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Have an in-class checkpoint halfway through large assignments.
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This is incredibly valuable to students and groups that get stuck or off track with their project.
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You can address any questions that they have at this midpoint and diagnose any way students have gotten derailed to get them back on track.
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Make sure their projects demonstrate sufficient complexity by interacting with students at this midpoint.
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Using complex elements demonstrates mastery of course content.
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If projects are not complex, you could ask students what elements they could add to make their projects more complex or suggest your ideas as well.
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Here, complexity refers to having well executed code or using advanced internal algorithms.
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Examples of complexity in design include:
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how code is organized and used for different sprites and blocks,
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successful implementation of a difficult programming task,
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well coded complicated algorithms (such as Dijkstra’s Algorithm, the A* algorithm, and many others),
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and/or statistical analysis programs.
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This in-class meeting is a great opportunity for students to realize that they already used up half of the time for this project.
- Pointing out to students that they’re at the halfway mark can help students realize just how much time they have left to complete the assignment.