SOFT6008 Recording of Exam Attendance

I was advised today by the head of department that I made a number of students uncomfortable last week when I used my mobile phone to record attendance at the exam.  I apologise for making anyone uncomfortable.

I was necessary to record who was at the exam so that in the event of an issue, like a script being lost or unidentified, I could establish who was there and who was not. A roll call would have eaten into the time we had available to the exam. Not all of the people there on the day were personally known to me. I did not want to interrupt students by asking those I did not know for ID. And there was no certainty that they would even have had ID.

It clear, however, that I made some students uncomfortable. I am sorry for that.

It was always my intent to keep the recordings for only a few days until after the results were published so that if there was an issue it might be a useful record.

The recordings were never actually viewed. They were never copied nor backed up.

I deleted them from my phone today immediately on discovering that their existence made some students uncomfortable. However, they would have been deleted over the next few days in any event because there were no issues.

It is clear that different people have different comfort levels when it comes to the recording of their images or voices, or indeed any data about them. It is always difficult to find the right balance between the convenience provided by technologies and the risks they pose. In fact, I think this is one of the big questions of our time. I clearly got it wrong, and, again, I apologize for this.

I have decided to err on the side of caution from now on and so will be more sensitive in future. I will also discontinue my practice of recording lectures and putting them on YouTube. There is a risk that this practice may prevent some students from asking questions or may make them uncomfortable for other reasons.  Since I never actually asked anyone's permission I will cease the practice and I have removed those recordings that were made in the past without permission.

SOFT6008 COM2B Class 26

Students worked on coding check digit algorithms for PPSNs and DNIs

SOFT6007 ITM1 Class 36

Students worked on forms

SOFT6008 CA Results

The results of the first assessment are available online at http://tinyurl.com/soft6008ca. They are sorted using the last 4 digits of student ID numbers.

SOFT6007 ITM1 Class 26 & 27

Students worked on coding forms.

SOFT6007 DWEB1 Class 27 & 28

Students worked on coding forms.

SOFT6007 Class 25

We looked at forms.

As I highlighted in class there was a mistake in the slides.  Checkboxes must have different names if they are all to be sent to the server correctly. So the hobbies example should show something like hobbies1, hobbies2, hobbies3. [There is a solution involving arrays. But you guys know nothing of arrays just yet]

SOFT6008 COM2B Class 24

Students worked on code. I'm please with the progress students are making. Of course I have no idea how the missing students are doing.

SOFT6007 ITM1 Class 24

Students were interested in studying for exams they had today. No one was doing any web stuff, so I headed away after a few minutes.

SOFT6008 DWEB2 Class 23 & 24

Some students worked on code. But most spent time preparing their cheat sheets for the exam today.

SOFT6007 ITM1 Class 22 & 23

We had an exam.

SOFT6007 DWEB1 Class 23 & 24

We had an exam

SOFT6007 Class 21

Class was canceled. I wasn't feeling well.

SOFT6008 DWEB2 Class 22

Some students worked on check sum calculations. But most did preparation work for the exam.

SOFT6007 DWEB1 Class 22

Some students worked on colour coding the timetable. But most did preparation work for the exam.

SOFT6008 COM2A Class 22 & 23

Students continued coding check digit algorithms.

I advised against tackling cookies just yet.

I passed around a list of the dropboxes that have been shared with me and students who have yet to complete that task got it sorted.

SOFT6008 Class 21

We looked a cookies.

I talked a bit about getting inspiration from the web.

SOFT6008 COM2B Class 19 & 20

Students worked on coding check sum algorithms. Most students are still working on the credit card code, which puts them a bit behind schedule.

Some students were struggling with functions so I talked a little bit about them on the board.

SOFT6008 COM2B Class 18

Students worked on coding the check digit exercises

SOFT6008 COM2A Class 20

Students continued working on check digit exercises