Lindsey KuperJan 6

@MonniauxD @regehr @smurthys @shriramk @adrian I just searched all the student evaluations from my PL course last year. Out of over 300 students, only two comments contained the word "slides":

Positive: "She does a great job teaching us and does not read off slides, she actually writes out her notes and codes in class."
Negative: "I understand that professors tend to use handwritten notes to teach courses, but it would be even better if some slides could be added in the future."

Conclusion: 🤷‍♀️

Show threadLindsey KuperJan 6

@MonniauxD @regehr @smurthys @shriramk @adrian Though, last time I taught distributed systems (winter 2024), all comments about not having slides were positive:

"Kuper helped me feel engaged very frequently by having very interactive lectures where discussion was encouraged, and by obviously being engaged in the content herself and not reading off slides"

"Writing lecture notes as you go instead of using slides is awesome"

Show threadLindsey KuperJan 6

@MonniauxD @regehr @smurthys @shriramk @adrian That said, while students generally like it that I don't use slides in class, some students like *having* slides to review on their own. In my PL course, I know some students look at slides that other instructors make available. That's fine with me.

I do have my own notes I use while lecturing, which I should probably clean up and turn into something that's suitable to be shared with students. But it'd be prose or maybe literate code, not slides.

Show threadAdrian SampsonJan 6
@lindsey @MonniauxD @regehr @smurthys @shriramk I too have been doing a no-slides thing in a giant intro systems class lately, and I ended up doing the "prose & literate code" style of notes too. that did seem to be a sufficient replacement for slides for most students, with a few exceptions https://www.cs.cornell.edu/courses/cs3410/2024fa/notes/sync.html
Synchronization - CS 3410

Show threadLindsey KuperJan 6

@adrian @MonniauxD @regehr @smurthys @shriramk Nice, Adrian!

In my distributed systems course, I think it's especially important to not use slides, because there are so many diagrams, and I so often need to talk about time and how things change over time. I could bust my ass to try to make animated diagrams on slides ahead of time...or I could just *use my actual animal hands* to just make the animation happen in real time, and be able to make changes live to respond to student questions!

Show threadAdrian SampsonJan 6
@lindsey @MonniauxD @regehr @smurthys @shriramk absolutely! this is a main motivation for me too—it takes **SO** much less time to draw a thing on my iPad than to fiddle around with lines and rectangles in Keynote that it would be worthwhile even if the results were worse (but I don't think they are)
Show threadLindsey KuperJan 6

@adrian @MonniauxD @regehr @smurthys @shriramk I'm thinking about entirely ditching Keynote and OmniGraffle, which are the last things keeping me on macOS, and just doing hand-drawn slides and diagrams on the reMarkable from now on (or any of the various Markdown-to-slides workflows if I really want typed text on slides).

(This would be for the things I still actually use slides for, i.e., giving talks -- I already don't use slides for teaching, and just write on the reMarkable.)

Show threadWill Crichton

@lindsey @adrian @MonniauxD @regehr @smurthys @shriramk Extra 2c: I experimented this semester with iPad+Notability as a digital whiteboard. Eg: https://cel.cs.brown.edu/csci-1951q-f25/assets/lecture8.pdf

Students overall responded positively, although the lack of corresponding textual notes was a hindrance (esp bc my handwriting and organization is still rough). When queried, the students voted 19 to 1 in favor of digital whiteboard vs. physical whiteboard in a room with wall-to-wall whiteboards.

Jan 7 at 1:20amWeb
Show threadLindsey KuperJan 7
@tonofcrates @adrian @MonniauxD @regehr @smurthys @shriramk I use the graph paper template on the reMarkable, and I think it really helps me write and draw more neatly. Does Notability have something like that?
Show threadWill CrichtonJan 7
@lindsey @adrian @MonniauxD @regehr @smurthys @shriramk They do! That's a nice idea, I'll have to try that out next semester.