NUS's CS5228, IS5116 and IS5151 Reviews - Master of Computing Modules

 So the first semester of my second year of Master of Computing, specialising in Information Systems, was for lack of a better word, NIGHTMARISH. Somehow I chose modules that were somewhat heavy and on top of that, had to content with a job change right in the middle of the semester! But all things eventually come to an end, even nightmarish semesters. All is well that ends well as they say.

In this post, I will cover my Year 2, Semester 2 modules - CS5228, IS5116 and IS5151 in the hopes that it will help all of you with your own planning and scheduling for the semester. This semester also marks me undertaking my first CS module (and probably the last one). There are just too many IS modules I am interested in doing and will probably do those.

For reviews on the other IS modules I took, do check out those posts here - Year 1, Semester 1 modules - IS5005 and IS5009 , Year 1, Semester 2 modules - IS5008, IS5111 and IS5128 and Year 2, Semester 2 modules - IS5002 and IS5004. You could also check out my post on tips to do well in your part-time Masters!

And now jumping straight into my Year 2, Semester 1 modules review....

CS5228 - Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (under Prof Christian Von Der WETH)

Workload  

2 Hours of Lecture and 1 Hour of Tutorial a Week 

Lectures and tutorials are recorded and is available for students' viewing so it is not strictly-speaking necessary to attend them live. The lectures do end within the two hours and this is followed by the hour long tutorial with a short break in between. 

During the zoom lecture, some student asked questions in the chat and Prof Christian answers them in between lecturing. Might be a little distracting for some but it does help with learning especially if you are lost on the concepts, clarifications could be made immediately. For tutorial, it is entirely up to you to attempt the questions beforehand. He will go through it during the hour with voluntary inputs from students via the zoom chat.

Relatively heavy module.

Assessment

There are three assignments and a group project for this module. Assignments are released on certain specified dates, which will be disclosed close to the start of the semester. This will definitely help with planning and allocating time throughout the semester to do your assignments.

There was a forum section that was rather active with students asking questions about the assignments and projects. Prof responded rather quickly to them.

Individual Assignment 1a and 1b: 20%

Assignments 1a and 1b were released in Weeks 4 and 5 respectively. About 3 and 2 weeks was given for this assignment and we had to submit them at the same time. 

The assignment was a mix of coding and short-answer questions, about 50-50% each. I felt assignment 1 overall was quite manageable if you understood the lecture content well enough. 

One challenge for the assignments was really in understanding certain questions. Because of many students not properly understanding one of the questions, the prof had to replace it. But it was up to us to decide whether to submit answers for either the old or new question, so that those who had already completed the question need not redo it. 

Individual Assignment 2a and 2b: 20%

Assignments 2a and 2b were released in Weeks 7 and 8 respectively with 3 and 2 weeks to complete them. 

I still remember the many typos this assignment had. I actually misunderstood some questions a number of times before getting them right. Prof Christian did acknowledge the typos and mentioned he will take greater care with them in subsequent semesters so I don't think it should be as much of an issue next time.

Individual Assignment 3: 10%

Assignment 3 was only in a single part and released in Week 10 with submission in Week 12. For the submission, Prof Christian actually gave us the option to choose when to submit, either in Week 11 or 12.

Group Final Project - 50%

For the group project, we had to form teams of 4 on our own by Week 3 or 4. There was no presentation for this module. Just submission of a report and the codes which was due end of Week 13.

There were three parts to the project, which was quite manageable with 4 in a team. One of the parts involved a Kaggle competition where we were ranked against our fellow classmates. Though it was quite competitive, Prof Christian clearly told us that the ranking doesn't necessarily determines our grades. 

"Of course, being ranked higher probably means you have applied the concepts correctly," in Prof Christian's own words (or somewhat own words). 

An advise for the project would definitely be to start on it as soon as possible. For us, it was released before recess week so try to use that week to start on it.

Grades

Grades of the assignments and even final project were released within the Gradebook in LumiNUS, even the result statistics so you could kind of ascertain where you stand among the rest of the students. Comments for all the assignments and project were also released.

Thoughts about Module

I would say this is a heavy module mainly because there were 5 assignments (I consider the parts a and b as 2 assignments because really the workload is that of 2 separate assignments) and a project to complete.

Each assignment part really had lots of questions to tackle. And even though the third assignment was only one part, it was released rather late into the semester such that it was sort of overlapping with the time period to do the project. But if you plan well enough and start on the project early, it shouldn't be that overwhelming.

