Results Page for the BS-CSE Undergraduate Exit Survey, Answers to Freeform Questions, 2015-'16
Answers to: 'What single aspect of the CSE program did you find most helpful? Explain briefly.'
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capstone
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I come from a background with strong math skills, but very little programming experience. The software sequence was really helpful in laying down the foundation for learning to program.
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Wide coverage of a variety of topics.
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Hands down, the stellar faculty have made the program great for me. Nearly every one of my professors knew me by name, cared about my wellbeing beyond just the class, and helped me in my professional development (in my case, preparation for grad school). My advisor was also incredibly helpful.
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I found the project class most helpful (I took the Mario game project class) because it taught me how to code with design and code quality in mind.
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Gained lots of experiences of team project building using Agile method. Also I learned how to deal with various issues in the process/each sprint.
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The variety of languages, ides, tools used in different classes. It gave a good exposure to me on a lot of options as well as helped me professionally
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Staff knowledge on specific topics. Specifically within tech electives staff was very knowledgeable on the topic that was being taught allowing a better learning environment on that application.
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CSE major classes are really helpful. Nikki Starder advising was pretty helpful to me to achieve my target.
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I felt that having the bingo sheets as well as the curriculum requirements online made it very easy for me to take a hands on approach to scheduling, knowing what classes i needed to take and where i was at in the curriculum. This gave me control over it and i did not have to rely on the advisers, although the walk in hours made it easy to.
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I thought it was helpful to teach the foundations of all CS and then allow students to choose which expertise they wanted to learn.
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CSE core (Software and Foundations series)
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CSE 2321. Hands on experience.
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It had most of the information needed to make course decisions online.
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I found it helpful that we were required to take courses across a wide breadth of topics. It gave me the perspective to consider problems from multiple areas of computing.
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the advising office will always show you the best choice you can have
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The higher level courses (choice electives and tech electives) had courses that featured labs and assignments that could very much be real world problems. It was very useful to apply knowledge from the past 4 years to these simulated real world situations and see the outcomes. It was almost like a test to see if you could apply the knowledge you learned throughout your undergrad degree to real world problems where the answer isnt necessarily unique and given to you. One example is CSE 5243 data mining, where a lot of my knowledge was applied.
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Courses with projects were fun, useful, and mostly applicable.
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classes like Foundations II and Systems II and learning about data structures, algorithms. foundations II was probably the single most important class to help me prepare for interviews
the labs helped me learn the most
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I dont really have a good answer for this. Advising was generally helpful. They helped me work out some hiccups with my older curriculum and transitioning to semesters, but errors in the office along the way caused me repeated grief so its a mixed bag.
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In the one credit hour course learning regular expressions was perhaps one of the most unique and powerful things I learned
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I was able to avoid taking half of my technical electives in the CSE department because the program allows for half the hours to come from an approved minor.
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Systems I & Foundations I, both helped me understand the impact of design choices on the end product.
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Strong connections to industry, which brings many top-tier companies to the school for recruiting
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CSE 3901 project classes because of the usefulness outside of the classroom
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Other students created a sense of community.
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Getting the core understanding of Computer Science. There are many topics that I personally would have found very difficult to learn on my own but now that I have the fundamentals I find learning new CS topics much easier.
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Just the overall program. I came into the major with no coding experience, and I feel as though I should be able to thrive in a coding career now.
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I thought the capstone was a helpful chance to stretch skills learned in previous classes. It gives a good open opportunity to try out new technology.
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The professors are really great. They are a extremely helpful during office hours compared to the professors for the pre-req classes.
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The stressing of object-oriented programming. I got it in several classes and its something that should be stressed. That and learning industry-standard practices like the agile methodology.
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Teaching students to work with teams is done very well here. It starts in the basic engineering course as freshman but is still present through all my time here. If a student leaves here without knowing how to work with teams on a project then that student is either purposefully trying to not get along with people or is just not likeable.
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Accesability of software and computers.
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I found the project class, e.g. Game Design, and the Capstone class to be most helpful. As my Capstone professor said, it was a work situation where it was safe to fail. Getting the experience of working on a real project over a longer period of time was very helpful in simulating a real world experience which I found valuable.
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It was stressed that engineering decisions are about trade offs and weighing the positives and negatives of each then making a group decision. I felt like this was well taught.
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I found the variety of courses available to CSE students to be helpful. I was able to learn about a variety of topics in the Computer Science field which have helped me in internships and finding a job.
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I never felt as though I was unable to turn to someone (a peer, instructor, or otherwise) who could help me if I was struggling with any concepts or needed aid in navigating my college career.
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The core courses are all pretty useful.
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The opportunities to work on group assignments.
