CS373 Fall 2020 Final Entry: Caitlin O’Callaghan
How well do you think the course conveyed its key takeaways?
I think this course did an excellent job conveying the key takeaways Downing wanted us to learn. However due to the circumstances this semester with online classes, I found it very difficult to keep up with the material when there weren’t assignments or projects to reinforce it and the projects covered different material (web development) instead. That being said, I think I learned so much about web development and I really enjoyed it.
Were there any other particular takeaways for you?
I think the biggest takeaway from this course for me was how much I learned about Typescript/Javascript, React Native, and web development in general. I truly enjoyed it and appreciated being able to have full control over what we created our website on and how we designed it.
How did you feel about two-stage quizzes and tests?
I think the two-stage quizzes and tests in this class helped ease the difficulties I faced with paying attention in online classes during the pandemic. If I didn’t recall information from the previous classes, my teammates could fill me in without detracting time from the rest of the class.
How did you feel about cold calling?
I think cold calling was beneficial for helping me pay attention in class as well as helping me feel comfortable asking questions because I could see the rest of my classmates also asking questions throughout each class.
How did you feel about office hours?
Office hours were incredibly helpful for the projects and the TAs were more than willing to spend their time helping us get to the root cause of an issue we were having. However there was an instance where deploying AWS amplify with Docker was not working and I wish the TAs could have provided more resources for help with that sooner since we had visited office hours many times for it. This was very minor though in comparison with all the help they gave us throughout the semester.
How did you feel about lab sessions?
For lab sessions I felt the same as I did about office hours.
Give me your suggestions for improving the course.
For me, the biggest struggle with this course was that I have trouble paying attention in class at times which is compounded by class being online. To alleviate this I would suggest adding more opportunities to reinforce the material learned in class, such as a small homework assignment or HackerRank each week. I realize this would be adding more work but I think this would have helped me immensely in keeping up with the material as I go instead of relearning it before the exam. Maybe a small coding assignment could be combined with the paper annotations into one. I also think a bit more time on the individual part of the exams would be nice as I tend to get anxious in timed exams and freeze up.
Final Thoughts and Advice
Overall, I really enjoyed the course and thought it was a great opportunity to grow as an engineer and specifically learn more about web development. Downing is a great, caring professor who has done a great job making this an interesting and effective course. For future students, I would recommend really paying close attention in class and using all the resources Downing provides, such as going back to do the HackerRanks. I would also say to utilize office hours and start on projects early! Projects were time consuming for my group since we were new to web development, but they were very rewarding in the end. Good luck and I hope you enjoy this class as much as I did!