I have to say though that this module was well-planned. Right at the start, we know what we would be covering each week during lectures. And even for the assignments and project, the expectations were provided quite clearly or if not, you could easily get clarifications from email or the forum.

Opinion of Prof Christian

I feel Prof Christian really go out of his way to help students, whether it is to help them understand the concepts during lectures or in replying to questions about the assignments/project. He is quick to reply emails and questions even on the days of submission of assignments/project - Sunday. He did mention he would not stay awake late to reply last minute questions which is fair. The fact that he even replied on Sunday was something he didn't need to do.

He is definitely one of the professors you could learn lots from.

Would I Recommend this Module?

I would say it depends. If you are really interested in the content like I was, then definitely go for it! You will learn plenty of useful stuff. But if you are particular about not being overwhelmed during semester time, I would say be cautious because the module is a little heavy. So try to pair it with a lighter module.

IS5116 - Digital Entrepreneurship (under Prof Francis YEOH)

Workload  

2 Hours of Lecture a Week 

Good to attend lecture because there is a class participation graded portion. Otherwise for classes missed, lecture sessions are recorded for viewing or review.

Prof Yeoh tended to overshoot the two hours lecture slot a number of times. I guess there was just too much content to cover. It is a good thing the lectures were on Friday.

A mid-level module in terms of workload.

Assessment

Individual Assignment 1 - 10%

Assignment 1 required an analysis of a local-based company. Since there were a few foreign students in the class as well, Prof Francis gave the option of a few more international companies. We were give a week to complete the assignment. 

Individual Assignment 2 / Group Guest Hosting Session - 20%

For this component, you could either choose to go solo and tackle assignment 2 or host a guest session together with your team.

I voted to do assignment 2 and my group decided to go with that option and boy, was I glad to. Mainly because I felt the guest hosting session had quite a bit to do. The group will have to arrange a chat with the guest beforehand to get to know them, prepare slides for the class to give an introduction about the guest and their various ventures, take the class through the hour long session and then recap the major learning points to the class the following week.

For assignment 2, it's again an analysis of a company based on different metrics this time. Similar to assignment 1, one week was given to complete it.  

Individual Class Participation - 20%

Prof Francis expects students to contribute where possible. He does ask a lot of questions so there are lots of opportunities to contribute. Do take note that even contributions on forum are counted so for those more shy to speak out in class, take advantage of this!

Lecture attendance also contributes to the participation marks.

Group Final Project - 50%

• 20% for business proposal
• 20% for investment pitch 
• 10% for elevator pitch

In groups of 6 we had to come up with a business proposal for a business idea. There is literally no limits for what you wish to work on except that it should have some digital component in it. 

At the end of Week 13 for our semester (usually it is in Week 12) we had to submit the business proposal and do our elevator and investment pitch in front of the class.

Grades

Grades for all the assessment components were released within LumiNUS's Gradebook, even the result statistics so you could ascertain where you stand among the rest of the students. Comments were given for the assignments and final reports. 

Thoughts about Module

I thought the module was really quite interesting. The most fun aspect I would say was the guest hosting session and watching the final elevator pitch by our classmates. 

I definitely felt like I learnt a lot from the guests who were invited. Since almost all of them had founded a startup, it was great to hear of their entrepreneurial experiences and ask them questions. 

Opinion of Prof Francis

It is clear that Prof Francis has a lot of experiences and knowledge about the startup and business world. Really a fountain of knowledge and he invites us all to think critically and ask questions of him. Overall he tries to make the class more interactive and engaging. 

Would I Recommend this Module?

A resounding YES for those looking to embark on an entrepreneurial journey! And even for those who aren't.

If nothing else, you will definitely come out of it knowing more about startups, in particular tech startups. I would even venture to say it could help you make more sound investment decisions. 

IS5151 - Information Security Policy and Management (under Prof Atreyi KANKANHALLI)

Workload  

2 Hours of Lecture a Week  

Good to attend lecture because there is a class participation graded portion. Otherwise for classes missed, lecture sessions are recorded for viewing or review.

A mid-level module in terms of workload.

Assessment

For this module, you will team up into groups of 6 or 7 and work with the group for three of the assessment components.

Individual Class Participation - 10%

So the class contribution for this module is a little strange. We were told to comment and ask questions via the zoom chat. You can already imagine the number of crap questions that were asked. Prof Atreyi answers them at the halfway point. This really takes up quite a bit of time which I felt was a little waste of time. Even caused lectures to end late some days.

