The validity of Student Course Evaluations

Read these comments first:
Student Course Evaluations Get An 'F'.
Student evaluations of teaching are not only unreliable, they are significantly biased against female instructors.


 Winter 2015 - Student Course Feedback Survey
 2015W
Algonquin College  
AC  
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  Responsible Faculty:  IAN D ALLEN   Responses / Expected:   57 / 94 (60.63%) 
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The Course

CST8207 - 10 --- Survey Comparisons ---
Responses (%) Course All
SAAUDSD N Mean N Mean Pct
Rnk
Q1 Course learning activities (e.g lectures, discussions, practical work, group work, etc) are varied. 52.6%38.6%5.3%03.5% 57 4.4 25K 4.0
Q2 Course learning activites are linked to the course learning requirements. 68.4%31.6%000 57 4.7 25K 4.2
Q3 All of the course learning requirements are covered in the course. 63.2%33.3%1.8%1.8%0 57 4.6 25K 4.2
Responses: [SA] Strongly Agree=5 [A] Agree=4 [U] Undecided=3 [D] Disagree=2 [SD] Strongly Disagree.=1 
Pct Rnk: Percentile Rank (100 is best, calculated vs. precise Mean)
The Course

CST8207 - 10 --- Survey Comparisons ---
Responses (%) Course All
EVGGSNS N Mean N Mean Pct
Rnk
Q4 Overall, please rate the quality of this course 54.4%26.3%14%5.3%0 57 4.3 25K 3.8
Responses: [E] Excellent=5 [VG] Very Good=4 [G] Good=3 [S] Satisfactory=2 [NS] Not Satisfactory=1 
Pct Rnk: Percentile Rank (100 is best, calculated vs. precise Mean)
The Professor

ALLEN, IAN D
Responses (%) Individual
EVGGSNS N Mean
Q5 Overall, please rate the effectiveness of your course professor 64.9%19.3%12.3%3.5%0 57 4.5
Responses: [E] Excellent=5 [VG] Very Good=4 [G] Good=3 [S] Satisfactory=2 [NS] Not Satisfactory=1 
 
Question: What did you like most about this course?
Response Rate: 89.47%   (51 of 57)
1 Learning about Linux and the practical assignments offered.
2 New material, unknown and new to majority of people, created a good interest to get familiar with it.
3 I like how energetic the professor can be and please keep the rap
4 Exams
5 Learning about Linux system and installing our own Linux VMware.
6 explanation
7 everything
8 Being able to remotely complete labs.
9 How much we learn and the practical use for it
10 I enjoyed the high level of energy, He really made you want to be interested and engaged even though it was 8:00am.
11 Professor Ian's teaching method,attitude and the material he prepared for us.
12 all
13 The assignments were designed very practical and useful, I did learn a lot from this course.
14 Leaning linux was made fun, and leaned a lot of new things and was introduced to the wonderful world of vim
15 The assignments were fun, but maybe add more clear instructions in the future.
16 no need to move all around likewise in windows.Give command and you will get....
17 Feeling satisfaction at completing lab assignments.
18 The teacher. He made learning the material fun, but also easy to learn!
19 The real world applications that it has for system administrative work, and basic linux commands in a friendly learning evironment
20 Having very basic previous experience with Linux I enjoyed the worksheets and assignments in this course which were well designed to teach the material.
21 Its really amazing course .Entirely different especially and for me its the first time to use linux.
22 What I liked the most about this course is that it is very informative and entertaining.
23 LINUX! EVERYTHING!
24 Everything. Ian presents stuff in a way that is fun , funny and enjoyable. It is a good time going to learn about Linux with him teacher.
25 Configuring the CentOS machine in VMware
26 the ability to learn and explore a new OS and new way to operation technology.
27 The fast pace and large volume of new information available to me
28 I learned a lot about the material that I never knew before and it was interesting.
29 The labs.
30 I loved learning about the linux OS and can't wait to learn more
31 Learning the ways of Linux, Labs we're very intense and a fun way to challenge myself.
32 The professor is awesome and the course actually makes you do stuff practically.
33 it is the most interesting course.
34 teacher
35 The labs were directly related to tested content
36 The labs
37 The assignment structure was very effective at putting the lecture material into practical use. All of the topics were covered in a way that made sure you understood what they meant, and not just memorization of the notes.
38 The professor.
39 It was an interesting course
40 I enjoyed how hands on this course was, by letting us do everything we learned on our own linux machine.
41 Its totally based on logics and I like it

