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Software Architecture, Lp4 Vt09, DAT135/DIT540

Your own effort

1. How many hours per week did you spend on this course?

41 svarande

At most 15 hours/week»		15		36%
Around 20 hours/week»		13		31%
Around 25 hours/week»		5		12%
Around 30 hours/week»		6		14%
At least 35 hours/week»		2		4%

Genomsnitt: 2.19

- not enough» (At most 15 hours/week)
- Not much as there were no good lectures.» (At most 15 hours/week)
- Unecessary excess of work. » (Around 20 hours/week)
- Only 2-3 persons worked on the project while the other 2-4 persons did not do anything within the project. They did not know how to program :o» (Around 30 hours/week)
- the workload was really too much» (At least 35 hours/week)

2. How large part of the teaching offered did you attend?

42 svarande

0%»		8		19%
25%»		13		30%
50%»		7		16%
75%»		8		19%
100%»		6		14%

Genomsnitt: 2.78

- he is a nice guy, but he cannot teach» (0%)
- Teacher gives very dull lectures.» (0%)
- It"s worthless. The professor is terrible. It was evident from the first day he doesn"t know much about the topic and he doesn"t know how to teach either. Complete waste of time. I"m really disappointed with this course. » (0%)
- Didn"t attend lectures since I"m working most weekdays» (0%)
- The lectures where terrible, so there was no point going to them. I learned more from just reading the slides.» (0%)
- Simply having thing in a point format desn"t cut it, especially when there were not any available course book. » (25%)
- lectures were completely useless» (25%)
- Terrible lectures! » (25%) (den här kommentaren har blivit redigerad i efterhand)
- Too less attendance of students in the class, due to uninteresting lectures. From the beginning I was most punctual, but then I felt I do not get anything during the lecture, so its better to study at home.» (50%)
- I would have attended more, but the lecturer unfourtanetly did not add anything that was not on the slides. On several occasions it just felt like listening to someone that read from the slides word-by-word.» (50%)
- And I wished I would have not» (100%)

Goals and goal fulfilment

3. How understandable are the course goals?

I have not seen/read the goals»		9		21%
The goals are difficult to understand»		2		4%
The goals give some guidance, but could be clearer»		21		51%
The goals clearly describe what I am supposed to learn»		9		21%

Genomsnitt: 2.73

- Very little software architecure, to be a course in software architecture.» (The goals are difficult to understand)
- The goals, although relatively well stated, are irrelevant due the poor quality of the professor and the work required. » (The goals give some guidance, but could be clearer)

4. Are the goals reasonable considering your background and the number of credits?

39 svarande

No, the goals are set too low»		7		17%
Yes, the goals seem reasonable»		28		71%
No, the goals are set too high»		4		10%

Genomsnitt: 1.92

- I was disappointed that the course was so outdated, it focused on techniques like events, layers, filter & pipes, which everyone has heard about from since the first course in java in the it program three years ago... The talk on cloud computing was somewhat interesting though.» (No, the goals are set too low)
- Again, this is just written information in the student portal. They are not reached at all. Although the lectures seem to be organized to fulfill them, the professor does a terrible job trying to teach the content. Neither the project nor the essay help to reach this goals and they take about 80% of the course time. » (Yes, the goals seem reasonable)

5. Did the examination assess whether you have reached the goals?

No, not at all»		9		22%
To some extent»		14		35%
Yes, definitely»		4		10%
I don"t know/have not been examined yet»		13		32%

Genomsnitt: 2.52

- I have not taken the exam yet, but how can an exam set your grade in a project course??!!» (No, not at all)
- A course such as Software Architecture should not be evaluated through an exam - a project would be much more suitable.» (No, not at all)
- Well.. The exam was OK I guess, but 75% of the work in the course was the project as well as the seminars and they are ungraded and does not contribute to the grade. I think if they were graded the level on the talks in the seminars and in the project would have been much higher.» (To some extent)
- This comment is aboy earlier exams, you can not expect the students to remember every seminar. » (Yes, definitely)

Teaching and course administration

6. To what extent has the teaching been of help for your learning?

Small extent»		31		73%
Some extent»		7		16%
Large extent»		3		7%
Great extent»		1		2%

Genomsnitt: 1.38

- Group meeting sessions where good, bu lectures where useless» (Small extent)
- Being in front of the class reading slides is not my idea of teaching. » (Small extent)
- Completely worthless lectures unfortunately. Hard to follow and mostly a lot of information on the very basics only.» (Small extent)
- Learned from the slides» (Small extent)
- the method of teaching in this course was really disappointing. » (Small extent)

