Feedback to students
All feedback on this course, until the final exam, is
formative as
opposed to summative. That is, it aims to help you decide what to work on,
and is not used in determining your final mark on the course. A major
reason for this is that software engineering is almost always a team
activity, and the most interesting problems have many solutions. In this
course, you should feel able to discuss your work with anyone, and work in
groups whenever it seems appropriate to you, without worrying about whether
you have offended against a "your own unaided work" rule.
Some of the ways in which you will be able to get feedback:
- Doing the automatically marked questions that will be available, for
example, after you've watched a course video. These questions are typically
very simple, with only one right answer, and aim to let you check whether
you have understood basic issues.
- Attending "lectures", which will actually often be interactive
sessions of discussing and problem-solving. You will have a chance to get
feedback on your ideas and solutions to problems, from your peers and from
the lecturer.
- Participating in the Piazza class, e.g. posting questions, answering
other students' questions, and joining in discussion. If you would like to
work in a group with other students, e.g. on the exercise sheets, but you
do not know other students to work with, please use the "Search for
Teammates!" facility on Piazza. A good way to proceed would be to start by
doing exercises alone, then meet in a group to compare solutions, then post
any remaining questions or controversies to the Piazza class for wider
discussion and for feedback from me.
- Attend one of my office hours, if you have questions or confusions you
find hard to explain on Piazza. These will be at different times each week
to suit different timetables. The number will be adjusted according to the
demand. See the schedule page for this week's details.
- Handing in written versions of the exercises, and later of any exam
questions you like to do. Give them to me, either electronically by email
(link below), or on paper whenever you see me.
This page is maintained by
Perdita Stevens (
perdita@inf.ed.ac.uk
)