42 All the new and useful information was fun to learn
43 The labs is good.
44 the professor's lectures.
45 the professor
46 Challenging but also fun. Unfortunately I fell too far behind and ended up dropping the course this semester however look forward to taking it again and seeing it through to the end.
47 Ian is a great teacher and able to keep a class awake and learning at 8AM.
48 It's a really good course, If you attend class every day, listen to professor Alan, do your assignments, practice exams it's easy to get an A+ . The professor cares so you can ask questions during lab hours or during his office hours. Loved the course, love Linux!!!! oh and the rapper was awesome too :)
49 the prof
50 The things that I liked the most in this course were the different assignments. That really helped me to get a better understanding of the Linux operating system .
51 I figured out how much I already know, ahd how much I still need to learn - and picked up a few tricks I should have known already along the way.
 
Question: How could the course be improved to be of benefit to future students?
Response Rate: 75.44%   (43 of 57)
1 Nothing.
2 I think the test and exam questions can be severely improved they are all entirely confusing and convoluted and also the due dates of assignments are completely inconvientent every other assignment for every other course is able to be completed at 11:59 of the said due date however with Linux 1 they are always do on a Tuesday at 3:00pm !!!!
3 Assignments should be easier
4 Show us some applicable application like any games on our VMmachine? Overall this is a really good course.
5 Reduce on the number of students in class
6 no need of improvement
7 This course jumps around concepts to fast for most people to comprehend. Ideas that are critical are taught once and only explained one way. Course should be reorganized so that critical ideas and topics such as inodes are taught first and well rather than useless commands such as FIGLET.
8 It can be less compressed. There is a massive amount of work to do each week and so much information! Maybe take all the Linux's (Linux 1, Linux 2...) then make them less compressed and add another term.
9 Some of the wording in some of the assignments can be difficult to follow at times.
10 It is the best now.
11 ofcoourse
12 If it is possible, the lab session of this course can be added to twice a week.
13 The course is a tad on the fast side for me, since its pretty unique I feel a slightly slower pace would make more information stick.
14 Separate due dates for assignments, they were to close together
15 giving more examples of each cmd and also if possible give a beginner a assistance to the assignments.be more practical
16 Make it less difficult and limit the scope.
17 Don't change!
18 tutorial videos? possibly when it comes to instructions or at least the choice of them?
19 I think the way the course is right now is great - can't think of any changes.
20 well,its fine as well but one thing is that there is need to decrease the number of assignments and has more lab activities.
21 What would benefit future students would be to take an extended version of the course, so they could cover all the information in a longer period of time instead of cramming it.
22 N/A
23 Just tell me what to do and not make the instruction confusing at times. I found the wording to be a little wordy.
24 a redo of some assignments and changing some of the more ambiguous instructions to more clear ones
25 No suggestions
26 Unsure. If there were one thing, it would be less 'what if's during lectures.
27 It is just for me that the course is a little bit easy.
28 maybe by adding some group work
29 Sometimes the instructions weren't super clear to me, a lot of time spent on simple stuff at the beginning of class, and less time spent on harder stuff.
30 Food in the class.
31 no too much assignments.
32 less assignments
33 The use of blackboard for other than lab submissions. Like putting the weeks notes on blackboard rather than going to a separate website. Also Labs if are not mandatory shouldn't have attendance especially if you miss more than 2 labs you automatically fail the course. Furthermore the use of labs for this course is redundant since you can remote login to do the work from any location on earth essentially. So labs should be optional for this course not mandatory.
34 No need of improvements f
35 Some extra hints on the labs would be very helpful and would still teach the students what to do and not have them so frustrated.
36 Giving more labs example will be better.
37 be more helpful online.
38 nothng
39 Not so many early morning classes.
40 It needs to be a bit slower paced I think.
41 CentOS was really good! please don't down grade the course or make it too easy. I loved the challenging assignments, which actually helps to understand Linux better.
42 it loaded the semester with a lot of time consuming assignments and work sheets. not good for electronic students but good for linux or programming students.

this course load destroyed my main subjects.

43 This course could be improved, by making the instructions easier to understand. Also including videos or pictures in the instructions would make it easy for the students that usually have to go through pages and pages of written instructions that sometimes are confusing and can also be overwhelming.
 
