#acl All:read

= Official evaluation of the course "Information Retrieval, WS 2021/2022" =

Lecturer: [[https://ad.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/staff/bast|Prof. Dr. Hannah Bast]]; Tutors:
[[https://ad.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/staff/brosi|Patrick Brosi]],
[[https://ad.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/staff/prange|Natalie Prange]],
[[https://ad.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/staff/hertel|Matthias Hertel]],
[[https://ad.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/staff/staff|Johannes Kalmbach]],
Number of participants in the evaluation: '''31''';
Number of registrations for the exam: 31;
Ratio of the number of participants in the evaluation ot the number of registrations for the exam: 100%.

The evaluation was web-based and run via the University's central evaluation system !EvaSys.
A mail with a personalized link to the online evaluation form was sent by the system on Wednesday, 19.01.2022.
The evaluation was closed on Saturday, 29.01.2022.
The participation was anonymous.

Additionally, the evaluation was announced to the participants in the Q&A session on 18.01.2022 and 25.01.2022, and asked for as part of [[https://daphne.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/ws1920/InformationRetrieval/svn/public/exercises/sheet-12.pdf|Exercise Sheet 12]], which was handed out on 21.01.2022.
20 points were awarded, which were announced to be used to replace the points of the worst exercise sheet (there were 12 exercise sheets overall, for each of which a maximum of 20 points could be achieved).
As usual, 50% out of the maximum number of points from the exercise sheets (that is, 120 out of 240 points) were required to pass the ''Studienleistung'' associated with this course.

In the following, all comments given in the free-text fields of the evaluation are provided (in the order in which they appear in the !EvaSys report). The comments were copied verbatim, except for a few corrections (wrt orthography, grammar, etc. ... no change of meaning). If you see a comment from yourself which you do not want to appear in this list or if you find a comment that you think was inaccurately transcribed, send an (anonymous, if you prefer) email to Hannah Bast.

A statistic of the quantitative questions can be found in the automatically generated [[http://ad-teaching.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/InformationRetrievalWS2122/evaluation-report.pdf|EvaSys report (PDF)]].

== Nominations for teaching award (24 out of 30) ==

Die Dozentin schafft es selbst die schwierigsten Inhalte einfach und verständlich zu vermitteln und macht dabei immer einen sehr kompetenten Eindruck. Die Vorlesungen bei ihr machen immer sehr viel Spaß und sie schafft es, dass selbst recht trockene Themen Spaß machen zu lernen und zu vertiefen.

Die Kombination aus verständlicher Erklärung und Humor macht die Veranstaltung nicht nur sehr lehrreich, sondern auch unterhaltsam.

Es ist Hannah Bast.

Having personally worked in academia professionally for close to 2 years, I am of the impression that majority of the academicians struggle to find a balance between teaching and the research that they partake in. I have met individuals from both extremes that either taught a lecture extremely well while carrying out little to no research, as well as those that would get an extremely poor teaching performance evaluation, yet were considered as highly esteemed individuals within their research area. Professor Hannah Bast deserves to be somewhere on top of the list of professors that have managed to figure out how to excel in both departments, while making it seem as though it were done seamlessly.

The content she presents includes both the theory that is necessary to solidify our knowledge of the subject, as well as the practical applications that it can be utilized for. She specifically gives examples of the work that occurs under her department which intrigues us as students to explore the various research that occurs within that department and perhaps consider partaking in it. It may be because she has offered this course several times in the past, that she understands exactly where a student would get stuck while trying to grasp a concept. She helps alleviate this confusion by providing several examples during her lectures and also by encouraging us to think further for ourselves by asking us thought provoking questions/problems. I think other faculty members can learn a lot from the approaches utilized by her when she teaches. It would really help inspire more students to develop an interest towards a certain field and help encourage more students to apply to the program if more professors were to take a similar approach as she does within academia.

Her lecture recordings were very easy to digest and understand (no technical issues). She held the course even after being burdened by new responsibilities and held regular qna sessions even if the course had to be moved to an asynchronous method. I really appreciate the live coding she did in the lecture that helped me get in the flow for the assignments.

I have taken so many subjects but professor Hannah lectures wee top notch.

If I would have known the Professor when she was born, I would have named her Hannah Best. She indeed is the best. One would see that the subject she is teaching is not easy one, but she makes us feel like it is so easy and so enjoyable to understand. Like this is the only lecture that I wait for and enjoy the most. She deserves the appreciation. And also one Award to Patrick please.

