[TOS] Questionnaire after an open source course

[Mel Chua]

> <point>  I think it would be easier to make suggestions if we knew how
> you're going to structure this...</point>

And who you're gathering this data for, and why. Is this to give 
feedback to the instructors to improve the course for next round? To 
show the students what they have (collectively) learned? To tell the 
open source projects involved what happened from your side? In the hopes 
of getting departmental resources/approval for continuing experiments of 
this sort? Ideally, you'd have designed the instrument before running 
the intervention (teaching the class), but we don't live in an ideal 
world. :)

All your current questions ask students for their perception. Perception 
is a tricky thing; we usually don't remember things correctly. Also, if 
you know your instructor is the one asking these questions, you're more 
likely to put what you think the "right" answer is ("oh yes, I learned a 
lot of valuable real-world skills...") which may not tell you very much.

What I'd be interested in hearing, personally: (Disclaimer - I am an 
education graduate student, not a professional instrument designer -- 
although I do study with some and am trying to learn that.)

* We'd love to see your open source work from this course. Can you 
describe where (online) we can find contributions from you specifically? 
Code commits, wiki edits, chat logs, mailing list archives -- help us 
navigate them to find your open source portfolio. [Note: I'm interested 
in what students point to and how they display/explain their work to 
you. Do they just say "uh, somewhere on this mailing list, search it 
yourself," do they offer to email things to you (because they're not 
public), do they point to specific logs and messages, do they point to a 
profile page that has those things linked from them, etc.]

* If you could write a letter that would go back in time to your past 
self at the beginning of the class, what would you say? What do you wish 
you'd known? [Note: A broader question than "skills required," but 
capturing some of the same things.]

* How would you change this class if you were in charge of redesigning 
it for the next round?

* If you were to take this class (or an advanced version of it) in a 
subsequent semester, what would you do to build on what you've learned? 
In other words, what do you see as the follow-up experience to this 
class? (If it's not a class, but rather an internship or independent 
study, research project, co-op, or some other format, let us know that too.)

* Would you be interested in such a class?

* Has working on an open source project for class been a different 
experience than other projects you've done for classes before? How are 
the experiences similar and/or different? [Note: they may mention 
motivation here -- or they may not. I know you're hoping to get positive 
feedback here, but it'll be a stronger case if you don't ask leading 
questions -- you want to understand their actual experience and find out 
what that was, regardless of whether you like the answer or not. ;-)]

Also, amidst this haze of feedback, remember that (usually) *some* 
measurement is better than none. So let us know how it went -- 
ultimately, this is your class, your instrument, and your call.

--Mel

PS: If TOS faculty would find a standard end of class survey of this 
type useful, and would use it, I can see about getting some help from 
education researchers who focus on instrument design to find something 
appropriate (and adapt it if needed). I imagine others have (1) STEM edu 
research experience and (2) colleagues with STEM edu research experience 
who'd also do an excellent job of this and would be more than happy to 
cede the job to them. ;)