Thank you for your feedback!

Posted by Hayden 🎉 Monday 05 September 2022, 09:27:39 AM.

Hi everyone!

Yes, it's me, the ghost of COMP1531. I've spent most of today churning through the MyExperience feedback from 22T2 and taking extensive notes (this happens every term). I wanted to spend the time to addressing some of the feedback!

From my rough count, about 1 in 8 students didn't have a very good time this term (to over-simplify it). I really wanted to speak to those student's first and talk a little bit about what happened.

(1) Two major things that impacted the term

Thankfully, this is the 6th time I've run COMP1531, and this helps me get a very good feel for what does and doesn't work. We've experimented with a lot, and I want to start with the two major things that I am confident are the primary culprits for some of the challenges we faced this term.

(1.1) COMP1531 running in T2 for the first time

In 2021 CSE decided to run COMP1531 in T2 (3 times a year). This term was the first time it happened. Running a course in a new term can always have interesting side effects. The most notable one though was that the average competency of a COMP student coming into this course was much lower on average than normal. Normally when someone does COMP1531 they've pretty much always done COMP1521 and then about a 33/33/33 chance they've done COMP2521 before, during, or after. This usually leads to higher capacity for students to step up in challenging situations, and naturally our course has over years trended towards that type of student. For example, typically a student who does 1531 in T1 is actually in their second year.

There is a range of potential solutions to something like this - but they're not short term. Solutions can range from simplifying course content in every term (not the most sound approach) or potentially putting in other minimum requirements to do this course. This is unlikely something I am involved with because it's a bit of a longer term strategic piece, but I more just wanted to canvas that this was a real thing and it had quite a lot of trickle on effects (e.g. students saying that X was too hard when it's never been too hard for student's previously).

Even though we did have a lot of students struggle, I would like to commend nearly everyone for stepping up to the challenge. I think the persistence and ambition shown by so many of you is genuinely wonderful.

(1.2) Just a lot of group work problems

I wouldn't say we had a lot of terrible groups this term, but I'd say we had a lot of normal groups just going through some kind of ordeal. My rough count was maybe 40% of groups were fine/good/great,10% were hellish, and 50% were OK had a bit of a storm at one point or another. Nearly all of these cases came from someone (or multiple people) just simply not doing the work.

Now why is this? It would be easy to scapegoat the preference system, but my experience tells me it's not that simple. I think it's a combination of a trickle effect of (1.1) (above) resulting in people struggling to perform and it impacting others, and then also just a little bit of bad luck. We notice this sometimes with teaching - sometimes different cohorts of students are different and it can be surprising.

For context, we had as many complex "escalations" of group work issues in this term than we did in my previous 4 terms of teaching this course.

(2) Getting into some more details

Alright! Now I want to get into some more granular feedback and let know either what we're doing about it, or if we aren't doing much, why that is the case.

• (2.1) Pipeline failures are annoying
  • Yes, I agree - it is an ongoing conversation with the school.
• (2.2) Labs were too hard or annoying
  • The labs are a huge improvement this term and I'm proud of the team for what they've done, but I am going to restructure the assessment for future terms to have one of those only need 80% of the marks to get full marks things. This will take the edge of those that felt the pressure to do them all. So thanks for sharing :)
• (2.3) Typescript felt a bit useless
  • Yeah, probably was! I've become certain that static typing is an important part of this course (in terms of introducing it), but that doesn't mean our initial attempt was perfect. We also knew that we wouldn't get it perfect, which is why it was quite light in terms of any assessable outcomes. We're going to continue working on this, including making the transition much easier.
• (2.4) It would be good to have a livestream Q&A sometimes throughout term
  • Agreed! Cool idea, might give that a go
• (2.5) There was no leniency on late submissions
  • This one is tricky. We USED to have labs due earlier than they are now, and there would be a late penalty period with leniency. But after much demand for students asking to have labs due later, we ate into the entire leniency period to have them due as a late as possible. So we do our best here!
• (2.6) The project was worth too much!
  • Yeah, maybe. So when I took over this course I think the project was worth 36%. I slowly started moving it up to 50% over terms. There was a strong consensus across the community of staff to raise that up further so we tried out 70% this term - 50% is just too low for the amount of work it is. 70% is either too high in general, or it's just too high for this cohort. We will experiment further (below)
  • For T3 I will be moving it to 60% and increasing the weighting of the exam again. Labs are dealt with in (2.2).
  • As part of this we also usually find ways to trim the work.
• (2.7) I didn't know how to do X and I was told to teach myself
  • This one is tricky...sometimes people say this and we go "yeah fair point" and other times they say it and we genuinely think "it's reasonable for us to expect this of you." This is a tricky part about CS in general. In very early COMP courses you are mostly spoonfed things in very controlled ways. By the time you reach the end of your degree you'll go through courses where you are expected to teach yourself a new programming language. We do our part on upskilling you for this journey, but we don't always get it right, and will continue to reflect and improve.
• (2.8) I felt disadvantaged by my group's size!
  • OK this is another tricky one. I know I've said this a few times. As a general rule the quality of your team members + how you operate as a team is far more of a leading metric of how many people are in your group. A bad group of 5 is much more destructive than a good group of 3. Your tutors look at this closely and balance the scales. If you don't think they have done so for T2 you can always reach out to me.
• (2.9) Because of my bad group, I didn't get a fair mark
  • MyExperience was filled out well before iteration 3 marking was returned and scaling was finalised. So there is a chance feedback here was very in the moment for people. What I'd encourage everyone to do though, is if you don't feel like you were given the correct mark, please reach out to me via email with decisions your tutor has come to that you think are unreasonable. I'd be very happy to take a closer look!