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The algorithms courses, they set a great foundation for everything else
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The software course series is an appropriately challenging introduction to programming for those with little to no previous experience. This series is what got me most excited about the major and kept me engaged while I had to take other non-CSE coursework.
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Christopher Domas Systems I class was by far the most inspiring, educational, and interesting CSE class I took. His labs were fun and educational. The class was difficult without being unreasonable.
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The introductory software courses were very well done. I came into the CSE program with absolutely zero programming experience. After taking the Intro to C++ course, then Software series, I felt like I was well equipped to take on the program.
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The opportunity to choose between focus areas and select classes that were of a particular interest to me instead of being restricted to a specific course load.
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I enjoyed being able to choose technical electives; this helped me take 3xxx and 5xxx level courses tailored to my interests. Additionally, I appreciated being able to count some of my minor classes (Music, Media and Enterprise) toward my major through my available tech electives; this allowed me to achieve both my major and my minor within 8 semesters (+ 1 May term).
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The capstone class, I feel as if i gained a good amount of exposure in industry (recieved several business cards) as well as a great team environment that focused on building an ACTUAL application for a real world cause. By far one of the most valuable classes taken in the program.
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Hopefully getting a job.
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I found that the logical thinking and problem solving skills, as well as team-working experience gained from the CSE program are ver important, these will be a great benefit in my future career and help me success in my further studies as well as work.
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Because I wanted to get into design of software and understand computer systems, there were a lot of options available to me. I was able to take a wide range of classes that delved into many different types of topics, and it allowed me to see and understand computers in a much more integral way, rather than just being able to use it and build one myself.
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The Systems I/II and Foundations I/II were most beneficial when interviewing with employers.
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I found the capstone to be the most helpful part of the program because it gave me a sense of what real world teams are going to expect as well as the interactions with an outside manager.
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I felt like I learned the most in Software I and II and Foundations I and II.
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Ability to analyze the time complexity of a software. Besides the need for a program to run as expected and be bug-free, be able to determine the time complexity and improve it is probably one of the most important things.
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The Project course and capstone were very helpful in emulating a real-world software project and helped me immensely in my internship and work experience.
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option to choose from non-cse technical electives
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I thought the Discrete Math classes and similar classes (Data Structures and Algorithms, AI 1, Automata and Formal Languages) were well taught and developed my critical thinking skills in a profound and useful way.
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The capstone was a good look into what working on a real software app was like.
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Intro classes provide good basis for understanding wide range of topics.
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The freedom of choice. I didnt always HAVE to go to class. I could miss a lab or two. The books were usually available to us for free, and you were treated fairly and as an adult.
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Various programming languages and insight of them.
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Not getting booted when I probably should have been
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I love my instructor for software 1 and software 2 courses. His name is Palo Bucci. He is very knowledgeable and I learned a great deal from him.The covered algorithms definitely helped during interviews.Make him a professor please.
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The web applications course and database course were the most useful classes.
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Project courses like 3901/2 and Capstone
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The wide range of areas in computing the dept. has to offer to teach. The dept. offers software, AI, Graphics, Networking, Hardware, ect. as electives and I found it particularly helpful to be able to both diversify my tech electives as well as specialize in the ones I found most interesting.
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Learning Java early on and having the following classes use Java, allowed to focus on one programming language and learn the logic/theory then move on to different languages.
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Advisers in Undergraduate Advising Office.
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I found the team based software project courses to be the most useful- they were the closest thing in the major to that of real life work experience.
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The ability to take upper level (5000+) classes during the the students undergraduate. This really helps the student see how the Graduate classes are and also be deeply familiarized with a very specific topic (compared to the more general CS classes in UG)
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problem solving and logical reasoning.
I think its important to have a methodology for solving problems and creating viable solutions.
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The team courses (junior project course and the capstone) were useful. They were the most similar to the environment of my internship and helped me learn more about developing software for users instead of just for myself or to a set specification.
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The fact that there are a lot of different focus paths you can go down without having to fill out forms every time you change your mind on what kind of courses you want to take.
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Classes where I was taught how to program with different languages. These classes gave me guidance on how to work with different languages, and gave me a project to do.
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I think the project courses were the most helpful because not only did it include learning other material but it also focused on group work and collaboration and communication which is very important for post undergraduate work of any kind.
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The project course was the most helpful course I took. Learning new concepts and then applying them to the continued development of a complex application was extremely informative.
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The fact that the CSE program does not (in general) place a large emphasis on particular tools or technologies, but rather on the overall math, methodology, and thought processes.
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I found writing actual code to be the most helpful in learning any subject matter, even if a class was more academic/theoretical
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I believe the advising office is nice. They can handle almost all the problem I had. If they cannot figure it out they can give me some instruction about where to figure it out.
