Peer Review

Introduction to algorithms

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Overview:: This website provides an introduction to basic computing algorithms.
Type of Material:: Tutorial
Recommended Uses:: In-class and short homework, self-paced
Technical Requirements:: Browsers that can play Youtube videos.
Identify Major Learning Goals:: Upon completion of the online tutorial, students should be able to: 1. describe some major concepts in algorithm 2. use big-O notation to show to complexity of an algorithm
Target Student Population:: Undergraduate courses
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: High-school mathematics.

Rating:
Strengths:: - The website introduces the ideas of algorithms and the main concepts of a series of well-known sorting and searching algorithms. - It provides some introductions on binary search, as well as selection sort and insertion sort. - The information provided is sufficient for understanding on the topic. - It also provides some codes to demonstrate the concept.
Concerns:: It does not cover the topic about NP-hard, NP-complete,etc.

Rating:
Strengths:: - The material can achieve the expected learning objective - It contains some short exercises that help viewers to review the concepts introduced. - The introductory video is good for bringing the viewers' interest on the topic. - The interactive components including the code demonstration and the animation content future reinforce the concept presented. In summary, it identifies the learning objectives of each topic. It reinforces concepts progressively as the topics are organized in a way harder topics builds on prior concepts learned. It demonstrates the relationship between concepts and topics. It contains different forms of illustration such as animation and interactive exercises, which can be used to measures student learning outcomes.
Concerns:: Some content is text and may not be good to use it in class. Students also need to master certain level of reading skills. The entire content is a bit lengthy and the latter topics are more difficult. Students need to spend some time complete.

Rating:
Strengths:: - The material can effectively achieve the purpose of the materials - The some interactive content further enhance users' engagement. - It contains also short quizzes to help viewers to answer some quick questions. They can be also in class. - The user interface is very easy to follow and visually appealing. - It also provides a discussion forum for users to exchange ideas on the problems stated, which further enhances viewers engagement. - The text font size is large for common viewing.
Concerns:: As some pages are self-contained with contents of text and pictures, these pages are better to viewer to view after class instead of in class.

Other Issues and Comments:: It is a quite complete and useful resource for self-paced learning. However, it lacks advanced topic like NP-hard, NP-complete, etc.
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