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/lecture) on that item and exclude N/A (not applicable) responses.
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: Fall 2023
College: College of Computer, Math & Natural Sciences
Department: CMNS-Computer Science
Course #: CMSC435
Section #: 0101
Course Title: SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
Report Group:
Instructor: James Purtilo
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: Fall 2023
College: College of Computer, Math & Natural Sciences
Department: CMNS-Computer Science
Course #: CMSC435
Section #: 0101
Course Title: SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
Report Group:
Instructor: James Purtilo
- Creation Date
- Thursday, January 04, 2024
University-Wide Course Items Applied to All Section Instructors
N/A responses have been excluded from the following calculations.
N/A responses have been excluded from the following calculations.
Campus Wide Course Questions
1. The content covered in the course was directly related to the course goals and objectives.
| Options | Score | Count | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strongly Disagree | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| Disagree | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| Neutral | 2 | 0 | 0% |
| Agree | 3 | 1 | 6% |
| Strongly Agree | 4 | 16 | 94% |
| Statistics | Value |
|---|---|
| Response Count | 17 |
| Mean | 3.9 |
| Standard Deviation | 0.2 |
2. The assessments (e.g., tests, quizzes, papers) were directly related to what was covered/practiced in the course.
| Options | Score | Count | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strongly Disagree | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| Disagree | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| Neutral | 2 | 1 | 6% |
| Agree | 3 | 4 | 24% |
| Strongly Agree | 4 | 12 | 71% |
| Statistics | Value |
|---|---|
| Response Count | 17 |
| Mean | 3.6 |
| Standard Deviation | 0.6 |
3. The required texts (e.g., books, course packs, online resources) helped me learn course material.
| Options | Score | Count | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strongly Disagree | 0 | 1 | 7% |
| Disagree | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| Neutral | 2 | 4 | 27% |
| Agree | 3 | 7 | 47% |
| Strongly Agree | 4 | 3 | 20% |
| Statistics | Value |
|---|---|
| Response Count | 15 |
| Mean | 2.7 |
| Standard Deviation | 1.0 |
4. This course pushed and expanded my ability to think deeply about the subject.
| Options | Score | Count | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strongly Disagree | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| Disagree | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| Neutral | 2 | 0 | 0% |
| Agree | 3 | 0 | 0% |
| Strongly Agree | 4 | 17 | 100% |
| Statistics | Value |
|---|---|
| Response Count | 17 |
| Mean | 4.0 |
| Standard Deviation | 0.0 |
5. I believe the content of this course was a valuable part of my education.
| Options | Score | Count | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strongly Disagree | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| Disagree | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| Neutral | 2 | 0 | 0% |
| Agree | 3 | 0 | 0% |
| Strongly Agree | 4 | 17 | 100% |
| Statistics | Value |
|---|---|
| Response Count | 17 |
| Mean | 4.0 |
| Standard Deviation | 0.0 |
6. I believe I learned a lot from this course.
| Options | Score | Count | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strongly Disagree | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| Disagree | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| Neutral | 2 | 0 | 0% |
| Agree | 3 | 0 | 0% |
| Strongly Agree | 4 | 17 | 100% |
| Statistics | Value |
|---|---|
| Response Count | 17 |
| Mean | 4.0 |
| Standard Deviation | 0.0 |
On average, how many hours each week did you spend on this course (e.g., attending class, doing homework, studying, completing assignments)?
On average, how many hours each week did you spend on this course (e.g., attending class, doing homework, studying, completing assignments)?
| Options | Count | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Less than 3 hours | 0 | 0% |
| 3 up to 6 hours | 0 | 0% |
| 6 up to 9 hours | 3 | 18% |
| 9 up to 12 hours | 2 | 12% |
| 12 up to 15 hours | 7 | 41% |
| 15 hours or more | 5 | 29% |
| Statistics | Value |
|---|---|
| Response Count | 17 |
How did this course fit into your academic plan and/or educational goals?
| Options | Count |
|---|---|
| Required for program/major/minor/certificate, or as a prerequisite | 8 |
| Elective for program/major/minor/certificate | 9 |
| To satisfy an undergraduate General Education requirement | 0 |
| In preparation for research, employment, or future program/degree | 8 |
| Personal interest in content | 12 |
| Other/It doesn't | 0 |
Comment Items Applied to All Section Instructors
What about the course and/or instruction most enhanced your learning?
