How well do you think the course conveyed those takeaways?
I think the course conveyed the information very well. Professor Downing was very good at teaching the material in a non confusing way. I feel like the project and exercises helped to convey the information very well. In the end, I feel like I learned a lot about C++ and object oriented design in this class.
Were there any other particular takeaways for you?
The main takeaway was learning a lot of how C++ works. There are a lot of many nuanced details that I learned through taking this class (for example, the many different types of constructors and which ones are given to you for free). I feel that I’m definitely way better at C++ now than I was.
How did you feel about cold calling?
I feel like it helps you pay attention in class. The fact that you might get called on forces you to pay attention. In classes, I sometimes find myself not paying attention to the lecture and getting bored every once in a while. This is especially true in Zoom University where I find this happens to me a lot more often than when class was in person.
How did you feel about office hours?
I did not go to any office hours, but I would imagine from my interactions with the TAs and Professor Downing that it would be very helpful.
How did you feel about lab sessions?
The answer is the same as my answer to the previous questions.
What required tool did you not know and now find very useful?
I have not used any of the tools we learned in class before and find them all to be very useful. I think the most useful thing was gitlab CI/CD, it definitely helps when changing code around to make sure you did not break anything.
You should have read five papers that describe SOLID design : Single responsibility, Open-closed principle, Liskov substitution, Interface segregation, Dependency inversion. What insights have they given you?
The reading has definitely pointed to flaws in how I code and I have tried to implement a lot of the ideas presented in the readings into my code.
You should have read two papers that advised minimizing getters and setters. What insights have they given you?
I had always thought that getter and setters were how you access data from a class because that is what you learn in all the introductory CS classes. After reading the two papers I have found out that getters and setters are not always optimal and will try to keep in mind that idea when I code.
Give me your suggestions for improving the course.
The only issue I had with the class was that in the exercises if your group got stuck, then it was basically impossible to finish. There were a couple of exercises that my group got stuck on trivial things such as basic syntax and were not able to finish the hackerrank tests. The only way you could solve an exercise if you were stuck was if you asked a TA or Professor Downing for help, but most of the time, if you tried to ask for help on Zoom, it would just say they were busy. This probably won’t be as big of an issue in an in person class environment, but I found it to be the only downfall in an otherwise great class.
