FMA140 NonlDynSys 2012

Course evaluation: Results


    General


  1. Write your own comments. What was good/bad with the course, how the layout may improve your learning, etc.

    I really liked the home exercises, that's what made understand the most. I also think it should be better to have a definitive course book at the beginning of the course rated than editing it along the way.
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    The personal advice one gets from the lecturer is really helpful.
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    It was a good tempo, with one lecture per week and an exercise every other week. I would however have liked to see some kind of seminar, perhaps three times during the course, where typical exercises are solved. The content in the course was interesting.
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    Intressanta hemuppgifter och föreläsningar.
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    A standard comment: It would have been nice to have a stronger connection to some real problems. For example instead of studying the Henon Map we could study some system that can be described mathematically by the Henon Map. It's always a strong motivation when you really have a good answer to people when they ask you: Why do you take the course in nonlinear dynamical systems? What insanely awesome stuff can you do with the knowledge obtained in this course?
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    Jag skulle vilja se lite mer lösta exempel i föreläsningsanteckningarna. Därutöver så skulle jag vilja ha lite tydligare anknytning till tillämpningar under kursens gång.

    Läraren är bra på väldigt många sätt och en sak som jag skulle vilja ge i tips för att det ska bli ännu bättre är att ha lite mer ögonkontakt under föreläsningarna, detta skapar bättre kontakt och förutsättningar för inlärande, just nu så går blicken ofta upp mot taket. I övrigt så måste jag säga att jag är mycket nöjd med den hjälp man får med förståelsen, känns som att man bryr sig om att studenterna ska prestera bra!

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    It would have been good if there had been solutions/answers to the exercises.
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    The hand in exercises was overall good, and that's the part where I think the bulk of my learning occurred.

    Some chapters in the "book" were not so good, in particular the chapter about the central manifold theorem.

    I didn't go to that many exercise sessions, and when I did hardly any other students were there. This is an indictment that something is amiss in the layout of the course, since there apparently are parts of the course layout which isn't used by the students. And since the lecturer mentioned that the course usually doesn't have this many attendees I can only imagine how empty these sessions must have been earlier years.

    Speaking of the sessions, there apparently was one of these sessions were the lecturer explained something that would be of great use in the hand ins. I didn't go to that session since I assumed it would just be a regular session (do exercises, ask for help when needed).

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    Some more examples in literature/lecture notes. Better exercises with answer and even some tips/solutions to solve the exercises if you get stuck.
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    Intressant ämne
    Röriga föreläsningar och rörigt kompendium
    Något otydliga inlämningsuppgifter

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    here's one thing that is bad: being unable to check what time you booked for the home exam. therefore I will not fill in anything apart from this field, only to be able to check what time I could have booked.
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    I think the assignments were very well constructed and they tied in with each other very well. It was by doing those that I learnt the most of the course content.

    The lectures were nice and were pretty well structured, but in my opinion they were maybe a bit too general. It was rather easy to understand the concepts contained within the framwork of one or two lectures, but after the lectures it required some work for me to understand how the theory applies to the problems. Examples is a good solution for me too really follow the theory. I think that this is mostly my own fault, though, for not attending so many exercise sessions. My main point is that examples are important.

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    Bra kursinnehåll överlag, lärorika och brett täckande inlämningsuppgifter. Jag hade dock gärna haft mer struktur i upplägget, dvs tydligare mål och kopplingar mellan de olika avsnitten. Gärna att man innan en genomgång av ny teori hade fått veta varför man behöver just det.
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    More fixed exercises, from the beginning with noted what excerices to do.
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    Overall it has been an interesting course. Unfortunately, I could not participate in the lectures during the second study period due to schedule issues.
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    Thanks for a nice course. I liked the hand-ins especially.

    The lectures were a bit unstructured - lots of handwaving and confusing notation that changed rapidly, even during one and the same lecture. Made it quite hard to follow.

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    Very good consulting hours with the lecturer!
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    I like the course because it is challenging and fun, but there could be a bit more connection between the lectures and the home assignments, the home assignments tended to be a bit more advanced
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    Väldigt häftig matte! Fast samtidigt väldigt svårt. Jag tyckte att kursen var i sin helhet bra. Väldigt bra med inlämningsuppgifterna där jag kände att jag befäste kunskaperna från respektive avsnitt.

    Tycker att övningarna kan förbättras i kursen. Dels så ges inte stöd till dem i vare sig kurslitteraturen eller föreläsningen som båda är väldigt teoretiska utan exempel som man kan ta hjälp ifrån. Tyckte också att det var bristande att det inte fanns lösningar till alla uppgifter vilket blev problematiskt då man körde fast hemma.

