Bachelor Thesis Log 10

September 10th, 2010

Today there is a report in between, because it is worthwhile again. There is the glossary that I wrote for the paper – where people who have no idea about teachlets can finally have their say again. There are also news from the study office about the master admission.

Glossary

The following list of terms comes one-to-one from the current draft of my bachelor thesis. I'm putting it here in its entirety because it's not too long and because I hope you can point out problems to me. Are the terms explained well enough? Where are there still ambiguities? Are there any other terms that may have appeared here on the blog at some point that you would like an explanation of?

• Initial system: Software that is executable, but deficient in a very specific way. Usually this is specifically designed for a teachlet, so that through successful practical application of the learning objective of the teachlet (e.g., a particular object-oriented design pattern), the said deficit of the software can be remedied by the participants in the course of the teachlet unit.
• Author: A teachlet includes one or more authors who first conceived and documented the teachlet. Typically, the author is also the moderator in the initial performance of a teachlet. However, a moderator may also perform teachlets by other authors.
• Choreography: A timed schedule for performances of a particular teachlet that specifies the flow and time limits for individual sections.
• Result system: The software as developed in a teachlet unit by the participants from the initial system. The result system is associated with the teachlet unit and is created anew each time the teachlet is performed. Unlike the result system, the result system is not complete and error-free in every case.
• Learning objective: Each teachlet has a learning objective. Often this is an object-oriented design pattern, but also e.g. programming language concepts and implementations of algorithms are possible. Within a teachlet unit, the participants should both experience the learning objective theoretically and practically apply it to the result system.
• Moderator: A teachlet unit is led by one or more moderators. They must be very familiar with the teachlet and its learning objective in order to successfully guide the participants through the choreography within the time frame, without taking away more freedom than necessary.
• Teachlet: 1. A teaching concept designed for interactivity, defined in more detail in the previous section and in chapter 4. 2. a largely static collection of all documents and software that make it possible to deliver a teachlet unit on a given topic, designed by the author or authors of that teachlet. It is recommended [Sch05] to assign a version number for each teachlet, by which it can be identified how often and how strongly this teachlet was already revised.
• Teachlet unit: A specific performance of a teachlet in a particular teaching unit. Alternatively: teachlet performance*.
• Teachlet workshop: A teachlet workshop is “a seminar-style semester event in which participants develop new teachlets. To do this, each participant must address at least one learning objective and design a teachlet for that learning objective. The new teachlets are tried out on the workshop participants themselves and then analyzed and evaluated by the participants.” [Sch05] Thus, in teachlet workshops, the focus is on feedback on the newly created teachlets. For this purpose, trackers are usually used there as well.
• Participants: A teachlet unit includes at least one, typically several, participants. The participants sit in the plenum and shape the framework set by the moderator through contributions and discussions. Usually, both active and passive participants can be observed in a teachlet unit. Active participants express their opinion more strongly and defend their position, while passive participants largely listen.
• Tracker: A role that is especially important in the teachlet workshop. The tracker comes from among the participants and has the task of creating a time log of the teachlet, which the facilitator can use afterwards to check the practicality of the choreography. For this purpose, the tracker records at what time the different phases of the teachlet start and end.
• Target system: A version of the software under consideration in which the teaching goal has been correctly implemented. The target system is usually created by the author of the teachlet and is used as a stopgap in case the participants do not succeed in implementing it within the time.

Admission to the Computer Science Master's Programme

All those who are affected have presumably already read the email: we are lucky this year after all and theoretically have time until April 1 to deliver everything. Not that I want to make excessive use of it… but at least that means that October 4 is unproblematic as a date for the presentation on the thesis and that I don't have to rush quite as much as I feared. So: Keep Oct 4 free if you want to listen to the presentation.

By the way: yesterday I received the copy of the registration of the thesis with the signature of the chairman of the examination board. Officially, I have time until December 6. But don't worry, I'll be done by early/mid October at the latest.

Chapter Status

Actually, I was planning to spare you with a new outline, since only a few new subchapters have been added. But then I thought it might be exciting to get an overview of written and pending chapters. So here comes another current outline, in which the chapters still to be written are shown in bold.

1. Introduction
   • Goals of this thesis
2. The teachlet concept
   • Definitions
   • Delimitation from similar methods
3. Prior teachlet practice
   • Reports from moderators
4. Definition
   • The original definition and its limitations
   • Updated definition
5. Limits and possibilities
   • The average teachlet
   • Exclusion criteria and limits (in progress)
   • Cariants and possibilities
6. Conclusion
   • Future

As you can see, it's going quite well. Look forward to the interview reports on Tuesday!