Workshop 8 Ruby on Rails Workshops Report and Evaluation

Workshop 8 - Ruby on Rails Workshops Report and Evaluation

Topic objectives

Upon the completion of this workshop, developers or managers should be able to:

• Identify and evaluate the Ruby on Rails workshop series
• Think critically and analytically about what you knew before and after the experiences
• Share and post your Report and Evaluation with peers via the subject forum.

Evaluation and Report

Please answer each question in this evaluation section. In your answer, please consider content/topics presented and the technologies and teaching strategies used during the Ruby on Rails Workshops. Results will be collated and used to modify the workshop series.

This form is just a format guide to you evaluation and report. Thank you for your time to complete workshop 8.

1. List what you consider to be the three strengths of Ruby on Rails workshop series

1. Providing in experience in developing / managing the introudtcion a web application was by far the biggest positive for this workshop series.

2. Allowing students to adopt either a developer or IT manager role was a strength, but does require some refining in how this is done. This allowed someone like myself, with limited programming background, to still gain an appreciation of web application development, but also provide some exposure to IT management considerations.

3. Using a Web application that iis relatively easy to learn is a strength. This allows students, irrepsective of their programming background, to get their feet wet and do some programming, however basic.

2. List what you consider to be the three weaknesses of Ruby on Rails workshop series:

1. Some of the questions were either repeated or were quite ambiguos. Some question weren't even phrased as questions, but rather as statements, making it difficult to determine what was being asked. I believe the content needs to be reviewed. Removed the "To Do", "Challenge Questions", "Focus Questions" and hidden questions in the discussion text and replace with clear, unambiguos exercises for each student.

2. I dont believe that there was another coverage on the IT Managers side for role play. Given I was studying this subject as part of an MBA, my main interest is the IT managers part. I would like to see these roles adopted from teh very first workshop, as opposed to introducing at workshop 5.

3. The files for this subject should be provided on a CD as part of the student materials. Not all students have access to high speed broadband. Some people are still on dialup, or 3G type connections with realtively small download limits and expensive charges. For me, I live in an area where I cannot get a broadband port, and I have 3G internet, but connectivity is sporadic. As such, I wasted valuable hours simply trying to download applications, especially Microsoct SQL Server Express 2008.

3. List what aspects of Ruby on Rails workshop series that you found to be most difficult.

For me, the actual programming was the most difficult, even though Ruby on Rails is relatively easy to learn and navigate. I am somewhat lucky that I am IT savy and was able to figure most things out without too much fuss, however some programming, especially in workshops 3 and 4 had me pulling my hair out for a while..

The actual completion of these workshops is quite time consuming. This, on top of the 16 exercises to complete presents quite a full on work load. Given my full time employment, trying to do exercises on a weekly basis in problematic. I wouyld prefer to see two dedicated assignements rather than the requirement for weekly bloggs. By way of example, I spent my entire Easter weekend completing the Workshops alone.

4. List what improvements could be made to the Ruby on Rails workshop series:

As alluded to above, I would like to see the number of Workshops or questions reduced, and the questions themselves made clearer and less Ambiguos. I would also prefer to see this run as a walkthough tutorial rather than an assessed workshop.

Free response and reflective questions:

5. Reflect on your experiences with the other Web framework used in this subject: Was it effective? How can it be improved? Should other Web frameworks be used as well or instead of Ruby on Rails?

I think that the actual web framework used in these workshops was great. Ruby on Rails is easy to use and well documented and there is a raft of information on the internet to help numpties like me when you get stuck. I think a great improvement would be to run this series as a tutorial, where students are wlakedthrough programming. This would help level the playing field in terms of programming experience, or lack thereof. I believe other web frameworks should also be introuduced. From what I have read, Django is also relatively easy to use, but exposes that student to python. Not sure how this would be done, as time seemed pretty compressed just working with Ruby, Perhaps you could offer a choice of a number of workshops for different frameworks.

6. Did the Developer’s or IT managers Team that you joined after workshop 4 have a preference towards using other tools to facilitate collaboration? Comment on the differences between these use of the sub-forum or Interact wiki tools from your experiences in this subject.

I think this aspect was a waste of time for the Distance component of this course. It is difficult to organise teams and find suitable time to work with people in order to develop a product such as a deployment or maintenance plan. These should be conducted as individual assignment. By way of example, for me, I have been away with work 4 out of the first 6 weeks of this course, making it impossible to complete any sort of collaborative effort. This may be a great feature for those who have time, but not practical for those who are busy. Whilst I can see what is trying to be achieved in using blogs and wikis and forums, I think it also adds an additional level of complexity to what is an already pretty full on course. I prefer the KISS principle (keep it simple stupid).

7. Further comments to add?

All in all I enjoyed the Workshop series however I do think that the workload was excessive and I had to kiss my social life goodbye whilst completing these workshops. I would like to see them scaled back and simplified somewhat. I think if the ambiguity in a lot of the exercises was removed, this would probably reduced the workload, as I did spent a lot of time actually trying to work out what was being asked (and I'm still not 100% sure that I have actually answered some questions properly!!!). However, all in all, I believe the Workshop series achieved what it set out to, which was to provide students exposure to web application development and management, but there is definitely room for improvement.