7. To what extent has the course literature and other material been of help for your learning?

Small extent»		15		36%
Some extent»		12		29%
Large extent»		11		26%
Great extent»		3		7%

Genomsnitt: 2.04

- sorry but, very bad course literature... no course book no practical scenarios.» (?)
- No course book. Lecture slides only contain headings. Only way to learn is through Internet.» (Small extent)
- There where no course book either...» (Small extent)
- No litterature.» (Small extent)
- Learned from the slides.. There is no coursebook.» (Small extent)
- You need to teach yourself if you want to learn something. » (Some extent)
- the slides for the course, in the name of lecture notes, were not written in a way that one could understand without extra information from other resources. » (Some extent)

8. About the project: To what extent has the project been of help for your learning?

Small extent»		12		28%
Some extent»		12		28%
Large extent»		16		38%
Great extent»		2		4%

Genomsnitt: 2.19

- The concept of thin and thick client is very simple to grasp. What you learn in the project is not architecture but programming. There should be no programming instead a system with a more advanced architecture should be specified using UML.» (Small extent)
- It"s not a database course, it"s not a web applications course. The main objective is to compare 2 architectural approaches. This takes 1% of the time. They amount of work is ridiculus and worthless. They restrict the development to Java and make you stay at Chalmers to use the databases for no reason. This is a common pattern in software engineering projects. I agree the programming project can exercise programming skills, but it seems all software engineering courses are the same. It is always a humongous e-commerce application that takes forever to complete, and there is no time to really delve into the content of the course. This has to stop. It makes no sense. And on top of all that, people who take the course doesn"t know how to program, which make things even more difficult, since we have to team up with them and they cannot contribute with anythign. Isn"t there any filter, why are they taking such a master program if they are lacking such a fundamental skill.» (Small extent)
- It was just mess. Course is more about theoretical knowledge. A single course project is not sufficient to grasp the vast concepts of the software architecture. Better to remove it from the course, instead introduce some other activities.» (Small extent)
- Hardly touched architechture at all....» (Small extent)
- Good idea with a project, but not especially good all in all. Unclear goals, unclear deadlines, etc, etc. » (Some extent)
- project was too big for a short time, that makes some of the software engineering practices unrealistic to apply...» (Some extent)
- For me as a non java programmer it would be very difficult to finish the project without help of experience person in java, otherwise it would have been impossible! But as I was in a balanced team it was good learning. Perhaps the teams can be made by the professor or assistants based on the capabilities of each one.» (Large extent)
- we have learned the most from the project» (Great extent)

9. About the seminar: To what extent has the project been of help for your learning

Small extent»		24		57%
Some extent»		11		26%
Large extent»		5		11%
Great extent»		2		4%

Genomsnitt: 1.64

- I like the idea. But I think it failed completely. It was very hard to learn from the work of the other students. It was very specific and in the same time vague. I would prefer writing an essay, but just hand it in to the teacher, and have normal lectures instead. In that way we should probably learn a lot more.» (Small extent)
- Nobody including me listened to the seminars carefully. Just for formality (attendance). But a few of them were really interesting.» (Small extent)
- Largely irrelevant» (Small extent)
- I would say almost no extent.» (Small extent)
- None, stupid, had nothing to do with the course.» (Small extent)
- i learned a lot writing the seminar and presentation, but listening to others was mostly boring» (Small extent)
- Felt like no one was serious at the seminars which made them pretty much useless.» (Small extent)
- the subjects were distributed randomly and our group got a really poor article to work on, poor both from the subject and quality point of view.» (Small extent)
- In general seminars are very good activity but in this course seminars are just time wasting activity. » (Small extent)
- You need to go deep in one area of research, not always related to software architecture. The paper is too long and the professor doesn"t even participate that much during the presentation. Why should students work so hard on a paper if he doesn"t even know that much about the topic to provide appropiate feedback? » (Some extent)
- all the presentation slides could be made available for us to revise them.» (Some extent)

10. How well did the course administration, web page, handouts etc work?

Very badly»		7		17%
Rather badly»		13		31%
Rather well»		14		34%
Very well»		7		17%