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The technical elective class is optional is very helpful. So, I can choose what I like.
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I think the personalization of core courses was helpful. Not all students have to take the same courses. Giving everyone the same courses for the first and second year was helpful to get everyone on the same page, but after that we were able to do what interests us.
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The advising is very helpful, although I didnt use it much.
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The program allowed me to experience quite a few different languages and technologies.
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The projects were helpful to prepare us real life work and team work environment..
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I found it most helpful that for the most part, professors were very accessible if you needed help. Personally, they would always find a time to meet with me if I needed help or to sort out an issue. This helped me learn and understand the material if I didnt understand it the first time around.
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I found the CSE advanced (5000 level) tech electives the most helpful because they were the most interesting. I might decide to pursue graduate school in the future in areas similar to my 5000 level classes.
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Broad area of focus to see different technologies. Worked with java, python, lisp, ruby, html, javascript, etc. It was cool to experience them all.
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The number of course options provided to tailor our bachelors experience to what we want to learn.
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OSUs reputation is the single best thing about going to school here. Regardless of how much a student actually knows if they put forth a bit of effort they will land internships which will lead to landing jobs right out of school.
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The CSE program has provided a large set of opportunities for students to achieve further by themselves. Students are giving career-directed education which gives students a general idea about some leading trends and technologies.
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The advising office always had answers to my questions.
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The Ohio State CSE program has brought with it the name recognition to work at reputable companies; I always felt challenged in the program but I feel ready to chase my dreams in the field.
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Nothing comes to mind here.
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I am actually stuck between choosing between learning how to functions with teams and utilizing algorithms to solve a problem.
Teams are an extremely important aspect in any engineering but you dont always get the chance to be in one outside of work.
The algorithms one is helpful as it challenges me to find new and better ways to solve a problem.
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SSHing into a Linux machine to work was the area of my internships that I was most prepared for thanks to all my CSE classes. Definitely continue making the students do that.
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The ability to choose not just one track but be able to experience as broad or a focused of course choices as one would like.
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I enjoyed the 3902 interactive systems course. It gave a real life simulation of building a long term project with a team. It exposed us to realistic code structure and included hands on object oriented programming. I was able to actually witness the benefits of certain programming procedures as opposed to hearing about them, but never actually experiencing the result. I assume the other options for this course were equally helpful.
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I found the distributed systems course the most helpful because it combined all of the aspects of previous courses to create a project that one might see in a web company. It also explained how the many different topics covered in other courses fit into an enterprise architecture.
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The core and core choices were well laid out and give a very broad base with which to build a career in a computing field.
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There are a wide range of elective choices to fill the CSE technical elective requirements. Many of them provided important real world knowledge.
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Data Mining and Artificial Intelligence Courses
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Capstone Design Class. In software apps capstone design we worked with a REAL client with REAL requirements and REAL software engineering practices. I feel well prepared for the school to career transition because of that class
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I found that the education of different prog. languages was helpful because it has helped me to understand different languages outside of the academic setting.
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The project courses. Almost every year I had to take a major project course - FEH Robot, 390x, Capstone. These allowed me to apply CS theory to real world problems, and were crucial preparation for entering the workforce.
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there are different kinds of class that we need to choose, which help us to find an interesting direction
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The software I course was very well done. It introduced a lot at a good pace and was very helpful later on.
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3901 and 3902. The project courses taught me the most about how to write good code and best practices for class design.
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Project and capstone courses - building a project as part of a team is the closest simulation of real-world work we have.
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The project courses were good courses because they had (direct) practical applications. Same with capstone course.
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team projects
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Software I and Software II were great, introduced me to OOP and I feel that I learned a lot.
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The advising staff was tremendous at being able to look at my situations and offer good recommendations and help me achieve what I needed.
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The project course was the most helpful course of the curriculum in my opinion because it forces students to learn on their own and apply their knowledge.
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The CSE program allows us to take 5000-level courses for our tech-elecs which I have found very informative and challenging (in a good way)! I believe taking these higher level courses have taught me very useful skills that I can then employ when working in the field.
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Multiple Options, allows one to work within the major and establish a basis on the career they wish to pursue.
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How to program in multiple languages and design patterns.
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Concerning software components, the Java classes were very useful in seeing how to properly abstract functionality in order to create highly reusable and extendable components. This will always be an important aspect of software development and should continue to be taught as soon as possible to students and further developed in the related classes.
Answers to: 'What single change in the CSE program would you most like to see? Explain briefly.'
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more things like capstone earlier on. with collaboration with business and design majors and perhaps even psychology. A focus on UX would be a great idea.
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Introduction to the git system (or something similar) early in the CSE major would have been helpful not only for preserving assignments but also group management later in the major (capstone, 3901/3902).