It's someone else's turn. The course was too low level and outdated. This makes it more difficult for people that are creative but not accurate. I study in Germany to become more accurate but didn't expect needing to hand in the cutting edge.

Nevertheless, she is the best.
 
No so long lectures like the other courses. Also, the teaching style is quite different which was loved by everyone.

Not only is does she explain the course material in a very understandable way, but also she gives you an intuition into the material. She motivates and engages students, and her lecture recordings are always fun and exciting. Besides, the course content is very practical and great.

Prof. Bast is kickass and I learnt a lot from her. She is involved with the students and for me that connect of a teacher with his/her students is very important.

Prof. Bast hat einen tollen Lehrstil. Auch wenn sie es dieses Semester nicht live gemacht hat, konnte man ihr gut folgen und in den Q&A's hat sie sich immer Zeit genommen für ausführliche Erklärungen, ob mit oder ohne Fragen. Sie ist immer auf alles eingegangen.

Prof. Bast's lectures were very well-prepared and easy to understand and definitely the best course I took this semester.

She is one of the best professor's here I know. She teaches the exact amount and with intuition not just reading slides.

Siehe 7.2 "Was hat Ihnen an dieser Lehrveranstaltung besonders gut gefallen?".

The professor made sure that all doubts are cleared and any material that was difficult to understand was explained again in the online meetings.

Wenn man hier mal eine Vorlesung gehört hat und sie dann mit den meisten anderen Vorlesungen der TF vergleicht merkt man schnell, dass das hier Lehre auf einem anderen Level ist. Im Gesamtpaket steckt einfach viel Arbeit: Qualität der Übungsblätter und Tutor-Feedback, Live-Coding und Beispiele in der Vorlesung, roter Faden in der Vorlesung, Praxisbezug.

Interessante und verständliche Vorlesung.

= What did you like best about this course? =
 
The lecture recordings were great. I understood everything that was explained and asked questions in the live sessions when needed. Prof. Bast answered the queries very well and taught beyond the lectures in the sessions. The content of the course is also interesting and well prepared.

Dass die Themen recht unterschiedlich waren und man in Dinge wie HTML, JAVA, SQL reinschnuppern konnte - wann hat man da schonmal die Möglichkeit zu in sonstigen Vorlesungen! Dass es meistens Programmieraufgaben gab. Dass es ein regelmäßiges Q&A gab und sich Prof. Bast wirklich Zeit für uns genommen hat, alles nochmal erklärt hat und auf Fragen eingegangen ist. Dass die Übungsaufgaben zwar anspruchsvoll, aber lösbar waren und man zum Ende des Semesters aber nicht um Punkte kämpfen, sondern sich im Stress auch mal auf andere Dinge konzentrieren konnte, weil man die 50 % Punkteschwelle eben recht einfach erreichen kann.

Der Bezug zur Praxis, hauptsächlich im Bereich der Suchmaschinen.

Die Code Templates waren im sehr gut und übersichtlich gestaltet und vor allem mit den Sachen schon ergänzt, die für die eigentliche Aufgabe nicht so wichtig waren, was einem sehr viel Arbeit abgenommen hat. Generell finde ich die Vorlesungen sind immer sehr gut und die Aufgaben interessant und passend gewesen.

Die Vorlesung hat meiner Meinung nach die höchste Qualität aller bisherigen Vorlesungen die ich in meinen 5 Semestern hier gehört habe. Immer wieder wird sich in den Studierenden/die Studierende hineinversetzt um das Thema aus deren Perspektive beleuchten zu können. Die Vorlesung und die Folien sind einheitlich nach einem klaren Stil gestaltet, was bei Orientierung und Verständnis einen großen Vorteil bringt.

Die Fragestunde war für mich auch eine sehr gute Ergänzung, durch die Behandlung der Kernthemen der jeweiligen Vorlesung konnte ich zuvor verstandenes festigen und mein Verständnis von Konzepten, die ich zuvor nur halbwegs verstanden habe, verbessern. Jegliche Fragen die während dieser Fragestunde aufkamen konnten verständlich beantwortet werden. Gerade das Zeichnen von neuen Bildern oder das Erklären durch ein neues Beispiel haben mir viel geholfen.

