For an introductory software design course, it appears that the University of Toledo needs to review what it is they are trying to teach the students. Having a "real world" application for the introductory class is a real positive goal to strive for, but it puts many pressures on the students to perform beyond their capabilities. Putting the work of the class on display could encourage some members of the class to work harder, but it appears that the majority of the students decided to work "like a hibernating bear" rather than put themselves out on the limb by doing real work.

Secondly, the instructors allowed the students to "sink or swim" in this course. They allowed lots of erroneous work to be done that could have been avoided. Learning from your own mistakes is a great way of learning, but when the project at hand is already of a grandiose size, allowing students to venture down the wrong path for education's sake just magnifies the frustration that the students have for the project. In an effort to lessen the workload for the students, the professors eliminated the requirement that the program would have to work on three platforms. This may be my cs15 indoctrination but a well designed project should be extensible enough to port from one platform to the next pretty easily. By apparently making it easier on the students, I feel that the instructors did them a disservice.

Overall, the idea of doing a huge class project has many educative opportunities; but the way that these instructors let the groups disintegrate in the logistics of group dynamics eliminated much of the computer science applications that could have been learned.

I think saul has a great point. You are so smart. Go Saul