- 202001-CMSC435-0101-SOFTWARE ENGINEERING - James Purtilo - Instructor Report

202001-CMSC435-0101-SOFTWARE ENGINEERING - James Purtilo - Instructor Report - Spring 2020

Project Title: University of Maryland Course Evaluation Spring 2020

Number of Students Invited: 46
Number of Evaluations Submitted: 29
Response Rate: 63.0%

Report Comments This report presents feedback received from students for the course SOFTWARE ENGINEERING and for the Instructor James Purtilo in that course. Course means are calculated from all responses by all students in the unit (i.e., course section) on that item and exclude N/A (not applicable) responses. A grade table is included on the next page if available.

Indication is provided below for the Report Group if there is one affiliated with this course section, otherwise it is blank. The Report Group will be the lead section of a grouped course (i.e. multi-section lecture) and/or the primary of cross-listed courses. Subsections are found in the Instructor Subgroup Report.

Semester: Spring 2020
College: College of Computer, Math & Natural Sciences
Department: CMNS-Computer Science
Course #: CMSC435
Section #: 0101
Course Title: SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
Report Group:

Instructor: James Purtilo

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Grade Distribution

Grade A	Grade B	Grade C	Grade D	Grade F	Grade PS	Grade W
10	13	0	0	1	22	0

Grade distribution is current as of June 2, 2020 and includes students receiving a W for the course. Some grades are not included (e.g., Cancel, Incomplete).

Administrator University-Wide Course Items Applied to All Section Instructors
Results for use by faculty/instructors and for administrative purposes.
N/A responses have been excluded from the following calculations.

By Score

Scale is Strongly Disagree (0) to Strongly Agree (4) with a Neutral mid-point

Table for By Score.
Question	Course
Question	Mean
The course was intellectually challenging.	3.6
I learned a lot from this course.	3.4

By Frequency

1. The course was intellectually challenging.

Table for By Frequency-1. The course was intellectually challenging..
Options	Score	Count	Percentage
Strongly Disagree	0	0	0.0%
Disagree	1	1	3.4%
Neutral	2	0	0.0%
Agree	3	8	27.6%
Strongly Agree	4	20	69.0%

Table for By Frequency-1. The course was intellectually challenging.-Statistics.
Statistics	Value
Response Count	29
Mean	3.6
Standard Deviation	0.7

2. I learned a lot from this course.

Table for By Frequency-2. I learned a lot from this course..
Options	Score	Count	Percentage
Strongly Disagree	0	0	0.0%
Disagree	1	2	6.9%
Neutral	2	2	6.9%
Agree	3	6	20.7%
Strongly Agree	4	19	65.5%

Table for By Frequency-2. I learned a lot from this course.-Statistics.
Statistics	Value
Response Count	29
Mean	3.4
Standard Deviation	0.9

How does this course fit into your academic plan or course of study?

Table for How does this course fit into your academic plan or course of study?-How does this course fit into your academic plan or course of study?.
Options	Score	Count	Percentage
General Education or CORE Requirement	0	1	3.4%
Major/Certificate/Minor/Program Requirement	1	27	93.1%
Elective	2	1	3.4%

Additional comments (e.g. about course content/materials, teaching style, etc.):

Table for Additional comments (e.g. about course content/materials, teaching style, etc.):.

Comments

This class is certainly the largest workload I have ever experienced and I do not know how I would have handled it if my other teachers had not lessened their workloads considerably. At times it was incredibly frustrating though I do think I may have learned more from this class than any other. This class is not for everyone but if you but in the work it is probably provides the best value in the department. Really appreciate Dr. Purtilo as well as he is the most available professor I have had.

Purtilo is an amazing teacher.

Anonymous reviews are counter productive towards what this class seeks to achieve. Some times people will leave reviews that lack context and understanding, and you don't know who said what, which gives you no platform to talk to them and explain the situation, or ask what you could do better to change their perspective. This class is all about growing, learning, and communicating with others, but provided no avenue for students to work towards their critiques from team members other than blind obedience.

