Online Student Ratings Report
Period:Fall 2013
Instructor: McCarthy, Jay A (075667467)
Course:C S 330-001: Concepts of Programng Lang

Page 1

Responses/Enrolled:
College:
Department:

10 / 13 = 77%
Physical and Mathematical Sciences
Computer Science

Instructor Below Overall Instructor Above Overall

CourseAmount learned
Materials & activities
effective
Well organized

StdDev

Sect Crse Mean Dept Mean Coll Mean Univ Mean
Mean Instructor/ Instructor/ Instructor/ Instructor/Overall
Overall
Overall
Overall

VSD SD(1) (2)D SwD SwA A(3) (4) (5) (6)SA VSA NR Resp
(7) (8)Rate

2.17

6.4 6.4 / 6.4 6.4 / 6.8 6.4 / 6.4 6.4 / 6.7

100012240 77%

2.00

6.3 6.3 / 6.3 6.3 / 6.5 6.3 / 6.2 6.3 / 6.5

1

0000

3420 77%

1.73

6.9 6.9 / 6.9 6.9 / 6.4 6.9 / 6.4 6.9 / 6.6

001

011

1

60 77%

Evaluations goodmeasures of learning

2.38

5.1 5.1 / 5.1 5.1 / 6.3 5.1 / 6.0 5.1 / 6.3

2001

1

2400 77%

Grading procedures
fair

2.50

5.4 5.4 / 5.4 5.4 / 6.6 5.4 / 6.3 5.4 / 6.6

200014120 77%

Intellectual skills
developed

2.216.3 6.3 / 6.3 6.3 / 6.8 6.3 / 6.5 6.3 / 6.6

100021240 77%

Testimonystrengthened

1.70

6.3 6.3 / 6.3 6.3 / 5.9 6.3 / 5.7 6.3 / 6.3

001103230 77%

Hours spent in class

Valuable time in class

0.17

2.9 2.9 / 2.9 2.9 / 2.8 2.9 / 3.3 2.9 / 2.869%

StdDev

Sect Crse Mean Dept Mean Coll Mean Univ Mean
Mean Instructor/ Instructor/ Instructor/ Instructor/
Overall
Overall
Overall
Overall

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% NR Resp(0) (10) (20) (30) (40) (50) (60) (70) (80) (90) (100)Rate

31.99 73.0 73.0/73.073.0/70.573.0/74.873.0/80.7 0

Hours spent out ofclass10.32 15.3 15.3/15.315.3/ 7.4 15.3/ 5.5 15.3/ 3.7

Valuable time out ofclass

27.26 79.0 79.0/79.079.0/80.679.0/78.479.0/80.3 010020010330 77%
77%100001032

30 77%

Instructor

StdDev

Sect Crse Mean Dept Mean Coll Mean Univ Mean
Mean Instructor/ Instructor/ Instructor/ Instructor/Overall
Overall
Overall
Overall

VSD SD(1) (2)

D SwD SwA A(3) (4) (5) (6)SA VSA NR Resp
(7) (8)Rate

Interest in student
learning

0.88

6.6 6.6 / 6.6 6.6 / 7.0 6.6 / 6.8 6.6 / 7.1

00001

3411 69%

Opportunities to get
help

1.76

7.0 7.0 / 7.0 7.0 / 6.8 7.0 / 6.7 7.0 / 6.900101

10

70 77%Active student
involvement

1.71

6.4 6.4 / 6.4 6.4 / 6.7 6.4 / 6.6 6.4 / 6.9001102330 77%

0.88

7.4 7.4 / 7.4 7.4 / 6.3 7.4 / 6.3 7.4 / 6.5000002

1

61 69%

Prompt feedback
Useful feedback

1.78

6.6 6.6 / 6.6 6.6 / 6.3 6.6 / 6.1 6.6 / 6.5

001

101

340 77%

Responded tostudents respectfully

1.58

5.6 5.6 / 5.6 5.6 / 6.9 5.6 / 6.8 5.6 / 7.0

0101

14300 77%

Explained concepts
effectively

2.22

5.5 5.5 / 5.5 5.5 / 6.4 5.5 / 6.3 5.5 / 6.7

101104120 77%

Integrates gospel intosubject

1.42

6.3 6.3 / 6.3 6.3 / 6.3 6.3 / 6.2 6.3 / 6.7

00

1

0052

20 77%

1.26

6.6 6.6 / 6.6 6.6 / 6.5 6.6 / 6.3 6.6 / 6.8000104230 77%

StdDev

Sect Crse Mean Dept Mean Coll Mean Univ Mean
Mean Instructor/ Instructor/ Instructor/ Instructor/
Overall
Overall
Overall
OverallEP(1)

VP
(2)

P
(3)

SP(4)

SG(5)

G(6)

VG
(7)

EG(8)

NR RespRate

1.96

5.6 5.6 / 5.6 5.6 / 6.6 5.6 / 6.2 5.6 / 6.7

1001

142

10 77%

1.64

6.3 6.3 / 6.3 6.3 / 6.6 6.3 / 6.6 6.3 / 6.9

00

10222

30 77%BYU Aims

StdDev

Sect Crse Mean Dept Mean Coll Mean Univ Mean
Mean Instructor/ Instructor/ Instructor/ Instructor/
Overall
Overall
Overall
Overall

VSD SD(1) (2)