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    The Good:

    Interesting subject, Excellent handin 2, OK handin 3.

    Funny interesting teacher.

    The Bad:

    Handin 1 - very unclear how to solve it.

    The course "book" must add content in central manifold and biurcations. Multidimensional examples must be added,
    one dimensional xamples not enough when trying to solve multidimensional handin.

    Extra clarification of the manifold and bifurcation would be nice, specifically how you could make and analyze plots.
    More material on the behaviour of fix points.

    The plots on the internet was of no help at all when solving either handin 2 or 3 - some kind of similar plot in the course "book" to compare to would be nice.

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    Very good course, good layout. Some lectures seemed a bit
    repetitive to me, but it might be a good thing due to the difficult content.


  2. Do you think the course was interesting and meaningful?

    1. 30% (9 st) Yes, a lot.
    2. 40% (12 st) Yes.
    3. 7% (2 st) Neutral.
    4. 0% (0 st) Maybe no.
    5. 0% (0 st) No.


  3. What was your most important study tool? (mark two at most)

    1. 37% (11 st) The printed Lecture Notes
    2. 27% (8 st) My personal notes from the lectures
    3. 0% (0 st) Other books
    4. 23% (7 st) Course material on the course webpage
    5. 63% (19 st) My own web-searching

  4. Which statement best summarises the outcome of the course for you?

    1. 7% (2 st) I have learned how to compute simple exercises on my own.
    2. 3% (1 st) I have learned to follow when somebody else computes an exercise or presents a mathematical problem.
    3. 40% (12 st) I have learned to compute standard exercise (similar to those we did).
    4. 3% (1 st) I have learned to pose questions in mathematical terms.
    5. 23% (7 st) I have learned to formulate and solve mathematical questions (related to the course) from a problem that has been described in words.


    Teaching


  5. What is your opinion about the lecturer?

    1. 30% (9 st) Very good
    2. 33% (10 st) Rather good
    3. 10% (3 st) Acceptable
    4. 3% (1 st) Rather poor
    5. 0% (0 st) Quite poor

    Miscellaneous


  6. What is your opinion about the course services (information, course webpages , personal advice, etc.)?

    1. 37% (11 st) Very good
    2. 17% (5 st) Rather good
    3. 17% (5 st) Acceptable
    4. 7% (2 st) Rather poor
    5. 0% (0 st) Quite poor


  7. Comments/suggestions about the Lecture Notes?

    I think it would be better to have a definitive course book at the beginning of the course rated than editing it along the way.
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    The lecture notes are written in a very abstract and theoretical mathematical fashion, which can make it difficult to understand at times.
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    They were good. I would however want them to include complete solutions to certain exercises, or at least a sheet with the correct answer, where meaningful.
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    Kändes som att de inte hängde ihop riktigt med vad man behövde för hemuppgifterna.
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    Answers to the exercises in the book is a must. Solutions would be nice as well.
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    I mostly studied through the lecture notes. They are good but are very demanding. What would really help is more examples that show how the calculations are done. You can understand the theory but without seeing how it's done in practice it's very hard to utilize that knowledge!
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    Bra i sin korrekthet och matematiska resonemang. Ganska abstrakta i sina formuleringar. Hade verkligen uppskattat komplettering i form av mer vardagligt formulerade analogier och intuitiva resonemang för att göra det enklare att förstå. Finns en del föreläsningar på internet som har lite mer i den linjen.
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    sometimes the lecture notes were difficult to follow and rather theoretical and complicated. More real life examples would be good
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    Chapter 6 would need a revision, since the third hand in was more or less entirely dependent on ones understanding of that chapter, and that chapter assumed the formulated problem was two dimensions which would be reduced to one. A more general form would be to have it dependent on more variables.
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    More examples! For me, it is the best way to learn.
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    The lecture notes are very theoretical and contains a lot of results that aren't easily accessible by engineering students, eg., topological statements. The things in the lecture notes that was possible for me to follow, were lucid and clear.

    Sometimes I could feel that the lecture notes and the assignments were very disconnected. So I wouldn't say that the lecture notes are very well suited for self studies in this course. The need for attending lectures and exercises is big. During assignment 3 they were a big help, though.

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    Answer on all the exercises although it was good with many comments.
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    Sometimes hard to follow.
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    They are a little too theoretical. There needs to be more examples.
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    Svar till alla uppgifter. Terminologiavsnitt för om man har blivit rostig i olika skrivsätt eller begrepp.
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    More material in the course book.

    Change handin 1 and 3 - especially handin 3.

    Handin 1 - some kind of example related to a real world problem would be nice.

    Handin 3 - very confusing how to analyze the bifurcation:
    add material to related chapters.

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    They were good.


mario.natiello@math.lth.se

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