Bennett L. Rouse

The frustrations of E115

Freshman engineers at NC State are required to take E115. This course primarily teaches freshmen about the basic elements of computers (What are coaxial cables? What is a bus network? Etc.). Furthermore, this class informs freshmen how to undertake several tasks that are common to engineering undergraduates such as encoding html, using Putty, and working with spreadsheets on Excel. Essentially, two 2-hour sessions of class are used to teach students about Excel, along with two homework assignments and a massive final examination.

This class needs to be changed. Many students either, a, already know everything about computers (hence they’re engineers), or b, don’t care about computers as what they learn will simply seep out as the course is completed. Besides, if students need basic information about computers for any reason, what is to stop them from simply finding it on Wikipedia? That’s how students get half of their information anyways. Second of all, Excel is a complete waste of time. I had to create several spreadsheets for my PY 205N labs (may I add, with no prior knowledge on the subject) before the word “Excel” was even mentioned in class. To top that, many students already took classes on how to use Excel in high school. I’m not saying that Excel should be eliminated from the curriculum; I’m just saying that this class isn’t efficiently teaching to students how to use this technology.

Perhaps more time should be spent on learning how to use Putty rather than general information. It’s always useful to know what you’re working with, but it seems that less and less people will actually benefit from this information. Let’s make this class optional, or at least create an optional Excel class for people like me. Perhaps State could implement a mandatory Putty class, because this is where most students struggle the most anyways.

Posted at 10:55PM Dec 06, 2008 by Bennett L. Rouse in General  |  Comments[0]