They have 2 Linux courses (which was what I taught last time and greatly enjoyed) so I don't think it would make sense to include linux here.

You could cover dual booting Linux with windows, running Windows in a virtual machine from inside Linux and vice versa, setting up cygwin....

;)

LOL

Actually, I have a Mac now. So I will, in fact, be teaching the Windows course on a Mac with Windows in a VM.

"What do people think about quizzes? I like them because they give an opportunity for the student and me to see how they're doing. The only problem is they seem to always take a lot more class time than expected."

I teach high school math, and here's something I've done before: an "end-of-week quiz," not so much for grading purposes as for checking that everyone's on board. Depending on the subject and depth, 2-5 short answer questions/problems of medium level difficulty that will take 5-7 minutes. Say to the class: "If you are confident in your answers, you are on track; if you were kinda hazy, now you know what to look over; if you struggled, hit the books."

If I were teaching an IT course I'd do 0 quizzes, definitely no oral exams, and plenty of power point.

Why is that, Putin?

@Putin

But IT is all about doing and problem solving. The only way you get better at that is by, well, doing and problem solving.

try prezi instead of powerpoints:

http://prezi.com/

1- No quizzes because they'd take up too much time and time limits require certainty that any tools used will equally reliable for all involved, which, as I never put my faith in equipment I can't justify with an IT course. Just do a couple of in-class exams instead and give more time than necessary to complete the exams.

2 - Oral exams because it's an IT program and I don't see the value in an oral exam for such practical coursework. Plus people want to to do IT don't tend to be the most comfortable with speaking under pressure, but that might be an erroneous assumption. I think oral exams work better with more abstract subject matter.

3 - Plenty of PP because you already have a classroom filled with people staring a computer screens. Writing stuff on the board is just going to be nuisance in such an environment.

@Putin

The quizzes would be pen & paper, so I don't think that would be much of an issue.

Agreed completely about oral exams making them uncomfortable, but that's why I think it's important. Better to practice now then miss out on a job because you can't communicate your skills.

Maybe writing on the board will be a nice differentiation from staring at screens? Get them into "Lecture mode" or some such.

*than. Kinda changes the meaning of that sentence.

I see, I thought the quizzes would laboratory style work where the student would be asked to do something in the actual program, which was my experience with similar courses. Nevermind objection 1, then.

I suppose I could do that, but since 50% of their grade will already be labs, that seems a bit excessive. Plus, I wanted the quizzes to help them prepare for the exams, which I expect they'll do much worse on than the labs.

I don't have much experience in IT classes, but from the few that I have taken, lab work is by far the most important part of the class. Most of my class experience comes from math and liberal arts classes, but in general for those:

1) I love quizzes. They take a slight pressure off of the final exam and give you a benchmark for how you're doing on the course.

2) I also love oral exams because they are the easiest and quickest way to show if you know the material or not. Now, I haven't had too many oral quizzes in my educational career, but the few that I have had, I've thoroughly enjoyed. But then again, I am also extremely comfortable with public speaking, so who knows.

3) Eh, it depends. I really like jmo's idea on this matter. My favorite class from last year - the one I learned the most from - was where students prepared a ten minute PP summary of the material each week for class, which they submitted to the TA (who taught the class) the day before. He then created a PP covering the main points and all the things they missed, and that led into a class discussion. There was also a ten minute question and answer period with the student presenters following their presentation. All in all the best way to learn the subject, because if you were presenting you *knew* that topic backwards and forwards

1) If they don't effect grade much (~10% of the overall grade) then do them often. They are a good indicator on how the student is doing/understanding the subject. Or do as my physics teacher does: do quizzes about the homework you gave. Say you gave ~5 assigments, make 2 of them as a quiz for the next time. Now you'll see exactly who knows what. My teacher did 4 of these, graded each one from 0-2, and took the best 3. Then he took one assignment from the test ie. do 5/8 instead of 6/8.
2) Didn't have any
3) I personally loved them, and learned best when teacher lectured. But you need to understand that each student is an induvidual. Ask your class if they prefer PP over some other methods. The best kind of teacher listens to his students and acts accordingly.

"So here's the thing with oral exams. Most people in technical degrees are terrible at presenting, especially under stress, but it's a very important skill to have. While it may suck at the time, I figure it's better to gain experience when the risks are fairly low, rather than bombing a technical interview or real presentation."

I agree with you that it is an extremely important skill to have. However, keep in mind the scope of your course. There are public speaking courses that teach these skills, and in these courses it is appropriate to grade them on those. Are you teaching these students how to be good public speakers and how to make good oral presentations? If you aren't providing that knowledge to them, I think it's unfair to test them on it.

Quizzes can be a great tool, if done appropriately. Powerpoints can be, as well. As for grading, make sure the grading scale makes sense. You don't want a single assignment to be worth so much that a bad grade will completely screw a student, but you also want them to be worth enough so that the student is encouraged to complete it, and do it with quality. I've had big class projects that I've completely blown off because the amount of effort required wasn't worth the percentage of the grade. Granted, I'm supposed to take a class to learn, not just to get the grade, but the reality is that many students will do the minimum is takes the get grade. You need to ensure that if they want to get the grade, they are forced to learn whether they like it or not.


I laughed at the comment about the "professor" playing a tape of him reading the text book. I've had professors read from the book, but this one was too lazy to even read it live? I'm laughing, but I think I should be crying.

1) I don´t do quizzes because they take too much time and I have barely enough time to cover all the course material. But I do two mid term exams that are a good way to see how things are going.

2)Oral exams take too many time and are too subjective. Im my University they are not allowed, at least for the finals. But I agree that students at technical degrees are terrible at presenting (and writing) So, what I do is ask two group projects, one as an article and the other one should be presented (10 groups, 15 min per group, it´s manageable).

3) I use powerpoints, but it´s more for my own organization then for the students. I am a bit verbose and have a tendency to digress, so the ppts help me keep on the program and cover all the topics that I should cover on a class. But I just have the main topics and the ilustrations (I am really bad at drawing and my handwriting is terrible, so having it on ppt helps a lot). Reading powerpoints is the best way to get half of the studentes sleeping (specially when you give classes until 10:30 PM).

Abge, it depends on the specific class as to how useful these would be, but: do you use any sort of educational software like Blackboard? If so, you might use online quizzes. I teach American history, and to ensure that students read the chapters each week I give short online quizzes (ten random multiple-choice questions) that they can take as many times as they want. I like this because it saves time in the long run (you can reuse the quizzes and they are automatically graded) and because it gives me something else to say in the apparently-now-obligatory job interview question about using technology in class.

For your case, you might have a short after-class quiz, maybe open notes, to ensure that they're paying attention. I also sometimes make exams that are made up of quiz questions, to make exams easier for those who are willing to look up their missed quiz answers.

On powerpoints...

Instead of giving powerpoint presentations (although the visuals can help drive home points in some subjects, like pictures in a text book), have the students create them, especially as team projects. In a recent Psych class, we broke into teams of 5 and had a team assignment every week that wasn't a mid term or final. We had to research and put together a powerpoint with full APA citations in-text and as a series of reference slides and it was a great way to learn the subject.

@ck

Yes I have Blackboard, but I don't know how I feel about online quizzes. The point of the quizzes was to be like mini exams to help the prepare (I'm assuming they aren't great test takers). Online quizzes don't seem to accomplish that. As to making sure they do the reading: I genuinely don't care. If this was HS, it would be different, but I expect college students to be able to take responsibility for the courses they enroll in.