(3) Things we're just changing anyway even without feedback

• Making the transition to Typescript easier in terms of the boilerplate (much easier).
• Tidying up due dates to push student's to learn a bit more before flex week (to avoid flow on effects of not having enough done after flex week).
• Having a more structured check in every week to basically ensure tutors can hold groups accountable (which catches on bad team members earlier). Basically finding ways to clamp down on bad team members sooner
• A deployment video for the lab, not just one for the project.

There was a lot of other feedback that were raising issues that actually aren't "issues" but we might not have been clear enough that there are solutions to these problems, or not clear enough that we fix things behind the scenes for edge cases. We'll get better at communicating those.

And in general I can't address everything people have said - but you can trust I've done what's reasonable with it, and if you want to have your specific feedback addressed by me feel free to reach out any time :)

Thank you for an amazing term. Add me on LinkedIn if you haven't already. I had a lot of fun, and good luck with everything that comes your way in the future :)

Major Project Mark Release

Posted by Hayden 🎉 Monday 15 August 2022, 10:09:18 PM.

Hi everyone,

You will have seen some grades appear on Webcms3 grades tonight. These include:

• Iteration 3 marks
  • iter3_manualmark (/13.5) - the mark your tutor gave your group for non-automarking
  • iter3_bonus (/3) - the mark your group for for bonus marks
  • iter3_finalmark (/30) - the sum of manual mark + automark adjusted for contributions
    • NOTE THIS DOES NOT INCLUDE BONUS MARKS
• Overall Project marks
  • project (/70) - the sum of iterations 0, 1, 2, and 3, as well as the bonus marks
• Figuring out if you've passed already
  
  • total_marks_before_exam (/80) - this is the sum of your labs (/10) and project mark (/70)
    • If you have 50/80 or higher, you have passed the course
    • If you have 40/80, you need to score at least 10/20 in the final exam to pass the course

These marks are subject to change if new information comes to light or mistakes were made in the determinations (happens from time to time).

The highest project mark was 68.5/70~. It looks at a glance like the average mark was around 35/70. There are still some tutors marking classes (they will have emailed you) so I'm not in a position to comment on the overall cohort performance at this stage - we will wait to see what happens those + the exam :)

I have been asked a bunch about scaling. Don't just assume these marks will scale - as I said in the lectures we only apply scaling if the cohort as a whole does very very poorly. It's hard to explain much more at the moment but you'll have to trust that I have done this before so will make sure we're nice and fair!!

If there are issues with your project mark, please reach out to your tutor. Whilst their response won't be necessarily quick, we will be thorough. Don't stress about "marks being locked in" as I have the ability to update marks until something like mid-September, so we have plenty of time if you're a particularly tricky case.

For the final exam, you will receive at email at 8:30am (Sydney time) on Wednesday with instructions!

Hayden

🍉 Week 11 Update

Posted by Hayden 🎉 Thursday 11 August 2022, 08:15:54 PM.

