Biosequence Algorithms 2005
Summary of Course Feedback
Pekka Kilpeläinen, March 21, 2005

The course feedback form was returned by 11 students

Student's GOAL:
  pass			 1
  learn the essentials	 8
  learn all		 2

Amount of INTEREST in the topic: 
  little		 0
  medium		 7
  a lot			 4

TIME USED weekly, including homework:
1 - 2h (0-0.45 cu)	 1
2 - 4h (0.45-0.9 cu)	 0
4 - 8h (0.9-1.8 cu)	 5
8 - 16h (1.8-3.6 cu)	 5
16 - 32h (3.6-7.2 cu)	 0

The course was considered
  "easy" by		 0 
  "medium" by    	 9, and 
  "difficult" by 	 2 students

MOST DIFFICULT TOPICS:
	"kaikki bio"
	suffix trees (x 4)
	Ukkonen's algorithm
	Multiple alignment
	optimal alignments

EASIEST TOPICS:	
	suffix trees
	Boyer-Moore (x 4)
	Aho-Corasick
	naive search 
	Z-boxes (x 2)

SUFFICIENCY OF STUDENT'S BACKGROUND: (no complaints)

TOPICS TO REMOVE OR LESSEN from the course: (no suggestions)

TOPICS TO ADD to the course:
"It would be better to add more methods of searching, like hashing, quick
search, Harrison, Wagner-Fisher, etc."
"More lectures about clustering (may be in some other course)"

LECTURE NOTES (SLIDES) were considered
  "poor" by 		0, 
  "OK" by 		9, and
  "good" by		2 students.

Amount of detail was found 
  "too little" by 	 0, 
  "OK" by		11, and
  "too detailed" by 	 0 students.

LECTURES were found
  "unnecessary" by	 0,
  "useful" by		10, and
  "necessary" by	 1 students.

Amount of detail was found 
  "too little" by	 0,
  "suitable" by		11, and
  "too detailed" by	 0 student.

The lectures succeeded
  "poorly" by 		 0, 
  "OK" by 		 8, and
  "quite well" by 	 3 students.

The EXERCISES supported learning
  "poorly" by		 0, 
  "OK" by		 3, and
  "quite well" by	 8 students.

The amount of homework assignments was 
  "too little" by 	 0, 
  "OK" by		10, and
  "too many" by		 1 students.

The excercises were found
  "too easy" by		 0, 
  "OK" by		10, and
  "too difficult" by	 1 students.

Number of students who found that the exercise sessions succeeded
  "poorly" was		 0 
  "OK" was		 5
  "quite well" was	 6.


COMMENTS ON THE HOME EXAM:

"Home exam suits perfectly to a course like this. It is a relief that you
don't have to learn all the algorithms by heart."
"interesting"
"too difficult"
"sähköposti" [kritisoi vaatimusta palauttaa vastaukset paperilla?]
"normal :)"
"interesting tasks"
"Exam was ok. quite hard. I like home exam. It is the best opportunity to show
knowledge"
"[It should?] not [be?] so difficult. But I like it. It was more theoretical"
"Very interesting tasks are presented"


The OVERALL SATISFACTION with the course was ..
  "little" for		 0,
  "medium" for		 6, and
  "much" for		 5 students.

TOPICS LEARNED on the course:
 
"efficient methods"
"paljon merkkijonoalgoritmeja"
"I think all"
"More details about methods of searching. I found more about suffixes [?]"
"Searching within strings technique"

Topics FAILED TO LEARN:

"kaikki bio"
"I think all" [perhaps meant as an answer to "What did you learn?"]
"Nothing, but I'd like to learn more about multiple searching, because of not
enough examples and theory."

OTHER COMMENTS:

"-bio mikään ei juuri kiinnostanut"
"Maybe you should change the topic of course? Because it is near to analysis
and searching than biosequence. (I mean biology)"
"Thank you for the course! It was very useful for me: the topic of searching
is very close to me."