| 1 | Course name | Functional Programming |
| 2 | Course code | CDT201 |
| 3 | Occasion (academic year & period) | 2007/08, period 1 |
| 4 | Date of document establishment | 2007-11-05 |
| 5 | Responsible teacher | Björn Lisper |
| 6 | Other teachers and assistants | Marcelo Santos |
| 7 | Speed, day / evening | Half speed, day |
| 8 | Education programs involve | I have no clear idea! Our regular programmes of course (DVP, engineering) but sometimes students from other programs show up as well. |
| 9 | Number of registered students (filled in by director of studies ) |
13 |
| 10 | Number of students following the course (but maybe not achieved much) |
Around ten |
| 11 | Number of passed students approximately one week after course ended | 3 |
| 12 | Your opinion about the turnout | It is low, of course. The reason for the low turnout is that only three students have handed in the project so far. Ten students have passed the lab course and eight out of ten passed the written exam. These figures are quite OK, but the project is a problem for some reason. (Of course, the low total number of students on the course is a problem in itself.) |
13. Describe shortly the course’s planning and if you used any special pedagogical method used in course (all-over or single parts)
There are 16 lectures (covering theory as well as showing examples), four laborations, and one small project (estimated effective time one week/student) where the students are supposed to work in their own time. To make time to work with the project, the lectures and laborations are concentrated to the first six weeks of the teaching period in order to give free time for the project, and for preparations for the written exam, towards the end of the teaching period.
Pedagogically, I am a very conservative old professor who believes in good lectures where important concepts are explained in a clear and pedagogical manner. I also believe in own work with some freedom: thus, the project.
14. Did the students have enough pre-requisites to this course?
Yes, I think so. One can always wish for better knowledge in math, but this is wishful thinking.
15. The students concluding opinions (course, classes, labs, project, examination etc.)
Overall, the comments from the students have been positive. Laborations and lectures are most frequently cited as having been beneficial for the learning. Several students say they like the contents of the course, and some say that they have learnt a new way of thinking which they believe can be useful.
One student found the course book irrelevant (focussing too much on interactive graphics and too little on functional programming). One student wanted more laborations but smaller. One student wanted a better coupling between laborations and project (being able to more directly apply knowledge from laborations into the project). One student found the laborations to "imperative" and wanted more focus on what functional languages are good at. One student wanted the course to go deeper into Haskell's type system.
16. Your opinion
I think that the course works quite well. There are of course things that can be improved, see below. I am a bit worried about the low turnout for the project.
17. Other comments
It seems like a course that attracts few students, but that the few ones who attend the course appreciate it.
18. Measures stated on previous action plan
I didn't do an action plan last year (and no course analysis either). I was simply too busy, and suddenly it was time to give the course again...
19. Which of them are executed (and how)?
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20. What has worked out well according to the students?
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21. What has worked out well according to you?
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22. What has turned out be imperfect according to the students?
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23. What has worked out well according to you?
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24. Action plan until next course occasion</p>
N.b. I usually have very little time to implement upgrades of the course. The action plan below should be seen as a wish list.
| Part | Action | |
| 1 | Lectures | Make better slides for the lecture on "Functional Programming in the Real World" (Mapreduce and Erlang). |
| 2 | Laborations | Convert to the new implementation of the SOEGraphics package (which was released a little to late to make it into the course this year). |
| 3 | Laborations | Go over the laborations and their instructions, to see if they can be improved. Try to make laborations and project connect better. |
| 4 | Project | Go over the predefined project proposals, to see if they can be improved. |
| 5 | General | Think about how to improve the recruiting to the course. |