Course Evaluations

These are questions that were implemented in 2014 Cal Poly PHYS 202 Course Evaluations.

Course catalog description: Introduction to using computers for solving problems in physics: differential equations, matrix manipulations, simulations and numerical techniques, nonlinear dynamics.

The first eleven questions on this survey will allow you to evaluate how well this course met the learning objectives from the syllabus.

1. Upon completion of the course you should be able to use basic coding concepts such as loops, control statements, variable types, arrays, array operations, and boolean logic.

Completely met the objective
Mostly met the objective
Neutral
Partially met the objective
Did not meet the objective

2. Upon completion of the course you should be able to write, run and debug programs in a high level language.

Completely met the objective
Mostly met the objective
Neutral
Partially met the objective
Did not meet the objective

3. Upon completion of the course you should be able to carry out basic operations (e.g. cd, ls, dir, mkdir, ssh) at the command line.

Completely met the objective
Mostly met the objective
Neutral
Partially met the objective
Did not meet the objective

4. Upon completion of the course you should be able to maintain a version controlled repository of your files and programs.

Completely met the objective
Mostly met the objective
Neutral
Partially met the objective
Did not meet the objective

5. Upon completion of the course you should be able to create publication/presentation quality graphics, equations.

Completely met the objective
Mostly met the objective
Neutral
Partially met the objective
Did not meet the objective

6. Upon completion of the course you should be able to visualize symbolic analytic expressions - plot functions and evaluate their behavior for varying parameters.

Completely met the objective
Mostly met the objective
Neutral
Partially met the objective
Did not meet the objective

7. Upon completion of the course you should be able to use numerical algorithms (e.g. ODE solvers, FFT, Monte Carlo) and be able to identify their limitations.

Completely met the objective
Mostly met the objective
Neutral
Partially met the objective
Did not meet the objective

8. Upon completion of the course you should be able to code numerical algorithms from scratch and compare with existing implementations.

Completely met the objective
Mostly met the objective
Neutral
Partially met the objective
Did not meet the objective

9. Upon completion of the course you should be able to read from and write to local or remote files.

Completely met the objective
Mostly met the objective
Neutral
Partially met the objective
Did not meet the objective

10. Upon completion of the course you should be able to analyze data using curve fitting and optimization.

Completely met the objective
Mostly met the objective
Neutral
Partially met the objective
Did not meet the objective

11. Upon completion of the course you should be able to create appropriate visualizations of data, e.g. multidimensional plots, animations, etc.

Completely met the objective
Mostly met the objective
Neutral
Partially met the objective
Did not meet the objective

12. Do you have any suggestions for how the course or the instructor could better help you meet the learning objectives?

Free response field

13. Are there any learning objectives that you feel should NOT be included in the course?

Free response field

14. Are there any learning objectives for this course that you think should be included but were not?

Free response field

15. Rate the relevance of the learning objectives for your subsequent coursework at Cal Poly.

Extremely useful, essential to my success
Useful but not essential
Not useful or essential
I don't know

16. Rate the relevance of the learning objectives to your career goals after Cal Poly.

Extremely useful, essential to my success
Useful but not essential
Not useful or essential
I don't know

17. How likely are you to use what you learned in this course beyond this quarter?

Very likely
Somewhat likely
Very unlikely
I don't know

The next few questions appeared on the pre-learner survey at the beginning of the quarter. This is a follow-up to determine whether your answers might have changed.

18. With which programming languages could you write a program from scratch that reads a column of numbers from a text file and calculates mean and standard deviation of that data? (Check all that apply)

Fortran
C
C++
Perl
MATLAB
Python
R
Java
Other
None

19. In the following scenario, please select the answer that best applies to you. A tab-delimited file has two columns showing the date and the highest temperature on that day. Write a program to produce a graph showing the average highest temperature for each month.

I could not complete this task.
I could complete the task with documentation or search engine help.
I could complete the task with little or no documentation or search engine help.

20. In the following scenario, please select the answer that best applies to you. Given the URL for a project's version control repository, check out a working copy of that project, add a file called notes.txt, and commit the change.

I could not complete this task.
I could complete the task with documentation or search help.
I could complete the task with little or no documentation or search help.

21. How would you solve this problem? A directory contains 1000 text files. Create a list of all files that contain the word "Drosophila" and save the result to a file called results.txt.

I could not create this list
I would create this list using "Find in Files" and "copy and paste"
I would create this list using basic command line programs
I would create this list using a pipeline of command line programs
I would create this list using some Python code and the ! escape
I would create this list with code using the Python 'os' and 'sys' libraries

22. On average, I have spent __ hours per week doing work outside of class for this course.

0-2 hours
3-4 hours
5-6 hours
7-9 hours
10+ hours

23. The assignments in this course have enhanced my learning.

Strongly agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly disagree

24. The amount of work I was asked to do was appropriate.

Strongly agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly disagree

25. The instructor communicated course objectives clearly.

Strongly agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly disagree

26. The instructor communicated his/her expectations of students clearly.

Strongly agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly disagree

27. The instructor was respectful toward students.

Always
Usually
Sometimes
Rarely
Never

28. The instructor was well prepared for class.

Always
Usually
Sometimes
Rarely
Never

29. The instructor clearly explained difficult material and concepts.

Always
Usually
Sometimes
Rarely
Never

30. The instructor encouraged students to ask questions.

Always
Usually
Sometimes
Rarely
Never

31. The instructor answered questions clearly and completely.

Always
Usually
Sometimes
Rarely
Never

32. The course syllabus and schedule were clear and well organized.

Very clear and organized
Reasonably clear and organized
Somewhat clear and organized
Not clear or organized
Unclear and disorganized

33. The exams were fair assessments of student learning.

Very fair
Mostly fair
Somewhat fair
Somewhat unfair
Very unfair

34. Exams and assignments were graded fairly and consistently.

Always
Usually
Sometimes
Rarely
Never

Absolutely; a great instructor
Yes; a very good instructor
Generally yes; with a few reservations
Probably not
Definitely not

36. What could the instructor have done to better facilitate your learning and skill development?

Free response field

37. What could you have done differently to better facilitate your learning and skill development?

Free response field

The preceding questions will be used by your instructor to improve the quality of the course for future students. The remaining questions are the manadatory ones required by the University.

1. The ability of the instructor to present the course material clearly is

Well above average
Above average
Average
Below average
Well below average

2. The ability of the instructor to recognize and clarify student difficulties is (in class or during office hours)

Well above average
Above average
Average
Below average
Well below average

3. What is your class standing?

Freshman
Sophomore
Junior
Senior
Graduate

4. What is your reason for taking this class?

Elective
Required

5. Overall, how do you rate this course?

A(excellent)
B
C
D
F(unacceptable)

6. Overall, how do you rate this instructor?

A(excellent)
B
C
D
F(unacceptable)

7. If you have any further comments, type them here.

Free response field

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