Hi everyone,

Just some quick updates! No emojis tonight, just straight facts :)

• If you need your lab automarking re-run, please email your lab assist no later than 5pm Friday 12th August (tomorrow)
• Your COMP1531 automarking marks will be released on the grades page by 10am tomorrow. We will also push results breakdown to your git repo. If you'd like to have your code re-run because you're unhappy with your automarking results, please make fixes to a branch and share that branch with your tutor no later than Sunday 14th of August @ 11am so that you can start the conversation.
• Your final iteration and project marks will be released on Monday the 15th of August before 10pm.
• The final exam time is going to be 8:30am-11:53am (23 extra minutes). This is reflected on the exam page.

Hayden

🌷 End of week 10 updates

Posted by Hayden 🎉 Friday 05 August 2022, 06:31:10 PM.

Hi everyone!

Iteration 3 due tonight. Good luck, I'm sure you'll all be great. It's been very positive seeing people be so engaged and even more inspiring seeing just how much so many of you have up-skilled yourself in the recent weeks. I'm sure many are stressed this evening, but when you reflect on it in a couple of days I hope you can all realise how proud the team is of your work.

🐢 General Updates and reminders

• Tutorial 10 solutions are being released this weekend.
• All of the information about the exam was covered in the final exam lecture. The info page is here .
• I'd LOVE for you to complete this quick survey about due dates. It helps us plan for future terms .

🍹PEER REVIEW ITER3 - you have only a few days to complete.

Everyone is required to complete their first peer review for iteration 3. This is invaluable feedback for your tutor to track how your group is performing together. You need to complete this by Monday @ 5pm!

FILL IT OUT NOW!!

Have a great weekend - you have 12 whole days until the exam and realistically most of you are pretty much ready for the exam, so things will be OK! :)

🙉 End of week 9 updates

Posted by Hayden 🎉 Friday 29 July 2022, 06:01:03 PM.

Hi everyone!

We're wrapping up week 9 - keep your heads down and keep focused. No more labs. No more new content. One tutorial. Make this weekend count, and keep steady next week. Updates below:

💡MyExperience - more exam time??

Filling out MyExperience is one of the most helpful things you can do for the teaching team here in COMP1531. It would really mean a lot if you could just take 5 minutes to fill it in. The information is extremely useful for us in understanding how we're doing and where we need to focus attention.

We really need to hit 50% completion of the survey at a minimum for the results to be useful :)

Click here to fill it in!

⚠️ ALSO!‼️ For every % that we score over 45% I will add 1 extra minute onto the final exam!! A quick example summary below is:

🐢 General Updates and reminders

Some key updates and reminders for you:

• Tutorial 9 solutions will be released this weekend.
• For lectures next week we will only have a Monday lecture to talk about the exam. There is no Tuesday lecture, but there are two pre-recorded bonus lectures you watch!

🦃 Iteration 3 - Leaderboard & 1 week to go

Iteration 3 is due on Friday of week 10. 8 days!

We will be running the leaderboard on the Monday, Wednesday, Friday of week 10.

The Monday leaderboard will be run quite late in the day - most likely in the evening.

Have a great weekend - so close! 1 week to go until the bulk of it's over :)

🦄 End of week 8 updates

Posted by Hayden 🎉 Saturday 23 July 2022, 11:14:41 AM.

Hi everyone,

Welcome to the end of week 8. Things are starting to wrap up soon! Your last lab is about to be submitted, the tutorials start to get quite light, the lecture content is also quite light. Buckle down and get through the next 14 days and we'll be there in no time.

🦃 Reflection on progress so far

With the release of iteration 2 results, there were quite a spread of results. We know that on the lower end there will be certain individuals and certain groups who scored lower than they were hoping for. In particular this was noticed a lot more in the automarking component than the manual marking component.

When we looked at the data and talked to students, it appears the single biggest reason around the lower marks for some students was a delayed start of the iteration until week 7 (with the predominate reason being that they were working on other assignments due on Monday of week 7). These cases often ran out of time to get something "complete" for submission.

For select groups that did very very poorly in iteration 2, I've been working with your tutors to find some contingency plans and they should be in touch soon. Never hesitate to talk to your tutor about anything on this front. There is so much that goes on behind the scenes to ensure we give personal and thoughtful management to each situation.

One piece of advice I want to leave you all with though is back to the issue of not having something "complete". We noticed that a lot of groups had essentially "written most of the code" for iteration 2 but still got very low in the automarks. There is a popular image online that I love - it focuses on how to build something iteratively.

