Study Circles

Computer Organization I, Study Circles Autumn 2005

All students must participate in the study circles. The study circles will remain the same throughout the course and they are formed during the first exercise session. The division of study circles is mainly based on which meeting times will suit the members, so bring your calendars. A study circle will consist of 3-5 students.

In special cases, one student can form a study circle alone, but this will mean a heavy workload. And why study alone when you can do it better as a team? Students may form one-person study circles only with the permission of the person in charge of the course and on very good grounds.

Study circles are a part of the university's efforts to develop student-centred learning, where the students take a greater responsibility for their own learning process. According to this ideology, teachers are promoters of learning rather than distributors of knowledge. Students are more active in finding, structuring and producing knowledge.

The study circles are divided somewhat superficially at the first group meeting, which is similar to how project teams are formed in the working community. The members of each study circle are often very heterogeneous, which is similar to working life, too.

The aims of the study circles at this course are (a) to carry out larger projects as teamwork, (b) to consider the discussion assignments together, and (c) to act as support group for smaller exercises and other things connected with the completion of this course. All students can benefit from the study circles. A student who has understood something better than another can enhance that knowledge while helping others to understand. It is easier to ask a fellow student about difficulties than to ask an instructor. Even the lone wolf will benefit from learning teamwork, since after graduation, most work in the job market will entail teamwork.

In project work, it is typical that some work differently or on a different scale than others. The small differences (±20%) are normal and come with the territory. However, if some of the study circle members carry out a great deal more work than the others, they will be awarded for this with a better grade. Some study circles can even plan their work so that the 'eager beaver' in the team will carry more of the workload, and will also receive a larger part of the study circle's credit (see Project evaluation). The main thing is that everyone goes through a learning process.

The study circles will meet at least once a week, with the instructor at the weekly meeting that all study circle members have enrolled for. In addition, it is to be recommended that the study circles meet at other times that they can agree on among themselves. Some suitable meeting places are the group work room on the bottom floor of the Science Library, and the hallways in Exactum and Physicum. When the restaurants are closed, you can use the tables in both Exactum and Physicum. Use your imagination! You can also have online meetings. A separate newsgroup and wiki will be created on the CSMoodle platform (moodle.cs.Helsinki.fi) for each study circle for internal communications and for managing and handing in the study circle's project reports.

Each student needs a CSMoodle account. Please get it immediately if you haven't already. Apply for the account from the CSMoodle homepage (moodle.cs.helsinki.fi, choose English top right) by way of the Login button at the bottom. When you have received your CSMoodle account name, log in and register for this course. Let your instructor know you have registered, and ask him or her to add you to your study circle. There are user's guides in English on Moodle's own pages. (e.g. Documentation / "Student Guide for Moodle" by Ray Lawrence). CSMoodle has (left column up) a short Quick Study Guide for Moodle use and (even shorter) FAQ page (in Finnish). Built-in guidance is accessible via the CSMoodle Help-icon. There is also a separate Moodle Wiki-guide, but so far only in Finnish.

The general principles of study circles at the department of Computer Science are described in the guide by Kurhila & Lokki, "Opintopiirikurssien opettajan opas.” Attachment 5 of the guide is a guide for students. You will find it translated here.

Exercises

There are weekly smaller assignments for the study circles, similar to ordinary course exercises. They can be completed individually or with your own study circle. A good way of going about this is that each student goes over the exercises by themselves and then they solve them together in the study circle. Each student should learn the subject matter of the exercises thoroughly, preferably before the exercise is discussed at the weekly meeting. Students get points for the exercises according to their difficulty level, but only for completed exercises and only if present at their own group meeting.

Goal of the exercises

It is a good way to support your own learning process when you explain things to someone else who has also worked on the same problem. When students help each other in a study circle, everyone benefits, and often the one giving help benefits most. However, do not spoil the benefit of the exercises by giving the answer straight away. Then it will be of no use to either one. Learning becomes effective by alternating between (a) your own studies, (b) problem-solving, and (c) discussions on the problems and their solutions with other members of the study circle.

The exercises are for learning, not fishing for points in order to pass the course or get a better grade. The things taught through exercises are usually important as background information for project work. The learning process is most effective when students think about and solve a problem. You do not learn enough by just reading final answers. There will be similar examples at he lectures and in the textbooks, so using an exercise as example would be a waste of a good exercise in terms of learning.

Presenting exercise solutions

Students will present the solutions to exercises at the weekly meetings when necessary. The solutions will not be discussed in more detail than the study circle members think is necessary. On the other hand, if someone has a problem understanding the subject matter of an exercise, it can be discussed in great detail.

Evaluating exercises

Exercises and discussion assignments will be evaluated with the same exercise points (htp), which will affect the final grade of the course within their own framework so that circa 20% will give you 1 point and circa 80% will give you maximum points.

The grading of exercises is under the name “LH” in columns “LH 1-5” in the course administration program Kurki.