Professor Purtilo was one of the best CS professors I've had a UMD. The ways he's shown how much he actually cares about his students out number times all my other CS professors have shown they cared. On the first day of class I left lecture thinking this course was going to be terrible and that he was going to be a stickler for discipline, but as the course progressed that enforcement of rule and quality work turned out to be tough love; things done to truly prepare us for whats to come both in class, and throughout the rest of our lives. The course layout was as really good and i dont really see much more improvement needed. The way teams were assigned was strategic and more effort than any other professor has taken in order to create teams. His feedback on work was always helpful; one thing I would like to see would be more individual feedback to students rather than just feedback given to whole groups. His sense of humor and openness to students made class entertaining and made me want to attend every single lecture. The tips given on the final day of class were the icing on the cake and truly showed how he actually cares about helping us succeed throughout the rest of our lives. One thing I wouldve liked to have seen in the course would be more exercises done either in–class, or externally, that could help showcase software engineering principles; maybe in–class stand ups or scrums where groups have studied the spec of a project, and discuss things about their progress, things they are going to mock–implement, or actually implemenent in a real short weekly hackathon, and things of that nature.

In all honesty, I think this course is the most useful one I've had at UMD. It's allowed me to apply the knowledge I've gained over the years in a useful way. Unfortunately, it reflected back to me my own shortcomings as a developer. I wish I had the opportunity to take it twice because I don't feel that I've adequately achieved the growth Professor Purtilo wanted me to. He produces professionals and I feel inadequately prepared to live up to his expectations at the moment. Students need this course.

I really loved this course, it was very different from other CS courses and was super engaging. I learned so much about working with other teams and how to develop software effectively. It was very fun as well.

Professor Purtilo is a great professor but I feel as if he has somewhat unrealistic expectations about the workload and expectations that this class actually demands which is not necessarily advertised appropriately elsewhere (e.g, Testudo class description or syllabus).

The semester long project is a great tool for reinforcing the concepts of Software Engineering but with it comes many complications when working in a huge team of 8 people. With this project being the first for some students that do not have clear cut guidelines or expectations of the final deliverable, Purtilo's sometime vague guidelines as a customer of what he would like to see from a project does little to help create a more focused product in the end. Our team felt like our project was in particular subject to this treatment while other students projects who had more clear cut project tasking and given direction as what to build ended up being more successful.

Overall, the amount of work, effort, and time spent trying to get a decent grade in this class felt like much more than any other CMSC 400 level class I have taken, and the only class I would compare it to in difficulty is, perhaps, Algorithms, due to the amount of time spent buried within the course work.

More team diversity!

Change is inevitable.

This course was like an internship. It allowed me to develop skills that will be required of me in the professional world in a "safe" environment with a lot less to loose. I expect my experiences from this course will become foundational to my development throughout my professional life. It required a type of knowledge and thinking that hasn't been asked of me before in the major, but will be expected of me in a professional setting.

I would have like it if there was a specific material that we needed to focus on instead of multiple text that could provide different information.

I have not taken the final yet, but I know that if you get any less than a passing grade on just the final then that constitutes a failure in the course overall regardless of what the rest of your grades look like. How the final goes for me might significantly impact how I view the course in hindsight. We are given a lot of time to do it, but much like the peer mentoring site the exact requirements of it are still unclear.

Anonymous peer reviews were, interesting? Criticisms I received through these peer reviews seemed to be a bit aggressive at times. If peer reviews weren't anonymous I think that would solve this problem. It wouldn't even have to be names, just a way to know which weekly review is from the same person like giving them a number or something. That way I can see "oh, reviewer 3 is at it again with being non–constructive and is just filling out reviews for the grade". However, I'm sure you can tell who is who on these reviews and can see pretty quickly who is actually using it to achieve better outcomes and make the team better versus who is just putting others down to make themselves seem better. Another reasoning for this behavior could be because these reviews are graded. Students may feel obligated to say something for the grade and have a tendency to point out negatives over positives. However, I can't think of a solution to this because otherwise the grade weight to make up for those would probably go towards projects which seems rough. In summary, I recommend spending more time about how to review peers constructively in the beginning of the semester. Otherwise, I wouldn't change much about the course. It was a blast this semester!

I enjoyed this course very much. I found it valuable to get to work on a REAL project. Something I could invest myself in and have a passion for. By far the coolest thing I've built and I'm so proud of my team and our product.

This course required far more hours and work put in compared to any CS class I've taken. The amount of work put in was far too much to be asked of by a full–time college student who also is enrolled in at least 5 other classes. The projects were very unfair. They were not of equal weight and some were harder and more vague than other projects. The expectations and guidelines were not well defined at the beginning of classes. The professor was not clear about what he required about us he always talked very vaguely. Additionally, most of the grade in the class depends on the final which is actually detrimental and an inaccurate reflection of the material learned in any given course.

The instructor mentioned how coding by friction isn't the best plan. But it sometimes felt like writing the proposal was through friction, constantly having to see if it was acceptable or not.
It might be helpful to see some examples of written assignments that did well to understand what level of detail was expected.

