Home B101 B142L B202 B302 Mosaic Course updatesPresentation format
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These observations are from the units that I teach at the University of Portsmouth. The menu at the top has links to unit materials and course announcements. Comments and questions are welcomed.



December 20, 2011

B101 Coursework 1 results


The distribution of marks, including extra marks received from peer review participation.

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December 20, 2011

Week 12 – B101


There were approximately 55 students at lecture on Thursday (48% attendance level).
December 20, 2011

Week 12 – B142L


There were approximately 30 students at lecture on Thursday (24% attendance level).

Attendance at the practical sessions was unchanged at 24% of the class (Mon 12pm = 8, Mon 3pm = 4, Mon 4pm = 3, Thu 12pm = 15).

24 students (19% of the class) used their Mosaic coursework pages during the week.
December 11, 2011

Week 11 – B101


There were approximately 40 students at lecture on Thursday (35% attendance level).
December 11, 2011

Week 11 – B142L


There were approximately 50 students at lecture on Thursday (40% attendance level).

Attendance at the practical sessions was unchanged at 23% of the class (Mon 12pm = 6, Mon 3pm = 5, Mon 4pm = 2, Thu 12pm = 15).

32 students (26% of the class) used their Mosaic coursework pages during the week.
December 5, 2011

Work habits as indicated by saved coursework pages


Does the graph below provide any indications about the work habits of students in B101?

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December 5, 2011

Work habits as indicated by saved coursework pages


Does the graph below provide any indications about the work habits of students in B142L? This graph updates in real time as pages are updated on the Mosaic website.

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December 1, 2011

Week 10 – B142L


There were approximately 50 students at lecture today (40% attendance level).

Attendance at the practical sessions decreased to 23% of the class (Mon 12pm = 8, Mon 3pm = 5, Mon 4pm = 3, Thu 12pm = 13).

35 students (28% of the class) used their Mosaic coursework pages during the week.
December 1, 2011

Week 10 – B101


There were approximately 40 students at lecture today (35% attendance level).
November 27, 2011
November 27, 2011

A closer look at student feedback

By Chi Nguyen


This paper was extracted from a course leader report covering 3 computer networks engineering courses, which required evaluation of the National Student Survey (NSS), course feedback survey and unit feedback surveys (Nguyen, 2011). All surveys were voluntary. The course and unit surveys often took place during timetabled events, which caused the surveys to be susceptible to student absences.


1.   Context for evaluating feedback surveys


In the book, Practical Statistics for Educators, Ruth David reminds us that experimental and descriptive research require different methods of analysis. In experimental research projects, "researchers plan an intervention and study its effect on groups or individuals". By comparison, nonexperimental "descriptive research is aimed at studying a phenomenon as it is occurring naturally, without any manipulation or intervention. Researchers are attempting to describe and study phenomena and are not investigating cause-and-effect relationships" (2011).

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November 27, 2011

Annual Standards and Quality Evaluative Review

Course Leaders Report – Computer Networks Engineering



Academic year under review:2010/2011
Faculty:Technology
Department:School of Engineering
Courses covered by this review:C1270S   BSc (Hons) Computer Network Management and Design
C0944S   BSc (Hons) Internet Technology
C2033S   BEng (Hons) Internet Engineering

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November 25, 2011

Week 9 – B142L


There were approximately 45 students at lecture on Thursday (36% attendance level).

Attendance at the practical sessions decreased to 25% of the class (Mon 12pm = 8, Mon 3pm = 0, Mon 4pm = 3, Thu 12pm = 20).

35 students (28% of the class) used their Mosaic coursework pages during the week.
November 25, 2011

Week 9 – B101


There were approximately 30 students at lecture yesterday (26% attendance level).
November 22, 2011

Week 8 – B142L


There were approximately 60 students at lecture on Thursday (48% attendance level).