Die Übung ist meiner Meinung nach perfekt gestaltet. Die Übungsblätter waren immer verständlich, interessant und fordernd. Alles was benötigt wurde konnte auf dem Übungsblatt oder in den Folien gefunden werden, sollten trotzdem Fragen aufkommen war man mit dem Forum dann gut beraten.
Ich habe mich immer auf die Übungen gefreut und war auch immer sehr glücklich wenn am Ende ein echtes Produkt dabei rauskam. Einige der Übungen konnten sogar Freunde und Familie beeindrucken.

Die Übungen waren toll.

Die Übungsblätter waren sehr gut.

Exercises and their proximity to lecture content. Really fun and applicable.

Frau Bast kann wirklich sehr gut Sachen erklären und mit praktischen Beispielen das Lernmaterial interessant machen

Ich fand die Videos sehr gut, mir persönlich hat die live Vorlesung nicht gefehlt. Die Konzepte wurden sehr gut erklärt und die Übungsaufgaben waren immer sinnvoll und haben meist auch viel Spaß gemacht. Die Online Zoom meetings waren auch immer sehr interessant und haben zum verständnis beigetragen.

Lectures are well recorded, audio is clear and understandable. Slides are very well annotated which helps in later revisions. Assignments were thoughtfully made and helped build the understanding of theoretical concepts and hopefully reduced my exam preparation effort.

Mir gefällt besonders gut, dass alle Konzepte eher bottom up bearbeitet und beigebracht werden, sodass man sie wirklich begreift und auch ohne viel Vorwissen einsteigen und den Inhalt nachverfolgen kann. Das Pacing der Vorlesung ist 1A, Beispiele werden an den richtigen Stellen gezeigt, es gibt keine "Fillerfolien", Inhalte werden durch Live-Coding vermittelt.

Mir hat es sehr gefallen, Professor Bast als Dozentin zu haben, weil sie es schafft sehr komplexe Inhalte verständlich und einfach zu erklären, sie macht einen sehr kompetenten Eindruck und kann so gut wie immer die Fragen der Studenten sinnvoll beantworten.

Prof Bast is kickass and her classes are very fun, interactive and informative :)

Prof. Bast hat die Themen immer sehr verständlich erklärt und durch ihre oft auch humorvolle Art dafür gesorgt, dass es viel Spaß gemacht hat, sich mit dem Modul und den Übungsblättern auseinanderzusetzen. Natürlich ist das u.A. auch darin begründet, dass mir das Themenfeld generell sehr zusagt und Spaß macht.

Prof. Bast is very good at explaining and illustrating the topics and algorithms. One can really feel, that she is not only interested in the topics, but also in teaching others about them.

Prof. Dr. Hannah Bast and my Tutor Patrick, Both are the best. Professor really takes efforts to make every concept as much clear as it could get. I just loved the entire course, and I wish there were more like this.

Professor Bast made the course and exercises very informative and it made beginners understand the course easily.

Professor Hannah Bast.
 
This course would not be 99% as enjoyable if it were taught by someone else. From the friendly demeanor that she demonstrates in the provided recordings, to the enthusiasm that she brings each time in the Q/A sessions, it has been nothing short of a pleasure to have taken a course taught by her. I can (and will) only recommend prospective students to enroll in this course if they have the opportunity to do so, in order to experience how a course should be taught.

Dr. Hannah Bast manages to present even the most daunting topics an individual might consider, in such a concise and lucid manner that one has nothing but confidence in their grasp of the topic after watching her lecture. She attempts to teach all the relevant concepts that are necessary for a better understanding while still leaving enough room to instill a level of curiosity that allows an individual to ponder over questions that could lead to a deeper understanding of the topic. Unlike many in academia, this professor shows (or at least gives an outstanding impression of it!) that she really enjoys presenting the material rather than making it appear as if it were an obligation that needs to be fulfilled. From the enthusiasm that she shows while completing a mathematical proof, to the beautiful tangents that she digresses to in the Q/A sessions every now and then, all of these moments have acted as a valuable opportunity for me to learn something new. I am delighted to admit that I have learnt something new every week which I may be able to apply as a computer scientist, or in life in general thanks mostly to the way it has been presented by her.