I learned a lot in this class. Thank you for letting us choose our project. That's helped me gain motivation.
I think the number of credits and the workload are not balanced and more should be done to balance that.

I really enjoyed this class. It was great at teaching/preparing to join the real working environments. It also taught valuable lessons in the safety of school rather in the workplace. While initially being a little frustrating to do assignments before knowing that the proper style was, it did help further enforce business standards. Additionally, besides learning about how to work with a team, I really liked the Gallup initial exercise. It helped me realize more of what I could contribute to the group, which was a nice growing point.

This course was a lot of work, but that amount of work is dependent on the quality of my code, the requirements outlined in the project, as well as the group member's activity. Even though it was a lot of work, and at times there were assignments and tasks that felt ridiculous or unnecessary, at the end, I feel like it was justified as it helped me learn more about software engineering and I eventually saw the reason behind those assignments.

Administrator University-Wide Instructor James Purtilo Items
Results for use by faculty/instructors and for administrative purposes.
N/A responses have been excluded from the following calculations.

By Score

Scale is Strongly Disagree (0) to Strongly Agree (4) with a Neutral mid-point

Table for By Score.
Question	Course
Question	Mean
The instructor treated students with respect.	3.6
The instructor was well-prepared for class.	3.7
Overall, this instructor was an effective teacher.	3.4

By Frequency

1. The instructor treated students with respect.

Table for By Frequency-1. The instructor treated students with respect..
Options	Score	Count	Percentage
Strongly Disagree	0	0	0.0%
Disagree	1	1	3.4%
Neutral	2	0	0.0%
Agree	3	10	34.5%
Strongly Agree	4	18	62.1%

Table for By Frequency-1. The instructor treated students with respect.-Statistics.
Statistics	Value
Response Count	29
Mean	3.6
Standard Deviation	0.7

2. The instructor was well-prepared for class.

Table for By Frequency-2. The instructor was well-prepared for class..
Options	Score	Count	Percentage
Strongly Disagree	0	0	0.0%
Disagree	1	0	0.0%
Neutral	2	0	0.0%
Agree	3	10	34.5%
Strongly Agree	4	19	65.5%

Table for By Frequency-2. The instructor was well-prepared for class.-Statistics.
Statistics	Value
Response Count	29
Mean	3.7
Standard Deviation	0.5

3. Overall, this instructor was an effective teacher.

Table for By Frequency-3. Overall, this instructor was an effective teacher..
Options	Score	Count	Percentage
Strongly Disagree	0	0	0.0%
Disagree	1	1	3.4%
Neutral	2	2	6.9%
Agree	3	11	37.9%
Strongly Agree	4	15	51.7%

Table for By Frequency-3. Overall, this instructor was an effective teacher.-Statistics.
Statistics	Value
Response Count	29
Mean	3.4
Standard Deviation	0.8

Overall Score

Averaging the following five scaled Administrator items (from above, repeated below) results in the Overall Score.

Scale is Strongly Disagree (0) to Strongly Agree (4) with a Neutral mid-point

Table for Overall Score-1st Scale.
Competency	Course
The course was intellectually challenging	3.6
I learned a lot from this course	3.4
The instructor treated students with respect	3.6
The instructor was well-prepared for class	3.7
Overall, this instructor was an effective teacher	3.4
Total Score	3.5

The standards the instructor James Purtilo set for students were...

By Score

Scale is Too Low (0) to Too High (2) with an Appropriate mid-point

Table for By Score.
Question	Course
Question	Mean
The standards the instructor set for students were...	1.3

By Frequency

The standards the instructor set for students were...

Table for By Frequency-The standards the instructor set for students were....
Options	Score	Count	Percentage
Too Low	0	0	0.0%
Appropriate	1	21	72.4%
Too High	2	8	27.6%

Student University-Wide Course Items Applied to All Section Instructors

Results for use by faculty/instructors and students.
N/A responses have been excluded from the following calculations.

By Score

Scale is Strongly Disagree (0) to Strongly Agree (4) with a Neutral mid-point

Table for By Score.
Question	Course
Question	Mean
Course guidelines were clearly described in the syllabus.	3.0
The required texts (e.g. books, course packs, online resources) helped me learn course material.	2.4

By Frequency

1. Course guidelines were clearly described in the syllabus.

Table for By Frequency-1. Course guidelines were clearly described in the syllabus..
Options	Score	Count	Percentage
Strongly Disagree	0	1	3.4%
Disagree	1	2	6.9%
Neutral	2	5	17.2%
Agree	3	8	27.6%
Strongly Agree	4	13	44.8%