Attendance at the practical sessions remained at 34% of the class (Mon 12pm = 12, Mon 3pm = 6, Mon 4pm = 4, Thu 12pm = 20).
November 22, 2011

Week 8 – B101


There were approximately 45 students at lecture on Thursday (39% attendance level).
November 11, 2011

Week 7 – B142L


There were approximately 60 students at lecture yesterday (48% attendance level).

57 students (46% of the class) used their Mosaic coursework pages during the week.
November 11, 2011

Week 7 – B101


There were approximately 45 students at lecture yesterday (39% attendance level).
November 3, 2011

Week 6 – B142L


There were good participation and questions at lecture. The number of students at lecture decreased to approximately 75 students. The updated class list has 124 students (60% attendance level).

Students have individual coursework pages in which they may write notes as they work on practical worksheets and the coursework assignment. They are encouraged to use the commenting feature to write questions as they work. The unit lecturer can post feedback using the same commenting feature. Comments written by each student is private. The list of feedback comments written by the unit lecturer, but, without any student information, is provided in case other students have similar questions.

Attendance at the practical sessions decreased sharply to 43% of the class (Mon 12pm = 10, Mon 3pm = 8, Mon 4pm = 9, Thu 12pm = 26).

66 students (53% of the class) used their Mosaic coursework pages during the week.
November 3, 2011

Week 6 – B101


Attendance has been decreasing weekly since the first week. There were approximately 65 students at lecture today. The updated class list has 114 students (57% attendance level).

There was good participation in the writing activities during lecture. In addition to the writing practice during lecture, students were reminded that feedback would be provided for written contributions to the discussion about sustainable tablet computers.
October 30, 2011

Week 5 – B101


There were approximately 70 students (53% of the class) at lecture yesterday, which was a drop from the previous week.

There was good participation in the writing activities during lecture. All students were asked to practice writing in response to specific activities or questions. Photos were taken of writing samples from student volunteers. The writing samples were discussed as a group and feedback was provided during the class discussion. Students who were absent can read the notes on the unit website, but, they missed the writing practice, the class discussions and the lecturer feedback.

October 30, 2011

Week 5 – B142L


There were good participation and questions at lecture. The number of students at lecture increased to approximately 85 students (59% of the class). The use of live workbook programs in lecture seemed to have a positive effect on student participation.

77 students (53% of the class) used their Mosaic coursework pages during the week.
October 23, 2011

Week 4 – B142L


There were good participation and more questions at lecture. But, the number of students at lecture yesterday dropped to approximately 80 students (56% of the class).

As of this morning, 118 students (82% of the class) have updated their Mosaic coursework pages. At the end of 4 weeks of the semester, there are still 30 students who still have not used their Mosaic coursework page.

Starting next week, I will start to track the amount of activity and consistency of updates to Mosaic coursework pages. At this point, students should be working on a regular basis on the worksheets and the coursework.
October 23, 2011

Week 3 – B142L


There were good participation and more questions at lecture than in previous weeks. Thanks to some late arrivals, the number of students at lecture yesterday increased to approximately 90 students (62% of the class).

As of this morning, 116 students (81% of the class) have updated their Mosaic coursework pages. There was a high level of activity reflected in the coursework comments and questions during the lab sessions.

Today is the end of 25% of the teaching weeks for semester 1. The 32 students who have not touched their Mosaic coursework pages may find it difficult to catch up.
October 21, 2011

Week 4 – B101


There were approximately 75 students (56% of the class) at lecture yesterday, which was a drop from the previous week.

The level of participation was lower than average. After lecture, there were 4-5 questions about the coursework. The amount of awareness and urgency about the coursework was surprisingly low. It is a worrying indication that students are taking the last minute approach towards coursework rather than the preferred gradual approach.
October 14, 2011

Week 3 – B101


There were approximately 85 students (64% of the class) at lecture yesterday, which was the same as last week.

There was a high amount of participation from students spread throughout the room. Much of the discussion was grappling with the concepts of instrinsic versus instrumental values as applied to technology products.
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