Don't get into the mentality of building "30% of something big" but rather "100% of something small". This kind of ensures that as you go, even if everything goes south or your group has issues, you always have a baseline of something that "works". Think of it like continuous contingency planning.

Finally, a few students have asked me about whether marks are "scaled" in COMP1531. Historically we've never scaled marks, but that was only because the raw marks usually ended up naturally as a pretty fair distribution. It's not possible to know how the marks fall together until the end of the course - but - yes, if we find that students this term scored quite low on average we will explore scaling as an option. Given that this is the "youngest" cohort we've ever had (i.e. time since taking COMP1511 is on average the lowest), we may explore scaling marks - but honestly this isn't a matter of opinion, it just depends on how students' performance as a whole ends up at the end of the course.

🐢 General Updates and reminders

Some key updates and reminders for you:

• Lab08 is due on Monday (last lab!)
• Tutorial 8 solutions have been released.
• Don't forget to complete this quick survey if you would like.
• We will talk about auth / tokens on Monday, first thing!

🍉 Iteration 2 results

Your iteration 2 marks and comments have been made available to you on the grades page of Webcms3. If you have any follow up questions about your grades after this time, please email your tutor directly .

It's important to remember that these marks are tentative, and whilst very rare, are still subject to change as new information comes to light.

Keep at it! Only 2 weeks to go until you've completed 80% of the course. You're on the home stretch, and the best part about this period of the course is you're more equipped than ever to tackle the challenges in front of you. We believe in you, at the very least!

🌻 End of week 7 updates

Posted by Hayden 🎉 Saturday 16 July 2022, 03:44:38 PM.

Hi everyone!

Congratulations for submitting your second iteration. Obviously we have ranges of students who were happy with what they submitted, and those who were maybe a lot less happy. For many of you who didn't live up to your own expectations, we know that in many cases it's because there are lots of other uni commitments putting pressure on you and we just wanted to share that it's OK, not everything always goes how you want it too. Thankfully this is an environment to learn and make mistakes.

And of course, to the minority of those dealing with some genuine group issues, please reach out to your tutor :)

🐢 General Updates and reminders

Some key updates and reminders for you:

• Lab 5 marks have been released on grades page .
• There is no lab due on Monday, yay!
• Tutorial 7 solutions have been released.
• There is a quick single question for you all to answer if you get the chance .

🍹PEER REVIEW ITER2 - you have only a few days to complete.

Everyone is required to complete their first peer review for iteration 2. This is invaluable feedback for your tutor to track how your group is performing together.

You need to complete your peer review by Monday morning on Monday the 18th of July (week 8).

FILL IT OUT NOW!!

🦃 Iteration 3

Iteration 3 will be released by 8am on Monday morning! Similar to iteration 2, you have 3 weeks to complete it before it's due.

Iteration 3 for most of you will be a tone down from iteration 2. It will be a chunk more work to do,, but with a much smaller set of new concept.

Enjoy your weekend, and once again congratulations for managing things so well to date. We're getting closer to the end of the journey.

❄️ End of week 6 updates

Posted by Hayden 🎉 Friday 08 July 2022, 08:10:55 AM.

Hi everyone!

We hope your flex week is going well. Don't forget that lab05 is due on Monday of week 7. Besides that, a couple of reminders below :)

For those severely impacted by the floods, if you need support please contact me ASAP or apply for special consideration. UNSW is able to assist for those impacted by disaster.

🦃 Iteration 2 - Leaderboard & 1 week to go

Iteration 2 is due on Friday of week 7. 8 days! Keep working away and use the course staff as necessary :)

We will be running the leaderboard on the Monday, Wednesday, Friday of week 7. Don't forget to check it out! You will need to select iteration 2 from the drop down next week.

🧑 In-person lecture Monday Week 7

The Monday week 7 lecture will be held in person at the UNSW campus! This is the 6pm-8pm lecture. It will be run inside Ainsworth G03 ( the lecture theatre just next to the CSE building ). It's probably the only lecture being run this term in-person, so come along and we'll have some fun!!

It will still be streamed for those online.

Enjoy the rest of flex week!

🎩 End of week 5 updates

Posted by Hayden 🎉 Friday 01 July 2022, 06:56:22 PM.

Hey everyone!

Woo hoo. End of week 5. That means flex week is coming up next week. We're very excited for you all to have a week without any classes.

