Mobile computing

More security/ firewalls

HTTP/WWW

Electronic mail

Tutorial session (3.3 out of 5)

Practical session support (3.5 out of 5)

Introduction (3.5 out of 5). Well you just can't win with this one. Some will find it too easy, but others will find it too difficult.

IP/Network addressing (4.4 out of 5)

TCP/ Transport (4.3 out of 5)

Security (4.3 out of 5). This shows the importance of this area.

1

E-mail and WWW support

2

Knowledge of teaching team

3

Network Layer/IP subject area

4

Transport Layer/TCP subject area

4

Security subject area

4

Information received on module

7

Information received on exam

8

Relavence to education in Computing

8

Quality of teaching pack

10

Firewalls subject area

10

Ethernet subject area

10

Help received from teaching team

10

Overall assessment of module

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Module:

Computer Networks and Distributed Systems
Data and Computer Communications

Compiled:

2 March 2001

Published:

6 March 2001

Session:

Semester 1, 2000/2001

Overall
subject rating:

79.2%
[taken as an average of all the questions]

Responses = 48

Aver.

P

F

G

VG

Ex

Comment

1. Overall assessment of the module?

4.1

0

1

6

28

13

80% of student's rate the module as very good or excellent.

2. How would you rate the quality of the teaching pack?

4.2

0

1

9

18

20

Nice to see that the teaching pack was appreciated. It took a lot of hard work and is now being used on francised courses in Malyasia and Aberdeen College. The only problem that was indentified was that the font was too small. This will be rectified with PDF files on the WWW with larger fonts. To save paper the version in the teaching pack will remain double-paged.

3. How would you rate the organisation of the module?

3.9

0

4

9

23

11

Not an easy one with over 200 students on the module, but most students reckon that the organisation is either very good or excellent. This is only the second year that the module has been run in its present form, and some of the material evolved through the year. Next year, hopefully, most of the material will be ready on the WWW site.

4. How would you rate the quality of the lectures?

4

0

0

12

21

14

Good spread between good and excellent, with a peak at very good. We were lucky this year to have excellent lecture facilities that gave us access to the Internet, on a very large screen. Hopefully next year there will be the equivalent at the campus at which we are moving too.

5. How would you rate the knowledge of the lecturing team?

4.5

0

1

3

16

28

This is nice to see, and it shows that the importance of being up-to-date with the subject area. It really helps to have lots of practical experience in the subject area, and for this the Cisco Academy has given us practical experience of the Internet and LANs/WANs.

6. How would you rate the help you received from the teaching team?

4.1

0

2

11

17

18

Never an easy one with so many students on the module, but nice to see that most students rate this as very good or excellent. Hopefully this year, through the WWW page, that we have built a strong databank of questions for the future.

7. How relavent was the module for your education in computing/ engineering?

4.2

0

1

9

18

19

Nice to see that 80% of students on the module rate the subject as either very good or excellent in their Computing education. It shows the importance of the Internet and networking in many programmes.

8. How would you rate the interest of the tutorial sessions?

3.3

2

10

13

19

4

This is obvoiusly an area that the teaching team need to work on in the coming session. Possible more practical demonstrations could be given.

9. How would you rate the information that you received on the module (such as Module Outline, Teachers Notes, and so on)?

4.3

0

1

5

20

21

Nice to see that the WWW site has helped so much. I helps the teaching team too to keep track of the progress through the module.

10. How would you rate the usage of e-mail and WWW support?

4.6

0

0

2

15

31

This was the highest rated of all the questions, and it shows how well it worked. 96% of all students on the module reckon that this is either a very good or an excellent idea. In fact 100% of students think that this is a good idea.

11. Taken out (duplicate question)

12. How would you rate the information that you received about the details of the examination (such as exam outline, and so on)?

4.2

0

0

10

19

18

Good split between very good and excellent. Again it's not easy with so many students, but it seems that we have suceed to keep everyone informed. The advantage of the WWW page having exam information is that everyone is kept up-to-date on a minute-by-minute basis.