D SwD SwA A(3) (4) (5) (6)SA VSA NR Resp(7) (8)Rate

Contributed to BYU
Aims

2.22

6.5 6.5 / 6.5 6.5 / 6.8 6.5 / 6.6 6.5 / 6.9

101

Comments

StdDev

Sect Crse Mean Dept Mean Coll Mean Univ Mean
Mean Instructor/ Instructor/ Instructor/ Instructor/
Overall
Overall
Overall
Overall

Spiritually inspiring

Overall
Overall Course
Overall Instructor

Comments

001250 77%

62%

C S 330­001 Fall 2013 ­ Comments
Responses: 8 Total
I think that Jay has the ability to teach very well. His lectures are great. I just think that if he graded likethe other computer science professors did, that students would get a greater benefit. It was difficult
because he wasn't grading like the rest of the computer science staff. I think that he should grade this way
because that is what students are expecting of every class. In order to get into the program, students aregraded with good grades if their programs pass the appropriate tests, given by the professors. This would
lead me to believe that all classes would be graded this way. The rest of the computer science staff tellyou, before the assignment is due, what they are looking for in order to pass of an assignment. Jay has thestudents turn in what they have and then tells us what we need to get a good grade. I gave some ideas inseveral evaluations he gave us, and he seemed to only listen to the ideas if they were given in a logical
proof form. I hope that he can understand my praise and concern from what I have written.
I felt that the grading system was much too harsh, and too granular. I've never gotten a zero on anassignment that I actually did and turned in before.
It might have been nice to give us the opportunity to redo and resubmit assignments after recieving ourgrades and feedback, for at least partial credit.
I'm very glad I took this course. It taught me more about programming and different languages than I
would be able to learn on my own. Most of what I learned I would not be able to learn through work orclasses from other professors.
Jay is a fantastic teacher.
Exceptional instructor. I learned a great deal from Jay. His course was one of the most difficult I havetaken but it is hard for me to think of a class where I learned more.
Professor McCarthy is one of the tougher professors I have had at the school, but I have learned morefrom his classes than any other professor. The organization of the course and homework required thatstudents learn the material rather than simply reiterating what was said in class or the book, it required ademonstration of the understanding of the material. This has been the most "Intellectually Enlarging" and"Character Building" classes that I have taken at BYU.
The good things about Jay McCarthy:­ Gave prompt feedback on all assignments and questions­ Funny and Entertaining in class­ Brought in gospel concepts to the lectureThings for Jay McCarthy to improve on:­ Students don't like to be told they are wrong. Ease them into new concepts.
For example if a student gives an example of what they think Polymorphism is, and it is contrary to whatyou know it is, instead of saying "You are wrong. Let me show you why you are wrong." respond withsomething like "You are close, but there is more to it than that" and then proceed to use terms that theyrecognize and build on what they got right. This approach is better than straight up telling the student thatthey are wrong. Telling a student they are wrong might cause them to doubt themselves and not want to
ask questions anymore as they slowly start to hate the class for depressing reasons.
­ The next thing that could be improved upon is responses to Student's questions on the Google Group.
An example would be if the student asks the question "how do I do a for loop in Racket?", a good
response would be "Here is an example of a simple for loop. [for loop code]. Here is where you can go tolearn more about it. [link to for loop documentation]".
The response is ideal because it doesn't accuse the student of not reading the documentation thoroughly.
This type of response will be better received than an accusatory "You didn't read the documentation."
Also on the topic of the Google Group, be sure to not ask accusatory questions back to the student. Tersequestions like "How did you come up with that?" can be interpreted as having an angry connotation.
Instead, if you want to ask questions to the students to help them learn, try asking "What have you tried
so far?" and then offer some suggestions or hints as to a few things that could be wrong.
The thing that made it hard for me to ask you questions is that I didn't want to feel stupid because of theresponses I would get such as "Why didn't you read the documentation?" when I had done my best to readthe documentation and was still clueless. A little patience when students don't understand anything can goa long way.
­ Final point, please don't disregard this input. I'm offering suggestions because I feel bad that I spent themajority of the semester hating your class all because I couldn't figure you out. Now that I have some ideaof how you function it is too late for me to fix anything because I am so far behind.
Moral of the story: Try give thoughtful and non­accusatory responses to the students; even if you neverintended your response to be accusatory, you should be careful how you talk to your students throughtext­base mediums.
This course is a little absurd. I'm never sure what I'm supposed to be learning and the assignments arebarely related to what we talk about in class. The grading system is completely arbitrary. A fully
functioning program would get a 50% because it didn't include the test­cases Jay expected (even if itwould handle those cases correctly). Even this would be acceptable, if we knew what those test cases
would be before hand. Instead it's a game of 'guess­what­Jay's­thinking,' which is rather unfair.
The language (Racket) is not worth learning. There is nothing about this course that will help me be betterat computer science or help me succeed in any career.
Jay himself means well, and it seems he genuinely cares about his students, but he just has no concept of
how to teach. I'm fairly certain that he's brilliant, but almost everything he talks about is extremely hard
to follow.
The expectation on students is too high for what he's teaching.
Currently, the average in the class is somewhere around 55%, and that's the highest it's been all semester.
This doesn't bother him because there are still extra credit assignments. But if we can't do the regularassignments, why would he think we can do the extra hard ones? I assume he has some plan to stop half
the class from failing. If not, I expect administration to step in, because a fail rate that high is clearly thefault of the instructor and not the students.