Table for By Frequency-1. Course guidelines were clearly described in the syllabus.-Statistics.
Statistics	Value
Response Count	29
Mean	3.0
Standard Deviation	1.1

2. The required texts (e.g. books, course packs, online resources) helped me learn course material.

Table for By Frequency-2. The required texts (e.g. books, course packs, online resources) helped me learn course material..
Options	Score	Count	Percentage
Strongly Disagree	0	0	0.0%
Disagree	1	4	14.8%
Neutral	2	10	37.0%
Agree	3	10	37.0%
Strongly Agree	4	3	11.1%

Table for By Frequency-2. The required texts (e.g. books, course packs, online resources) helped me learn course material.-Statistics.
Statistics	Value
Response Count	27
Mean	2.4
Standard Deviation	0.9

Based on the quality of my work in this course, the grades I earned were

By Score

Scale is Too Low (0) to Too High (2) with an Appropriate mid-point

Table for By Score.
Question	Course
Question	Mean
Based on the quality of my work in this course, the grades I earned were	0.8

By Frequency

Based on the quality of my work in this course, the grades I earned were

Table for By Frequency-Based on the quality of my work in this course, the grades I earned were.
Options	Score	Count	Percentage
Too Low	0	6	20.7%
Appropriate	1	22	75.9%
Too High	2	1	3.4%

Given the course level and number of credits the workload was

By Score

Scale is Too Low (0) to Too High (2) with an Appropriate mid-point

Table for By Score.
Question	Course
Question	Mean
Given the course level and number of credits, the workload was	1.4

By Frequency

Given the course level and number of credits, the workload was

Table for By Frequency-Given the course level and number of credits, the workload was.
Options	Score	Count	Percentage
Too Low	0	0	0.0%
Appropriate	1	17	58.6%
Too High	2	12	41.4%

How much effort did you put into the course?

By Score

Scale is Little (0) to Considerable (2) with a Moderate mid-point

Table for By Score.
Question	Course
Question	Mean
How much effort did you put into the course?	2.0

By Frequency

How much effort did you put into the course?

Table for By Frequency-How much effort did you put into the course?.
Options	Score	Count	Percentage
Little	0	0	0.0%
Moderate	1	1	3.4%
Considerable	2	28	96.6%

Student University-Wide Instructor James Purtilo Items
Results for use by faculty/instructors and students.
N/A responses have been excluded from the following calculations.

By Score

Scale is Strongly Disagree (0) to Strongly Agree (4) with a Neutral mid-point

Table for By Score.
Question	Course
Question	Mean
The instructor was effective in communicating the content of the course.	3.4
The instructor was responsive to student concerns.	3.7
The instructor helped create an atmosphere that kept me engaged in course content.	3.5

By Frequency

1. The instructor was effective in communicating the content of the course.

Table for By Frequency-1. The instructor was effective in communicating the content of the course..
Options	Score	Count	Percentage
Strongly Disagree	0	0	0.0%
Disagree	1	2	6.9%
Neutral	2	2	6.9%
Agree	3	8	27.6%
Strongly Agree	4	17	58.6%

Table for By Frequency-1. The instructor was effective in communicating the content of the course.-Statistics.
Statistics	Value
Response Count	29
Mean	3.4
Standard Deviation	0.9

2. The instructor was responsive to student concerns.

Table for By Frequency-2. The instructor was responsive to student concerns..
Options	Score	Count	Percentage
Strongly Disagree	0	0	0.0%
Disagree	1	1	3.4%
Neutral	2	0	0.0%
Agree	3	7	24.1%
Strongly Agree	4	21	72.4%

Table for By Frequency-2. The instructor was responsive to student concerns.-Statistics.
Statistics	Value
Response Count	29
Mean	3.7
Standard Deviation	0.7

3. The instructor helped create an atmosphere that kept me engaged in course content.

Table for By Frequency-3. The instructor helped create an atmosphere that kept me engaged in course content..
Options	Score	Count	Percentage
Strongly Disagree	0	0	0.0%
Disagree	1	1	3.4%
Neutral	2	1	3.4%
Agree	3	10	34.5%
Strongly Agree	4	17	58.6%

Table for By Frequency-3. The instructor helped create an atmosphere that kept me engaged in course content.-Statistics.
Statistics	Value
Response Count	29
Mean	3.5
Standard Deviation	0.7

Special Questions for Spring 2020 Related to Online Instruction

What actions or strategies used in this course helped you learn in the online environment?

Table for [QTitle].

Comments

The fact that I was bored at home with not much else to do certainly helped. Also, the threat of not graduating was a huge motivator.

Zoom classes were well organized.