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Ability for undergraduates to participate in research.
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Introduce course options for Human Computer Interaction and / or cognitive science! Im taking an HCI course through the communication department and I love it. I was surprised to find our own department doesnt offer anything similar, considering how relevant HCI is to modern computing.
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Broad introduction to all of the different facets/paths in CSE because I wouldve gotten more of an interest in AI earlier in my degree program.
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The java courses (such as CSE 2221/2231) are little bit out of the real use of Java. I got some troubles when I trying to solve problems only using the knowledge I learned from these two courses. Should teach more based on the way that how the real-world people are using Java.
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Cut down on the amount of time dedicated to the ethics courses in the major. None were useful in any meaningful way. Also, less time spent in ECE classes. They were also fairly useless. Even more so than ethics because very few of us in CSE want to learn ECE
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Earlier involvement in more technical topics. Most classes that have real world applications you only see during your senior year would be more useful if we could see these earlier within you time within the program.
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In some hard CSE major classes there is requirement to pass the final exam to pass the class. It should be little lenient. Sometimes student work really hard throughout the semester with labs and home works and midterms and they got nervous on final exam. Then they messed up with the class.
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Removal of the ECE 2100 requirement, i felt that i did not benefit greatly from that class. Had i been able to take more CSE classes instead of some of those requirements, i may be better off in my field.
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I would like to see more courses that focus on technologies that are not out of date. Many of the courses use old technologies and it would be cool to learn new ones. I can see that many classes are slowly adopting new technologies though, such as CSE 3901 uses git now.
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I would like if professors were more responsive to emails. In several situations, I never received responses from professors. Some emails were marked as urgent and still no response was received, causing damage to my grades.
Professors need to understand that some students need to meet privately to discuss things such as grades and that office hours may not be appropriate for such situations.
Keep in mind that this is directed towards professors and not advisors.
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More flexibility in course selection (better capstone options (i.e. allow for interdisciplinary capstone), research for more credit hours, more options for math elective, etc.)
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Give more tutorials, not let us to find individually.
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I would like more feedback to be taken seriously about some of the professors. Some seriously should not be teaching...
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I think it would be important to stress the whys of the material we are learning on. Some of the material in the early courses, particularly Software I/II and Foundations, becomes very useful later on. I remember noticing students complaining about material in these courses only to later realize how useful and necessary it is in more advanced courses.
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The lab for cse student is very use for people to discusses
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I would like to see classes emphasize labs and application more than hand written exams and tests. Obviously, students need to be held responsible for the material and administering exams is the most traditional way of doing that. However, I think more labs and actual coding assignments alongside exams could prove to be very beneficial to students. For example CSE Intro to AI there were only 3 labs assignments but 2 exams. I studied and was able to conceptually understand the material, but only got a chance to apply the knowledge three times. I found that applying the different algorithms learned was extremely different than doing them by hand and applying them on a test. Things like outlining loops and creating data structures were overlooked when doing things on paper that are very much necessary when applying the knowledge. I understand that it is hard to balance introducing concepts while having students apply them, but I think a better balance of theory and application can be reached in most classes. My experience in CSE Intro to Game animation was excellent and modeled this type of balance. Equal time was spent learning the material as it was having labs and having students apply the knowledge. 1 exam was administered to ensure students actually knew the material. I ended up learning a lot from the course.
At the end of the day, its up to the student to put in effort to learn and become good programmers. Having exams eliminates students who just cheat and copy labs from other students which is necessary. However, the small handful of students who dont take classes seriously should not dissuade course coordinators from having classes be more application based. A vast majority of students take the classes seriously and genuinely want to learn. A better balance of exams to labs would benefit students greatly in my opinion.
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Find a way to standardize the curriculums given for all CSE classes in order to help pick out which teachers are not pulling their weight. It is a little ridiculous that every semester the Facebook CSE group gets cluttered with questions of which professor to take (or more importantly, NOT to take) because kids are afraid of getting hammered in a class that they might have otherwise done well in had they had a different teacher. Babic versus Close in the Operating Systems series is a perfect example of this.
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an easier intro to parallel computing class (the graduate parallel computing class was really difficult)
more support for graphics specialization. i wanted that to be my focus but most of its classes had been discontinued
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More practical classes teaching a wider variety of languages, IDEs, and software usage. For all the under the hood and software theory classes I took, I ended up having to do most of my learning of actual coding and practical skills on my own time. Im still finding myself learning about missteps in good coding practice that I feel I should have learned years ago and its more than a bit irritating to have to do this myself outside of class when Im dishing out thousands for an education. Im not sure if the revised curriculum since I started ages ago covers it better, but I really hope so.
