This is my second full year evaluation at the FSU Panama City campus. The form and substance of the process are quite different from the evaluations I have had in the past, which were more typical academic evaluations.
The substantive differences arise from the change in assignment of responsibilities, where teaching and recruitment play a larger role. The formal differences are due mostly to the inevitable cultural changes encountered in a move from one campus to another. I am becoming accustomed to the new way and also appreciative of it. These evaluations encourage a personal self-evaluation better than those of the past.
My first year in this new environment was not as smooth as one might have expected. I found myself struggling at times to adapt, and I found the work load to be significantly higher than I anticipated.
After completing my second year as full time, I feel that I have adapted to this new environment, at least to the point of "competence". I certainly feel accepted by students, colleagues, and staff, and in turn I find them all delightful to work with, both professionally and socially. The teaching, recruitment, and advising is well received and the number of students is growing. We now have a stronger effort in undergrad recruiting in particular, helped by the integration of recruiting across computer science and engineering and also better defined 4-year plans for community college students.
I still found little time for scholarly activity, however that will improve in the coming year, as the work load should ease somewhat as the number of new prep courses decreases due to courses rotating into the schedule for the second cycle.
The work load has increased, albeit voluntarily. In fall 2005 I taught an extra section of a graduate course (CAP 5605) as an undergraduate elective (CAP 4601), and an extra section of an undergraduate course (COP 4020) as a graduate elective (CIS 5930). Each of these extra self-imposed assignments helped our students. Approximately eight Masters students were able to complete requirements for the course-based degree, a crictical component of which was the extra graduate elective CIS 5930. Similarly, several of our undergraduates made faster progress toward their degree by taking the undergradtaue elective CAP 4601. For the students, this overloading was successful. It is a stressful effort on the part of faculty, and there is some evidence that the overall quality of my instruction slipped because of this oveloading. (See comments after data summary below.)
I am an inveterate investigator: the questions "Why?" and "How?" have intrigued me all my life. Before kindergarten, I disassembled my mother's sewing machine button-hole attachment to see how it worked. When Mom discovered me sitting with the parts on the floor, she asked me to put it back. I did, and it worked, much to her relief.
Therefore it is natural that one of the most attractive things for me about the field of Computer Science is its dynamic change of state: important new knowledge and technology enters the field at a rapid pace. Other things I love about the field are its mathematical foundation and theoretical underpinnings, its inherent orientation toward problem solving, and the insistence on usefulness as one of the criteria for evaluating new ideas.
I believe it is natural to enjoy introducing others to cherished ideas, especially when there is a shared enthusiasm. The students in Computer Science come to the field with such enthusiasm, making teaching extremely rewarding.
As I have learned over the years, it takes more than enthusiasm to teach or to learn, however. To teach effectively, one must prepare, one must devise ways to look at the subject through the students' eyes, and one must be patient (at least while students struggle with ideas -- patience with lack of effort is not quality I possess). Like that kid sitting with the button-holer, sometimes time to think and some coaching is critical to students' success.
My approach to teaching is to (1) unfold a tree of knowledge, starting with simple and basic concepts and climbing the many twists and branches to the complex structures at the leaves and fruit of the tree; (2) set challenges for students, and give them the time and coaching necessary to meet the challenges; and (3) be aware of different learning styles (visual, symbolic, top-down, bottom-up) and try to accommodate them.
