-- DonaldActon - 04 Oct 2011

Progress Report (First week of October 2011)

Effective the beginning of September 2011 two graduate students with experience TAing CPSC 317 were hired at 1/2 time each. The efforts of these students will be focused on moving 317 from a course based on the classical lecture style to one where the lecture time is primarily devoted to group based activities and class discussions focused on exploring the current learning outcomes. At the time the students were hired we had defined a broad set of unrefined learning outcomes both at the course and topic level. In addition, as a proof of concept, we had, after several iterations, produced a lecture-by-lecture outline of potential activities and desired learning outcomes. (It should be noted that the potential activities were very broadly specified.) Currently, the students are examining the learning outcomes for a lecture or series of lectures and:

• Looking for activities the students could perform in class that would help achieve the desired learning outcomes. The goal is to have several possible activities and then choose the ones that have the best fit with respect to learning outcomes, the other activities in the course, and the students' skill level.
• A list of support materials in the form of readings, videos, simulations etc. that are relevant to the learning outcomes.

Once a pool of activities has been identified we will then go through the exercise of selecting the most appropriate activities and constructing a detailed lecture schedule. At that point the grad students will then

• Help refine the topic level learning outcomes.
• Prepare and test the in-class activities. This will include the preparation of any instructions the students will require along with the development, deployment or implementation of any required support software.
• Help with the development and preparation of homework assignments.

Assuming the majority of this work is completed by end of December we would then offer the revised 317 in January 2012. A wiki page document the work done with respect to revising 317 can be found at https://bugs.cs.ubc.ca/cgi-bin/twiki/view/Main/ComputerScience317Cwsei