The Official UTS Subject Reviews Thread (Table of Contents on First Post) (2 Viewers)

[Etho_x]

Subject: 48024 - Programming 2
Session: AUT 2025
Lecturer(s): Angela Huo, David Dyer (Tutor)
Final Mark: 89
Difficulty: 7/10
Enjoyment: 7/10
Teaching/Organisation: 8/10
Overall: 7.5/10

Summary:
Programming 2 builds on the fundamentals that you learn in Programming 1 for both programming languages of focus, Python and Java. This subject is split into two components, the first half of the course heavily focuses on shortcuts and frequent "patterns" that help to solve particular common problems which arise in programming. For example, patterns can include finding sums or maximum/minimums with or without the use of lists/arrays, but also different structures or ways of writing functions and classes. The second half of the course focuses on building basic GUI (graphical user interface) programs with the use of either JavaFX or Tkinter. Notice the "or" - you can choose which path you follow for this section, whether that'd be using Java or Python. I personally chose Python/Tkinter so my review and experience of the GUI section will come from a Python perspective.

Assignment Structure:
The main assessments (Assignment 1, 2, and the final exam) make up the bulk of the marks for this course, and the rest is earned from lab assignments, a short online quiz in the middle of the course, and 6 Advanced Challenges worth 1% each which consisted of interview-style programming questions, with the length of time given to solve these being based on the difficulty. Yes, there were some challenges which were 3 hours in length, and if all of the code tests pass, you get a measly 1%, otherwise even if just one of the code tests doesn't pass, you still receive 0 for it. Assignment 1 and 2 were closely related - the first assignment is a terminal-based project for a particular scenario which uses the patterns that have been taught over the first section of the course (which can be done in either Java or Python), and the second assignment, using the same scenario, built on some of the code that was written in the first assignment to produce a GUI program (which has to be presented in the lab). With the final quiz, you can also choose to sit a test which is focused on JavaFX, or Tkinter.

Pros:

• The Canvas page is well-structured and easy to navigate. Each weeks content is split up into videos which is divided by section (Java or Python).
• If you're lucky enough to get David Dyer as a tutor for this subject, he teaches the content both as a tutor and on the videos so well and was extremely helpful and accomodating. I couldn't make my original lab time to present my second assignment which would have resulted in a huge loss of marks, but he sorted it out for me instantly and accommodated me into a different time. Also just an overall chill guy.
• I suppose having the freedom of branching off and having the choice of either using Java OR Python for the GUI project was also nice.

Cons:

• The "lectures" presented by Angela were fairly useless for the most part - it was mainly yaps about admin-related things or plagiarism/academic honesty etc. so I stopped attending them after the second week.
• As someone who uses Mac for most of my uni tasks, Tkinter was not supported properly with Mac for the second assessment task and as such, I had to travel back home to use my Windows PC instead to complete the assessment. For those with only MacBook's, they would have no choice but to use JavaFX since for some reason, the UTS computers don't support downloading packages.
• My point about the Advanced Challenges and their respective weighting as mentioned before.

 

[Etho_x]

Okay the last 3 reviews were actually kinda fun to write so I'll start writing reviews over time about the subjects I took last year. I'll start with one of my favourite subjects I took last year.

Subject: 31268 - Web Systems
Session: SPR 2024
Lecturer(s): Darryl Veitch (Subj. Coordinator), Bernard Doyle (Tutor)
Final Mark: 95
Difficulty: 7/10
Enjoyment: 9/10
Teaching/Organisation: 8/10
Overall: 8.5/10

Summary:
Web Systems is a fairly broad subject which covers a range of topics in theory including computer architecture, security, computer science (boolean algebra and binary/hexadecimal conversions), and a brief introduction to networks. As for the more practical components, you learn how to navigate filesystems and manipulate files in the CLI (command-line interface) using Linux commands and also dive into the world of HTML and CSS. So this course is incredibly informative and there's a lot to offer.

Assessment Structure:

• 2 short quizzes which take place during tutorial times.
• A Linux-based skills test, which assesses your ability to solve problems using Linux commands.
• Lab problems which are due on an ongoing basis.
• Creation of a simple website using HTML and CSS.
• 1h LMS take-home final exam (so open book...) containing 60 multiple choice questions - you really have to know the content well for this.

Pros:

• The theory was overall really interesting personally - especially learning about the different ways in which computers manage memory and store files, and the computer science content in relation to representing data and number conversions was also pretty useful.
• Also had fun with creating the website. As long as the specifications were met, you can go wild on how you formatted your website so it did leave some idea for creativity. But it does also made you consider various accessibility problems, such as if your end-user is impaired. We also had to rank a few other student's websites as well so in terms of the accessibility requirements, this was important.
• The Linux skills test is almost the same as a practice skills test that they supply online on the learning platform (ed), so it's fairly easy to score high (even though the mean mark when I did it was somehow 10/20).

Cons:

• When I did Web Systems, the recorded content was still being taught from old slides and the slides itself were fairly minimal on information. I believe they have updated the slides for 2025. The previous ones must have been used for ages - the formatting looked like slides from the 2010s.
• We could not use JavaScript when creating the websites - it would have resulted in an immediate 0 for the assignment.
• The tutor was nice but wasn't very engaging when he was delivering the content. That being said, I believe his contract was ending after he taught us so I suppose he was probably over it

Overall though, pretty fun subject and would recommend as an elective if you have a free block and looking for something to take.