13. How would you rate the fairness of the exam paper?

3.9

1

1

11

24

10

A very clear very good. This is never an easy balance, but this year we seemed to get it about right.

14. How helpful was the FAQs WWW page for the examination?

3.7

0

3

16

19

9

As above, but maybe the FAQ page should be expanded.

15. How would you rate the revision sessions that where held at the end of the module?

3.8

2

0

11

25

8

I think the revision sessions went well at the Craiglockhart campus, but not so well for Merchiston-based students. This will be fixed for next year as the DCC and CNDS will be integrated into a single class.

16. How would you rate the relavence of the assignment?

3.8

1

5

7

22

12

Good to see a strong very good (but you can never please everyone with the assignment)

17. How helpful was the FAQs WWW page for the assignment?

3.6

0

5

18

15

8

Oh dear. The worst rating. So we'll try and improve it. Maybe a bulletin board would be better.

18. How would you rate the quality of the support in the practical session?

3.5

1

6

15

15

10

A good result considering the number of students that take the module.

19. How would you rate the information that you received about your coursework mark?

3.9

1

1

13

18

13

A good result. All the modle marks were posted to the WWW page.

20. Introduction

3.5

2

5

12

22

4

A good results for an introduction, as you can never really get it perfectly.

21. Network Fundamentals

4

0

1

9

27

10

Good result with 80% rating it as either Excellent or Very Good.

22. Ethernet

4.1

0

2

7

19

17

Good result.

23. ATM

4

0

4

5

22

15

Good result.

24. Network Layer/IP

4.4

0

0

3

21

22

Superb! This shows the relavence of IP addressing and the network layer in the understanding of the Internet.

25. Transport Layer/TCP

4.3

0

0

5

21

20

Good result. Not as strong as the network layer, but it is key in understanding how data travels from one application to another, over an interconnected network.

26. Security

4.3

0

1

6

18

22

Superb! GR considerably enhanced this subject with his experience, and knowledge.

27. WWW/HTTP

3.6

2

5

10

19

8

Not quite as highly rated as the other subjects, but still Very Good. Maybe this should be replaced with more information on firewalls and security.

28. Firewalls

4.1

0

1

8

21

13

Good result. Possibly more practical work is required to make it more relavent.

Pos

Area

Rating

1.

E-mail and WWW support

4.6

2.

Knowledge of teaching team

4.5

3.

Network Layer/IP subject area

4.4

4.

Transport Layer/TCP subject area

4.3

4.

Security subject area

4.3

4.

Information received on module

4.3

7.

Information received on exam

4.2

8.

Relavence to education in Computing

4.2

8.

Quality of teaching pack

4.2

10.

Firewalls subject area

4.1

10.

Ethernet subject area

4.1

10.

Help received from teaching team

4.1

10.

Overall assessment of module

4.1

Comment from questionaire

Response from teaching team

Thank you very much bill for what I would have to describe as the best module I have sat while at Napier. I have now left university and am applying the material you provided in a real world situation

Hope things go well in your new job, and you apply some of the principles learnt.

It makes a change to attend well organised and structured module.

Thank you for your comments.

If time permitted, a closer look at firewalls with some practical sessions...

This would be excellent, but it's very difficult to achieve. I think we should increase the amount of material on firewall as they are so important for security and can cause lots of problems.

This module was by far the best organised module I have ever studied at Napier. Congratulations, keep up with the good work!!!

Thank you for your comments.

Well organised and interesting module.

Thank you for your comments.

This was one of the best taught modules I have attended so far in my university career. I found the lectues interesting, the web site and mailing list both informative and helpful, and the final examination/coursework to be fulfilling (despite my considerably low mark). Bill's help was extremely welcomed (especially since I had been ill during a large chunk of the semester) and his help is more than likely the reason I managed to pass the module at all.

Thank you for your comments.

If only every module leader took the time to prepare their teaching material and student support the way Bill has, I beleive that students would be more willing to learn the subjects undertaken. The enthusiasm of the whole team on this module was excellent and from what I gather this had a positive reflection on the majority of the students aswell.

