Comments on Matlab teaching materials

[DamienIrving]

I'm in the process of putting together a review of the Matlab teaching materials for the Software Carpentry blog, however that post will only cover very braod and general observations (you can see the current draft here). People are invited to add additional thoughts and specific comments in this issue.

[DamienIrving]

My specific comments are as follows:

• Old matlab versions are very problematic (because they don't always look and act like the most recent version), so it's very important that participants are told to install the most recent version
• The statistics toolbox is required for one of the challenges linked to lesson 4. It would be best if none of the materials were dependent on toolboxes

[IsaKiko]

Here are a few of my comments. I think I'll probably remember more during the day.

• The material often mentions different ways of doing the same thing (for example 4 different methods of reading in data. I think at this level, one is enough. Otherwise, have one section introducing all of them and give specific reasons as to why you'd choose which one.)
• I think more time could be spend emphasising on how people can find their own solutions, maybe explaining how to read the documentary.
• As you already mentioned, the lectures could be broken up into smaller units with more frequent challenges.
• Explain debugging earlier, so participants can use these skills during challenges.
• Maybe a short introduction in Matlab data types at the start.