Reflection 2025-02-10¶

This group had more variation in how fast the learners went through the exercise. I felt it was useless to rush them through the earlier exercises. Instead, from 15:30-15:45 I lectured. I told them that the learning objective ('so you have seen it'). I feel this most likely reason for this, is the new session about backups: it took away 30 minutes.

I informed my colleagues about the state of the learning of the students, so that they can adapt.

Maybe for next time:

Remove: modules
Remove: create a script
Remove: submit a script
Add back in: I can conclude which UPPMAX cluster best suits my needs
Add back in: I can find the hardware specifications of an UPPMAX cluster
Add back in: I can find where to apply for NAISS resources
Add back in: I can find other UPPMAX courses

It would feel weird not to run a batch job though, so I feel alternatively:

Remove: backups

This is my favorite. I will move backups to the optional material.

There was an unclarity in the course material about backups that was found (and shared) by two independent groups. I've fixed it under course time. I was I made the unclarity visible.

Besides the variability in the learners, I think it went as good as it could. I think I was able to create a welcoming, warm learning atmosphere. I took good care of learners that were later than the rest. I must give credit to the learners themselves too, as they helped me make the course enjoyable.

I felt the group was getting less focussed, more viscous to work with after the break.

So, let's take a look at the evaluation results.

Evaluation¶

Number of learners at 14:45: 13
Numer of responses: 9
Response rate: 69%

This is the feedback at end of confidences, with only spelling corrections added:

Day 1 on this course has been very useful, I learned a lot through these sessions, and I really liked doing the exercises in breakout rooms and discussing each question with others. I also liked Richèl's way of teaching, he was very positive and supportive.

Nice.

Very nice intro! Felt like being thrown unprepared into a swimming pool. But I didn't drown, thanks to other swimmers that showed me how to stay above the water. ;-)

I wonder how I could help better here: was it just the other swimmers, or was I involved as well? Well, it is the goal to include everybody by having different groups, so I guess that worked for this learner!

Richel is very nice and welcoming since the beginning of the class. The course is fun, less lectures more practicing. But it seems that the target for today may be a bit too much unless more time is added, or maybe extend the course to 4 days.

This is the first of two learners stating there is too much content in the course.

For a complete beginner, the amount of information is huge. The [breakout rooms] and the way of teaching helped greatly. I do have to say the pace was quite fast tho and I am very happy to have had some people in the same [breakout rooms] that knew so much beforehand. Still, I am quite confused how to find everything that I want to do, especially all the commands and requirements before using the commands. The documentation is very nicely structured, and helped a lot, but for a total beginners it felt like a maze. I am a bit sad, that we could not try writing the script in the [breakout rooms] due to time [reasons] as I think that is quite important and I have low confidence in doing so on my own. Concluding, I feel that this course is very valuable especially with in this learning format but more time would have been needed.

This is the second of two learners stating there is too much content in the course. Again, he/she states that the usefulness of the breakout rooms.

Anonymous feedback:

Great introduction to uppmax and linux, learned a lot!

Nice.

I enjoyed the teacher's way of interacting and engaging with us students. Making it feel like a safe environment for asking questions. Also liked working in smaller breakout rooms bit the downside being some interactions where more fruitful than others. Where it feels you can easily get lost and not follow if not everyone is on board of the students. But all in all a very useful session!

Nice. And indeed, some groups were not as good as others. And I could be better in nudging these to be be better, I just don't know how.

So, 2 out of 11 learners state there was too much course content. And I agree with this: I've added a session on backups and I naively thought it would all still work. It did not.

[x] Remove session on backups

I think this quote is valuable:

The documentation is very nicely structured, and helped a lot, but for a total beginners it felt like a maze.

I feel the day should start with an overview of running an analysis on UPPMAX. And remove the 'nice to have' things:

[x] Remove file transfer using scp
[x] Remove IDEs

These are the learning outcomes remaining and what I think should be their fate:

Setup 1, 'goal of Day 1 is that learners see all phases of working with an UPPMAX cluster':

Learning outcome	My proposed fate
I can log in to the Rackham remote desktop using the website	Stay
I can do basic things in the Rackham remote desktop	Stay
I can find my home folder	Stay
I can transfer files to/from Rackham using FileZilla	Stay
I can log in to Rackham using a terminal	Move to other day
I can do basic things in the terminal	Move to other day
I can transfer a file using `scp`	Keep out
I can find and load a module	Only show, move to other day
I can start a terminal text editor	Only show, move to other day
I can create a bash script	Only show, move to other day
I can schedule a job	Only show, move to other day
I can start an interactive session	Only show, move to other day
I can start an IDE	Remove
I can find my project folder	Add back in
I can state which folders have a backup	Add back in
I can conclude which UPPMAX cluster best suits my needs	Add back in
I can find the hardware specifications of an UPPMAX cluster	Keep out
I can find where to apply for NAISS resources	Add back in
I can find other UPPMAX courses	Add back in

Setup 2, 'goal of Day 1 is that learners can submit a batch job they created':