I had the pleasure of visiting another 4 classes (Wednesday) during week 5. I'm always so proud to hear about the kind words your tutors put in for you. There is a collective mood of feeling-impressed by how so many groups have conducted themselves.

🐢General Updates and reminders

Some key updates and reminders for you:

• The week 7 Monday lecture (6pm-8pm) is running IN-PERSON in Ainsworth G03.
  • We will also stream it.
  • I'd love if you could fill in this poll .
• Lab 4 marks have been released on grades page .
• Tutorial 5 solutions will be released for Saturday (tomorrow) morning.
• Lab 5 is due on Monday week !!!7!!! at 5pm .

🍉 Iteration 1 results

Your iteration 1 marks and comments have been made available to you on the grades page of Webcms3. If you have any follow up questions about your grades after this time, please email your tutor directly.

🌈 Enjoy your flex week

Stay safe and stay well everyone!

🌷 End of week 4 updates (important peer review)

Posted by Hayden 🎉 Friday 24 June 2022, 07:27:04 PM, last modified Saturday 25 June 2022, 08:52:42 AM.

Hi everyone!

Iteration 1 is due tonight (basically now). Congratulations to everyone who pulled through on this one. There are some groups who were smooth sailing - congratulations to you. For the groups that struggled a little more, keep your chin up and take on the lessons for the next iteration. The last two iterations of the course are 3 weeks instead of two. That breathing room will help. But a big applause for everything you've accomplished.

🐢General Updates and reminders

Some key updates and reminders for you:

• Tutorial 4 solutions will be released for Saturday morning.
• Lab 4 is due on Monday week 5 at 5pm. This will be the last "hard" weekend where both project fatigue and lab work intersect.
• Lab 3 marks have been released on grades page . If you need help understanding the reasoning for your mark, or need help learning how to request a re-run, please see previous weeks' notices.

🍹PEER REVIEW ITER1 - you have only a few days to complete.

Everyone is required to complete their first peer review for iteration 1. This is invaluable feedback for your tutor to track how your group is performing together.

We have extended the peer review deadline from 9am on Monday the 27th of June (week 5) to 5pm on Monday the 27th of June (week 5). You have a few days to complete the survey. It should be quick.

(UPDATED LINK) FILL IT OUT NOW!!

🧑 IN-PERSON LECTURE Monday Week 7

The Monday week 7 lecture will be held in person at the UNSW campus! This is the 6pm-8pm lecture. It will be run inside Ainsworth G03 (the lecture theatre just next to the CSE building). It's probably the only lecture being run this term in-person, so come along and we'll have some fun!!

It will still be streamed for those online.

🔥 Iteration 2 released on Sunday at 10pm

Iteration 2 will be released by Sunday night at 10pm. Keep an eye out for it and get started next week.

Remember that iteration 2 is where you will need topics from lectures:

• Static Verification
• Linting
• Advanced Functions
• HTTP Servers
• Persistence (next week)

My sincere advice is to start iteration 2 early next week. The very beginning of it (particularly in adjusting to Typescript + Linting + HTTP) will feel like a hurdle. But just focus on getting over that hurdle so that you can get into the more interesting stuff.

✨Iteration 1 marks

Your iteration 1 marks will be released next Friday!

A reminder that this weekend (Sunday) is the last day you can drop the course and make it as if your enrollment never happened. If you do drop the course just shoot your tutor or team members a quick email letting them know (1 minute of your time saves everyone a bit of pain). Since you've dropped right after an iteration everyone will be fine and tutors figure things out :)

Other than that please have an amazing weekend and look after yourselves! Stay steady, we still have a bit of term to go.

✈️ End of week 3 updates

Posted by Hayden 🎉 Friday 17 June 2022, 05:37:14 PM.

Hi everyone!

We hope you're having a great week 3. Nearly a third of the way through the course. Keep it up!!

🐢General Updates and reminders

Some key updates and reminders for you:

• Because of some prior commitments I've had to move the week 4 Monday and Tuesday lecture slightly. Monday is pushed back an hour. The Tuesday one is moved to Wednesday. They are all pre-recorded too. This has been reflected on the timetable. Thanks for your understanding.
• We are now encouraging all COMP1531 students using any CSE machine (vlab, lab machines, or ssh in vscode) to please run the command "~cs1531/bin/setup" once during the term (then close and reopen your terminal windows). If you have already run this, you don't need to run it again. This command is to kind of "get your computer ready for 1531", which is particularly important for later weeks.
• Tutorial 3 solutions will be released for Saturday morning.
• Lab 3 is due on Monday week 4 at 5pm.

