Student course feedback

Reports from student surveys and lecturer responses

This page presents feedback from students about their experience on Informatics courses, to help future students in their course choices. There are also responses from the lecturers. Please note that lecturers regularly revise course content and presentation from year to year — often directly in response to exactly this feedback.

Do not redistribute or reuse this material without permission. If you would like another format or want to use it in your own publication then please contact the Informatics Teaching Organisation.

Feedback reports

The most recent feedback is from 2022/23, and covers 67 courses at all levels in the School of Informatics. Please note that not all courses run every year and course content changes from year to year. See the Course Index for current details of all courses offered.  

The tables below bring together over 1,100 individual responses from students, gathered through an online survey at the end of semester 1 and semester 2. Each course lecturer has been invited to write a response, and these are linked alongside the student feedback.

The published reports contain free-text responses by students about their experience of each course and recommendations to others planning their studies. Each course organiser receives this report as well as statistics on multiple-choice responses. All these reports, together with student feedback about individual members of teaching staff, are collected and sent to the Director of Teaching.

Please note that these are personal responses from individual students: some courses have a low response rate, and a small sample can be unrepresentative. Some courses do not appear because there were no responses from students. To find out more about each course yourself, go to the index at http://course.inf.ed.ac.uk and browse the current course web pages.

Each year we remove responses that contain offensive language or otherwise breach the University Dignity and Respect policy. In 2022/23 there were nine responses removed for offensive language, and fourteen responses edited to remove personally identifying details. 

Notes on the tables

The word (new) after a lecturer name indicates a change in the staff teaching a course.

Courses are grouped by year taken. Note that many honours courses may be taken in a choice of years: these are listed as Year 3/4 or Year 4/5/MSc as appropriate.

Viewing each feedback report requires DICE authentication: you must have an School of Informatics user account to log in and download these.

Year 1 courses (Level 8)

Course Name 2023/24 Lecturer 2022/23 Feedback Lecturer Response
Informatics 1 - Introduction to Computation Sannella / Bradfield  report (Sannella / Bradfield / Mitchell)  
Informatics 1 - Cognitive Science Hennig (new) / Keller (new) report (Mollica / Lucas / Storkey)  
Informatics 1 - Object Oriented Programming McNeill / Mitchell report (McNeill / Mitchell)  

Year 2 courses (Level 8)

Course Name 2023/24 Lecturer 2022/23 Feedback Lecturer Response
Informatics 2C - Introduction to Computer Systems Grot (new) / Patel (new) report (Nagarajan / Grosser / Steuwer)  
Informatics 2 - Software Engineering and Professional Practice Alexandru / Glienecke  report (Alexandru / Glienecke)  
Informatics 2 - Introduction to Algorithms and Data Structures Longley / Filos-Ratsikas (new) report (Cryan / Longley)  
Informatics 2 - Foundations of Data Science Sterratt / Gal / Gutmann (new) report (Sterratt / Gal)  
Informatics 2D - Reasoning and Agents Lascarides / Kokciyan / Robertson (new) report (Lascarides / Kokciyan)
Discrete Mathematics and Probability Stark / Heunen / van Glabbeek (new) report (Yorsten / Stark / Heunen)  

Year 3 courses (Level 9)

Course Name 2023/24 Lecturer 2022/23 Feedback Lecturer Response
Informatics Large Practical Glienecke / Li (new) report (Glienecke)  
System Design Project  Polgreen / Garforth / Symons (new)

report (Garforth / Polgreen)

 

Year 3/4 courses (Level 10)

Course Name 2023/24 Lecturer 2022/23 Feedback Lecturer Response
Compiling Techniques Grosser / Shaikhha (new) report (Grosser / Steuwer)  
Computer Architecture and Design Topham report (Topham)  
Computer Communications and Networks Honda / Patras (new) report (Honda / Marina)  
Computational Cognitive Science Mollica (new) report (Lucas)  
Computer Security Arapinis / Elahi  report (Arapinis / Elahi / Mayr)  
Computing in the Classroom Robertson report (Robertson)
Elements of Programming Languages Cheney report (Cheney)
Honours Project (Informatics) Shimodaira (new) report (Narayanaswamy )  
Introduction to Databases Guagliardo / Kadnikov (new) report (Guagliardo / Libkin)  
Introduction to Mobile Robotics Lu report (Lu)  
Introduction to Theoretical Computer Science O'Connor report (O'Connor)  
Machine Learning Tang / Shimodaira / Nazarpour report (Tang / Shimodaira / Nazarpour)  
Operating Systems Barbalace / Mai report (Barbalace / Mai)
Professional Issues Garforth report (Garforth)  
Software Design and Modelling Stevens / Ikonomov (new) report (Stevens)
Software Testing Anderson report (Anderson)  