Also, real quick, make sure all the advisors are on the same page. Nikki and Peg (while she was still here) were totally on the ball, but I always dreaded dealing with the other advisors because I swear something would always break in my files almost every time I talked to one of them about something.
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More promotion of version control. Theres been issues with git because of public repositories but it still is a very necessary tool especially in the real world
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Need to hold lecturers for technical electives to a higher standard, primarily in regard to effectively engaging students and properly conveying course material. After the core sequences (Software, Systems, Foundations), only one of my lecturers was even remotely good at teaching.
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Id like to see more modern tools used in the program. Id also like to see more open-source languages and program used, since that is where the future lies.
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More focus on how to build a project from the ground up. There were a few classes that worked on this (the 390X and capstone courses) but they really only discussed this in an ad hoc way and left if for students to figure out by trial and error.
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Better resources (Better lab and room)
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More classes that involve modernized things: Web applications, mobile apps, big data, User Interfaces
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More of a focus at least later on in the program on new tech (which is hard, but I think its valuable).
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Less involvement in the ECE courses, since I only got something out of the first two thirds of ECE 2000.
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I think more work needs to be done on understanding optimization of code. Ive noticed in group projects that several members seem to have a limited understanding of efficient practices. This has caused me and one of my roommates some refactoring several times. So basically, I heavy push on the fundamentals would be nice.
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I would like the program to tell the students that the CSE program is sequential and there isnt much versatility (besides adding extra years) if you havent decided on this major during freshmen year. I was informed by most if not all advisors/classmates that I had till 3rd semester of sophomore year or junior year to decide on which major to commit to.
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Courses should be much more standardized. Your entire experience as a CSE student is wholly dependent on the set of professors you get. I wont name names but Ive had professors who have taught their courses WILDLY differently than their counterparts, and so differently that I talk to students who are in the same class and were learning different subject material. Professors should be able to have freedom with regards to how their courses are taught but they should have to be on the same page as everyone else.
Either that or the CSE department should teach more industry-standard technology like Linux and git.
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The core choices as they are called are not standardized and I believe they should be, or at least they should be closer. As an example, I took Principles of Programming with professor soundrahan (i spelled that wrong) and a friend took the same class during the same term with a different professor. Not only were the grade averages very different for the classes (mine had above an 80 average, the other had below a 50) but there were large differences in the material covered. This seems unfair because someone else was required to work harder for a worse grade than me in the same class, through no fault of his own. I can see how not standardizing them is beneficial, but having this much disparity between the same course in the same term seems unreasonable.
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Remodel of dreese labs or new CSE buildings. This is THE Ohio State and this is Computer Science, one of the hardest if not most advanced majors. The buildings look like they are from the 70s. Change it up, make them more modern looking like the aerodynamics buildings
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I would like to see the CSE program to improve the way they prepare students for the professional world. While I felt my technical skills were adequate when I started my internship, I believe there was some room for improvement and I was somewhat overwhelmed and did not really know what to expect. For instance: I worked on an agile software team in my internship and while a few of my classes had touched on the agile process, none of them really implemented it correctly and it was different than I expected in the work place.
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The ethics class (huge paper) was a very time consuming for a 1 credit hour class. The forceful participation in class discussion made it seem unnatural and hostile.
More involvement between faculty and students outside of class. It would be cool to meet with professors and students, say once a month, to discuss new cs papers/trends and work on outside projects. Let the students see what professors are working on! were interested and will help if we know about the work.
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I believe the CSE curriculum requires some extra courses which have not provided a significant benefit to my professional development. I do not think two ECE courses are necessary for all Computer Science students as well as having to take an additional Math/Statistics elective. These could be replaced with other tech elective choices in the CSE department.
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I entered the realm of Computer Science & Engineering without even knowing what a line of code was. These years later, I know how to code and I am confident in my understanding of both theory and how to use code to form solutions and solve problems. But what I am finding is that professional opportunities are eluding me for my unfamiliarity with some specific technologies. I feel qualified for positions which I fail to win for my lack of experience with technologies that are being used. This is my biggest grievance.
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A bigger lab for CSE major to accommodate more students. I find it packed very often.
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I would like to see better effort in including students who are new to coding and do not yet understand its potential. The beginning of the program is incredibly intimidating to someone who has never been introduced to CS topics before.
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More help/choice getting internships
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The CSE required ethics course was atrocious. It provided very little opportunity for students to think critically and evaluate the ethical decisions a software (or any) engineer might face over the course of her career. I think this was a major failing of both my particular instructor as well as that class curriculum. The GEC philosophy course on engineering ethics, however, did a much better job at addressing the nebulous issue of professional ethics both generally and engineering specifically. Take notes from the philosophy department.
