CITS2002 Systems Programming - Project 2 Feedback (2021)
Q: Any comments or suggestions about the nature of the 2nd project?
I think having the advanced tasks was a good idea,
though I didn't find them very interesting.
I found starting the project to be the most difficult aspect
Have the second project better incorporate operating systems core concepts
instead of just C programming.
The 2nd project wasn't just about C programming,
but focused on employing system-calls to interface with
a file-system managed by the OS -
aligning with the unit's Content and Learning Outcomes.
It was much more achievable and interesting than project 1 i found
it was related somewhat to some of the earlier lectures however i relied
mostly on online resources.
The project was interesting enough but I did find it a bit dry,
I personally the found first project a lot more interesting.
The project outline was quite detailed and the “potential steps to
achieve solution” were very helpful. However during testing my project,
I did find it a bit ambiguous on what sort of directories our program
will be tested, potentially how big will the files be etc. I understand
in a real world scenario, there are no tests given that you need to pass,
but just some hints would’ve been helpful since we are getting marked
on some automated testing. Cheers
It's unclear what "sort of directories" were anticipated, or feared,
and the sizes of files should have had no bearing on the success of anyone's project.
It took a lot of planning and work. It really showed me the importance
of having a plan before you jump right into things, and it caused me
some issues while I was working through the project.
nothing, just has a little bit hard, nothing else
The second project was definitely doable considering the difficulty,
if content was learned early before and given enough time the project
was fine. However, those who started late may have struggled. It was
particularly difficult due to the due date, many assignemnts were also
due at the same time.
We found it much harder to test this project than project 1
(i.e. creating many directories & subdirectories with ""real"" files,
different types, sizes, etc... especially when trying to make large
folders to test).
good
I think it should give me a little bit more time to complete or set
it a bit easier.
Q: Do you have a single-line comment for future CITS2002 students?
have fun
gl hf
Difficult and misleading.
Certainly a difficult unit for some students, but misleading?
Work on the project consistently, and you should be fine
Please have labs that are more operating system based.
Please please
have solutions for practice exams, there is no way of knowing what a good
answer looks like and wonders why they did bad on the final exam.
This is not a full OS-focused unit;
it's a unit introducing some OS responsibilities and their simplified implementation,
and how they may be accessed and controlled by a contemporary
systems-programming language that is new and challenging to most students.
The matter of why exam solutions are not released was explained in our help forum,
and many students took advantage of having their attempts at questions reviewed.
You need more than 1 coding unit under your belt.
If you can help it, try not to do it alongside too many other quite intesive units.
Buckle your seatbelts.
If you find this unit difficult, you are not alone
Just try your best, it is hard, but useful
Much more independence required than previous level 1 units.
Agreed, and even more independence is required in level 3 units.
The challenge is how to convince students of this before we're too deep into the unit.
If you pace yourself well this is a straghtforward unit, however if
you don't it'll be a nightmare of a unit. Don't be me. Don't wake up to
nightmares of CITS2002.
Hope everyone can pass the unit
Q: This year, CITS2002 experienced a dramatic reduction in attendance at
class sessions and perceived engagement with the unit. Do you have any
suggestions as to how we can increase face-to-face student engagement
next year?
Most units I have ever taken do not have classes on Friday so I only
had the workshop on Friday which meant I opted to watch online instead
of coming in
Yes, the 5-day-campus is now a thing of the past.
There are fewer teaching events scheduled, campus-wide, on Fridays,
and many students dislike events before 11 and after 3 (and must also squeeze in lunch).
Availability of car parking is the only winner.
For me, I went into my first 3 labs or so & struggled to get
any attention from my demonstrator. I preferred googling things than
waiting 30 minutes for a cryptic answer because they don't want to
give the solution away. I don't have any suggestions on how to improve
the labs. For the workshops, they were just another lecture for me
(so I watched them online). I think the workshops were particularly
helpful for introducing me to the command line, though often watching
someone going through a solution isn't much more helpful than reading
the solution myself. I do have a proposal for the workshops. Perhaps
instead of watching a sample solution, we could solve it ourselves in
pieces during the workshop so it feels more practical than a lecture. It
would need some reworking though, you'd want to divide it into modules,
and probably allocate more time to the workshop.
Thanks for your suggestions, particularly about the workshops.
Timing and class-sizes are always a problem and,
when classes were much smaller,
laboratory sessions (and even sit-around-a-table tutorials)
worked through exercises and discussed problems more slowly.
I believe the early session times for lectures and workshops may
have dissuaded some students from coming in to participate in them
Agreed but, unfortunately, we have no say in scheduling our class times.
add participation mark to labs, or make the lectures a relevant
towards the coding projects we are conducting instead of being more
hardware and computer focused.
The lecturer didn't always add too much info or explination to the
slides aside from reading them, so it felt like a similar understanding
could be gained just from reading the slides instead of attending the
lectures.
Weekly assignments/quizzes as done in CITS2200 will definitely help
(personally) I think more projects like the first should help -- it was
very engaging and extremely interesting.
Professor and tutors are pretty good, just use more and more
exmaples. It should be much more better.
Maybe involving students in tasks and showing the top ones at
lectures. The CITS1001 unit did this one time and I thought there was
more student engagement from students who would usually not turn up
because they were already knowledgable in the area. Go into more depth
about the content
(historically) we used to have greater success in workshops when students had
attempted the weekly exercise beforehand.
This year, very few of the (only) 30 regular attendees had made
strong attempts beforehand.
Everyone just too busy these days, it seems.
I think a lot of people are just very busy with work and other
commitments in this time of COVID, which unfortunately brings many
potential financial as well as other stressors.
none
I think it ought to do lecture in some more interesting way.
Maybe, but what's your suggestion?
