by the University's (changeably named) learning and teaching support. Students typically fill them in in class, and give scores ranging from Strongly Agree (5) to Strongly Disagree (1) on a number of questions; they're then averaged across all students.

There's no official interpretation of the numbers; there used to be some guidelines ("Science classes always score worse, so don't be disheartened at lower scores"), but they've disappeared. But I think they're still more useful than no information. In interpreting them for myself I consider a score of Neutral (3) as a Pass.

• COMP225, 2013 evaluations.
  I got better evaluation on my feedback for this unit than for COMP348 in the same semester below, even though I gave more extensive feedback on two assignments in that unit. In this one we used OpenLearning as the platform for the class, where there was a lot of interaction in comments / responses / likes / etc, so maybe that's a kind of feedback that's preferred to detailed assignment comments.

• COMP348, 2013 evaluations.
  

• COMP348, 2010 evaluations.
  Written comments scanned as well. I've taken to heart that I should wear bling to engage Gen Y idiots.

• COMP323, 2009 evaluations.
  Written comments scanned as well.

• COMP348, 2008 evaluations.
  Written comments scanned as well. I was particularly happy with a change I made to feedback on assignments this year, and by comparing scores across years it seems students were happy too. It's also the first unit where a student thought I didn't make the work hard enough -- that's never happened before, with the usual feeling being that I err on the side of being too challenging. It's a hard balance to strike.

• COMP225, 2007 evaluations.

• COMP348, 2006 evaluations.
  Only 7 people out of 76 responded to this, again because it was an online evaluation; that's the last time I'll be using that approach. They were a pretty happy 7, though.

• COMP225, 2006 evaluations.
  And only 2 out of 69 responded to this. That was because I tried out the online evaluation set-up. My conclusion is that, regardless of email and website reminders, it's not a very good way of getting students to give feedback.

• COMP348, 2005 evaluations.

• COMP248, 2005 evaluations.
  A small class, but keen.

Last updated 25 June 2024