LRCC ITP100 Review

 

LRCC ITP100 Software Design Review

I recently took a beginning software design class at Laurel Ridge Community College, located in Middletown, Virginia. The course was ITP100 Software Design and it was conducted by Dr. José M. Nieves. This is my review of the professor and the class:

 

A quick note before my personal opinions on my professor(s): I work full-time. All my classes this semester (Spring 2024) were online with no Zoom meetings or classroom attendance. I think it can be difficult to judge someone personally when the class is conducted entirely online. All interactions with the professor are via email unless you schedule a meeting (in-person or Zoom) due to issues, which I did not.

 

Another thing I'd like to note is the course title - Software Design. I think the course would better named Intro To Software Design & Beginning Programming. The first couple weeks deal with software design such as the software development lifecycle and pseudo code. A lot of the class is starting to learn the basics of the Java programming language; it touches on Python in a similar fashion.

At first Dr. Nieves writing comes across as a bit pretentious. He is clear (in my opinion) on requirements in his course syllabus and module outlines. He was responsive to my emails. However, his initial responses at the beginning were not on point to my inquiries. At one point, I got terse with him, asking him to reread my email before replying (not recommended speaking that way to any professor). My patience wore thin after a few improper responses. Unfortunately, I'm not the most tactful, and my deference for position can be quickly overcome based on my age/ life experience (deference for position vs. deference for age and life experience; in other words I believe that all the professors are due respect based on their position, but I, being older than a typical college student (older than most of my professors) feel entitled to the respect of an apposite response to my inquiries and have no problem stating so as an equal in respect/deference owed due to my age and life experiences). After this brief exchange, where I received a light reprimand by Dr. Nieves about respect, all of Dr. Nieves's responses were on point and thoughtful.

 

I think an all-online beginner programming class is a mistake for those with little or no experience in a software design/ beginning programming class. I would have liked at least Zoom lectures from the professor. This isn't a reflection on Dr. Nieves but more a reality about the difficulty of learning something so new and different from what you may have learned before. If you have prior experience, you'll be fine. If you're new, you're likely to struggle. I put a lot of time and effort into this class. A lot of time. Expect it to be hard if you have little to no experience.

 

In my opinion, Professor Nieves grows on you over time. He repeatedly reminds the class about office hours and his availability to assist. I never utilized anything other than email for direct communication with him, so I can't speak on his in-person help. He coordinated and guided an extra credit activity regarding local data centers, which only a few students participated in (done via Zoom). While reading Rate My Professor, Dr. Nieves seems to get a lot of flack from students about how hard he is. I found this difficult to reconcile with the attendance for the extra credit. It leads me to believe that some people who had problems with his 'toughness' may just not have a great work ethic and are looking for an easy grade. Let me tell you now – it's not easy. It's work. I started out with an unfavorable opinion. My opinion changed over time. I think he's a professor that cares. I think learning programming is hard for people with no experience, and people have unfairly attributed the difficulty of the material to their opinion of the professor.

 

If I were to offer one criticism of the course, it would be that Dr. Nieves time-gates all the material. To me, it doesn't make sense to time-gate the material and prevent those able to proceed at a faster pace from doing so. There are no Zoom lectures or any other professor-led instructions that would warrant this policy. I would speculate that at best, it's to help the professor manage what he has to deal with when responding to student inquiries each day/week; limiting the type and amount of subject matter inquiries. If you're a fast self-pacer you will be disappointed by this restriction.

Would I take a class with Dr. Nieves again? Yes. I'm not really choosy in that manner though (unless it was someone whom I thought was terrible, then I'd avoid them). Bottom line is I'm there to learn. He's knowledgeable, capable, and approachable. He can also be reasoned with. As far as I'm concerned his grading is fair; but know that I put work in to get my (good) grade.

In conclusion,  I'm a little over a week away from our final project in this class, and my initial opinion that I am not made for software design & programming is re-affirmed after taking this class. I came into this class believing programming was not my cup of tea and I'm leaving it feeling the same way. I'm in the Cybersecurity degree program at LRCC and this is one of the required classes for the degree. There's one more I'm dreading - Python for Cybersecurity (okay, I'm also dreading Advanced Linux Administration too). In the end though (so far) I'm glad I'm being forced outside of my comfort zone in learning something new to me /hard for me. I don't regret the experience, the class, or my instructor; I view them all as beneficial to me.

Edit - 5/11/2024: Class is over. Capstone project complete. I loved the capstone project. It was hard for a beginner programmer, yet deeply satisfying to work through and apply all that we learned over the semester to complete the project. I actually got an 'A' on my project - which I was shocked on. I really thought my program looked sloppy (as I imagined an experienced programmer looking at it). I think the sloppiness was in part due to me switching my approach to a solution on more than one occasion. I was also certain the professor would find errors that I had missed in my own review of my programs functionality. If there were any, he did not fault me for them or point them out.

What has your experience been with Dr. Nieves and/or LRCC's ITP100 class? Let me know in the comments below.