SUSSAI Response Summary Spring Semester 2005 Course Type Responses E and VG Total Responses Percent E and VG COP 4530 PC 4 4 100 COP 4530 OL 4 4 100 COP 4531 PC 4 4 100 COP 4531 OL 1 1 100 CIS 5930
Generic ProgPC 7 7 100 Totals OL 5 5 100 Totals PC 15 15 100 PC = on-site at the Panama City campus; OL = on-line distance delivery
SUSSAI Response Summary Fall Semester 2005 Course Type Responses E and VG Total Responses Percent E and VG COP 3330 PC 8 8 100 COP 3330 OL 3 6 50 CAP 4601
[CAP 5605]PC 3 3 100 CAP 5605 PC 3 5 60 COP 4020 PC 3 3 100 COP 4020 OL 4 6 67 CIS 5930
[COP 4020]PC 6 6 100 Totals OL 7 12 58 Totals PC 23 25 92 PC = on-site at the Panama City campus; OL = on-line distance delivery Comments. Here we see possible effects of trying to do too much. Note that the on-line (OL) students in COP 3330 were not uninaminously satisfied, even though they had the same course as the on-campus (PC) students. This is the first year that COP 3330 started in the middle of a two-course sequence. The PC students had the first half, but the OL students did not - the course has not (yet) been developed for on-line delivery. The cohort of OL students seemed particularly ill-prepared.
Two other places where satisfaction suffered are where there were graduate students and undergraduate students mixed in the same course. In CAP 5605 (co-taught with CAP 4601) the graduate students were probably held back a little. In COP 4020, the DL students suffered somewhat from the fact that both graduate and PC undergraduate students tended to focus attention on classroom discussions and activities which the DL students did not have access to.
Because of this review, I plan to initiate the process for preparing and offering the precursor course for COP 3330 as an on-line offering and to take greater care to ameliorate the effects of mixing undegraduate and graduate offerings in the same classroom..
COP 4530 Panama City (Spring 2005)
Course Syllabus
Student EvaluationsCOP 4530 On Line (Spring 2005)
Course Syllabus
Student EvaluationsCOP 4531 Panama City (Spring 2005)
Course Syllabus
Student EvaluationsCOP 4531 On Line (Spring 2005)
Course Syllabus
Student EvaluationsCIS 5930 Generic Programming (Spring 2005)
Course Syllabus
Student EvaluationsCOP 3330 Panama City (Fall 2005)
Course Syllabus
Student EvaluationsCOP 3330 On Line (Fall 2005)
Course Syllabus
Student EvaluationsCAP 4601 Panama City (Fall 2005)
Course Syllabus
Student EvaluationsCAP 5605 Panama City (Fall 2005)
Course Syllabus
Student EvaluationsCOP 4020 Panama City (Fall 2005)
Course Syllabus
Student EvaluationsCOP 4020 On Line (Fall 2005)
Course Syllabus
Student EvaluationsCIS 5930 Programming Languages (Fall 2005)
Course Syllabus
Student Evaluations
I advised all students who sought advice, via Email or in my office. This includes both local Panama City students, some graduate and some undergraduate, as well as a number of distance students.
List of graduate advisees:
Ling Toh Doctoral Student (Dissertation)
George Gilman Masters Student (Thesis)
Sucessfully defended thesis in Fall 2005
Graduation scheduled for Spring 2006
List of undergraduate advisees, Panama City campus (from rosters)
ALBIN DANIEL SCOTT 0067 AS 116630 3 M 1 AYERS KENNETH LLOYD 9124 AS 116699 3 M 1 BONO SAROJ 2348 SP 920002 6 F 3 CAMPBELL CHARLES B 8711 AS 116610 4 M 1 HAINES KENT L 6647 AS 116610 4 M 1 HARRIS WINSTON A 8431 SP 920002 6 M 1 MAYNE RAYMOND M 4166 AS 116610 3 M 1 MCCULLOUGH IV CECIL F 4372 SP 920002 6 M 1 OLSON ISAAC D 1883 SP 920002 6 M 1 PORTER MATTHEW 9391 AS 116610 3 M 1 RICHBURG FLORENCE LAN 9852 SP 920002 6 F 2 SHEFFIELD SOMER JOY 4402 AS 116610 3 F 5 SIMMONS JOSHUA G 8541 TR 920001 9 M 1 SWAFFORD SAMUEL L 3355 AS 116630 3 M 1 WALLEY IAN N 7367 AS 116630 3 M 1 Hickman, David (dlh6312) Palmer, Paul (pdp05) Pinkerton, William (wrp05)
