This is for the final technical essay for the University of Manoa ICS314 class. In general, they’ll want you to write to the world but in reality, who would be interested in reading what a ICS student reflecting on software engineering would have to say? I can only think students who are going to take software engineering would be interested in hearing what happened in the class. As such it makes sense to narrow the focus of this writing to incoming/prospective ICS314 students.
This class felt like playing dress up, which I guess is the intention. To walk through the motions and get a feel for developing and deploying an application. It introduces a lot of topics but doesn’t really dig into them, it just doesn’t have the time. Every week is a new topic or environment, its constantly introducing design concepts and forces you into new unfamiliar situations. Which I think is one of the strongest points of the class. When you’re working people are going ask you to do things you haven’t done before. You’ll just have to learn how to do it given the resources you have.
Looking at the course catalogue this class satisfies an upper division writing intensive class. Why? It felt as if there wasn’t enough time to cover the material, yet this writing component was shoehorned in. There is no way around it, this class is required by UH for a degree in computer science. Not as a writing class but as a block to taking upper division classes. For most this probably isn’t an issue but I already finished my writing intensives a few years ago. This whole writing section of the course seems unneeded. I understand that being able to communicate your ideas is important but that should be addressed elsewhere.
Best part of this class was the final project. It was great to work on a project with members around my age. Most of the projects I’ve done outside of class have been alone or taking over from someone who dropped it a few years ago. You realize working with people can be hit or miss. Fortunately for this class the group was great however other classes you might end up working for three but that isn’t a revelation exclusive to ICS314. Working as a group and using github made it very convenient to collaborate. It was also neat to see where other people in the class are at in their coding and problem solving abilities. The online format made this class seem distant but working with group members really solidified the various concepts covered. When collaborating its very helpful that all the code is written in a similar style so that when someone needs help its easy to jump in. Being able to screen share is very helpful. Standardizations in general are good for working in groups that way people become interchangeable. It sounds bleak but it also means that you can work on multiple parts of a project instead of being confined to a single section. Honestly I don’t think I fully understand a lot of the topics covered but I at least know that they are there.