Discussion Assignments

At times, there will be small discussion assignments for the study circles, to provoke discussion and mulling over different subjects. The discussion assignments will usually cover one of the sub-areas of the course, which will be necessary for other areas like projects and the course exam.

For a technically-minded person like me (the person in charge of this course), this approach may feel somewhat strange and better suited for humanistic subjects. I have attended three courses already this year that have used newsgroups this way to attain the learning goals – and one of them was a diving course! So though the method may seem strange, try to hang in there. It is a useful learning tool.

The assigned discussions will be held on the individual newsgroups for each study circle on Moodle. Naturally, you can discuss the assignment in other ways as well (at a café, on the phone, on the bus etc), but the evaluation will be based purely on the posts to the newsgroup in question. The discussions will remain available for the whole course.

Goal of the discussion assignments

The goal is learning through discussion. The idea is to talk and exchange ideas. The aim is not necessarily to find some correct answer, though it might be found in some cases. Learning occurs when thinking of your own input and writing it, and when reading the input of others. Just thinking about it is not enough, but you have to write your thoughts down for everyone to see. If you know the subject well enough, you will also be able to put it into words!

Please refrain from giving what you consider a complete answer on the subject matter of the discussion in your first posts. The aim is really to discuss, not to find or present a correct answer. If the answer is too good, the discussion will end and will not benefit others. Furthermore, it is not a good idea to give your opinion on all the aspects of the subject matter, but rather talk about just one or two. Please note that there are no 'stupid thoughts' in a discussion. Make space for other ideas, and let any slightly more eccentric thoughts act as an opening for discussion or let them carry the discussion further. Provocation can be used to build on the discussion.

A newsgroup yields more if the discussion is moderated in some way. It may be a good idea to start one thread and talk it through completely before moving on to the following thread. The group can elect its own chairperson, or one may emerge organically during the discussion.

There should be a summary at the end of the discussion. During the discussion your ideas may go here and there, but finally you should be able to come up with some type of a "model solution" for the dicussion topic. Of course, you might want to build the summary slowly in its own thread during the discussion.

The person in charge of the course will be happy to receive comments and ideas for developing the use of newsgroups as a tool for learning.

Evaluating the discussion assignments

Exercises and discussion assignments will be evaluated with the same exercise points (htp), which will affect the final grade of the course within their own framework, so that circa 20% will give you 1 point and circa 80% will give you maximum points.

The instructor will read through the contributions to the assignment every week, and will award 2 htp just for participation. In addition, 1-5 htp, normally 3 htp, will be given for the number of comments and their quality. This means that ordinary and relevant participation will yield a total of 5 htp, notably weaker participation 3-4 htp, and a notably larger amount of postings a total of 6-7 htp.

If you blare out an indisputable opinion that no one can argue with right at the beginning of a discussion, it does not benefit anyone. The kind of posting that promotes both your own and others' learning are good ones. However, the discussion summary should contain all relevant parts for for the discussion topic.

It is polite to present yourself briefly in your first post , unless you all know each other from before.

The grading of discussion assignments is under the name “LH” in columns “LH 6-11” in the course administration program Kurki

Projects

There will be 3 larger projects during the course, to be completed as teamwork in your own study circle. The study circle will implement the project and write a report on the results of the project. It is likely that the members of the study circle will have to study some background information through the online lectures, textbooks, online revision exercises and exercises and discussion assignments at the beginning of each project. The progress of the project will be monitored at the weekly meetings, where students can ask the instructor for help on any problems.

The projects will yield project points (pp) in accordance with the results of the project and the involvement of each student in the teamwork.

Goal of the projects

The goal of each project is to gain further insight into the subject matter of the project. Another goal is to teach students to work long-term in a team. The projects are typically so large that it is much nicer to work on it together in the study circle than alone.

Project working is an essential part of the teaching methods at this course. The things to be learned during the project work cannot be learned in other parts of the course.

Project turn-in

The project is turned in as a hardcopy report to the person in charge of the course during the 24 hours after the deadline. You can hand in the hardcopy in an envelope addressed to the person in charge of the course (Teemu Kerola, CS Dept.) to the downstairs porter's station. The hardcopy is needed for evaluation.

The project is also turned in before deadline using CSMoodle as one zip-file (e.g., MyGroupName_PRi.zip), that contains

• project report (pdf, ps, txt or html)
• programs developed in the project (e.g., ttk-91 programs or xml's for practice problems)
• documents developed in the project (e.g., article or lecture notes)
• other attachments that may be needed

If you have any problems with CSMoodle, you can also turn in the project as an email attachement(s) to the person in charge of the course (Teemu.Kerola (at) cs.helsinki.fi).

Project report

The reports can be made with any text-processing software or with CSMoodle wiki, but for turning in it must be converted into a format (pdf, ps, txt, html) suitable for both Linux or Windows environments. It would be good to conform with the following layout specifications: font size 12, line spacing 1.5, marginals 2-3 cm.

