Improvements based on 2021 iteration

[vincenzocoia]

Lec A2 and A3 swap

I think it would just make more sense if the authoring lecture (currently lec 3) was swapped with version control (currently lec 2). It's currently a little awkward talking about plain text for version control before I really get into what that is.

[vincenzocoia]

Class on Imagine Day

The first two weeks (3 lectures) are reserved for getting set up with the tools. But students would benefit from an extra day. Perhaps open up class on Imagine Day, if only an optional one for installation.

[vincenzocoia]

Mini Data Analysis

• Backloading the MDA project is beneficial because it allows for a sufficient amount of R topics to be covered before they start. The problem with this is that it's hard to get feedback in time for their next milestone.
• Grading these milestones is a lot of work, especially with an increased student load.

One idea is to combine the milestones so that there are two instead of three. This would reduce the grading load, and allow for more time for feedback, while still keeping the concepts covered intact so that student learning is not impacted.