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A larger focus on design and implementation of projects. Not a single time in my entire CSE career at OSU was the term design pattern mentioned or explained. Many students have trouble laying out solutions from scratch because labs are often required to follow a specific design, limiting a students creativity and options.
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I thought there was far too little application of concepts in the CSE curriculum. Too often I felt like I was just copying information off of a powerpoint to spit back out on an exam. When a course did have a lab assignment, the tended to have a very limited scope. I never felt like I was able to take a creative approach to solve a problem. I rarely was faced with an opportunity to solve a problem with a variety of implementations and have to choose which one best suited my abilities and the requirements for the project.
I thought there was too much of a focus on rote memorization. I think the Software I & II courses did a fantastic job of introducing a concept, then solidifying it with a lab application. I was very disappointed to find that very few courses after the Software series had any lab components at all.
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More READING and writing of code. More than half of a software developers job is reading code that other people have written and contributing, or simply learning from it. This enormous portion of what would soon be my career is not reflected in my college education. So, more reading of code written by others. As well as, more writing of portions of code which are already a part of a bigger system. I think this too is important. It is very infrequent (unless, perhaps, you will work in start up...but even then) that you will be writing code from scratch--using no resources and/or existing code. As such, it is important that people are able to contribute to a codebase.
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I would like to see a greater emphasis on working with specific technologies in depth that will likely be important in future careers. For example, a course in AJAX and Javascript would have been helpful; additionally, a course in web frameworks (e.g. Spring, Struts) would have been helpful.
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NA
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ABET requirements removed.
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I would like to see the team-work process be more efficient and effective for the students in different courses. For example, now the students are finding teammates and forming groups on their own, and sometimes the teammates will not contribute too much to the work that is supposed to be done, which would drag the other hard-working students grade down and would cost others more time and effort to complete these tasks that they are not responsible of. So I would like to see a change in the group working system in the future.
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Use of more updated tools and teaching methods. Many of the classes operated on outdated IDEs which is already limiting the students chances of learning more modern practices. With every update of Java for example, there are potentially newer APIs or libraries, but the student does not have access to them because they are using an old version. It might be unrealistic to expect the classes to update every semester, but in a technology based field where the tools are changing and updating daily, the methods of teaching as well need to update and evolve to better prepare students. A foundation is given through these courses, but if a student needs to relearn an entire language because it has gone through several changes since taking the classes, it only makes them have to work harder again after they have taken the class.
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I would like it if some courses were organized in a better way such as the database course and architecture course. Some courses were much more beneficial to my improvement as a computer engineer due to the professor teaching the course. Specifically, Professor Babic crammed an absurd amount of material into his courses.
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A better focus on using real world JAVA packages over the OSU built ones. I know much of the concepts from the classes but in looking at any JAVA code that isnt academically focused was somewhat difficult because the real world packages are more nuanced and not as nice.
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More emphasis on teamwork and group projects. Nearly all industry work involves working with other people, yet most course work is individual. Students need to learn how to work on a team effectively.
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I would like to see more lecturer who have actual experience in working in Silicon Valley. Because that is the best place for software engineers to go and it is important for students to understand that environment and what companies in that area look for.
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The ability for students to go deeper into a specific facet of CSE during undergrad instead skimming the surface of each field.
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ECE classes should not be required
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I would like to see more variety of technologies introduced in a more practical fashion. For example, one class had labs to be done in Python with most of the method declarations and setup done for you. I could do the assignment fairly easily, but I would not say that I could use Python effectively after that. Many times details were glossed over for big picture learning goals but I think there is a practical benefit to learning about the details and gaining a full understanding of certain topics.
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More choice in classes and wider range of programming languages offered.
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More structure in topics covered by each class. Some classes totally depend on what instructor you get. You could use different languages, learn completely different applications, completely different difficulty levels depending on what section youre in.
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Theres too much instructor variability. This is sometimes great, as I had the pleasure of learning under Robert Finn, but some professors have horror stories surrounding them to the point that course options where they taught were essentially off the table.
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Students in different direction should learn different courses instead of the same requirement.
Add some practical courses like short internship or visiting different companies.
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none
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CSE software 1 and software 2 courses should not use OSU component. It is not useful during an interview. The java component itself is not hard to learn. So i personally had to pick up java api by myself for interviewing purposes.
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There needs more industry tools used in the course work. The reason why web applications (3901) was so helpful was because in the class industry tools and frameworks were used.
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Add more project based courses
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I would have enjoyed an optional survey course later in my career but also before the tech electives. A course that only requires some low, fundamental courses as pre-reqs so that you may take it early on an begin to plan for which courses you would like to focus on later in your degree. One that does not require the project course 39XX.