😻 Lab02 Marks

Your lab02 has been marked, and your marks can be seen on the grades page .

Your mark has been awarded between 0 and 1. If your mark appears as "-0.1", it is because there was an error whilst marking (this could be our problem or your problem). This is just a place holder mark. You have not gotten negative marks.

If you believe that you need to be remarked for your lab (after a very trivial change to your code), talk to your lab assist this week. Please read this detailed info page about your lab marks here !! If you have any issues you can follow up with your lab assist in your lab time during week 4.

🍉 Iteration 0 results

Your iteration 0 marks and comments will be made available to you on the grades page of Webcms3 by 10pm on Friday the 17th of June (today!). If you have any follow up questions about your grades after this time, please email your tutor directly.

🦃 Iteration 1 - Leaderboard & 1 week to go

Iteration 1 is due in 7 days (Friday of week 4). If you haven't yet started, get to it!

We will be running the leaderboard (as per section 9.2 in the spec) to have your tentative marks available on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of week 4. The leaderboard will be updated around lunchtime. We will not be running the leaderboard more often and won't be doing individual re-runs for students. This is a new initiative of the last 12 months that is aimed to give you more support by giving you an indicative of your progress without telling you exactly what is wrong (which would undermine the nature of the assessment).

You will be able to access the leaderboard here on Monday (before then it might have a 404 error).

🌈 Next week

In week 4 the content we learn will focus mainly on web servers, with a bit of advanced Javascript function features. All of next week's content isn't relevant until week 5 (for both labs and for next project iteration).

So if you're feeling under the pump with iteration 1 just catch up on the recordings next weekend before week 5.

See you Monday!! :)

🦓 End of week 2 updates

Posted by Hayden 🎉 Saturday 11 June 2022, 12:08:21 AM, last modified Monday 13 June 2022, 12:41:10 PM.

Hi everyone!

We hope you've had a great end to your second week! A lot of tutors have been saying exceptional things about how solidly groups are performing and just how fun and friendly so many students are :)

Congratulations on submitting iteration 0! I know it was easy, but we're all proud of you!!

Some key updates and reminders for you:

• For students using the bongo or tabla labs, please run the command "~cs1531/bin/setup" once during the term (then close and reopen your terminal windows). Because of the way those lab machines are setup this term by the people who run them, you need to run this command to kind of "get your computer ready for 1531".
• Please regularly check for merge requests and spec updates on your labs and project! Every day or two check out the git commit history or any course-pushed pending merge requests. For instance we recently updated the stub code for lab03_academics for a correction.
• Tutorial 2 solutions have been released.
• Lab 2 due date is extended 24 hours to Tuesday morning 5pm (week 3). This is because Monday is a public holiday. The solutions will be released shortly after the due time.

🌳 Lab01

Your lab01 has been marked, and your "theoretical" marks can be seen on the grades page . Remember, these marks don't count for anything! It was just a trial run.

Your mark has been awarded between 0 and 1. If your mark appears as "-0.1", it is because there was an error whilst marking (this could be our problem or your problem). This is just a place holder mark. You have not gotten negative marks. It's kind of like a "null" We're still double checking a number of these "-0.1" cases so if you got this please check again on Sunday morning as it may be fixed.

You can read our detailed info about looking at your lab marks here - this is a very useful guide !!

🦃 Iteration 1

Iteration 1 will be released on Sunday afternoon at 5pm, keep an eye out for merge request in your project repo. Introductory video is contained in the spec. Take your time to really read the spec and watch the video, as it will all be very helpful in getting started.

Iteration 1 is due on the Friday of week 4, so you have around 2 weeks to complete it.

Now that you've seen the week 2 lectures, we expect to see engagement with standups, meetings, task boards, etc from everyone between now and iteration 1 being due.

🥳 CSESoc Event with prize(s)

CSESoc, your student-led computer science society, runs an extensive list of exciting events throughout the year. If you haven't already checked them out, check them out ! They're such a great asset for our community.

One event that I did want to (shamelessly) share with you all is a fortnight long take-home group programming competition run by the company that I work for where the winner gets $500 to invest into shares ! We're structuring it so that you don't need any super fancy front-end knowledge and the knowledge that even a COMP1531 has should be enough to have a go! If you're interested go sign up.

