Things that came out in the survey:

 

Summary of results

What we can do

Everyone is really concerned about the length of the problem sets.

I can make the sets shorter.  If anyone has already started next week’s set, would you please tell me so it can inform which problem I eliminate?

Some people want me to talk about more context rather than go through examples.  Some people want me to go through more examples.

I think I’ll leave it how it is.  There is more of both in the book (full derivations and many examples), so I think everyone can find what they need in the book.  Could people tell me after class if they don’t have access to the book?

Could I poll to find better times for office hours?

I can’t really, because I pretty much gave you all of the slots I have.  That being said, I can add some little snippets of time a la Dave Wonnacott.  Those are on the “help” tab now.

Concern about format for office hours.  The “let everybody in at once” format for office really doesn’t work for a bunch of people.

I think the no more than 2 people rule is good.  I’ll continue that. If you’re waiting and I ask if two of you would like to come in together, you should be honest and say “I’d like to come in by myself.”

People want to be able to make individual appointments

Yes!

Can we have a recitation?

I agree that more time together would be good. I also know we’re all super busy.  Let’s look.  It would be every other week. I will whenisgood poll this weekend.

Homework due date: Wednesday/Friday

You were split super evenly. I may change it. If I change it to Friday I can’t grant any extensions.  I would still get done with material on Friday, and I would still have Monday/Tuesday office hours.  Let’s change it to Friday for this week as an experiment.

Make sure the grid is updated so we know what to read.

 

I can do that!

Request no interdependence on HWs.

I can do that.

Not sure about the value of peer grading.  One thing people like is seeing right away if they did the problems correctly.

I’d like to at least reduce it.  Let me read the surveys again this weekend.

The class is in cliques

What should we do? (next one might help)

Can we do problems together in class?

We could actually use the time we save on peer grading, to do more of this.  In particular we can do the problems I’m taking off the problem set.

Would like more words and concepts written on the board.

That’s a lot of why I publish all my lecture notes.  You have all the words on the web.

Can we keep the poll open after class?

We're going to try this on Slack so that it stays open all the time. Thanks to Gerrit for setting it up.  It’s a good idea.

Can we talk about how topics link together?

Yes!  In fact next week is reserved for that in preparation for the exam.  But I will also try to do more of that ongoing-ly.

FYI that may give you confidence in starting the HW early:

I always make sure we have discussed everything in class that you need to do the homework as of Friday before it’s due.

Explain new concepts before jumping in.

I can do that!

Every class talk about what we did last class and where we’re going and what pieces we need to get today.

I can do that!

I got called on being snide in my introduction to the survey.

You were right to call me out. Thank you. I can be assertive rather than passive aggressive.