Learning outcome	My proposed fate
I can log in to the Rackham remote desktop using the website	Stay
I can do basic things in the Rackham remote desktop	Stay
I can find my home folder	Stay
I can transfer files to/from Rackham using FileZilla	Stay
I can log in to Rackham using a terminal	Keep
I can do basic things in the terminal	Keep
I can transfer a file using `scp`	Keep out
I can find and load a module	Keep
I can start a terminal text editor	Keep
I can create a bash script	Keep
I can schedule a job	Keep
I can start an interactive session	Keep
I can start an IDE	Remove
I can find my project folder	No
I can state which folders have a backup	No
I can conclude which UPPMAX cluster best suits my needs	No
I can find the hardware specifications of an UPPMAX cluster	Keep out
I can find where to apply for NAISS resources	No
I can find other UPPMAX courses	No

I will ask what the goal of Day 1 is and then adapt accordingly.

Let's find the weakest session

Mean confidences as a table:

question	mean_confidence	Comment
I can create a bash script	4	Demo only
I can do basic things in the Rackham remote desktop	4.666666666666667	Done exercises with all learners
I can do basic things in the terminal	4.777777777777778	Done exercises with all learners
I can find and load a module	4.333333333333333	Done exercises with all learners
I can find my home folder	4.666666666666667	Done exercises with all learners
I can find the UPPMAX project's folder of this course	4	Done exercises with all learners
I can log in to Rackham using a terminal	4.666666666666667	Done exercises with all learners
I can log in to the Rackham remote desktop using the website	4.666666666666667	Done exercises with all learners
I can predict which folders have a backup	4.555555555555555	Done exercises with all learners
I can schedule a job	3	Demo only
I can start a terminal text editor	4.333333333333333	Done exercises with all learners
I can start an IDE	1.5555555555555556	Not even shown
I can start an interactive session	2.3333333333333335	Demo only
I can transfer files to/from Rackham using FileZilla	3.888888888888889	Done exercises with all learners
I can transfer files to/from Rackham using `scp`	2.888888888888889	Some learners have done the exercises

Using FileZilla is still the weakest session. There were indeed some learners that could not get this to work, because of (1) multiple operating systems, (2) multiple locations (i.e. inside SUNET, inside Sweden, outside Sweden). Maybe I should show these combinations more explicitly?

[ ] Consider extending FileZilla + Rackham documentation for multiple OSes and locations

In conclusion, I see that, even for a group with high variation such as this, the confidences of the learning outcomes can still be high. All that changed is the amount of learning outcomes that was worked on.

Observation¶

Here is the observation of my colleague (I changed the layout freely):

12:50 – Engaging with small talks with students and making them comfortable.

Yup, I do this.

1:00 – 14 students. 12/14 video on. Getting feedback about file transfer knowledge before proceeding and adjusting for teaching speed speed.

Ah, I started a Prior here :-)

1:03 – Recall test for students which helps in offsetting forgetting. Picks out students and asks questions. Maybe not all are comfortable with giving answers? However, even a "don’t know" is considered an answer and so it is a lenient test.

Valid question asked by my colleague!

1:07 - Another round of questionnaire. Consisting of the upcoming topic.
1:10 – Login via Terminal exercises. Overview followed by hands-on
1:12 – breakout to rooms
Break out room 1 : 2/2 video on and discussing. Corrected students since they were working on something else.
Break out room 2: 3/3 video on and discussing.
Break out room 3: 3/3 video on, and discussing.
Break out room 4: 3/3 video on and working independently.
Break out room 5: 3/3 video on and discussing.

Video is on a lot indeed. Also note how often I jump around: 5x in 8 minutes :-)

1:20 – 15 students. New student joins and teacher gets feedback and them to a room.

Indeed, here I prepared a new learner to be added to a group.

1:26 – Helps room 2. xeyes do not work with –X flag for Mac users. Asked to continue to next question.

Ah yes, it was good that I asked them to move on. However, this should be added to the course material:

[ ] Add to course material: xeyes may not work and that is fine
1:28 – Revitalizing dead room by checking if all is good.

I like the word 'revitalizing' here a lot. Unsure how well I did.

1:34 – Asking per room if they have done the task.

Indeed, for rooms that did not share their screen I had to ask how for they were. I don't like to interrupt my learners, but I do need to know.

1:41 – Room 1, asked student to turn camera on and checked with them.

Ha, I keep doing that. Good job me :-)

1:42 – Room 3 were out and then they were moved back after they realized they did not do the task.

Yes, they were indeed not yet finished. This was partly my mistake: I only mentioned twice to do two sessions and I did not repeat in the breakout room. Still, I am happy that this can be sorted out easily.

[And the questions I asked my colleague to rate me on:]

Consider how you demonstrate warmth, organization, and respect for students as part of developing a positive classroom climate. This can start with the syllabus and extend to face-to-face and online interactions with students.
- Warmth : Encourages students to give answer, even wrong ones.
- Organization : Breakout room for focused work withing small teams. Easy to follow exercises. Expectation setting with course overview. Quizzes/tests at the beginning and end of exercises.
- Respect : Everyone is welcome no matter the prior knowledge they have.