Discord. Being able to communicate with my team members was huge for staying involved. Without it everything would have crumbled without in person meetings.

Unlike previous computer science courses, Dr. Purtilo did not just hand us answers when we complained loudly enough. He allowed us to fail, gave feedback, and lean on each other for support. The course project served to demonstrate real–life work environments where your manager will not just hold your hand. They expect you to take initiative. If there is something which you do not understand, they expect you to ask questions or to find the answer yourself, preferably the latter as you grow. If you weren't doing what was expected of you, Dr. Purtilo wouldn't just step in and tell you, he let your pissed off teammates drive you to request a meeting with him to figure it out. He let the project teach us. His mantra is "Change is Inevitable." So, given the unexpected shift to the online environment and the ensuing disorder caused by it, I think that his teaching method of making himself available for help, but not giving explicit tracks to move forward was a very powerful tool.

Online zoom classes were nice and professors blog website was helpful.

Everything. Jim was a great "spirit guide". the first professor at this school who took the time to learn my name.

Maintaining engagement with team over Discord and the swiftly–updated course webpage

The focus on self reliance and team work was exceptional at facilitating growth and learning throughout the semester. Having to solve real software problems offers students an incredible opportunity to try things they have never been exposed to in courses prior to this one.

I often communicate with my group member who would send out reminder for assignment due.
I would set an alarm to notify me when the meeting begin.

Beginning the semester with a smaller group scrimmage to make sure we were used to working in a group before setting the semester long project on us. Encouraging students to set up a method of instant communication.

The zoom class sessions, the course project as a teaching tool and the availability of the professor.

Zoom lecture.

We just made sure to meet with our teams online as often as we could

Zoom meetings for everything made communication easy. All lecture and presentations were done through zoom meetings that were kept track on the class website, and private meetings were handled via email.

live lectures with pop quizzes

Communication and engagement with group members.

The zoom calls along with the slides helped keep motivation for the class. Along with getting to know the overall progress of other teams. The course blog also kept things organized and put into perspective the items we covered in class.

The course blog and mentoring site were great to have in this online environment, even though those would have been there with in–person instruction as well.

What could be improved if this course was taught online again?

Table for [QTitle].

Comments

Not much. The online aspect was unfortunate but I don't think there could have been much done to mitigate it.

Posting slides online perhaps.

Personal check ins via zoom with the professor. I don't think I ever got to talk about how COVID–19 had affected my at home environment, which heavily impacted my working environment. Maybe individual meetings via zoom would have helped, as the expectations from the professor stayed the same, even though some students were put at a huge disadvantage. Professor Purtilo cared deeply about the students, so do not let this review be an extreme criticism of him. He is an amazing professor.

If this course were taught online again, I think Professor Purtilo could have previous software engineering students come back and speak with us. I think people don't trust his process because they haven't seen his products before.

The professor should really be putting the slides online on either his own website or ELMS. I do not understand the reasoning behind not doing so. As the class is now online, this means if you miss a lecture, you miss all information that was discussed that day. With students online this semester and spread out across the country (or even other countries), this means that course material could potentially be taught at unrealistic time periods for some individuals. I did not personally experience this, but all the more reason to put course lecture slides online available for all students to access who can take the course material at their own time.

don't teach it online

I think group work is tough online, but it's not impossible.

Clearer grade report on the grades server

The relationship between course materials (text books and other non–lecture materials) and lecture should be more explicit ahead of time to give students ample time to study the materials required for a given topic.

I would have like to get access to the recording of the meeting.

Examples in lectures regarding all the things we need to do to pass that were not already in lecture. These include a demonstration of sites like the peer mentoring site so we all know how it works before the big project gets underway with no confusion. The same could be said for coversheets and perhaps the svn repo.

It would be nice if lecture recordings/slides were made available for students to refer to.

Nothing really, it's about as good as you can get online

Improved transparency of deadlines. Since this course uses its own website its difficult to keep track of due dates. The computer science program has already complicated student workflow enough with piazza, gradescope, course websites, not using ELMS, etc. That being said, I appreciate that all the information is easily accessed on the course website instead of having to click in x different places.

More engagement. During in–class lecture, there were activities and engagement, but with the online environment it died down significantly.

not flip through the slides so quickly

The way instructions are written can be confusing sometimes. If you make those instructions concise that would help students understand your expectations.

I believe it would be beneficial to the students if the course blog was updated before class. Therefore students can get an idea of what will be covered in class that day before getting to class.

I'm not sure exactly, but some way of increasing participation and accountability of group members, which is hard to do when online and not in–person

End of Report