NOTES OF A WRAP-UP MEETING HELD ON 28 MAY 2008

Year 1 - BSc/MEng COMPUTER SCIENCE

Present: GAR (Chair/Undergraduate (UG) Tutor), CN (Minutes) and First Year students.

1. Overview of First Year
Students found the atmosphere in the department to be welcoming when they arrived and found staff and other students to be friendly.  The level of difficulty in the first year was noted as being a step up form A-Levels but still a comfortable learning curve. 

2. Exams
Students thought that there were too many exams in the main exam period and asked if some of them could be taken in January rather than all in April/May.  The Undergraduate Tutor noted that there is a long-standing tradition at UCL of holding all exams in the Summer Term and that there are advantages to this approach. Notably, it gives students time to and absorb and understand challenging subjects, and avoids first term material being forgotten later in the academic year. It was also noted that exams remain the best way to assess student’s progress. 

3. Lecture Notes
The Students felt that some lecturers did not give sufficient lecture notes either during or at the end of their modules.  The UG Tutor mentioned that it is up to the lecturer in question to decide if they want to make notes available and that some staff believe that students should make their own notes rather than be given them, as this encourages student attendance and participation.  The students said that they would prefer to have access to lecture notes beforehand so that they can concentrate on listening to and understanding the lecture.  
The students were asked in which format they would prefer to have lecture notes made available to them, (paper hand-outs, online, etc), and the outcome was that they would like to have all of these formats available to use.  They also requested to have more detailed notes made available for some modules and more in-depth reading lists.  The UG Tutor asked if students would prefer to use Wiki sites to create a forum for discussing problem questions and answers.  The students responded that they thought that this might be useful and that some of them already use resource forums. 

4. Model Exam Paper Answers 
Students requested model answers to be given for past exam papers to help with revision.  The UG Tutor informed the students that the department has never published the answers to exam papers as this encourages students to memorise answers and also discourages reading around the subject. 

5. Problem Classes
Students requested longer problem classes and model answers to be given to the problem questions.  The UG Tutor reiterated that model answers are not given in order to encourage students to do their own research into the topic and to stimulate debate.  He also suggested that students should be encouraged to publish their own answers in a Moodle Wiki or forum as a way of evaluating each other’s work.

6. Feedback on Optional Modules
Students asked for more comprehensive information when choosing their optional modules.  They seemed to find that timetabling and registration for arts and humanities subjects was more difficult than for other modules.  They also commented that both CS optional modules were scheduled in the second term increasing the workload in the run up to the exams.  The UG Tutor informed students that the scheduling of these modules is subject to the central room bookings organised by the Estates and Facilities Department.  It was also mentioned that the department is currently doing a lot of work with regard to timetabling and that we are also working to adopt the Central Timetabling system which should make choosing optional courses simpler, more transparent and more accessible for students. 

7. Feedback on Core Modules

MATH6301 
Students asked why discrete mathematics was part of the CS first year syllabus.  The UG Tutor replied that this course is relevant and that it will become more apparent when studying Theory and other modules.  Students commented that they did not like the Department of Mathematics style of lectures where students take their own notes.  The UG Tutor responded that this was quite typical of Mathematics lectures and that the Department of Mathematics expects students to practice outside of lectures.  Students also fed-back that they thought that the core mathematics module was hard to follow, but that the exam was not too difficult. 

COMP1002
Students thought that the Theory exam was difficult and that the content was unexpected in relation to the topics covered in the lectures. 

COMP1009 
Students asked if this course could be made more interactive. 

The Undergraduate Tutor closed the meeting by reminding students of the dates for the release of provisional exams results and to keep their contact details in Portico up to date over the summer. 

CN
9/06/08