COMP715/815GB:2013 Team One


 * Home
 * A Team (Robert)
 * Gold Team (Daniel)
 * [Team One (James)]
 * Team Memorable (Gabriel)

Info

 * Planned Meeting Times:
 * Wednesday 4:30pm - 5:30pm

Students:
 * Group leader:
 * James
 * Scott
 * Mitch
 * Sinisa
 * Mike

Week of Sept 18th
Note that there was no group meeting on the 11th as the group lead was out due to surgery.

On the 18th we met and the majority of discussion revolved around the labs that were began the week before. Sinisa was the only team member there from the week before and was able to outline what was discussed. He was are to walk us through the encryption portion of the program. There were several questions regarding the function of the seed and the call to the function. Following that, the focus moved to a quick review of the homework questions. The change from a numeral to string password had us all sharing some ideas on what was meant by the homework and how a would implement it. No firm solution was reached, but we all had some good ideas.

For thus being the first time we sat down I think it went very well. The next week will have a lot of discussion about the homework due that day.

Week of Sept 25th
There was minimal participation this week with only one other team member here for the full hour. We spent the hour going over the homework and the math involved. The team member present does not have a firm grasp of Javascript. We looked closely at both the code and math behind the solutions we came up with. I also gave several possible sources to further his Javascript capabilities. Another team member arrived closer towards class and we were able to also review his submitted answer. This was a good exercise as we all had different solutions.

Week of Oct 2nd
Another week with minimal participation, with only a single member of the mentor group attending the session. The session was spent reviewing the homework questions that were provided for HW#2. The discussion specifically revolved around two questions, the question involving guessing the combination of a lock and the lab. Some interesting ideas were discussed regarding the lock combination, but no one in the group had the a-ha moment that resulted in a breakthrough. The complexity of the problem was quickly determined as the onion was peeled back (involving the number of possible known locations and known orders for example).

The conversation around the lab covered both possible implementations as well as Javascript help. As recommended solutions were presented by the team member I helped them think of inventive ways to implement the new code. Again, the team member is not an experienced coder and routinely seeks assistance from other class members to complete the coding. I am trying to help him realize some fairly easy methods that can be used on his own.

The next mentor session will continue to discuss the above two issues, with the homework due during the following class.

Week of Oct 9th
Though the trend of minimal participation continues, I can at least say it was another student who attended the session as opposed to the only consistent one. The lone member of the group present had not yet completed the homework and was working diligently to complete it prior to the start of class. He did have several questions in regards to the homework, focusing on the lab portion. He had completed a modification to the code but could not get it to execute. I reviewed his code and gave him some recommendations on what could be done to overcome his issues. He was able to successfully implement code and complete his homework. During the review of the code I realized that I had been using a previous version of code that would not result in a successful iteration implementation and was also able to update my homework prior to class.

I am hoping with the test coming up participation will increase in the next two week. Next week we will cover possible areas of study for the mid-term and attempt to determine if anyone is struggling with one specific concept.

Final Update
Team 1 was a very different group from the others that I was able to witness. While I am unsure if it's a failure of mine or the groups, there were really only two decent sessions. The pattern appeared to be a member or two would come to a meeting on the off-homework days. There was rarely any early review of the homework, so no one ever had any questions or needed advice. Even during the lock combinations ande hidden passwords homework. on homework weeks participation increased, but the vast majority of the time they were there with incomplete homework and were just trying to get it done before class. The two worthwhile meetings were just prior to the midterm and final. We had full groups then, and great discussions about what may or may not be on the exam. I think that this helped everyone, including me, prepare for the exams.

A suggestion going forward would be to have some sort of project for each team to work on, either many smaller ones or a semester long one. Having something worth a grade or to boost a grade may eliicit more participation from groups such as the one I had. It seemed other groups were much more active and contributable. I found myself interacting with the other group that met at the same time as ours on those days none of my group showed up.