Running a successful class in information technology (Part 2)

In the previous post, I emphasized the setup of a successful class and the level of expectations for the student.

Expect the students to complete an assignment from the first week.

Generally, it takes students up to 2 to 3 weeks before they get into the swing of things. I don’t wait that long. I give the student an assignment to be completed by the beginning of the second week. And keep doing weekly assignment for the first 6 to 8 weeks and accept no late assignments. In that way, the students are used to the routine that there is an assignment to be completed and they have already set a time aside a week to do the homework. I always explain to the students that the class is top heavy i.e. the students can expect to learn topics necessary to do their project up front so that they can be active participant of their team. Once they have mastered these topics, they will become a contributing member. The last one third of the semester, you can cover the book in terms of reading and not so much on methodology and tools. The only remaining thing that is due will only be the final project deliverable and final exam in the final month.

I believe in hard work. I remember as an undergraduate student in Computer Sciences (CS), every CS major knew that they had to space out three rigorous courses: compiler and programming language, operating systems and database. However the professors for these courses are some of the best in the department and I am proud to have learned some of their teaching and students evaluation styles. I remembered my nights at the CS building working way into the night and buying donuts from a nearby shop at 5 AM on Regents Street. Each of these classes is awfully tough and 20 years later I still remember those long days and nights. But at the end of the semester, as I looked back at the project that I had done, there was a sense of elation and pride in the amount of work that I completed under a ridiculous time frame. I wanted to bring this feeling to the students that I teach now hence the reasons why I introduced these elements to any course I teach.

Provide a project that is challenging with specific requirements and the level of expectations.

I think too many times, because we have other commitments for our career in academia, we tend to relax on the expectations and level of difficulty for the project. You will be amazed that some of your students really love the challenge of a tough project. They thrive on that sometime. Obviously they won’t tell you in class. I think when the project becomes overly simple and trivial, the students can gauge and know it and will not put in as much effort in the project as you like. I think back at all the projects I have graded. The tough projects are always done well and the easy trivial ones are the ones that are splattered with errors. I am sure this is shared with many of my colleagues in my area in other colleges. The project can be a semester project or a project for the last quarter of the semester. Expect each team to work close to 50-80 hours to finish this project. I know some of you must be thinking, the students do not have that much time. But if you think carefully in a team of 5 that means each contribute about 12-20 hours (spread out over a few days) allowing some overlapping time between team members.

Perhaps, if you have time, you should show the video of The Deep Dive, an ABC Nightline production. Students get rejuvenated and pumped up after watching this video about the process of creating a new product in IDEO under very strict dateline.

In the final post for this topic, I will talk about the closure of the project and the class in general.

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