I would be lying if I were to say that the thought that “students may not be so eager to work hard” did not cross my mind! (I hope I obfuscated this sentence enough to make it palatable to all audiences:-) And my preference has generally been to go for “realism”. And I have not been terribly good at estimating the amount of work involved to mimic reality. This estimation is very dependent on the students’ skill set coming to the course, and 301 has a broad variety of students. And what’s worse, I think the variety gets more variable which makes my poor estimation capabilities plain terrible.

I will for sure keep the projects coming but I just heard that next year I am doing 401 (yeah!!!) which is generally taken by students who like software engineering more which is always a great help to the instructor! Maybe you want to take it? I promise(threaten?) lots of fun and lots of interactions with real customers!

The project was not necessarily “hard”, just extremely time-consuming (as any real project will be). I would attribute the low ratings you received to the common student’s laziness before I’d credit it to a poor choice of project.

This course provided me with the first ounce of real experience in my 5-year degree. We had to evaluate a spec, design a system from scratch, and implement it all by a specific deadline.

I say keep projects like this coming and let the lazy students filter out if need be. But I’m also a bit heartless when it comes to people who don’t appreciate hard work.

Personally, one of my favourite courses during my studies was CMPUT 401 (w/ Dr Wong), and largely because we were tasked with real work that in successful cases resulted in some value for someone beyond the learning experience. That said, without 301 and a year of work experience behind me, I doubt I would have been prepared for everything that taking a real-world assignment from requirements gathering to success entails. 301 was definitely an interesting course though – I think for many students it can be a bit of an awakening on how much goes into any non-trivial software project. While that makes it a difficult and time-consuming course, I would maintain that it is also one of the most valuable and necessary.

As someone who has gone from leveraging my degree and very limited experience into a career to the other side of that table, I will pick a great portfolio of student work and an enthusiasm for interesting projects over the terminally grade-obsessed straight A student every time.

Thank you, Eleni … on International Women’s Day, it is an honour to read a blog post by Eleni Stroulia about an inspiring presentation by Maria Klawe!! Does it get any better than this?!

David was the typical student that we all get one of in pretty much each class: at times withdrawn, consistently late delivering assignments, quick with snide remarks about the content of the day’s class.

One day he came to me outside of class for advice about whether he should drop out. I asked him what was wrong and he talked about his parents being in the middle of a divorce and how that was affecting him. We talked for awhile but the main message I wanted to send to him was that it was in no way his fault his parents were divorcing and the best thing he can do is focus on what his goals are personally.

The next day in class he was a different student altogether. A light switched on and he became a completely different catalyst for learning in the room. Today he is a successful young man.

There are so many more stories including one from just this weekend. Personal connections is why I teach and will never stop teaching.

Cheers,
Ken

We have to accept the fact that students always have different priorities than us.
–Rimon