Here’s a post I shared with the students of my Tools in Data Science course at IITM. This was in response to a student posting that:
The design of TDS course lecture videos are designed in such a way that it could be understood only by the data scientists not by the students like me who are entirely new to the field of data science. Though I have gone through 6 weeks of course lecture videos, I am not fully aware of the usage of ChromeDevTools, Bash, Github etc….
IITM Term 1: German. In my first term at IIT Madras (1992), I took German 1 with Prof D Subramanian.
The first words D.Subs said when he entered the room were, “Wer sind Sie?”
I had no clue what he was talking about. Nor did the others. After individually asking about a dozen students, Ashok Krishna replied, “Ich bin Ashok.” (He knew German.)
The rest of the term proceeded in the same vein. He threw us in the deep end, spoke only German, and I ended up with a “D” and learning very little German. Ashok Krishna thrived in that course.
IITM Term 2: German. In took German 2 with Mrs Schindler in the next term. The experience was very different. She explained each word. She had us listen to tapes in German. It was very relaxed.
I ended up with a “B” and learning very little German. (I’m not good with human languages.) But many others enjoyed it.
Which is better? I’m not sure. I think gentle courses are good for beginners and tough ones for advanced student, but classes usually have a mix of both. Aptitude and interest help, too.
IITM Term 1: Physics. Prof. PC Deshmukh handled our first physics course. (He was the one responsible for renaming Mardi Gras “Saarang”.) Our class felt the exams were too tough. My friend Badri and I explained this to him. “Well, you two should be lobbying for even tougher exams,” PCD said. “That’ll benefit smarter guys like you more.”
IIMB Term 1: Statistics. My classmate Athreya was a class representative for statistics (a tough subject.) Going against tradition, he lobbied for a tougher test. He was almost lynched afterwards.
Which is better? I’m not sure. An easy exam is good for student grades and morale. A tough exam is good for college reputation and advanced students. Classes usually need both.
In short, I have no clue.
Students who take this course learn several topics 3 months.
Faculty like me haven’t managed to learn how to calibrate course content or exams even after 3 years.
But, I’m learning. Thanks to you.
So please keep the feedback coming. We’ll keep improving. And thanks for putting up with us!
An interested mind would love an advanced course, such courses are a rarity these days. But an advanced course without an “involved” instructor is useless. May be you need to prepare the students for the advanced topics-
1- Use a basic course or training material as a precursor
2- Be a lot more available for clarifying things at the start.
3- Keep the content & assignments hard, but the final evaluation easy or some mix of hard & easy. This will help students have a sense of achievement.
4- Evaluate for understanding and not absolute correctness in the assignments.
Hmm thought provoking, my view is courses should be hard ..because we now live in a world of information overload .. the easy stuff is readily available, we just need to put in the effort to seek that information .. its the advanced bit which is still gold dust.