Professor: Sloman & Kaebling Course format: Lecture Number of respondents: 36 Total Enrollment: 50

Class Composition Froshs: 12 Sophs: 12 Jrs: 13 Srs: 13 Concs: 0 Non-Concs: 35 Don't Know: 1	Instructor Average: 2.40 Course Average: 2.50

"Making Decisions" aims to foster an understanding of the descriptive and formative theories of the process of decision-making. This class analyzes decisions by finding optimal strategies and comparing them to what people actually do. Respondents felt that a basic understanding of logic and mathÄespecially probability would be of great help in following the class material.

The course was team-taught by Professors Kaelbling and Sloman. Students found both professors fun, engaging and very aware of the class. They interacted well with each other and the students. They allotted a lot of time for participation and were consequently very attuned to students' needs and level of understanding. Although sometimes they were a bit disorganized and were competitive for time, the professors made up for it by providing examples and allowing for discussions that were relevant and helpful. In addition, Professors Kaelbling and Sloman have different specialties in Cognitive Science and consequently offered distinctly different perspectives on the material.

The course load consisted of one book and course packet, five homework assignments, a five page paper, a midterm and final exam. Students spent two to four hours of work outside of class but were motivated by the engaging class discussions. Although respondents felt that the assignments were relevant and closely related to the course work, they found that the tests were not always reflective of the learned material.

Students said that they were motivated by the interesting material and dynamic instructors. The course's relevancy to decision-making in real-life situations added a certain level of practicality to the work. Indeed, the level of enthusiasm sometimes dropped when the class studied some theoretical and abstract problems.

After taking this course, students felt they gained a good level of understanding about the process of decision making. If you have a basic familiarity and interest in logic and probability, you may want to take this course. Judging by the numbers, it's probably a good decision.

View CG/0050 in the Brown Online Course Announcement.