Faculty: ALLEN, IAN D
Question: What did you like most about the course professor?
Response Rate: 89.47%   (51 of 57)
1 Lectures are gppd and helpful. Entertaining professor to watch.
2 His friendly attitude and excitement to help everyone learn the material.
3 The rap...definitely the rap
4 Works hard d
5 His energetic personality even at 8am.
6 Explanation
7 effective teaching method
8 Helpful in labs.
9 His enthusiasm
10 The enthusiasm for the material was awesome, I don't remember any other classes that I've been excited to go to.
11 Professor Ian's teaching method,attitude and the material he prepared for us.
12 friendlyness
13 what I like the most is that the teaching method of Ian. He is really really responsible for the teaching.
14 Great Professor, knows linux inside and out. Really entertaining a animated person with tons of knowledge of unix/linux and eager to assist anyone with their issues... as long as they aren't windows related.
15 He's crazy but awesome
16 his cool attitude
17 Interesting personality, keeps lectures relatively engaging.
18 His way of teaching. You can tell that he works lives and breath the material, knows it backwards and forwards and will answer all questions under the sun related to the material. Thank you for making this class fun!
19 Very enthusiastic about the course and subjects he is teaching making a lively learning environment, excellent when learning something like Linux!
20 Professor is very knowledgable about the subject but can still explain it very well to people who have very little previous experience with Linux. He is also full of energy when teaching and doesn't spend the entire time reading directly from slides.
21 He is really very awesome and passionate to his profession.Moreover he tries everything to make the class interesting.
22 What I like the most about Ian is that he is very knowledgeable, and also the fact that is evident that he likes teaching.
23 He's very good at explaining concepts.
24 Ian is the kind of prof that if you try , put work in he will help you pass or help you do well. 10 out 10 for being a great teacher, person to talk to and i learned so much this semester.
25 Kept the delivery of course material interesting and was able to have the students engaged while instructing.
26 he is very energetic about the topic and seems to know quite a bit about it with a fondness for reading.
27 Mr. Allen has a great personality and is my favorite post-secondary teacher! He is also extremely knowledgeable and always willing to help.
28 The teacher was engaging and willing to help students
29 Passionate about the subject matter.
30 Professor Ian teach us in a very efficient way, make us understand and remember the linux easier, he is very insightful. He has thought of everything that he students will possibly mistake around.
31 he was a very fun, colourful teacher and made the tough content easy to understand
32 His very goofy and at the same time strict way of teaching his class was quite amusing. He really made sure we "Read all the words!"
33 Very lively and helpful.
34 he is very inteeligent and nice person.
35 The teacher is one of a kind. An eccentric, funny and intelligent person.
36 Ian is extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the subject material, and this in turn makes it a lot more enjoyable to learn. A professor having knowledge of the subject is one thing, but the passion is what really adds that extra level of depth to the course.
37 Passionate about the course material.
38 His energy for teaching the course is there and he can care for students and will help them if effort is shown.
39 Very informative and extremely entertaining.
40 His way of teaching and he is so friendly with students which students needed everytime
41 The lectures were very helpful. He would have prompt on his linux server up on the projector screen and would tell us about the commands used in linux then would show himself doing different things you can do with this new information. He would keep my engaged in the content every lecture and loved that he demonstrated it on the projector. He was helpful in labs when I asked for help.
42 Nice
43 he's funny and nice
44 the professor n its talks
45 Super energetic. I have no idea how this skinny man has so much energy but it certainly made daydreaming or distractions in his classes hard to come by.

Very engaging and his sense of humor made the hard work feel easier.

46 The Rap.
47 Very knowledgeable and cares about his students, he replies at 3am in the morning before a midterm.
48 organized , professional teacher, on time ,fun strict
49 I really like our professor’s personality he makes you laugh and enjoy every class.
50 his knowledge of the material
51 His method of teaching matches almost exactly my method of learning. HE goes over what needs going over in class, and documents the rest - with the assumption that you'll read what he's documenting. You will quite literally not pass the course if you don't "read all the words".
 
Faculty: ALLEN, IAN D
Question: What, if anything, could the professor do differently to be of benefit to future students?
Response Rate: 66.67%   (38 of 57)
1 Could be a bit more helpful with answering questions.
2 provide a little more help whenever questions are asked instead of being directed to read the webpage he has setup
3 Stop using ( read all the words)
4 MOOAAARRE RAPS!!