I feel that overall if you are aversed to asking questions for which you could easily Google the answer, you might not have many opportunities to gain participation marks. But really, if you want those marks then just ask the questions no matter how dumb you feel they are.

Lecture attendance also contributes minimally to the participation marks.

Group Case Study - 10%

For the case study we had to do a slide deck of maximum seven slides and present it to the class. Every group is given a different case to present on and the presentation week is different for different groups, starting from Week 3. Two groups were scheduled to present each week.

Each team could decide how many people will present for the case study. There are two presentations for this module and Prof recommended for everyone to present. So we divided the team into three and four for the case study and assignment 1 presentation respectively.

Group Assignment 1 - 25% (20% for report and 5% presentation)

Assignment 1 required us to write a white paper, with a maximum of 20 pages, on one of the topics given for us to choose from. We would also have to do up a slide deck for a 15 minutes presentation. 

I feel this was quite a heavy assignment which was a good thing there were seven members to each team. Submission for both the report and presentation was in Week 7.

Prof Atreyi designated two lecture slots for assignment 1 and 2 consultation and these happened in Weeks 6 and 11 so no lectures those weeks. Great time to work on the assignments.

Group Assignment 2 - 25%

Assignment 2 was on information security policy and had two parts. The first required us to critique the given policy (10 pages, 12%) and the second part had us rewriting the entire policy to an ideal version (10 pages, 13%). Overall, I felt this assignment was really manageable especially with seven people on the team. 

There was no presentation for this assignment, just submission of report which was due in Week 12.

Final Exam - 30%

The final exam took place in Week 13. This was an open-book exam so do print out your lecture notes and bring it at the minimum. You WILL need it! There was lots of flipping of pages happening in the exam hall.

The exam took about 45 minutes and there were about 20-30 questions with multiple-choice as well as short-answer questions. Even though it might feel that is a manageable number of questions, somehow I had to rush through it the last few minutes to be able to complete the paper. 

Grades

Grades for the Individual Class Participation and Case Studies were released on LumiNUS. For the Group Assignments, they were released in the marked report that was emailed to the entire team. But beware that the grade on the returned assignment might not be your final grade for that assignment. 

Confused? Yeah well, me too. I felt there was little transparency in the grading system. The only reason I was even aware of this was because I asked one of my teammates I was comfortable talking grades with.

Final exam grades are not released but this is pretty standard for most modules.

Thoughts about Module

I thought the module really covered certain interesting aspects in terms of policies, data protection, asset management, etc. which I had little prior knowledge about. A teammate who had prior knowledge mentioned he didn't learn much though. So it really depends on what you are looking for when doing a module.

It was pretty well-organised in terms of stating which content will be covered in which week and Prof Atreyi gave two reference books to supplement the lecture materials. To be honest, I didn't have much time to read up too much of those books but I feel the lecture materials are more or less sufficient even for the final exam. 

Specs were provided for both assignments and the case study so you know clearly what needs to be done. Yet for all the instructions and comments returned to us sometimes I just don't understand why we were given certain grades or why certain marks were minus off.

Opinion of Prof Atreyi

What can I say about Prof Atreyi except that if she is teaching another module I would probably actively avoid it even if I was interested in that module. 

The content of the lecture was well-planned to be fair and it was interesting enough for me. I was really hoping to learn about information security policies and all that. 

The problem was more with the lecturer than the module in this case. I feel she was a little wishy-washy about certain things like answering students' questions for example and the way she grades just lacks transparency. Students from the same group can get different grades for the same assignment - this is without taking peer review into consideration.

But what do I know about grading. Just beware that she is very tight-fisted with grades. You will be left scratching your head about why she has taken off marks from your assignment even though the overall comment is good. Like I said, wishy-washy.

An incident that really upset me was how she incorrectly gave us some information for assignment 1 and then minus marks from our assignment when we followed what she told us. After which she said we misunderstood her. I could put it down to miscommunication but really, I just can't justify it - she clearly gave incorrect information.

Would I Recommend this Module?

I guess so if we take the Prof out of the equation..

*And there you have it, the three Semester 1 modules I took for my third semester as a Master of Computing student. To anyone who needs to ask more questions, please feel free to comment or contact me. I will do my best to answer whatever queries I can. Once again, wishing you all the very best for your own Master journey!