ISR 2015 Evaluation
At the end of the week, students were asked to answer a questionnaire. We received 17 responses:
Organisation
| organisation (pre-school) |
|
|
1 |
10 |
6 |
| organisation (during school) |
|
|
|
2 |
15 |
| student research posters |
|
1 |
4 |
6 |
6 |
| interaction with students |
|
|
|
3 |
14 |
| interaction with lecturers |
|
|
1 |
4 |
12 |
| location (convenience of transportation) |
|
|
1 |
8 |
8 |
| facilities (lecture rooms etc.) |
|
1 |
|
6 |
10 |
| lunch |
1 |
6 |
6 |
2 |
2 |
| coffee breaks |
|
1 |
4 |
4 |
6 |
| boat trip |
|
|
1 |
1 |
15 |
| recommended restaurants |
1 |
1 |
4 |
8 |
3 |
| recommended hotel |
|
|
5 |
3 |
1 |
| options for alternative accomodation |
1 |
|
2 |
3 |
2 |
Teaching
Summary of evaluation of advanced tracks. 12 Students gave marks on a scale from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent). Following table shows range of averages per course.
|
min |
avg |
max |
| content (topic) |
3.8 |
4.2 |
4.7 |
| presentation |
2.7 |
4.0 |
4.9 |
| handout |
2.6 |
3.6 |
4.7 |
| number of exercises |
0.9 |
2.0 |
4.8 |
| clarity of exercises |
0.6 |
1.8 |
4.9 |
| difficulty of exercises |
0.7 |
1.7 |
4.9 |
| support for doing exercises |
0.6 |
1.6 |
4.9 |
Some courses did not contain exercises (or students did not recognize them as such).
Future ISRs should provide more (than ISR 2015) of …
- a deeper taste of actual languages using term rewriting and rewriting logic (Maude, OBJ)
- larger portions at lunch
- Time for discussion still in a “professional” setting (and not at the biergarten where people want to relax/talk about other stuff)
- possible hotels (mention them). The recommended hotel had friendly service, but no air condition.
- more options (than 2) for the meal in the mensa
- options for classes (I was not interested in all of the advanced track’s classes and I could have benefitted from more basic classes from the basic track) Maybe it would be possible to define several topics like termination etc. with a basic and an advanced track for each? I admit this looks difficult to organize.
- applications of rewriting to static analysis
- coordination between lecturers. I realize this might be tricky to implement, but for instance lengthy introduction to lambda calculus after two lectures on higher-order rewriting could have been shortened
- snack options in coffee breaks
- more than 1 flavour of juice
- alternative internet spot (eduroam does not always work)
- category theory
- complexity theory
- air condition
- cheaper recommended hotels, nearer to the university and the city center, and with better air condition
- climbing
- lunch
- larger blackboards
Future ISRs should provide less (than ISR 2015) of …
- There’s been too much emphasis on termination for my taste.
- talks with slides with > 100 words on them.
- topics in the advanced track, but with exercise sessions as in the basic track
- hot weather
- time for the lunch break. 1 hour would be enough.
- posters. It was really annyoing.
Future ISRs should exactly copy ISR 2015 with respect to …
- everything else
- organisation of the evenings
- opportunity to do sports activities
- the evening/night-time activities. It is very nice to have something organized every night.
- having student research posters
- suggesting joint evening activities
- all in all it was a great week. Thanks.
- the coffee breaks, the boat trip and the entire well-organized program
- good lecturers and exercises
- basic track: simply perfect
- name tags
- the organisation in general. There have been different activities to make every day, with lots of possibilities for socializing.
Lectures
A summary of reponses will be sent to each lecturer (but I need time to type this up - and I did not have time to prepare automation beforhand). I observe that the rating for the lecture is positively correlated to the time devoted for exercises.