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I would like to see more classes on mobile/web app development. Id like to see more .NET and Microsoft technologies since so many companies in Ohio use it. Also Id like to see some business classes get introduced to the CSE program.
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More teamwork accountability in project/capstone classes.
A switch back to quarters.
More flexible in course scheduling, less courses to take at same time e.g. would prefer taking two sets of three 7 week classes rather then 6 full semester classes.
Less wasted credit hours in few terms of Software - Foundations - Systems prereq chain before courses options opened up. Taking only 4 hour semester of CSE leaves 14 wasted credit hours, under quarters it was fewer.
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I would remove the ECE courses as they arent necessary unless youre specifically looking to enter a hardware field. Much of the information covered such as boolean algebra is already covered in previous introductory CSE courses and many things like circuits I did not find enjoyable or applicable outside of the classroom.
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There needs to be a more obvious way for people with previous experience to skip the first classes if they think they are capable of doing so.
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Less software 1 and 2.
I dont feel that I learned much from the CSE software class sequences. I learned much more from CSE 3902 which taught object oriented programming and design as well how to collaborate as part of a team.
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More emphasis on practical design issues would be nice. I understand the focus on theory for most classes but it would be helpful if things like performance and usability were addressed alongside more topics.
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More required course concurrences instead of prerequisites. I had a chain of 6 classes I had to take one before the other. If I hadnt had college credit for some courses out of high school I probably wouldnt have finished the program in four years.
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Remove all of the redundant core classes, ex:intro to java and software I - They both teach you the same thing, just different components. Instead allow for more CSE core electives so the student can get deeper into his/her chosen specialty.
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I would like to see more opportunities for project work like 3901, 3902 to make classes more meaningful than small individuals assignments that do not amount to a lot rather than one comprehensive project
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I would like to see more critiques of code quality for assignments, even if its not part of grading. In most courses with programming-based labwork or assignments, you are simply graded on whether or not your code produces the correct output or exhibits the correct behavior. Rarely is the quality of the approach or code commented on by graders.
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A greater emphasis on the advising department with after graduation opportunities (graduate school)
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require students to have taken database/networking before taking capstone course so all students in a group are familiar with these concepts
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N/A
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I satisfy the current CSE program.
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I dont know how realistic it is, but I would have like to had more contact with the top professors in the department. Asking those people to teach classes doesnt seem possible, but maybe some introductions as to whats going on in the department before our senior year would have been helpful.
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Maybe focus some of the other core courses more on hardware rather than software since it seems a lot of those courses focused on application development and writing code.
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I would like to see tracks more focused on undergraduate to career versus undergraduate to further education.
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I think that there could be a little more variety in technical elective classes. This isnt to say that there arent a lot, but given how large the CS field is, more options couldnt hurt if students had varying interests.
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The CSE program should use newer, better technologies. The best way to do this would be to switch the Software I and II classes from Java to Python.
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More focus on programming and not computer science. Software I/II seem to be the most important classes now that I am looking for a job. They cover best practices, data structures, algorithms. Things that would appear on a white board interview. When taking them 5years ago it was never apparent how important these things would be and we never bring them up or practice them again. I have completely forgotten everything from those two classes that are what I consider most important for finding a job and now I have to reteach myself.
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Less emphasis on reports; more emphasis on good documentation. I have worked 5 internships in industry. I have written 0 software related reports but the amount of documentation and testing I have done is extensive. You do not emphasize testing and documentation at all, and working in groups, this is a problem.
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More time to specialize. Right now the core CSE classes and, even more so, the gen eds take up so much time that it is hard to figure out what you like and then take courses to advance that knowledge.
Year 1: Gen Eds for Engnr
Year 2: finish gen eds and core cse classes
Year 3: specialized elective cse courses based on what core courses the student liked
Year 4: more specialization or chance to double specialize and capstone.
Right now I feel I am graduating with just enough knowledge in many cse fields to get away with talking about them but not much more than that.
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The learning materials, including handouts, questions, especially the slides, still have room for improvements.
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Transfer credits! Transferring to Ohio State, I had credits for courses from another university with the exact identical material for courses at Ohio State that I didnt receive credit for. When asking for them to be reviewed a second time I was denied completely, without a single consideration to my problem.
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I would like to see more of an immediate opportunity to break into focus-type classes; I would have liked to have taken some graphics classes earlier in my career rather than trying to jam them all into the final 3 semesters.
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More study spaces and better facilities for CSE students. Before the recent remodel, the CSE lab in 172 Dreese was one of the worst, run-down, and dirty computer labs on campus. This is especially ironic given the fact that our major is focused around computers. Even with the new remodel, the CSE student lab is extremely small and offers little space to one of the largest engineering majors on campus.