Year 4/5/MSc courses (Level 11)

Course Name 2023/24 Lecturer 2022/23 Feedback Lecturer Response
Advanced Database Systems Nikolic / Pieris report (Nikolic / Pieris)  
Advanced Robotics Tonneau / Ramamoorthy report (Tonneau / Ramamoorthy)  
Algorithmic Game Theory and its Applications Etessami report (Etessami)  
Automatic Speech Recognition Bell / Tang  report (Bell / Tang)  
Bioinformatics 1 Simpson report (Simpson)  
Blockchains and Distributed Ledgers Wallden (new) / Ciampi (new) / Karakostas report (Karakostas)  
Computer Graphics NOT RUNNING IN 2023/24 report (Vaxman)  
Extreme Computing Mai / Shaikhha report (Mai / Shaikhha)  
Human-Computer Interaction Vaniea / Vines  report (Vines / Wolters)  
Introduction to Modern Cryptography Ciampi  report (Ciampi)
Introduction to Quantum Computing Garcia-Patron Sanchez / Wallden report (Garcia-Patron Sanchez / Wallden)  
Machine Learning Practical Bilen / Andreadis  report (Bilen / Andreadis)  
Machine Learning Theory Sarkar report (Sarkar)  
Natural Computing Herrmann report (Herrmann)  
Natural Language Understanding, Generation, and Machine Translation Birch-Mayne / Cohen (new)  / Minervini (new) report (Keller / Birch-Mayne)  
Principles and Design of IoT Systems Arvind report (Arvind)  
Quantum Cyber Security Wallden report (Garcia-Patron Sanchez / Wallden)  
Secure Programming Aspinall report (Aspinall)  
Security Engineering Patel / Anderson report (Patel / Anderson)  
Text Technologies for Data Science Ross / Al Hariri (new) report (Magdy / Ross)  
Types and Semantics for Programming Languages Wadler report (Wadler)  
Usable Security and Privacy Vaniea (new) report (Jenkins)  

Year 5/MSc courses

Most MSc study is at Level 11. However, MSc students may take up to 30 credit points of Level 9 and Level 10 courses. Those are listed in the sections above for Year 3 and Year 4.

Course Name 2023/24 Lecturer 2022/23 Feedback Lecturer Response
Accelerated Natural Language Processing Lopez / Ponti / Cohen (new) report (Goldwater / Lopez / Ponti)  
Applied Machine Learning Mac Aodha / Narayanaswamy report (Mac Aodha / Narayanaswamy)
Categories and Quantum Informatics NOT RUNNING IN 23/24 report (Heunen)
Case Studies in AI Ethics Kokciyan report (Kokciyan)   
Case Studies in Design Informatics 1 Vines / Lechelt report (Vines / Wolters / Lechelt)  
Categories and Quantum Informatics NOT RUNNING IN 2023/24 report (Heunen)  
Computational Neuroscience Chadwick report (Chadwick)  
Image and Vision Computing Li (new) / Sevilla-Lara  report (Sevilla-Lara)  
Informatics Project Proposal

Constantin / Armstrong 

report (Constantin / Armstrong)

 
Introduction to Practical Programming with Objects

NOT RUNNING IN 2023/24

report (Franke / Glienecke / Symons )

 
Introductory Applied Machine Learning (Semester 2) (Ma / Shimodaira) report (Ma / Shimodaira)  
Machine Learning and Pattern Recognition Onken / Vergari report (Onken / Murray / Vergari)
Methods for Causal Inference Khamesh report (Khamesh)  
Probabilistic Modelling and Reasoning Gutmann / Williams (new) report (Gutmann)  
Reinforcement Learning Albrecht / Herrmann (new) report (Albrecht)  
Seminar in Cognitive Modelling Mollica report (Mollica / Bramley)  

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