Let's do it this way. If you want to do the extra credit and present your work to me, either put yourself in the list or, if that doesn't work, send me an email message. I'll put you in the schedule.

Probably my office.

My email address is Russ.Abbott@gmail.com.

 

I personaly find the above comment very otfensive. Just because more of us want to improve our grade with extra credit in no way suggests sandbagging. I tried my best throughout this course and still found it difficult even though I code daily in c# and/or java. The reason so many of us are taking the extra credit option is because we are scared that your final will be as hard and confusing as your quizes(Multiple answers that seem correct but we must choose the best most correct one). Many of us feel that the extra credit is our only hope to getting a decent grade in your class. Now you say we can loss credit for something we are taking extra time to do. Extra credit is just that, extra. Giving us a lower grade if we do not perform well only makes it an optional assignment NOT extra credit. Im sorry you have to sit around in your office speaking to students for longer than you expected. I know how you like to distance yourself from students without actually having to teach via videos and student presentations. Maybe we would have a firmer grasp on the subject if we had a teacher who actually lectured. End Rant. TLDR: extra credit should be extra, not a graded assignment and your style of hands off teaching has not proven effective.

I would have to agree. Accusing the class of sandbagging when we were actually struggling to grasp a difficult subject wasn't necessary. Neither was the threat of points reduction. It discourages us from even trying.

I had written the following up a few weeks ago, but never submitted this comment for fear it may cause some backlash. It might be too late to save the current class but hopefully it can help future students. Here's my view of why the class was asking for some leniency because we felt the grades do not accurately reflect our efforts:

- On average, each quiz is only 10 questions. The margin for error is very slim that if you miss one question, you'd drop a grade. There is very little room for error!

- The quizzes were quite difficult themselves. I often find myself toggling between 2 or 3 possible answers. It's further complicated by the fact that sometimes the only difference between the wrong answer and the correct one was a play on words, rather than clear choices on technical concepts.

- The level of the assignments didn't seem to match the level of the lectures and examples in the videos. If it were a level above, it's understandable. But I felt it was several levels above, requiring more programming experience than from what we've learned in cs201-203 (the only prereq for this class). Don't take this the wrong way. I appreciate and welcome the challenge. That's what we're here for. But once in a while, it would be nice and even encouraging to feel the victory of a few small battles than to keep losing big wars all the time. I'm so glad you noticed us struggling with the assignments that you modified the class. 

Finally, I'd like to say that after struggling through this course, I still feel that I have a better understanding and also a greater appreciation for functional programming. It's amazing the amount of code that can be reduced by programming in a functional programming language. In fact, I feel it would be cumbersome to go back to programming in Java. And despite how you feel about us or what our grades say about us, I believe we were able to walk away with a good amount of knowledge. Hopefully, I can speak for the class when I say that a majority of us do not feel that we were not putting in the effort. The truth is, this is not an easy subject provided many of us have yet to apply what we've learned from books on a more regular basis.

7.? Anon