Review - WiiLab submission to FIE 2009

Q. Liao, Y. Jiang, J. Brindza, J. Szweda, A. Striegel, “WiiLab: Bringing Together the Nintendo Wiimote and MATLAB,” to appear in Proc. of Frontiers in Education (FIE), 2009.

Review Summary

• Review 1: Accept with major revisions or as a Work in Progress
• Review 2: Accept as is
• Review 3: Accept with minor revisions

Raw Review

Links / acceptance note from conference chairs removed.

In the comments below, you will see numerical scores for different aspects of your presentation. The scale was:
1 - poor  2 - needs work  3 - good  4 - very good  5 - excellent

Specific comments by reviewers:

Please make sure to address the issues raised by the first and third reviewers as you make your revisions


Feedback from reviewer 1:
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Recommendation: Accept with major revisions or as a Work in Progress
Category: Research
New ideas: yes
Comments on new ideas:
The paper presents the use of new technology (Wiimote) to engage beginner engineering students in learning programming in Matlab.
Soundness of work: yes
Comments on soundness of work:
No comments supplied by reviewer.
Contribution of work: 2
Comments on work contribution:
The major contribution of the paper is the idea of using current technology to engage engineering students in computer programming.
Presentation quality: 3
Writing quality: 3
References: no
Gender neutral language used: yes
Should anything be deleted: yes
Comments on text deletion:
There is too much discussion on the current course setup and not enough discussion on how the new technology is used (about a quarter of a page). 
Completeness of work: no
Comments on completeness:
Details on how the technology has been used in a classroom environment are insufficient.
Format correctness: yes
Format comments:
No comments supplied by reviewer.
Additional comments:
The ideas presented in the paper are interesting. However, the presentation of the usage of the technology in a classroom environment, as well as student feedback are lacking.

Feedback from reviewer 2:
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Recommendation: Accept as is
Category: Innovative Practice
New ideas: yes
Comments on new ideas:
the innovation: integration of the wii remote as an interactive input device to motivate a first course in programming and engineering analysis has the potential of substantially increasing student motivation and engagement.  

Unfortunately, there is no quantitative analysis of effectiveness.  I assume that this is due to the recent implementation of this course.  Furthermore, I did not see any indication under what terms the implementation will be released to others who might want to extend it or utilize it in their own courses.  

Nonetheless, the concepts are interesting and ought be be exposed for discussion and extension by the community.
Soundness of work: yes
Comments on soundness of work:
No comments supplied by reviewer.
Contribution of work: 3
Comments on work contribution:
two:
1. the idea of using a wii as an input device for an intro eng/programmming course

2. the implementation of a software base that makes it practical.
Presentation quality: 4
Writing quality: 4
References: yes
Gender neutral language used: yes
Should anything be deleted: no
Comments on text deletion:
No comments supplied by reviewer.
Completeness of work: yes
Comments on completeness:
No comments supplied by reviewer.
Format correctness: yes
Format comments:
No comments supplied by reviewer.
Additional comments:
Very nice work.  It would be much improved if the paper described an evaluation plan and indicated how others could obtain the software.

Feedback from reviewer 3:
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Recommendation: Accept with minor revisions
Category: Innovative Practice
New ideas: yes
Comments on new ideas:
Incorporates a popular game controller, which many students will be familiar with, into a learning setting.  This has the possibility, if used correctly, to enhance the learning and creativity of students learning a first programming language.
Soundness of work: yes
Comments on soundness of work:
No comments supplied by reviewer.
Contribution of work: 4
Comments on work contribution:
Introduction to a new toolkit for connecting a Wii remote to Matlab.
Presentation quality: 5
Writing quality: 3
References: yes
Gender neutral language used: yes
Should anything be deleted: no
Comments on text deletion:
No comments supplied by reviewer.
Completeness of work: yes
Comments on completeness:
No comments supplied by reviewer.
Format correctness: yes
Format comments:
No comments supplied by reviewer.
Additional comments:
I have a couple of typographical comments and one comment related to the content.

Content:
1) In the "MATLAB Programming module" section, you state that because the course is taken by all engineering majors, Matlab was chosen as the programming language.  There should be some explanation as to why Matlab should be chosen when working with engineering students, or at least why it was chosen in this case.

Typography:
1) Abstract: In the last sentence, delete "the" before "using the Wiimote"
2) Second sentence of Introduction: place a comma after and, change large to larger, and place a comma after sense so that it reads "and, in a larger sense, society"
3) Second paragraph of Introduction, first sentence: place a comma after "and"
4) Third paragraph of Introduction, first sentence: place a comma after capture, after Wii, and add a noun after capture - for instance, "The recent introduction of inexpensive, robust motion capture devices, such as the Nintendo Wii, afford..."
5) Last sentence of column 2 on page 2: delete "yet" and "to"
6) Page 3, column 2: in the sentence which starts "In contrast..." to read "...were cheaper by multiple orders of magnitude, yet obtains significant robustness, albeit with limited accuracy."
7) Last paragraph of "Background - Nintendo Wiimote" section, first sentence: "experience programmer" should be "experienced programmer"
8) Page 4, column 2, sentence beginning "A full suite...": delete "a" before "numerous blocks"

Paper History

• Jan 2009: Abstract submission to FIE 2009
• Mar 2009: Full paper submission to FIE 2009
• Apr 2009: Paper accepted into FIE 2009 (see above reviews)

Documents

• Original submission
• Camera ready -> see publication entry