Genomsnitt: 2.51

- the web page was ok, but the system used to register for groups, both for the project and the seminar was not efficient at all. the system was writing our names on paper lists.» (?)
- It didn"t work as other courses, so it was a bit of a surprise how it worked. (Not so much on the web page, all of the information on the lectures, if you missed a lecture you were completely lost about the administration.) When you are used to find all that stuff on the webpage (signing up for groups, signing up for seminar essay etc.) it"s very easy to miss that it only can be done during lecture.» (Rather badly)
- Terrible organization. » (Rather badly)
- Not updated the evey 1 day before any change. We had some canceled seminars that after looking for the room of seminar and not finding anybody and waiting for some times to find someone, were notified by the course homepage that it was canceled.» (Rather badly)
- Late announcement, submission system not working.» (Rather badly)
- Much text on web pages... poor usability» (Rather well)
- No problems there.» (Very well)

Study climate

11. How were the opportunities for asking questions and getting help?

Very poor»		3		7%
Rather poor»		11		26%
Rather good»		13		31%
Very good»		7		17%
I did not seek help»		7		17%

Genomsnitt: 3.09

- Not well informed supervisor» (Rather poor)
- Hard to get information» (Rather poor)

12. How well has cooperation between you and your fellow students worked?

Very poorly»		4		9%
Rather poorly»		4		9%
Rather well»		9		21%
Very well»		25		59%
I did not seek cooperation»		0		0%

Genomsnitt: 3.3

- One of the worst experiences with teams. People don"t know how to program, half of my team didn"t contribute with anything. » (Very poorly)
- Only 2-3 persons worked on the project while the other 2-4 persons did not do anything within the project. They did not know how to program :o» (Very poorly)
- To just put six people together and suppose that they will work out the cooperation themselves are madness. We should at least be given some thoughts about how to handle conflicts and about the problem with communication. When people doesnt even understand that they dont understand eachother, they are just going to play the blamegame. Thats good for no one. It was also hard to find time together with all of the team members since everyone had different other courses and coursetime. » (Rather poorly)
- Project meetings went good.» (Very well)
- i might say excellent, both for the project and the seminar.» (Very well)

13. How was the course workload?

Too low»		1		2%
Low»		9		21%
Adequate»		14		33%
High»		9		21%
Too high»		9		21%

Genomsnitt: 3.38

- Most of the workload was due to the project, whose objective could not be achieved so easily. High workload is not bad, but if that does not bear fruits, its not good.» (High)
- the exam was really not necessary, after having a large project together with a seminar containing presentation and written paper. » (High)
- Project + Seminar + Final examination is quite a heavy load...» (High)
- Project + Seminar + Final Written Exam!» (Too high)
- Only 2-3 persons worked on the project while the other 2-4 persons did not do anything within the project. They did not know how to program :o» (Too high)

14. How was the total workload this study period?

Too low»		0		0%
Low»		3		7%
Adequate»		16		39%
High»		14		34%
Too high»		8		19%

Genomsnitt: 3.65

- I had another project course at the side (Compiler construction) which took a lot of time. » (High)
- I had 2 project courses.» (Too high)
- But it was my own choice» (Too high)

Summarizing questions

15. What is your general impression of the course?

Poor»		17		40%
Fair»		11		26%
Adequate»		6		14%
Good»		7		16%
Excellent»		1		2%

Genomsnitt: 2.14

- The lectures were very poor, absolutely no idea about what the teacher was saying. Not interactive lecture. I had to read everything by myself. I did not learn anything from the lectures.» (Poor)
- Had better expectations...» (Poor)
- This could be a great course regarding the subject, however badly planned, no real information on the course page and very poor lectures made it one of the worst courses i ever had during my four years.» (Poor)
- One of the worst courses I have ever read.» (Poor)
- My biggest field of interest, but this course was very bad. » (Poor)
- Some lack in the communication about the project, like what should be considered etc. There were some requirements that wasn"t in the project description with the other requirements, so it was a bit of a surprise to get a rejection of the program because we had missed it. » (Fair)
- The course objectives are good, but the course itself was poorly organized. Many students dropped the course after few lectures. I continued just to complete my credits. But now i"m feeling it was better if I could have got any other course instead.» (Fair)
- More focus on modern architechture, not things from the 70"s and 80"s... Also perhaps not only talk about the techniques but also exemplify when you actually use them... perhaps also talk some about OO design like design patterns aswell?» (Fair)
- I would expect better seminars/lectures of a course at master level.» (Fair)
- Did not really learn much of different architecture styles, just very briefly.» (Fair)

16. What should definitely be preserved to next year?

17. What should definitely be changed to next year?

18. Additional comments