Week Two

The second week of class has come and gone, along with came many beneficial aspects of the class.

 

For one, the instructor decided to allow the class to write the code in Python 3 if they wanted. This is a prime example of how the professor truly cares about his students doing well in the class. It shows he went through people’s blogs and found that enough people mentioned the discrepancy between classes in the Elements Program to consider altering the assignment. This is an amazing gesture on his part, and, not that I wish to look a gift horse in the mouth, perhaps too accommodating. Please let me explain, I know I did mention how the other Elements classes use Python 3, but it was not with the intention of having him change that aspect, rather I merely wanted to point out that there is a bit of a hurdle to the class. Hurdles are not necessarily a bad thing. One thing about the computer industry I have heard about is that software and languages go through changes very quickly, but at different paces. So a recent program could be running and using a language that may be considered outdated when it comes out. And not all companies have the money to continually update their software and make due with older versions that still work. For example there are some broadcast companies which use Photoshop CS4, even after CS5 and CS6 came out, because all their other templates, software and hardware are compatible only with CS4. In such cases, even if you are incredibly knowledgeable about a language or program you may find yourself in a situation where you must use older versions of said language or program, and you may not get the luxury of the manager bending over backwards to try and update everything for a single person or group. I want to emphasize that I really appreciate what the professor did, but I wanted to point out how the original arrangement had its academic advantages.

 

The second thing which occurred is the first study session with the TAs, which was extremely beneficial to learning how to work GitHub and how to work on the assignment. So I recommend going to them if you can.

First Week

Hello, I am a student at the University of Texas in Austin and am currently taking the CS327e: Databases course to help qualify for the Elements of Computing certificate. Thus far the course is a mix of good and bad qualities. The good quality is that the professor, Glenn Downing, is very enthusiastic about teaching the course and seems genuinely interested in the students’ experiences.

The issues arise in the course material. First and foremost is the fact that Python 2.7 is the language used. The reason this is such a significant issue is because the two prerequisite courses where most, if not all, of the students learned Python. However, it was the latest version of Python, Python 3. Thus the course asks us to use an older version of a language where there are fewer features than in the latest version as well as there being differences in the remaining functions. It is just a bit rough trying to navigate the older syntax while trying to write elegant and efficient code. The reason for the need to use this is to use a program called GitHub, which is another issue. It isn’t too bad though the program does kind of confuse me and we haven’t really covered much of how to use it, but the Professor did mention the start of a study group which sounds like it can help, though if it is after the due date of the first project it becomes a moot point. The next issue is the quizzes which are kind of hard given the time allowed for them. They are useful for the class and helping to prove a point he wants to make about the class and the current assignment, so they are a mixed issue. On the one hand they are hard, which can negatively affect one’s grade in the class which is a big deal, but on the other hand they are useful in emphasizing the Professor’s lesson plan.

Overall the course looks promising, but it won’t be till later when it will be more evident whether or not the class is doable, which is mostly based on how easily the transition from Python 3 to Python 2.7, the learning curve for GitHub, and the act of getting accustomed to the quizzes turns out to be.