List of undergraduate advisees, On Line (from blackboard advising site):
Akin, Kyle kda03@fsu.edu Ayers, Kenneth kla03d@fsu.edu Barbour, Billy mbarbour@fsu.edu Barhorst, Nathan ngb02@fsu.edu Bryant, David dlb03c@fsu.edu Cole, Ian irc8578@fsu.edu Crosby, Andrew awc03c@fsu.edu Davis, Phillip pls9480@fsu.edu Downs, Dustin dld04g@fsu.edu Gonzalez, Edwin feg4609@fsu.edu Good, Allison aag03e@fsu.edu Haines, Kent klh04d@fsu.edu Harlacher, Brittney bmb4306@fsu.edu Harlacher, Paul pch3647@fsu.edu Hayashida, Curt cih1355@fsu.edu Helvey, Keenan kdh9314@fsu.edu Hickman, David dlh6312@fsu.edu Hill Jr, Wayne wdh8323@fsu.edu Ingram, Curtis cmi03@fsu.edu Jordan, David drj03@fsu.edu Leyden, Michael mpl8046@fsu.edu Lightcap, Robert rll2434@fsu.edu Mastro, Jason jam02h@fsu.edu Maucher, Jon jam1009@fsu.edu Mcclancy, William wrm02c@fsu.edu Meserve, George gsm2699@fsu.edu Milam, Tracy tsm0597@fsu.edu Miles Jr, Jere jdm03e@fsu.edu Miller, Patrick psm03c@fsu.edu Murillo, Janis jlm02n@fsu.edu Olson, Isaac ido03@fsu.edu Peaden, Adria adg9506@fsu.edu Peeler, Joann jdp02d@fsu.edu Polich, Paul pmp02@fsu.edu Porter, Matthew mbp02@fsu.edu Quandt, Frederick fnq03@fsu.edu Reaves, Angela amr6551@fsu.edu Reed, Jennifer jbr0488@fsu.edu Shumaker, Aaron als03@fsu.edu Simmons, Joshua jgs03c@fsu.edu Simms Jr, John jss03g@fsu.edu Singh, Rameet rs02c@fsu.edu Smith, Christopher ccs03d@fsu.edu Springer, Scott sbs2869@fsu.edu Swafford, Samuel sls04c@fsu.edu Trautwein, John jkt4783@fsu.edu Upright, Karen kbu5828@fsu.edu Valacheryil, Bigi bsv4373@fsu.edu Villmow, Micah mjv0573@fsu.edu Vincent, Jason jhv1504@fsu.edu Walley, Ian inw03@fsu.edu Weltz, Jeffrey jaw02n@fsu.edu Wheeler, Benjamin btw02c@fsu.edu Williams, Sean skw4179@fsu.edu Williamson, Richard rjw03f@fsu.edu Wissmueller, Mark mgw03c@fsu.edu
I developed a new graduate course, offered for the first time in Spring 2005 under CIS 5930: Generic Programming. I also revised the course CAP 5605 offered in Fall 2005 and completely re-engineered the course COP 4531 offered in Spring 2005.
There was an innovation I organized that offers a faster track to graduation for the PC undergraduate CS majors, while at the same time making it possible for our masters students to graduate with the course-only option. The offering sequences for both graduate and undergraduate courses were revised, to maximize possible "spinoff" co-listings of graduate courses for (local) undergraduates as well the other way. The net effect is one new graduate elective along with three courses at the undergraduate level that can be offered annually unstead of every other year.
These efficiencies have accelerated the path to graduation for our undergraduates and facilitated the graduation of many of our MS students: of the eight walking in Spring 06, seven could not have graduated without this extra course elective. (The eighth, George Gilman, has defended his thesis under my advisment.)
I continue to work with colleagues in Engineering to recruit students by hosting visits from local high schools and visiting classes at GCCC. I am participating in the "FSU Day" events now underway at GCCC, OWCC, and CCC.
Visit to calculus classes at GCCC
Participation in invitational "robotics" visits by local high school students
The following paper was published during the period:
The following works were in progress during the evaluation period:
I have been invited to chair a session of papers at the SIGCSE conference in March 2006, held in Houston, TX.