⏰ Next week

In week 3 we will learn about continuous integration (an exciting and critical part of software engineering) as well as touch on a lot more static verification. These are exciting topics.

We will still keep our lecture on Monday. Yes it's a public holiday, but it's just less complicated to move it - and if you can't make it just watch the recording (super easy). So see you Monday :)

❗❗❗❗❗❗ Lecture delayed 24 hours

Posted by Hayden 🎉 Tuesday 07 June 2022, 06:34:27 PM, last modified Tuesday 07 June 2022, 06:39:35 PM.

Hi everyone, due to unforseen and out-of-my-control technical issues the lecture is delayed 24 hours . This is reflected on the timetable page .

Everything in this next lecture is for week 3 onwards, so the 24 hour delay will not affect your ability to complete week 2 labs or iteration 0 work.

🐕 End of week 1 updates

Posted by Hayden 🎉 Friday 03 June 2022, 09:05:08 PM.

Hi everyone!

Now that we're wrapping up week 1, it's a great time to summarise the key things that happened this week and give you some pointers for week 2.

Week 1 recap

The key things that happened in week 1 are:

• Week 1 lecture slides and recordings can be found on this page .
• Week 1 tutorial and lab content links can be found on this page .
  • Week 1 tutorial solutions have been released (always released on Friday night)
  • Week 1 lab solutions will be released shortly after the deadline next week (checkout the "solutions" branch on the repos)
  • Week 1 lab marks will be released next Friday (Friday of week 2)
• Your project groups were formed during class and the project specification is released tonight (see below).
  • If you're unsure what group you're in you should email your tutor.
• If you're still a bit unsure about any of the software or tools to setup for the course check out the getting started guide .

Project groups

During your week 1 class your tutor will have finalised your project groups in your lab time.

A number of students this week have asked about where they should communicate with each other. Whilst you aren't required to communicate via the Microsoft teams channel we make for you, it's important to note that if teamwork disputes arise or you make claims about other team members contributions later in the course - the only places we will look to for evidence of how you interact with your group are:

1. The project check-ins and iteration demonstrations
2. Gitlab contributions (code you push)
3. Peer reviews at the end of the iteration
4. Any UNSW emails sent between group members
5. Conversations that occur on Microsoft teams

If we need to analyse group communication, we simply won't be able to look at things like Facebook, Discord, Slack, etc, as these are out of our control and are open to tampering etc that make it unfair to consider reasonable evidence. However, anything in your Microsoft teams chat we'll happily take into account. If you're uncertain about anything here or aren't agreeing in your group how to communicate, talk to your tutor in week 2 and they will help you figure it all out! :)

If you don't have your group sorted, or weren't added to your groups Microsoft teams chat, please email your tutor ASAP.

Project release

As of tonight a group project repository was created for each group. The repository is called " project-backend ". You can find your group repository (if you haven't already) on the homepage of gitlab.cse.unsw.edu.au . If you can't find your repository, please post on the forum. If you can find the repo, but you're in the wrong group, please email your tutor ASAP.

Please watch the introductory video from the project . The first stage of the project is iteration 0 and is due in 7 days (next Friday night). It's a very easy stage.

The most important thing to do right now is to start messaging or emailing your group members and to start reading through the project specification. During your class time this week you can sync up about it and start some early planning, and I would strongly encourage you to organise times to meet next week. From week 3 onwards we will be expecting groups to follow a more rigid meeting as we move onto the next stage of the project.

Over the coming days, t here may continue to be slight changes to your group primarily due to students potentially dropping the course before census date. This usually has any material impact on less than 5% of groups. Your tutors will always support you and find solutions that will make things OK :)

Things to keep an eye on for week 2

• Your week 1 lab is due 5pm on Monday the 6th of June. Remember that lab01 does not count for any marks.
• Your week 2 tutorial + lab is critical for you to spend time with your group and tutor to get stuck into the project.
• Help Sessions start running in week 2.
• Sometimes we push updates to your repos (e.g. labs or project) that may appear as merge requests in the left hand sidebar. Keep an eye out for it. Your tutor(s) can always help out if you're confused.
• Our next lecture is Monday evening! Can't wait to see you again.

Finally, UNSW has asked me to pass on this helpful guide in case you ever need help (in the broadest sense, beyond COMP1531) this term. Check it out here .

Other than that, have a great weekend!