| Comments |
|---|
| The hands on approach that we took when doing our project. Being able to dive straight into working with technology really helped me with developing something from the ground up. Also, the strict deadlines and the assignments that we had to do really resembled a real work environment where whenever you complete a project, you keep working on it and provide documentation for the future instead of just "throwing it over the wall and forgetting about it" like most classes |
| This course was great to give myself industry experience while still being in college. This was the first time I was put in charge of a project, not just an internship, and asked to complete a project. I had never had to start a software project from scratch and have a finished project before. This was a great learning experience to be able to see everything from beginning to end. Another part of the course that I liked was there was a lot of freedom on how to conduct the project. The team got to learn a lot of new skills while also leveraging what we already knew. My team didn't have a lot of experience with database construction and queries and creating a backend framework. I was able to take the lead on that part of the project to help everything run smoothly. We were able to conduct work as we seemed fit which gave us a lot of flexibility. The client meetings, while annoying afterwords were very helpful. Every time we had to tweak what features the project needed, but it gave the group a more accurate description of being on a software engineering team. That part was probably the most valuable. Even though everyone has done some form of internship, we never got to learn and decide the direction of a project. That part was the most helpful. |
| This class was the closest to working in industry I have experienced at UMD. The lessons I learned here could translate directly into my position after college. |
| Being hands–on. Working on a project with a team and going through the process—being like a real software engineer was the most valuable. Learning by doing. |
| Putting what we were taught into action through building applications is what enhanced my learning the most as I am a hands–on learner. The immense support given by the professor surpasses any assistance I've encountered in previous courses. Dr. Purtilo demonstrated a genuine desire for every student's success, both as software engineers and in their personal lives, often sharing valuable advice from his own experiences. In my opinion, courses led by educators who genuinely care about students' achievements create an environment where attending class becomes exciting rather than burdensome. This class, CMSC 435, taught by Dr. Purtilo, is a prime example of such a course. It significantly influenced my perspective on software engineering, fostering improved communication and leadership skills in the process. |
| The difference in how the course was structured compared to my other cs classes was insightful and it felt like it gave me a chance to grow as a software engineer as well as gain experience in practicing skills not usually taught in cs. |
| More real like a real world experience then an actual class, instructor is very hands off, but if you want help he is willing to help as long as you reach out. |
| The most accessible and communicative CS professor Ive had. Also expresses the most passion for the content of the class and cares about students actually learning and retaining the material. |
| This course is vastly different from other CS courses offered at UMD, in a good way. It teaches you how to actually create, build, test, (repeat), and collaborate (!!) a project from start to finish. The soft skills learned throughout the semester are invaluable to any CS student seeking to work in a professional environment. |
| The professor for this class was hands down the most supportive professor I've encountered through all of college, and was the biggest asset to this course. He was always willing to go out of his way to address our problems, respond to our emails at off hours, reserve meeting rooms in Iribe, or do whatever was required to make us successful as long as we put in the effort on our end to learn the course content. He truly rewarded those who put in the time and effort, and the level of planning he put into assigning the groups for this class were obvious in how well I worked with my team. Outside of the professor this course is incredibly useful and teaches a lot of content that's missing and I think should be included in other courses at this university. I can't begin to explain how valuable the content in this course is and how applicable it is to real world engineering jobs that most people will work after they graduate. I'm personally very disappointed in the upper management at this university considering that this was the first class where I was able to learn a lot of important software engineering topics, things that I and I bet 80% of the student body could benefit from considering most people go into careers of software engineering with computer science degrees. The list of things I learned in this course that I experienced for the first time were: Interacting with actual stakeholders, interacting with an existing code base, having to define my own requirements for a project, having to collaborate with a team of programmers on a long–term project, writing a "green–light" project proposal, doing a critical design review of the project's progress, creating acceptance testing, doing acceptance testing, writing up a final report on the project, delivering the project to the customer. I could go on. These were all things I did/learned in this course for the first time in a college class. Other classes are great for teaching concepts and theory, but that theory is useless if you don't know how to build an entire product. I genuinely feel more prepared going into the job market after this class, thanks to the effort put in by the professor to ensure our success and teach us learning outcomes that are important and super valuable for our future careers. I think this course should be required to graduate, and I think everyone who takes it is better off. The university also needs to do more to ensure the success of students who pursue software engineering positions (most of the student body), and needs to give classes like this more resources. |
