Feedback from the students, and future things we'd do to improve

• Teaching by drawing. Using the "annotation" tool more often and going through loops step by step as a drawing or a turtle or a person.

• Send out a list of concepts to read up on in advance

• Offering a “base code” layer that they can then work on top of, rather than building from scratch.

• Have the concept introduction even shorter and have more time to work on things.

• Potentially have videos made beforehand, or watch instruction from Dan Shiffman, and then have the day be entirely review and clarification of the concepts we learned.

Pluses

• Good to have so many resources (faculty). I'm feeling a lot of love, help guidance. Having faculty in a similar time-zone was very helpful.

• I super-enjoy coding, thanks to you all. I think the structure is very good.

• So well organized. So easy to access resources, zoom calls. So well done. Having so many faculty, in different time zones, all the feedback... Every faculty had a different teaching style, but they were all great. Different inputs, all great, never contradictory. The little things, dancing...

• Doing the individual assignments in week 1, and then jumping into working in teams in week 2, was wonderful. The openness of the brief was good. We've been doing so much covid stuff, I was worried this was gonna be more of that. But it was so open, with multiplayer, and tools, and such.

• Appreciated the day-4 assignment, to go back and take another look.

• I was extremely afraid of code before this. I really like when instructors give feedback, not by giving the answer, but asking questions.

• I was impressed with how you managed the course. It was great having faculty around all day. Always knew there was someone who could help you.

• Previously we had 5 people in groups, so not everyone could do everything. But this way, there's a lot to learn.

• the last two weeks is what CIID is about, where the cohort helps you out. It's what you learn from your teammates that you carry forward with you.

Deltas

• I liked one-day sketches! Maybe the project could be many of those, instead of one big thing. When you have one project, you can get stuck on it for a long time.

• Project day 1: "focus on the core, don't underestimate the challenge". Could have used that feedback on Monday rather than Tuesday.

• This is my first time coding. I enjoyed it. This second week was tougher than the first week.

• Really well organized, loved the diversity of the lectures, the history, etc. What I noticed was that day 2 was the hardest. Super complicated concepts, non-visual. The exercises were fun for me, but not necessarily for people with less experience. Having super simple examples, to internalize what the concepts were doing, would have helped solidify that.
  • Day 2 was like shifting gear from 1 to 5
  • And the car was going so fast, it broke down on day3.
  • On a not so easy to drive vehicle