Student feedback from evaluation forms - Fall 2014

Below is an overview of the textual comments on the course and course grades given by 21 out of the 23 students that participated in the fall 2014 Social Network Analysis for Computer Scientists course taught by Frank Takes from LIACS, Leiden University.

I am very grateful for your overwhelmingly positive feedback on this course. Each piece of actually valid and properly motivated criticism will be taken into account for the 2015 edition of this course. Specifically, (1) there will be more opportunity to work on different topics instead of mostly the course project topic, (2) there will probably be a bit more lectures and a bit less student presentations and (3) the set of papers to be studied will be critically evaluated and adjusted. Thank you for your contributions!

1.	Very educational course project and interesting homework assignment	Nothing actually...	9
2.	- All the lessons were really interesting! - Professor always available and helpful! - Ever interesting subjects - Presentations idea is great!	Sometimes the paper were a bit hard to understand and some of them were not really "close" to each other (subject speaking). But since the professor was always available and helpful this was not a big problem.	9
3.	The course structure is good. The group research and presentation is good. The teacher helps a lot on our study	There could more teacher presentation. Maybe in later time a textbook is available	8
4.	The course has a strong research-oriented approach, with state-of-the-art papers to be studied and analyzed. The teacher is prepared and motivates you. The exam form (writing a paper) is good and it is a good test-bench to improve our skills	Some evaluations were too flattened towards the middle for everyone, so that every sufficient or excellent presentation basically got the same grade	8
5.	* The course is very interesting and lets you approach recent and innovative topics in the field of the social network analysis * It also allows you to approach scientific literature which is good * Teacher is cool
6.	Lots of opportunities to get feedback on paper.	Structure of course was at some points unclear	8
7.	Interesting subjects to study. Frank was good in answering questions outside office hours and always quick with a solution. This was very nice if you needed a paper replaced.	Some papers are really hard to understand and read. It is a lot of presentations to listed too. Maybe a lecture in between?	8
8.	- Homework was fun - Presentations were good to do - Paper was ok - Introductory lectures were good - Overall Sentiment was good	- Be more specific about what should be in the paper, specifically how long it should be. Make sure the template works ;) Seen this? - Try to guide the other students better in how their presentation should be structured	8
9.	Interesting lessons Wide variety of subjects to choose from Freedom in choosing date to present Great responsiveness when papers were not useful		8
10.	Interesting content Egaging teacher Modern, relevant content		8
11.	- Good lectures - Teacher cares a lot about the subject		8
12.	Very cool course, teacher was very skilled. Also very helpful. Also every thing was very organized on website	Very intensive in the sense that the workload is high compared to other courses	8
13.	Interesting course with very nice assignments The feedback you get on the paper is very good	-	8
14.	- The professor ensured that the student presentations were of a certain quality and asked supporting questions to make subjects clearer - Provided a lot of relevant papers - Course had both theoretical and practical parts - No missed lectures		8
15.	Self-learning skill is improved after I take this course. Knowledge on social network analysis is professional and wealthy. Guides through assignments & final project are very supportive from Mr. Takes. Presentations in this course are well-organized	So far so good.	8
16.	Subject allows you to use your brain a little. Everything is not given as the ultimate truth	Because each group focused on just one subject, understanding of other subjects was a bit shallow	8
17.	Student presentations let students explore the material for their project earlier Enough material on the subjects is given	Not enough material, the course centers around datasets. None were provided and datasets especially social network ones were hard to find Seen this?	8
18.	Mix of lectures, presentations of fresh material, and presenting of our projects		7
19.	I like the concept of the course: learning the material by studying papers yourself & teaching it to your peers. Thanks for the SNAC_{koekjes}S =)	Due to the nature of the course, I often was unable to really follow the presentations (I often couldn't properly hear the speakers & couldn't see the slides because they tended to stand between me & the slides). Made me feel excluded and not very motivated to participate. Maybe also introduce some (homework) exercises to study the presented material yourself without having to read (sometimes badly written) papers yourself.	7
20.	- Clear lectures - Evalutation session halfway	Some student teams were not good, explaining their paper	7
21.	Good the use of paper for go into details	The amount of work is ok. The problem is the all courses together	7