Most students don't feel very confident asking questions during a lecture, more so now that lectures are not in-person, but the professor manages to make herself so approachable in the virtual meetings that one only looks forward to attending these meeting and attempt to engage in them each week. I strongly believe that the structure of this course should remain as it is, whereby the students are provided the material of a given week well in advance of the Q/A session that will take place for that material. I am of the opinion that this really helps us to absorb the material that was presented in the recordings and to be able to formulate the questions that we may have had in a clearer manner. It happens more often than not that a question arises in my mind, but I am unable to express it clearly in spoken words until I have had the time to really think about it and write it down. The exercises are a great supplement to the content that this course has covered. They give us the opportunity to observe the material that we have just learnt in a practical manner, and help bridge the gap that exists between theory and practice. They also do a terrific job in solidifying our understanding of the relevant topics. Many times I think I have understood a concept until I try and write it down on a piece of paper to help better visualize it. It may take me days until I can fully grasp the problem that the exercise is attempting to address, but it's an extremely rewarding feeling once you can make sense out of it by yourself. Once again, I would not recommend any changes in the structure in which this course has been presented in.

Sehr gute Folien und Übungen. Aufzeichnung und QnA hat mir ebenfalls gut gefallen.

Sehr interessante Themen, viel praktische Übung. Mich hat es überhaupt nicht gestört, dass die Veranstaltung nicht "live" gehalten wurde, die Aufzeichnungen waren gut gemacht, sodass es sich angefühlt hat wie eine normale online Vorlesung.

The practical exercises helped deepen the theoretical knowledge acquired in the lecture. Further discussions in Q&A sessions. The overall content of the course, during which I improved both in math and in programming.

The professor patiently cleared all doubts and her explanations were very well put forth. She has become one of my favourite teachers ever! The exercises were very well designed and the tutor feedback was also very helpful in assessing mistakes.

The profs English is good, she speaks in clear not-longwinding (i.e. German) sentences. There were wits on the exercise sheets on other light heartedness that I approve. I agree that the maths proofs are useful to hammer in understanding. Live coding was impressive and fun.

The way it was structured.

= Where do you see potential for improvement for this course? =
 
The forum always takes a long time to load.

Die Zoom Meetings haben etwas spontan gewirkt, manchmal war es etwas schwer zu folgen. Manchmal gab es in den Aufzeichnungen Fragen, die nicht ganz beantwortet wurden. Vielleicht kann man diese noch hinzufügen.

Don't have much to say here, the way this course was presented was pretty much ideal. I wish for courses in general, not 100% of the evaluation is based on the final exam, since 1 day can be good/bad, but a little portion (~30%) can be brought from assignments, or some other activity (quiz/presentation) in the duration of the course.

Eigentlich gibt es nichts Konkretes was ich jetzt schlecht fand. Höchstens bei der Website würde ich mir an mancher Stelle mehr Übersichtlichkeit wünschen, also v.a. bei den Vorlesungseinträgen dass nicht jeder Link zu den Materialien ohne Zeilenumbruch nacheinander kommt, sondern als schön geordnet als Liste. Aber das ist meckern auf max. hohem niveau.

I don't think there is anything wrong with the way the course has been presented at the moment, but if something were to be added (and if it isn't too much extra work), then it may be nice to know exactly what areas students struggled with during the implementation exercises. It is difficult for us to interact with one another considering everything is done remotely and not many people turn on their cameras. Although a master solution is provided to show an efficient implementation of the task at hand, it would be nice to know what approach majority of the students (may?) have taken instead and why it was more/less efficient than the one given in the master solution.

I wish we could have had offline lectures. That would just be the cherry on the cake.

Ich bin sehr zufrieden mit der Veranstaltung und habe somit keine konkreten Vorschläge.

It would have been helpful to have fewer topics with greater depth. (At least better explanations especially for lectures 10, 11 and for Numpy.)

Maybe if it would have been live lectures it would have been great. Nothing major improvement needed.

Mit hat alles sehr gut gefallen. Kein größeres Verbesserungspotential.

None

Schwer zu sagen, da die Qualität der Vorlesung wirklich hervorragend ist. Wenn die Vorlesung länger wäre, könnte man hier und da vielleicht noch ein paar Sachen einbauen.

She explained that making maths proofs allow students to really comprehend the material. It's true that principles matter more than derived insights, even though I thought it made it entry level here and there, maths proofs are rarely if ever easy. The exercises were very doable but continued to permit underestimation of time required. The textbook seems outdated. I don't understand why courses are often entry level instead of cutting edge. It will be difficult to study for the exam. The material was from 19/20 although it was really from 1920.