| The course content was very beneficial: closing the gap between what a client wants, and what is built by the software engineer. |
| Being completely hands on and having to go through the entire Software Development lifecycle. |
| Learning about the intricacies of software engineering outside of programming. Working on the proposal for the project and learning to create the product specs before programming was a different experience. Additionally, working with a team enhanced my learning through the almost daily meetings and working to put together a product. |
| The specific applicable material the course offered. To name a few the mental frameworks, methodologies, and processes offered a great insight into what to be cognitive about when working on our projects. |
| The highly engaging and interactive environment. Purtilo was also very responsive over email and enhanced learning greatly through quick and effective communication. |
| Professor Purtilo's sincerity was clear in his instruction and feedback. He was always available and made it a point to provide his "concierge" services for us students :) |
| The hands off aspect and nature of the course long projects really pushed me to work as hard as I could to try and create the best product I could. I learned so much about different frameworks and software that I would not have otherwise learned about. |
What about the course and/or instruction can be improved the next time it is offered?
| Comments |
|---|
| Maybe an extra week to work on the project, but you'll never really feel like you'll have enough time so asking for more time is moot. |
| I would have liked to look back at the slides at some point in the class. Sometimes the lecture was going so fast that I couldn't take notes fast enough. Another thing that I would like to be approved is the description of the final project. Maybe have 2 meetings instead of the one that students have to schedule but writing the proposal with the amount of direction felt daunting and was a lot more work than expected. I know those types of documents are important but I wish we got a little more direction on the proposal. I also wish there was a little more instruction on how much work was needed for the CDR as well. That was something I had never done so maybe some more explanation on it. |
| More time should be allotted to the completion of the main project. I think that would be more useful an would allow us a longer chance to apply the lessons we learned. |
| I think you know this, but the content. Like breaking down what goes into acceptance testing. I know you like to keep things ambiguous sometimes, because that helps with learning and growth, but I wish I learned more about the best practices more, so I can be a little more prepared to use those in industry. |
| I enjoyed how the course was structured. The only thing that could be improved or removed is the expensive personality test we took at the beginning of the semester. |
| Nothing really, i really enjoyed this class and the professor |
| Maybe be more hands on early on in the project. When starting the project, I feel like its the most chaotic. This lead to a no so strong start, so I feel like if the professor was more involved early it would make sure everyone starts off strong and then he can be hands off. |
| Clearer grading methods, easier to discern deliverables/updates |
| A RSS feed or some sort of notification system for the blog on the website would be nice. |
| I think the in class lectures that do teach the theory we learned could be improved some. The professor gave a lot of valuable insights and advice on various software engineering topics, but I found myself having a hard time engaging with the lectures. Sometimes we would get a little off topic, which was fun but occasionally distracting. I know the lectures and theory aren't the main content of this course, but I think there is still something to learn here. I think making the lectures a little more concise and having more detailed powerpoint slides would have helped me follow along more. |
| announce quiz dates ahead of time, and not d surprise quizzes. |
| The course feels somewhat dependent on the group members you get. It would be nice if feedback you provide on group members could elicit them talking with the professor. Weekly check–ins on everyone's individual progress could be good too. |
| The 2nd and 3rd scrimmage could use some more instruction and would've made me feel more confident about the class going into the main project. |
| Time constraints that are outside are subjective and vary. For me working on other classes along with this class took up a lot of time |
| Maybe a little more clarity and how the documents that we submit should be structured. It was very difficult to achieve a finished proposal. |
| No serious complaints about the course or its instruction. The course had some unique nuances that took me some time to adjust to. It wouldn't have taken any less time but maybe a more elaborate heads–up (regarding the "do what's right" policy, for example) would make some of these hiccups less significant. But, again, just to be clear: I view this as a "feature" of this course and don't think the policy itself needs to be changed, maybe just a little *more* clarity on its implications early on in the semester. Much love <3 |
| I think the group selection needs some work, although this is an extremely difficult task to fix. If even one group member is off their game it really pulls the whole entity down, which makes it hard to produce the best work possible. I also think that mandatory weekly meetings with the professor would help the projects as well. |
University-Wide Instructor James Purtilo Items
N/A responses have been excluded from the following calculations.