Welcome to COMP1531 22T2 🎉🎉🎉

Posted by Hayden 🎉 Friday 27 May 2022, 07:32:14 PM, last modified Friday 27 May 2022, 10:21:18 PM.

Hi everyone!

Welcome to COMP1531 22T2 :) The fundamental aim of COMP1531 is help you on your transition from being a solo programmer into being a collaborative software engineer . We have a teaching staff team of about 35 and we're all super excited to get to know you. The term will be over in a flash but we're here to help you through it and have a great time.

About the course

We would encourage you all to take a moment to read the COURSE OUTLINE , because it highlights virtually everything. These topics are also touched on in the pre-recorded course lecture . It's assumed you've watched the course structure lecture before the week 1 lectures.

Major Project Groups

A reminder that preferences for major project groups will close at 11:59pm tonight (27th May) - we extended it a couple of hours. You can fill out THIS FORM to preference to be in groups with other people. We don't accept late submissions to the form. If you don't fill it out we still put you in a group, but it's more-so random.

You will find out what group you're in during your lab-time in week 1!

Please remember - it's extremely normal to be slotted into groups with people you don't know, and things have a very high chance of going fine. And for those that inevitably have some difficulties with groupwork, we've spent a lot of time structuring and designing 1531 to be both supportive and fair.

Getting ready for week 1!

Here is the quick summary of getting ready for week 1.

1. Our first lecture is on Monday between 6pm-8pm. It is streamed on YouTube. The link is here , and all lecture links are here . Please note the lectures in week 1 might run slightly over time! This just happens in week 1 as we have a lot to get through.
2. Your first class this week is a 1 hour tutorial and two hour lab. Make sure you have looked at where your tutorials and labs are (and if you're not sure, email your tutor).
3. Your tutorial and lab material for week 1 can be found here .

It's a pretty cruisey week and things will really start to pick up next Friday where we'll send another notice.

See you soon!

We'll see you on Monday evening!

🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀

🐙 Welcome to COMP1531! + IMPORTANT Group Preference

Posted by Hayden 🎉 Sunday 22 May 2022, 11:26:38 PM.

Hi everyone,

Welcome to COMP1531 for 22T2! A more "full" introduction with information and summaries will be sent out next week, but for now we need to get you ready for term. So please do the following this coming week:

1. 😽 Go and read the course outline
2. 🐼 (Read below) Complete the group preference form for the major project* (DUE IN 5 DAYS!!)
3. 👀 Watch the welcome video that quickly explains the course structure
4. 🙊 Join the forum and introduce yourself ! (you were invited on your email z5555555@unsw.edu.au)

❗️*(IMPORTANT) Group Preference for Major Project

As specified in the course outline , COMP1531 has a major project component that is a 5 person, 9 week group project that constitutes 70% of the course assessment. The successful and equitable formation of amazing groups of students for this major project is a priority for us. And we need to finalise these groups before week 1.

For us to form groups effectively, you are required to complete the preference form .

This form asks you to:

• Optionally preference 1 other student to be in your group of 5.
  • If you preference someone, to avoid us disregarding the preference, they must:
    • (1) Be enrolled in the same class at the same time (i.e. same code on MyUNSW)
    • (2) Fill out the form preferencing you as well
• Answer a few further questions that help us form groups, regardless of whether you have a person-preference

Click here to the fill the form out (just in case you missed the other 2 links )

The form is due on Friday 27th of May at 10pm!! That's a little under 5 days from now.

We sadly aren't in a position to accept late preferences, so please fill it in prior to then. Preferences are not guarantees that you will be in a group with that person, however, in nearly all cases we make it work.

If you don't have anyone to preference, or only have one preference, don't even worry! That's very normal. You might hear murmurs from other students that you could end up with a "horror group" for COMP1531. Believe it or not, typically about 50% of student's don't provide preferences, and we just randomly match students in the same class.

We can assure you that while groups that struggle do exist, they only make up a small numbers of groups. We have structured the course and assessment very intentionally to have processes in place to ensure that if you work hard and follow the rules, that your accomplishments should reflect your mark, even if you end up with a difficult group

Lastly, a reminder that we can't manually enrol you in a class that is full, and we aren't accepting more than 1 preference per person as this ensures equitable group formation.

We'll reach out again next info with much more information about getting started and first classes!

🎃 Until then, enjoy your week and stay safe. The entire team can't wait to meet you.