Assessments in module order

Module: Professional Persona

A01: Assessment of your professional persona

Outcomes assessed: Create a high quality professional persona, Create high quality technical essays

This assessment evaluated your ability to define a professional persona consisting of a portfolio site, membership in professional networks, and technical essays that satisfy class standards.

Discussion:

  • Around 80% of your portfolios are “fit to publish”, only a dozen would reflect poorly on their author if a recruiter saw them at this point in time. That’s not bad! Even though the grades are in for this assignment, I still hope my comments can help some of you improve your portfolios and get them over threshold. Remember, these are for you, not for me!

Module: Javascript 1: Basics

A02: Assessment of simple Javascript skills

Outcomes assessed: Competent with elementary Javascript

Rx: < 5 min Av: 5-10 min Sd: 10-12 min DNF: 12+ min or incorrect

This in-class WOD assesses your ability to write a simple Javascript program.

Discussion:

  • Actually, these are the best results ever for the first WOD! Usually, about half the class DNFs. This time, less than a third of the class DNF’d, and I think most of those will find they are no longer DNFing within the next WOD or so.

A03: Assess your ability to write effectively about Javascript

Outcomes assessed: Competent with elementary Javascript, Create high quality technical essays

This assessment evaluates your ability to write a high quality technical essay summarizing what you learned about Javascript, athletic software engineering, and JSFiddle.

Discussion:

  • Everyone who completed this assignment got full credit. For this first essay, I am being lenient in the quality of your essays. You’ll have plenty of time to get better during the semester.

  • While many essays were “good”, none got to “Excellent” in my opinion. I hope to see some great essays emerge in future weeks.

  • Many people named their essay “Reflections on Javascript”, which is the name of the experience, or even worse, “E09”. In future, come up with an interesting, provocative, personalized title for your essays!

  • Don’t create files for your essays with spaces in their names.

Module: Javascript 2: Object orientation

A05: Assessment of simple Javascript skills (classes)

Outcomes assessed: Competent with elementary Javascript

Rx: < 15 min Av: 15-25 min Sd: 25-40 min DNF: 40+ min or incorrect

This in-class WOD assesses your ability to write a simple Javascript program using the class construct.

Discussion:

  • Results this week are roughly the same as last week, although the WOD was much harder. Good job!

Module: Configuration management

A06: Assess your ability to write effectively about configuration management concepts

Outcomes assessed: Use configuration management tools and techniques effectively, Create high quality technical essays

This assessment will evaluate your understanding of configuration management concepts through review of your technical essay.

Discussion:

  • Several of the essays were quite perfunctory. I will be getting more rigorous in future weeks in my expectations for insight into the topic area.

  • Be sure that your essay does not assume knowledge by the reader of this class or the specific assignment.

Module: Javascript 3: Functional programming

A07: Assessment of simple functional programming skills using Underscore

Outcomes assessed: Competent with elementary Javascript

Rx: < 6 min Av: 6-10 min Sd: 10-16 min DNF: 16+ min or incorrect

This in-class WOD assesses your ability to use the Underscore library to program in a functional style.

Discussion:

  • The number of DNFs is holding steady, but the number of Rx’s is increasing!

Module: QA Part 1: Coding standards

A08: Assess your ability to manage coding standards

Outcomes assessed: Use an IDE (IntelliJ IDEA) effectively, Efficiently create software that conforms to standards

Rx: < 25 min Av: 25-35 min Sd: 35-45 min DNF: 45+ min or incorrect

This in-class WOD assesses your ability to manage coding standards using IntelliJ, GitHub, and ESLint.

Discussion:

  • Number of DNFs dropped this week. Good going!

A09: Assess your ability to write effectively about coding standards

Outcomes assessed: Efficiently create software that conforms to standards, Create high quality technical essays

This assessment will evaluate your technical essay regarding the Coding Standards module for clarity, insight, and conformance to the technical essay guidelines.

Discussion:

  • It is disconcerting that some people are even attempting to write technical essays: these account for a major portion of your grade! More importantly, they account for a major part of your professional portfolio!

  • Some essays look like they were written in about five minutes. Moving forward I am going to become increasinly strict about the standards for an acceptable essay in terms of length and insight. Don’t think that a three paragraph, 6 sentence essay that simply reprises some definitions will be good enough in future!

  • On the bright side, some of you are starting to “run with” these essays, and imbue them with your own personality and opinions. That’s great! Think of all of them put together as your chance to tell the tech community about yourself, your value system, and how you perceive software development.

Module: UI Design (Basics)

A10: Assess your ability to use simple HTML and CSS

Outcomes assessed: Design and implement web pages using HTML and CSS

Rx: < 15 min Av: 15-20 min Sd: 20-35 min DNF: 35+ min or incorrect

This in-class WOD assesses your ability to write simple CSS and HTML.

Discussion:

  • This one was a bit harder: not so many Rx times, but the number of DNFs continues to drop. Very happy about that!

Module: UI Design (Frameworks)

A11: Assess your ability to use HTML, CSS, and Semantic UI

Outcomes assessed: Design using a UI framework

Rx: < 20 min Av: 20-30 min Sd: 30-40 min DNF: 40+ min or incorrect

This in-class WOD will your ability to build a simple web page using Semantic UI.

A12: Assess your ability to write about your UI framework experiences

Outcomes assessed: Design using a UI framework, Create high quality technical essays

This assessment will evaluate your technical essay regarding the UI Design Frameworks module for clarity, insight, and conformance to the technical essay guidelines.

Module: Application Design (Meteor), Part 1

A13: Assess your ability to use the Meteor Framework.

29 Oct 09:00 AM

Outcomes assessed: Design using Meteor Framework

This in-class WOD assesses your ability to build a simple Meteor application.

Module: Application Design (Meteor), Part 2

A14: Assess your ability to use the Meteor Framework.

Rx: < 15 min Av: 15-20 min Sd: 20-25 min DNF: 25+ min or incorrect

This in-class WOD assesses your ability to build a simple Meteor application.

A15: Assess your ability to write about your Meteor experience

Outcomes assessed: Create high quality technical essays

This assessment evaluates your ability to write a high quality technical essay summarizing your experience learning about Meteor during the second week.

Module: Application Design (Meteor), Part 3

A16: Assess your ability to create a mockup application in Meteor.

Review of your pages will assess your ability to create a mockup application in Meteor.

Module: Project Management

A17: Assess your team presentation

Outcomes assessed: Practice simple project planning techniques, Write useful project documentation

This assessment will evaluate the ability of teams to create a first presentation that satisfies the requirements.