Ian is a good teacher but there is a learning curve on how he operates. Making like a list at the start of the semester like *** Before asking a question I will *** Read all the words, RTFM, try and figure our the question for 15 mins etc.

5 Nothing
6 keep up the good job
7 Spoke for the most part to one side of the room (left) people on the right had a hard time hearing him sometimes with the gaming laptops in the back row.
8 The teacher can help people when they request it by email rather then saying "go look at the notes" then us going through a massive amount of notes looking for what we need thus wasting a lot of time. Also, he can go a LOT slower, I type 70wpm and even I have difficulty keeping up with the notes and lectures!
9 hmm,,,
10 I think he was perfect in the past classes, I hope he can continue his teaching style, which is very fun, interesting, and instructive.
11 In the lab, makes sure that everybody understand the concepts of every lab, before continuing
12 more lenient to help students
13 The professor is personable in lectures and labs but interactions outside of these scenarios can be intimidating. If you have questions that you cant find the answers to, you are expected to essentially solve the problem yourself, it seems. There is just a massive quantity of information that is thrown at you in this course and quite honestly it seems like a bit much.

The professor even explained to us that other professionals in his field have advised him that some of the subject matter he teaches should really be outside the scope of this course, but he teaches it anyway.

14 None. Don't change anything... ANYTHING!
15 possibly a bit more style to the course notes and instructions on the "teaching.idallen.org" site. I only say as the start it was intimidating to start to read everything as it looks like too much reading and jargon, but its actually not once you actually attempt it. More of a case of making it look less terrifying
16 In my opinion no changes are required. I enjoyed going to his classes!
17 Well he is very nice but one thing is that sometimes he is very mean and instead of directly helping the student ask to look into the notes and manual pages just for a very simple and small command.
18 He goes through information very fast, and some students find it hard to follow through his lectures.
19 He should understand fairness better.
20 The instructor could be a little less standoffish in labs when a student is having difficulties. I know he doesn't want to give us the answers but when you are struggling around a concept he could possibly tell you how to do it and why you are doing it.
21 have less "read all the words" and maybe a little more help. some students have a much harder time learning through reading and sometimes it doesn't always work. now i don't mean give the answers but be a little more approachable about it.
22 No suggestions
23 I learn a little quicker than some. I found the pace of the lectures to sometimes be a little too slow. We seemed to rush through some things towards the end. Not sure if those two things are related.
24 I like more scripting or programming.
25 just keep being himself
26 As I mentioned earlier, instructions weren't always super clear.
27 Give an answer directly rather than pointing to the notes.(But its true it helps to learn better)
28 nothing .he is perfect
29 His website needs to be better organized. clicking hyperlink after hyperlink does nothing but confuse students. Also the fact that he can be condescending at times doesnt really help students but pushes them away from even thinking of becoming a sys admin.
30 Nothing, He is simply Awesome!!!
31 Some extra hints on the labs would be very helpful and would still teach the students what to do and not have them so frustrated. I would spend the two hour lab period doing each labs and would maybe get 25%-50% through it. The labs are corrected by a script that Ian made by checking what we have on our accounts on his server. If I had one extra space somewhere in my answer it would mark it as wrong and would take forever to correct. If I tried some trial and error ways of figuring out the answer, but eventually got the answer, his script did not like all my wrong answers from before and would still say it was wrong. The worksheets were much more user friendly way of answering and would still teach me plenty. The labs and worksheets for each lab each week would take me around 8 hours in total or more of work and frustration because for hours at a time I would make no progress. If I had a question, I could always e-mail him or ask in class and that was very helpful but I wanted to figure out the answer on my own most of the time and not told to me. I did not get great marks in this class even though I have done it before years ago. I got much better marks back then due to how the labs worked back then in my opinion. If I have to repeat this class next semester due to my marks, I would be okay with it and look forward to learning more from his lectures.
32 to be more helpful when student's ask him questions via e-mail.
33 nothing he is best
34 Not that I can think of.
35 Nothing he is doing a fine job.
36 More assignments just to practice, don't have to be graded
37 I think most of the times our professor tends to go fast through the different topics during the lectures. This can make things a bit hard to understand, especially when you don't have any previous knowledge about Linux.

38 not give so lengthy assingments,