The report should include the following information:

1. The identification data of the project and the date
2. The name of the study circle and its members and their student numbers
3. How much each member has participated in the work (e.g. Maija 100%, Niilo 90%, Olli 120%, Pirjo 90%)
4. Project results
• topic of the practice exercises, the problem and its answers and explanations (1-2 pages)
  • return each practice problem also as a separate file attachment (xml).
    • name: s05_<problem name>_en.xml
• an article (4-5 pages, max. 6 pages)
  • return also as separate file attachement (html, word, pdf).
    • name: s05_<short topic name>_<study cicle name>.html (doc, pdf)
5. If software is included in the project, then
• add a link to a web page where the instructor can test all software without separate downloads
  • software in the ttk-91 machine language must be executable .k91 files.
• the report must contain a listing of all the software and their output
6. A short analysis of the results of the project (max. ½ page)
• what they mean
7. Are you willing/not willing to let the university use your project work at will in the future.
• if you are not willing, it will in no way affect your grade
• the practice problems or articles generated by the study circles cannot be used for future courses without explicit consent.
8. An analysis of the assignment (max. ½ page)
• its suitability in relation to the goal (define the goal as you understand it and evaluate the suitability accordingly)
• level of difficulty (suitable, challenging, too difficult, too laborious, trivial, etc)
• the amount of work done (total hours)
9. An analysis of the work of the study circle (max. ½ page)
   • what was most difficult for each study circle member?
   • how did the study circle communicate/meet in addition to the compulsory weekly meeting?
   • how did the study circle make sure that all its members had learned the subject matter of the exercises?

Project presentation

The projects will be presented to the other study circles on the group meeting of the week of their deadline. Usually, the deadline is on a Friday, so you can still make amendments to the reports after your presentation.

Project Evaluation

The evaluation of the projects is made on the basis of the study circle's report and the functionality and appropriateness of any software developed during the project.

The projects yield three kinds of points: (a) every member gets 3 project points (pp) for a completed project, (b) project evaluation based on the report 1-5 pp, and (c) individual participation in the project max. ±2 pp.

This means that a passed project yields 3 pp, and depending on the grade you can get 0-7 pp more, making a total of 0-10 pp. The report is graded on a scale of 1-5 for the whole study circle. An ordinary, good and functional basic piece of work will yield the grade 3, but to get a better grade, it has to have special merits.

However, the report grade as such will not be the grade of the study circle members. In their reports, the study circles have given the percentage of involvement for each of their members, and this percentage will be taken into account when calculating the individual grades for the members. If a study circle cannot agree on the percentages, it should ask the instructor or the person in charge of the course for help. If the work has been divided fairly equally, all the members of the study circle will get the same grade.

A 100% involvement indicates that a student has completed 100% of his or her work in the project in question. The involvement degree is given with the accuracy of 10% to each member of a study circle, and their average must be 100%. An involvement degree of 80-120% is normal. If any student has an involvement degree of 30% or less, that student will not pass the project. Such a student will hardly have participated in the work of the study circle at all.

The degree of involvement in a project will affect each student's grade in accordance with the following table:

Degree of involvement	Grade
140% or more	study circle grade +2
130%	study circle grade +1
80-120%	study circle grade
70%	study circle grade -1
60%	study circle grade -2
50%	study circle grade -3
40%	study circle grade -4

A students' final grade cannot be negative.

Example 1. The study circle is given the grade 3, and involvement is as follows: Maija 110%, Ville 70% and Anne 120%. The members will be graded as follows: Maija 3, Ville 2 and Anne 3. The project points will be Maija 6 pp, Ville 5 pp and Anne 6 pp.

Example 2. The study circle is given the grade 4, and involvement is as follows: Maija 80%, Ville 140% and Anne 70%. The members will be graded as follows: Maija 4, Ville 6 and Anne 3. The project points will be Maija 7 pp, Ville 9 pp and Anne 6 pp.

Example 3. The study circle is given the grade 3, and involvement is as follows: Maija 130%, Ville 130% and Anne 40%. The members will be graded as follows: Maija 4, Ville 4 and Anne 0. The project points will be Maija 7 pp, Ville 7 pp and Anne 3 pp.

Example 4. The study circle is given the grade 3, and involvement is as follows: Maija 120%, Ville 160% and Anne 20%. Anne did not participate in this project and she should not have been counted in at all. Maija's and Ville's involvements need to be re-evaluated: Maija 80% ja Ville 120%. The members will be graded as follows: Maija 3 and Ville 3. The project points will be Maija 6 pp, Ville 6 pp and Anne 0 pp.

The project points will affect the final course grade in relation to the extent of the project. If the project points for a study circle member are 9 or 10 pp, this means extra points that will affect the grade, because the normal maximum amount of points affecting the grade is 8 pp.

The project evaluation can be found under the heading “HT” in the course administration system (Kurki).

---

Teemu Kerola