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What I find most interesting about this is that most of the changes they implemented weren't necessarily targeted towards women and benefited everyone (emphasis

by aplusbi 11y ago

What I find most interesting about this is that most of the changes they implemented weren't necessarily targeted towards women and benefited everyone (emphasis on group work, research projects, splitting the into classes by experience).

zeveb 11y ago
> What I find most interesting about this is that most of the changes they implemented weren't necessarily targeted towards women and benefited everyone (emphasis on group work, research projects, splitting the into classes by experience). I'll take exception to the first example: group work. I loathed and hated group work in college. It was simply and solely a way for people who couldn't hack the course material to manage a pass anyway. This might, of course, be good experience for life, but it's terrible for education. Research projects could be really, really good if they demand concrete results; they could be really terrible if they are just a way to reward effort without results. Splitting classes by experience might be a decent idea, although I've heard folks speak positively of one-room schoolhouses as well.
mafribe 11y ago
emphasis on group work, It's very questionable that this is a positiv change. While it is important (and difficult) to acquire teamwork skills, in practise, most groups gravitate towards one might call "Pareto Groups" where 20% of the participants do 80% of the work. Usually the strong programmers in the group do all the programming, thus getting all the learning experience.
- phasmantistes 11y ago
  With the exception of two classes (Clinic and Large Software Development, which are both explicitly about learning to work in large teams), all the group work you do in the Mudd CS program is pair programming. The groups are 2 people, and you're required to take turns "driving". While I definitely experienced an unfortunate amount of "Pareto Groups" throughout my schooling, none of them were in the CS department at HMC.
- lucidguppy 11y ago
  I think students need to get introduced to code review and working on a code base together. Students need to review each others code. It's not academic - but it definitely improves coding ability.

by aplusbi 11y ago

zeveb 11y ago

> What I find most interesting about this is that most of the changes they implemented weren't necessarily targeted towards women and benefited everyone (emphasis on group work, research projects, splitting the into classes by experience). I'll take exception to the first example: group work. I loathed and hated group work in college. It was simply and solely a way for people who couldn't hack the course material to manage a pass anyway. This might, of course, be good experience for life, but it's terrible for education. Research projects could be really, really good if they demand concrete results; they could be really terrible if they are just a way to reward effort without results. Splitting classes by experience might be a decent idea, although I've heard folks speak positively of one-room schoolhouses as well.

mafribe 11y ago

emphasis on group work, It's very questionable that this is a positiv change. While it is important (and difficult) to acquire teamwork skills, in practise, most groups gravitate towards one might call "Pareto Groups" where 20% of the participants do 80% of the work. Usually the strong programmers in the group do all the programming, thus getting all the learning experience.

phasmantistes 11y ago
With the exception of two classes (Clinic and Large Software Development, which are both explicitly about learning to work in large teams), all the group work you do in the Mudd CS program is pair programming. The groups are 2 people, and you're required to take turns "driving". While I definitely experienced an unfortunate amount of "Pareto Groups" throughout my schooling, none of them were in the CS department at HMC.
lucidguppy 11y ago
I think students need to get introduced to code review and working on a code base together. Students need to review each others code. It's not academic - but it definitely improves coding ability.