Student Comments

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• Student Comments

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Types of Students

• Which one are you?
• Busy body
• Im too busy for everything
• Slacker
• Not only do I not know, I dont care
• The Leader
• The Dominator
• The Reluctant Leader
• The Mentor
• The Follower (the Passivist)

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Being passive

• Being an international student, I have a
  difficult time when I want to give my group
  members some idea about the project it is
  difficult for them to clearly understand what I
  want to say. I think I should speak English more
  ofteneven though I was afraid to contribute, I
  should have said more. In my future classes I
  need to do this.

4
Being the Dominator

• Keeping an open mind was surprisingly difficult
  for me in this group I was not able to maintain
  my normal patience with a team member who lacked
  proficiency in EnglishI hope the impatience I
  felt was not evident to anyone in the group. If
  it was, I apologize for itThis proves to me that
  I am not yet ready to lead a truly international
  team and the exercise has definitely exposed
  flaws in my own character and demeanor and
  limitations in my own expertise that must be
  addressed in the very near future if I am to
  continue in this, my chosen track.

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Communication

• I also learned that when you are in a group you
  should always say WE and not I.
• Sometimes we would communicate our disagreement
  by questioning the reasoning by which people
  arrived at their different conclusions. Although
  each of us found ourselves becoming a bit
  defensive from time to time, this approach
  inspired the debates that ultimately led to the
  best results of our combined efforts.

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Seek First to Understand then to be Understood

• What I learned working with this group was that
  it is not essential to endorse my views on
  members, though I was right the whole time. This
  grants them an opportunity to articulate and
  convey their side of the story.

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About the course

• Although I dont design the system, these will
  help me to understand what the designers do, so
  that if and when I become a project manager I can
  take into consideration what designers do and can
  streamline the project.

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About the class

• Overall, I really enjoyed the class. Especially,
  that we were able to create our own system
  without too many restrictions around it. It is
  refreshing since in real life you rarely have
  opportunity to do that.

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The good

• In my undergrad days, third normal form was
  something you just strived to get to, but I know
  I really understand what it means and what
  anomalies are.

10
The good

• I am also satisfied with the way this class was
  organized and operated. This class was completely
  project management driven. Through intensive
  group activities, I can test and apply my
  management skills. These activities gave me
  hands-on opportunities to plan, analyze, design,
  and create construction and implementation
  procedures. Not only I learned the skills on how
  to manage a project, but I also learned on how to
  deal with people with various personalities and
  how to make it work in order to accomplish our
  project goals. We basically learned how to be a
  team player.

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Why a sequence

• After finishing these two classes (IS 421-422) I
  am in a better position to understand the whole
  development cycle and to contribute to its
  implementation.
• After having taken the two consecutive courses,
  IS421 and IS422, I could see how this theory
  became practical.

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Importance of Analysis

• If there are miscalculations in the Planning
  Stage you can always make changes that are not
  essentially crucial to the overall project. But
  if you make serious mistakes in the Analysis
  Phase, such as forgetting elements that are part
  of the system, those mistakes will have effects
  in the subsequent phases.

13
Importance of Analysis

• Looking back at the beginning of our project, I
  would say that we did not spend the time and
  effort necessary to identify the requirements of
  the business.

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How rigorous?

• I wouldnt change a thing. We had to struggle,
  so should the next classes.
• At the end of two quarters, if I had my druthers,
  Id make this course flat out tougher. Weed em
  out, Al. Youre not here to pass a bunch of kids
  (ok, young adults). Youre here to learn em.
  And, while you learn em good, I say, learn em
  harder!!

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How rigorous?

• I believe that the learning process could also be
  improved for students if the threat of pop
  quizzes loomed over them.
• I also would give more deliverables for the
  students as assignments and also try to make the
  project a little bit harder.

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The bad (?)

• Burns needs to remember that a good percentage of
  the class works full-time. Also, he needs to
  remember that his class is not the only class
  students are taking. Some of us work fulltime,
  he expects too much.

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The ugly (?)

• My current job is completely unrelated to this
  and I dont think Im going to apply this for
  future classes. I do not want to become a
  systems analyst and do not agree with the
  methodology to place such an emphasis on this for
  the IS program. All three of the core classes
  could and should be combined into one.

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The ugly (?)

• I search for future jobs everyday and have
  many conversations and interviews with employers.
  Yes, questions have come up about what I have
  done to analyze a system. Yes, questions have
  come up about what I have done to design a
  system. However, every employer prefers more
  technical skills over these theories.

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The ugly (?)

• I understand this is a tight job market, but
  the way I evaluate classes is, Is this going to
  help me get a job?

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Types of Learning in IS422
HIGHER ORDER
Teamwork
Negotiation
Problem Solving
Critical Thinking
SDLC
Analysis-Design Interaction
Client Presentation Skills
Conflict Resolution
Communication Skills
LOWER ORDER
User Interface Design
Structured Design Techniques
Navigation Strategies
Construction Planning
Conversion Planning
Normalization
Structure Charts
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Reality vs. Academia

• But, this isnt a real world, its DePaulLand, an
  ivory tower. The real world is dirty and tough,
  and in the real world, Id never ever design the
  interface thats what HCI students are for.
  This is not to say that I wouldnt give
  direction, seek client input, etc., but I sure
  wouldnt code it.

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www.polyvista.com
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Group issues

• The team interaction strengthened my
  communication and leadership skills. You can
  never have too much experience working with
  people. The more you work with people in problem
  solving situations, the better you become at
  solving problems as a group.

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Another view

• More obviously, it encourages interpersonal
  problem solving skills. While some people might
  respond to that by saying I get enough of that
  at work I would disagree.

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Presentations

• Ive learned quite a bit at DePaul, and public
  speaking is probably the most important skill
  that I have at least started to learn. Im
  certainly not claiming to be a great speaker, but
  what I do know is that compared to 18 months ago,
  when I would dread giving presentations, not be
  able to sleep the night before them, and
  contemplate avoiding classes where they were
  required, I now enjoy them, give them at work all
  the time, and look forward to them in class.
  Again, this revolves around many IT peoples
  wonky, reclusive nature, and teaching them to
  communicate in various formats is important. Im
  glad you require this.

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Funny

• Prof Burns need to change his picture online. He
  looks like a deer caught in headlights. P