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Something a bit more hands-on on some of the course elements when it comes to how the computer hardware works.
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We need fewer toy projects and more real-world practical application. I feel perfectly prepared on the theory, but Im way behind peers from other schools on nitty gritty details about how to implement a kernel or how industry standard libraries work, and how to read their (sometimes awful) real-world documentation.
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Redesign in the administration of some courses. There were multiple courses in the past few years where the professor and/or course materials were very unstructured and hard to learn. Currently, my machine learning course has this issue.
Having professors that are interested in teaching students and helping them learn is something you should look into.
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I would like to see a change in the beginning CSE course like software I and II. I dont think they should start with OSUs libraries as opposed to some standard java libraries. This can be confusing for someone who is just beginning in the program. I believe we should be taught using something we might actually apply to the real world and then later be taught about the positive aspects of using other libraries. This would have helped in my search for an internship early on as many companies asked which libraries I had experience in.
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Not sure.
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I would like to see more cooperation among classes at an early phase. For example, it would wonderful if the Software I/II class were coupled with a design principles class (i.e. learn the different design patterns such as MVC, singleton, etc) during a one year long we will have a fully functioning project at the end of the year sequence.
It was difficult to see (and show off) any tangible progress until the 390x classes, which might be too long to hold the attention of some of the more creatively-driven prospective CSE students.
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A larger emphasis on what to expect after graduation; especially to prepare students for the industry.
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More leniency toward transfer credit. When I transferred there was an entire semester of classes that had identical subject matter and almost word for word lectures as my previous school but the person in charge of that did not agree. This was not only the case in the CSE department.
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More hands on experience opportunities outside of just software coding. Hands on technical classes such as in networking would be a nice option.
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I would like to see a requirement to learn explicitly how to use code source control services (e.g. git) because I had no prior experience with them and was forced to learn them in my last semester capstone course.
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Teach git! Everyone uses version control outside academia, and the most popular tool is now git. The tools are complex enough and important enough that class time should be devoted to studying them. In addition, future students in the project classes will be spared a lot of stress if they are more confident with version control. They wont need to use as much project time learning it, nor will they waste time correcting disasters from misuse.
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Most classes teach a broad knowledge base. I would like to see some more classes that teach how to use a specific set of technologies. For example, possibly a class focusing on creating web apps in a MVC style framework. I feel that many students who have done little to no work outside of class do not feel extremely capable after graduation because of the lack of in depth classes on common practices in the workplace.
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the criteria that the professors used for the same class different a lot. So the grade for one class somehow really depends on which professor that I choose at the very beginning. So want the program has more consistent criteria.
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I would like for more communication with the professors, faculty, and students. If many people are struggling with an introduction course and half of the class does poorly, then there might be a problem with the course or something else. It would be helpful for everyone to talk to figure out the problems and potentially fix it.
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More about agile sooner in the program
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Use modern tools and practices. Many web- and mobile-oriented classes are multiple years out of date.
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Many changes I feel should be implemented to the CSE program:
~ The concepts taught in the software sequence are very important. However, I believe that they are poorly taught.
~ I would also like to see version control properly taught in software I ~ not Eclipse with an SVN plugin. Git and Bitbucket allow for version control and private repositories. Or an educational discount given to all CSE students on GitHub.
~ Large portions of the ECE courses did not feel relevant to CSE majors.
~ Software I and II exams focus too much on being conceptual and are narrow in scope to OSUs components library.
~ The amount of math taken in the CSE sequence is equivalent to a math minor. I realize that this is a dream but it would be nice if our degrees indicated this.
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better explanation of future courses in initial survey course
and seriously, professors need to use Carmen like every other department on campus
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More course options each semester, senior year I was forced to take classes I did not want to take.
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I cannot think of any changes I would make.
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More courses that are project based and encourage students to write code in groups and with new languages or frameworks.
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Software 2 relied very heavily on filling in the blanks type activities which I believe hindered my own ability to fully understand OOP concepts. It was not until I took an internship that I was able to actually implement these concepts in full and gain a better understanding. In addition, the concept of Unit Testing does not carry on into other classes after Software 2 and it really should!
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New professors. Also, more professors (if not teaching a specialty) offering multiple classes. Continuity among my professors has been the weakest part of my experience
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Stop using the OSU CSE components in the software 1 and 2 classes. Although I understand the concepts now, while I was taking the class, the components really confused me.
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As a part-time full stack developer while in school, I wish I had seen the CSE classes showing us how to use many of the powerful and modern software tools that are very common to the work place right now. Students are given a very good foundational level of what code is, how code works, and why code works but having real world knowledge of how to apply this knowledge to code when using frameworks and tools would go a long way to helping students especially in the rapidly developing software development job markets.