So gut die Vorlesungen sind, so schwer sind für mich die Übungen. Ich kann kaum den Zusammenhang zwischen der Vorlesung und den Übungen herstellen. Es wird immer nur gesagt "it's soooooooooo easy, you just need two lines of code" aber dann bin ich trotzdem den ganzen Tag an der Übung und versuche mit den Folien und Aufzeichnungen irgendwie zu verstehen was genau von der Vorlesung wir brauchen. Bestes Beispiel ist Blatt 11 gewesen. Laut Bast super easy man braucht nur die eine Zeile Code (die Updateformel) und dann hat man das Ergebnis. Leider geht es überhaupt nicht so einfach und ich habe überall nach Hinweisen gesucht in der Vorlesung was mir noch fehlt. Klar das Forum kann man benutzen, wenn man wüsste was überhaupt falsch ist. Kann ja nicht sagen "hey hier ist mein Code was braucht ich noch?" Das ist leider mega frustrierend gerade weil die Veranstaltung an sich so mega gut ist (einer der besten meines Studiums) und ich während der Vorlesung immer das Gefühl habe, dass ich das Thema verstanden habe.

Sometimes the assignments became difficult for people who are not so good with coding.

The lecture provided a thorough introduction to the field. However, some of the lectures, especially on web applications are bachelor level and can be replaced with recent developments in the field.

= Quality of the work of the tutor =
 
PB, A++ (== -1.0/4.0), I am thrilled to have had such a great tutor! He tends to leave informative feedback whereby he pinpoints my mistakes and provides solutions to them in most of the cases. At times a random question pops up in my head which I'm unable to figure out the answer for, so I include it in my feedback for a given assignment half expecting it to actually be answered if it isn't directly related to the assignment. He still goes out of his way to provide me with an explanation which almost always eases my concerns or confusion. As an improvement for this course I was planning to write that it would have been nice to see our tutors (virtually) at least once, but I'm happy I got to see mine give a wonderful lecture in the last week!

JK, 1,0, freundlich, hilfsbereit und detailliertes Feedback.

JK, 1.3.

JK, 10/10 (1 being lowest), Was very responsive to emails, gave insightful, timely and personalized feedback and even helped me in a perspective change on Mathematics which I will take with me after the course as well.

JK, er hat die Übungsblätter immer pünktlich korrigiert und war bei der Korrektur immer sehr fair. Die Korrektur und Punktevergabe, war dabei immer verständlich und man konnte nachvollziehen, warum man die Punktzahl bekommen hat, die er einem gegeben hat.

JK. 9/10, Typical "hart aber fair", I think I should get a pass-free for the whole course to be honest but the feedback was usually like, oh I subtract points for formatting or lack of test-completion... I mean, what more to expect when the exercises are easy?

MH 1.0. Bewertungen waren immer fair, es gab nichts zu beanstanden.

MH, gute Korrektur, bin zufrieden.

MH, 1, alles tip top.

MH, 1.3, fair tutor.. sometimes forgets to answer the questions I have asked in my experiences.txt file.

MH, sehr gut, da ich so keinen direkten Kontakt zu ihm hatte, kann ich das nicht bewerten. Die Korrekturen waren schnell da und es war mir immer sehr klar, warum genau ich Punkte verloren habe.

NP, 10/10. She always gave great and detailed feedback, which were very helpful. And she was always available for asking questions.

Ms. Hannah Bast was just amazing. One of the best lecturers I've seen in the university. She explains stuff in a gentle but brief manner.

My Tutor was NP. I would give her the best grade as she thoroughly went through all my submissions and gave very valuable feedback. Along with explaining where she cut marks, she also pointed to specific parts in the solution and gave suggestions on improvement.

NP. Gute, präzise, nette und hilfreiche Rückmeldungen - so würde ich ihre Arbeit beschreiben.

NP, 1.0, alles gut, keine Beanstandungen.

NP, 1.0, fair correction + helpful feedbacks.

NP, A, provided succinct constructive feedback and was helpful.

PB, 1,0, Korrektur wurde immer pünktlich vorgenommen, gelegentlich sogar am Wochenende. Sehr detaillierte Rückmeldungen.

PB, Always provided great feedback/improvement methods in the exercises, fair scoring.

PB. Der bekommt die 1.0 . Auch als er mal für Bast eingesprungen (bei der Vorlesung 12) ist fand ich es super wie toll er es erklärt hat.

PB. I mentioned in my experience files too for submission of the assignments, that Patrick is the best tutor one could ask for. He is very helpful at all times and always makes it clearer for the students.

PB. Great work done by him. He thoroughly assessed the assignments and provided correct feedback always.