Informatics 41 * Fall 2005 * David G. Kay * UC Irvine

PAIR PROGRAMMING EVALUATIONS

Below are all the comments from the partner evaluations in four pair programming assignments in the first half of a course in Fall 2004. Both the positive and negative comments may help you, by example, be a more effective partner and get more out of the experience.

All the personally identifying information has been removed, of course; otherwise, the comments are unedited. The negative ones appear first, followed by a few neutral ones (many people thought one of the assignments was very long), followed by the positive ones. There were many more positive ones than others. The numeric scores don't appear here.

A few of my own comments appear in italics.

My partner wouldn't listen to my ideas (how to fix problems) and would not surrender tasks to me.

never again; please, never again. [Not this quarter, anyhow. Good thing we keep swapping. --DGK]

Showed up an hour and a half late the first day; didn't show up the third day. Didn't really contribute with coding knowledge; when X was doing the typing I had to essentially dictate code to X Showed a lack of willingness to learn how to do things & would rather complain about not being very good at Scheme. Also, did extraneous Internet-related things in lab. [It's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. Also, stay on task! --DGK]

A very poor partner. I know that this is X's first programming class, so i would expect X to ask questions and seek help. X did nothing of the sort. X didn't pay attention, gave up almost instatly when we encountered a problem, ignored me, and when we were supposed to work after lecture on thursday, X just left before i could even say anything, and essentially stood me up. Also, X shows up late to lectures, and misses important ones, which doesn't help when you are new to programming.I had a horrible experience with X and I am very dissapointed in X as a partner. [We don't know what else was going on in X's life, but it's not professional to leave your partner hanging. Keep in touch by Email or phone or whatever. It's always best to show up when you're supposed to, but if an emergency prevents you, get in touch and be flexibile in arranging how to make it up.--DGK]

I did nearly the entire assignment. Mypartner had no understanding of the material to the point that X was more of a burdon to our progress than a help. X had no clue most of the time, and I found it impossible to schecule time outside of lab due to the fact that X wasn't in class. Because of this, I did most of the assignmnet on my own knowing it would not be done otherwise. X being my partner was easily the cause of most my my stress this week. And this has been a really bad week. I've had this assignment towering over me, and I was barely able to get this done on my own. This week has been horrible. [Now, ask yourselves: Would you want to work with this X? If you were a student, would you want to BE X, developing a reputation as a flake so that after a while, nobody wants to work with you? It's not just a question of who's a whiz at the material---you can see below that there were lots of really good partnerships where the stronger partner thought the partnership worked really well. It's all about doing the best you can and communicating well with your colleagues. --DGK]

Struggled to complete the work and didn't finish [It helps us to know this, but it's better to let the TA or me know directly than to put it on the partner evaluation form. --DGK]

Came to first meeting, came very late to second meeting and not at all to third meeting. We did part a and almost all of part b together in class when X actually showed up. X emailed me all the rest of the code which X finished on X's own, forcing me to either figure it out or rewrite it myself in order to actually understand everything. When X was here and we did work together, X was not fully cooperative and willing to work in a pair and combine ideas. Not considerate of my end of it at all. Finished it on X's own, not even thinking that X was a part of a pair. I would not enjoy working with X again.

I missed class on friday because I was feeling like crap, however I did work on it on partly on my own and I hope X got the email.

This was an interesting week. Our first day working together was quite a nightmare. I think that when the point came when I had obviously lost my patience, things did get better. Before that I was just an uninvited spectator. Our next days were better. We did not meet in the scheduled labs, but instead in the mornings. This completely sucked, but I did enjoy getting out of lab early. We met in the mornings and worked fairly well. I was actually pretty surprised about how quickly we were able to work.

Although X was sometimes unwilling to listen to my advice, when X realized I did have valid things to say, X did take my advice. But X was quite unwilling to troubleshoot anything. If it was going wrong, X'd try entirly new things. X also wouldn't try things just to check out the mechanics of the function. On a happy notes, things got better as the week progressed. X did teach me a good way to check for errors is to run without calling the function. Not to bad. [So here's a story where initially incompatible people worked out a modus vivendi (a way of living together). --DGK]

we didnt have enough time to finish everything, so we had to some of the things by our selves.even though we met everytime in lab and a couple of time out of lab. more time to do long assignments such as these. (ie 2 weeks insted of 1 week.) [These ones are about HW 3. --DGK]

We found it hard to finish and had to resort to doing a lot of the stuff indivudually. Having more time for our assignments, or having less assignments per week would help. My partner and I worked outside of class as much as we could but without the help of someone who knows Scheme it is hard to move on in doing the assignments.

Too much work, lack of help, and we found ourselves frustrated and struggling to finish

wanted to thank Jeff for the time extension on our lab work due to the power problem and our lack of saving our code (won't make that mistake again).

A Great experience

A well rounded and capable partner.

X was the best partner yet!!! He helped me out, and also let me help him. Working together, i think we both got to learn from eachother and get our ork done effectively!!! X kicks butt!!! [No physical violence, please :-) --DGK]

Fun, productive partner to work with.

Funfun!!

X is a great partner! I'm sad we can't have the same partner twice [So many partners, so little time. Next quarter is a whole new ballgame. --DGK]

Good job, assignment a tad long and repetitive, though

Great partner

Great partner

Great partner to work with!!

Great partner to work with!!!

Great partner! Easy to work with!

Great partner!!!

Great partner, cooperative and willing to look at problems abstractly without abandoning comprehension and assistence.

X left early one day but I didn't have a problem with it. [If all the work is taken care of, if you don't just dump things on your partner insensitively, flexibility is possible. --DGK]

X was very good at programming, I would buy from X again A++++++++++++ Reccommended!! (+ free shipping!)

X is the best, except for some other people.

It was great working with X; X was very knowledgable and ready to complete the assignments. Great partner to work with

X is awesome

X really knew what X was doing and was helpful. X didn't mind stopping and explaining things.

X didn't understand everything, but that didn't stop X from wanting to understand. X put in a lot of effort and is absolutely fabulous person to work with :) I felt i was going to fast the last day, but we had a crazy deadline, eeep!

X is very awesome. X was really able to help me out when my week got completely screwed up. Fantastic partner and friend and really knowledgable of the material.

X is very profressional and answered all my questions while we were doing the pair programming during the lab. X even helped others with their problems. X was nice enough to explain every detail to me if i asked.

X was a great partner, and we were very productive

No complaints, good partner

X is the one! Yay!

X knows the material very well and answered a lot of my questions about programming in scheme. X is a good partner

X had work on wed and fri. so we met early to get work finished.. worked out fine!

X was excellent, we paired really well together, the work was much easier and we did a fair share each time. mucho bueno!

X was great!!

taught me alot

This person is awesome, did you know X just moved here, X should definately get some slack.

Very good intelligent partner

Very very good partner, easy to work with, and very intelligent

Was a great help is explaing everything.

We worked well, got everything done before lab was over. w00tage!

woohoo

Worked very well together, was able to finish everything

Wow, X is awesome, nodes are exciting!