N/A responses have been excluded from the following calculations.
Campus Wide Instructor Questions
1. The instructor provided constructive feedback on my work that helped me to learn.
| Options | Score | Count | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strongly Disagree | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| Disagree | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| Neutral | 2 | 0 | 0% |
| Agree | 3 | 1 | 6% |
| Strongly Agree | 4 | 16 | 94% |
| Statistics | Value |
|---|---|
| Response Count | 17 |
| Mean | 3.9 |
| Standard Deviation | 0.2 |
2. The instructor provided feedback in the course in time to apply it.
| Options | Score | Count | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strongly Disagree | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| Disagree | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| Neutral | 2 | 0 | 0% |
| Agree | 3 | 0 | 0% |
| Strongly Agree | 4 | 17 | 100% |
| Statistics | Value |
|---|---|
| Response Count | 17 |
| Mean | 4.0 |
| Standard Deviation | 0.0 |
3. The instructor clearly communicated grading criteria for my work throughout the course.
| Options | Score | Count | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strongly Disagree | 0 | 1 | 6% |
| Disagree | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| Neutral | 2 | 0 | 0% |
| Agree | 3 | 4 | 24% |
| Strongly Agree | 4 | 12 | 71% |
| Statistics | Value |
|---|---|
| Response Count | 17 |
| Mean | 3.5 |
| Standard Deviation | 1.0 |
4. The instructor clearly communicated the purpose, instructions, and deadlines for my graded work throughout the course.
| Options | Score | Count | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strongly Disagree | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| Disagree | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| Neutral | 2 | 0 | 0% |
| Agree | 3 | 4 | 24% |
| Strongly Agree | 4 | 13 | 76% |
| Statistics | Value |
|---|---|
| Response Count | 17 |
| Mean | 3.8 |
| Standard Deviation | 0.4 |
5. The instructor helped me understand new content by connecting it to things I already knew.
| Options | Score | Count | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strongly Disagree | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| Disagree | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| Neutral | 2 | 1 | 6% |
| Agree | 3 | 5 | 29% |
| Strongly Agree | 4 | 11 | 65% |
| Statistics | Value |
|---|---|
| Response Count | 17 |
| Mean | 3.6 |
| Standard Deviation | 0.6 |
6. The instructor created an inclusive environment where everyone belonged.
| Options | Score | Count | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strongly Disagree | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| Disagree | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| Neutral | 2 | 1 | 6% |
| Agree | 3 | 2 | 12% |
| Strongly Agree | 4 | 14 | 82% |
| Statistics | Value |
|---|---|
| Response Count | 17 |
| Mean | 3.8 |
| Standard Deviation | 0.6 |
7. The instructor demonstrated confidence in everyone's potential to succeed in the course.
| Options | Score | Count | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strongly Disagree | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| Disagree | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| Neutral | 2 | 3 | 18% |
| Agree | 3 | 2 | 12% |
| Strongly Agree | 4 | 12 | 71% |
| Statistics | Value |
|---|---|
| Response Count | 17 |
| Mean | 3.5 |
| Standard Deviation | 0.8 |
8. I felt like the instructor cared about my learning in the course.
| Options | Score | Count | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strongly Disagree | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| Disagree | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| Neutral | 2 | 0 | 0% |
| Agree | 3 | 1 | 6% |
| Strongly Agree | 4 | 16 | 94% |
| Statistics | Value |
|---|---|
| Response Count | 17 |
| Mean | 3.9 |
| Standard Deviation | 0.2 |
Campus Wide Instructor Questions (continued)
9. I would recommend this instructor to other students for this course.
| Options | Score | Count | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strongly Disagree | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| Disagree | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| Neutral | 2 | 0 | 0% |
| Agree | 3 | 5 | 29% |
| Strongly Agree | 4 | 12 | 71% |
| Statistics | Value |
|---|---|
| Response Count | 17 |
| Mean | 3.7 |
| Standard Deviation | 0.5 |
End of Report