Special Topics: Introduction to Computer Law

The lecture material was quite interesting, but to be honest, I found the project work quite displeasurable. I doubt most students will feel this way - to a normal student, maybe the non-coding assignments are a nice break from other classes. But, I think it's worth putting the word out for others like myself: if you find programming assignments fairly easy in general but struggle to stay motivated when the assignment isn't technical, you may have a tougher experience than others have indicated.

It's not like I would even disagree with the sentiment that this is an easy course. When there's no project to be working on, the class is <4 hrs/wk of commitment, no sweat. The problem is, the projects are fairly long reports that can get quite involved if you're trying to get a good grade. One of mine was >20 pages, and I felt quite miserable working on it by the end. We were not given any clear indication of what level of effort would be considered acceptable for that assignment, so part of that was me erring on the side of caution.

Granted, also, that there were only two such papers in the course, so the average workload was still fairly low. But those papers easily took 16-24 hours each, and it was a complete slog for me. I did not have any fun at all working on those papers, although I really enjoyed watching the lectures. So, if you're on the fence about taking this course because you're used to programming assignments and this is "different," consider my experience a data point in favor of taking something else - in my case, this was me trying something a little different, and it was not nearly as fun for me as I had hoped. But your mileage may vary, of course.

TLDR: The lectures and assignments were excellent, but the course was super light. If you are looking for an interesting course with a low workload, then this is the perfect course.

Finished the course with an A. Spent around 7 hours per week on average, but the workload varied from week to week.

Course Structure: Each week, we had to watch lectures, respond to a discussion post, and take a quiz. There were two projects, an acquisition project and a code analysis project.

Lectures: The lectures were fantastic. The majority of the course was focused on intellectual property, which could be a dry topic. The instructors did an excellent job at making the content interesting and exciting. I watched the lectures at 2x speed, so it only took about 30 to 60 minutes per week to watch the lectures and take notes.

Quizzes: The quizzes were open book and open note and were fairly straightforward. The quizzes were timed, but they only took about 15 to 30 minutes to complete.

Discussion post: I really liked the discussion posts. While they only took about 30-60 minutes per week to complete, they required us to really think about the material.

Projects: I enjoyed both projects. The acquisition project took about 30-40 hours to complete. The code analysis project took about 20-25 hours to complete. We were given about 4 weeks to complete the acquisition project and 2 weeks to complete the code analysis project. I found the acquisition project to be more interesting, but I felt like the code analysis project required more knowledge of the course material.

Overall: For about half the course, I was only spending around 2-3 hours per week on the course. When I was working on the projects, I spent about 10-15 hours per week, but we only worked on projects for half of the course. If I took this course in the fall or spring semester, I imagine that the workload would be even lower. Even though the workload is light, I really enjoyed this course and learned a lot about computer law.

Spring 2024 -- doubled this course with GA and found it to be very manageable, ended with a strong A.

Prof. Huffman and Prof. Omojokun are top-notch instructors. They make the course engaging and accessible. I found the course content to be pretty interesting and worthwhile. From my experience with startups, small business valuations (aside from team, and product-market fit) are heavily indexed on existing patents, IP, and copyrights. If you're ever planning to spin up your own tech company, I think this is a good introduction to some of the legal dynamics at play.

Courseload is very manageable, but some expectations could be clarified better. For example, you must complete paper outlines before you submit the full thing, which gives you a chance to get TA feedback. I didn't realize these were actually graded (I think one of them was worth something like 8% of your total grade?), which caught me off guard. I actually had a higher grade in GA than this course for a good chunk of the semester. My advice is to go over the assignment instructions with a fine-tooth comb and make sure you hit everything that's being asked of you, because it's more of a rubric than topics to consider.

Discussions on Ed were graded, albeit pretty leniently compared to the written assignments. I saw some students clearly post copy/paste answers from ChatGPT (bulleted lists of vague responses and all), which I felt ambivalent about given the rigor of this program. My hope is that low-effort posts like that are policed more going forward.

Weekly quizzes were pretty straightforward open-book/open-notes. A few tricky questions but pretty easy to get an +80.

TAs were generally pretty good. Adrian seemed to be the one running the show and was very active and response on Ed. Seemed like a great guy.

Overall I got what I wanted from this course and it paired nicely with a harder one. I'm giving it a 4/5 because I think a few kinks could be worked out with clearer assignment instructions and how the written assignments will be graded. Whenever I got grader feedback, it was usually (to paraphase) "you're missing _____ section" or a generic "Nice job!" which felt too formulaic. It'd be nice to get more detailed feedback if each section is going to be scrutinized in the grading.

This is a wonderful class that will definitely bring you practical insights for your next venture. On top of Digital Marketing, AI Ethics, these are the classes that bring real value to my business, instead of coding, coding, writing papers for the sake of doing it. It is more efficient if you take it in addition with another course during Fall or Spring. Why take those 3 easy classes alone during the summer? There are two projects: business acquisition and code analysis, don't fake them, do the research. Do it seriously, you will be fine. The lecture quizzes are fine too, as long as you watched them. They are well done.

Not sure if this class has changed in recent semester, but I'd say the workload was around 10 hours/week. Leaving this review to balance out the 2 hour ones. I'd say its similar to taken Computer Networks, ML4T, and InfoSec in terms of workload.

Still a great class. I learned a lot and I felt like there was enough material where one could dive in and spend extra time if needed. I'd only recommend if you are interested in the topic though as I dont think this class would really be helpful in a traditional SWE career. If you are looking for an easy class, there are just as easy classes that are helpful.

I took it because i'm interested in the field and it was great

Amazing class, could not recommend it enough. The weekly lectures with quiz associated were very fair, and you will do well as long as you pay enough attention and take notes. The two projects were also very fair and interesting in their own right, allowing you to express your knowledge and interests in connection with the course materials. The amount of work every week is extremely reasonable, unlike other courses in this program that I feel saddle you with work just because. The videos are all extremely high quality and very entertaining, and I see myself referring back to them for years to come.

This class is easy. Really, really easy. I cannot see how a native English speaker could get less than a B in this class assuming they didn't skip assignments. Assignments: weekly lecture quizzes (the lectures open up week by week), weekly discussion board posts (need 10/12 for full credit), 2 major writing assignments on corporate acquisition and code analysis for infringement. Generous extra credit on discussion board and code analysis project. I wanted to pair GA with something to maintain momentum and this was that class. It honestly was pretty interesting and now I know more than I did before about intellectual property so I don't regret it.

I really liked this course. The majority of the grade is quizzes (30%), an acquisition project (25%), and a code analysis (35%) project. The quizzes are weekly quizzes that relate directly to that module. The quizzes/modules are released at the start of each week, so you cannot work ahead. The quizzes are multiple choice and while the information directly relates to the module, they can sometimes be tricky/ambiguous. The assignments are pretty open-ended and do not include a rubric. This can make it challenging to know if you included everything required. Both assignments have an outline due, so it does help that feedback is provided on the outline. The average time per week increases when the assignments are due, but my time estimate applies to the average week with a module/quiz. There is also 10% of your grade based on class discussions on Ed Discussion.