CS 474: Undergraduate Consulting

Last Meeting

First Meeting

The first formal meeting of the semester will take place in the CS Conference room (EPS 357) on Friday, January 16 at 4 p.m. It is mandatory that you attend.

At this meeting, you will be assigned to help out with one of the CS 1xx or CS 2xx lab courses for the remainder of the semester. Please bring along your schedule so that you do not end up with a lab that conflicts with one of your other courses! Your consulting duties will begin the week of January 20.

Once you have your consulting assignment, you should contact your course instructor for any special instructions that apply to your situation.

Course Coordinator

Anne DeFrance. EPS 361. 994-4835. Office Hours: 10-11 and 3-4 Monday and Wednesday.

Duties

Each week you should

• Take a look at the material in advance and make sure that you understand it well enough to help students effectively.
• Attend the entire 2 hour time of your assignment.
• Send an e-mail report to both the instructor and TA of the class within 24 hours of the end of your duties. The report should consist of four, one paragraph sections:
  1. What students understood.
  2. What students didn't understand.
  3. How the assignment that you helped out with might be improved.
  4. What you personally learned with respect to the course outcomes. Please try to address as many of the course outcomes as you can during the course of the semester.

Outcomes

At the end of the semester, your skill ability in the following areas should be improved

• The ability to apply your knowledge of computer science.
• The ability to apply your knowledge of mathematics (if your assigned course involves mathematics).
• The ability to help other people design solutions to problems (if your assigned course involves programming).
• The ability to help other people implement designs (if your assigned course involves programming).
• The ability to help other people debug programs (if your assigned course involves programming).
• The ability to help other people to design and conduct experiments, as well as to analyze and interpret data (if your assigned course involves experiments).
• A better understanding of professional responsibilities, from the standpoint of an expert relating to a novice.
• The ability to communicate effectively.
• The recognition of the need for and an ability to engage in life-long learning.

Grading

• 65% - The quality of the weekly reports. Each weekly report is worth 8 points. For each of the four paragraphs, you will receive 2 points if the section is well done, 1 point if it is OK, and 0 points otherwise. Remember to use good writing skills! Remember that these reports are due within 24 hours of the end of your consulting duties. For every 24 hours that the report is late, it will lose 2 points.
• 15% - The paper requirement has been replaced by a meeting during the last week of classes. At this meeting we will discuss the following:
  • How were you most effective as a consultant?
  • What are the biggest challenges that you have experienced as a consultant?
  • How have you tried to overcome the challenges above? Be specific.
  • Has the consulting experience benefited you as a computer scientist?
  • What advice would you give to consultants next semester?
  • Do you think consulting should be a required course in the CS curriculum?
  Everyone should come prepared to discuss each item, preferably with some notes from your experiences. Anyone not attending the meeting will be expected to hand in the paper.

• 10% - Evaluation by the students that you help. Toward the end of the semester, you will be rated on
  • Your ability to answer questions (0-4)
  • Your ability to communicate clearly (0-3)
  • Your ability to treat students professionally (0-3)
  The student evaluations will be averaged.
• 10% - Evaluation by the TA in the lab. The TA will provide a rating and a written explanation to the course instructor for each of the following four criteria:
  • Whether you arrive promptly and stay until the end of lab (0-5)
  • Your ability to answer questions (0-5)
  • Your ability to communicate clearly (0-5)
  • Your ability to treat students professionally (0-5)
    
  Note: In some of the consulting positions, you might be asked to help students for two hours a week outside of a formal lab setting. If you are given such an assignment, there will be no TA to evaluate you. In this case, this 10% will be incorporated into your weekly reports.
• Special - Each consulting duty that is missed without permission or without making arrangements for someone to replace you in advance will drop your final grade a full letter grade. For example, if you forget to attend one lab, a B+ would become a C+.

Final Grade

At the end of the semester, your final grade will be determined based on the percentage of points you have earned:

• [93 - 100]: A
• [90 - 93): A-
• [87 - 90): B+
• [83 - 87): B
• etc.

Catalog Description

Fall, Spring. 1 credit recitation. Maximum 2 credits.
Prerequisite: CS 223 or CS 301; or CS 150 and consent of instructor.
Directed consultation for lower division CS students.

Notes

If you have only taken CS 150, then you are only eligible to consult for CS 150.

Course Evaluation

There will be a required end of course evaluation. Among other things, this evaluation will require you to address the following issues

• Did the course meet each of its individual outcomes? To what extent?
• What did you learn in this course?
• How can this course be improved?