Thank you for your comments.

It is unfortunate that the ideas and concept of this module, especially the introduction of an online registration form that ensures (if the student cares to enrol!) that the students are kept up todate with changes etc. are not employed by the faculty as a whole.

Thank you for your comments.

The module is invaluable as a background provider and was appreciated as such. Most lectures were presented in a lively and enthusiastic manner. The teaching pack was excellent. However the subject matter was not a discipline that I had any knowledge or too much interest in, and I found the class participation utterly incomprehensible and un-nerving. My overall opinion is that it is a challenging addition to the multimedia module and well worthwhile.

Where possible we tried to teach the subject so that it would be useful for all students, but we will try and include more multimedia-related material, such as streaming video/audio in the future.

I believe it would be better all round, for both lecturers and students if the exam were, as with the Database Systems exam, multiple choice with say 40 or 50 questions.

We agree, and we're looking at ways to increase the amount of multiple choice questions as it takes a long time to mark the exam papers. So we would like to spend more time designing the questions, than actually marking them.

That a shame that tutorial does not include any pratical session such as cabling a network setting a router and so on

This is a good idea. Maybe we should include practical sessions in the tuturial classes.

Excellent course, Bill kept interest and enthusiasm very high. Looked forward to lectures to see what Bill would do next.

Unpredictable? Me? Never. It was all carefully planned ;-) TWBTD

This is with out doubt the best module I have taken during my time at Napier, it was extremely well taught with lots of available resources easily obtained. If only other courses went to as much effort into their teaching then Napier would be a far more rewarding and enjoyable place for students to be. In far to many lectures we can see that some of the staff just don't want to be there, this was not the case in this subject..

Thanks for the comments.

92% of all students on the module thought that the knowledge of the teaching team was either very good or excellent.

96% of all students on the module reckon that e-mail support is a very good or an excellent idea. In fact 100% of students think that this is a good idea.

Security and network addressing were the highest rated subjects (86% thought that they were either very good or excellent).

82% of all students on the module reckonned that the module information provided was either very good or excellent.

Best module I've had during my time at Napier

Other lecturers could do worse than to emulate this modules structure and style.

Wide range of information was appreciated from beginners viewpoint

Lots of detail

Print could have been bigger

Lots of extra resources

Very well organised, couldn't have been much better really.

Students were always kept up to date with module information

Informative and not just reading notes from a slide

Sometimes confusing

Sometimes a bit too much from the book - improvisation from the text sometimes needed

Due to the numbers of people making demands on the teams time they had no choice but to give minimal support apart from that I would imagine it would have been first class

Lecturer was very helpful both in the lectures and in private time.

Staff would always go out of their way to ensure that you were happy.

Easy to ask questions and get answers via site

There was no additional help required

It was the field I wanted to study and people I have known who came bac from placement are very jealous that the module wasn't available to them

Interesting module, useful for students gaining work in Network support area. Very encouraging.

not exceptionally relavent to potential career, but background knowledge is imperative to any computing related degree.

Very well planned

Font on the notes far too small

Lecturer was very helpful with email replies and updates to the course.

This is the way it should be done university wide, getting the notes and updates on the internet is a very good idea. Being able to see the marks as well was very benificial

One of the most comprehensive web sites I have seen and the use of the mailing list made communication very efficient.

Easy to ask questions and get answers via site

Always kept you updated with what was going on via e-mail, web pages had everything you required.

The first time in 2.5 years were I have been 100% kept informed

If only other modules done the same, napier would have a higher pass rate

Was told everything i needed to know about the exam, more than i imagined i would receive.

I believe that this was very helpful and allowed me to look at only relevant information for the exam, other modules were to broad and resulted in me struggling in the exams

Exam syllabus gave students a good chance.

Concise information about exam setup

The exam outline removed the stress from studying

We were well prepared

Adhered to taught material well

Once again there are many things that other staff members could emulate.

good range of questions

There were certain questions (i.e. the IEEE 802.3 data frame) that were repeated from last year.

Did not use, but good idea none the less