Evaluation Comments
Course:Data Structures in Java I
            (CSC-300-402)

Quarter:Autumn 15/16
Time: TuTh 10:10 - 11:40
Location: Loop Campus
James Riely PhD

Professor
jriely@cs.depaul.edu
Instructor homepage

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What are the major strengths and weaknesses of the instructor?


1.   Very knowledgeable, visuals definitely helped a lot in understanding the material. His
2.   Extremely knowledgeable about the subject
3.   Strengths: Clearly knew the material and was excited about teaching it; Weaknesses: haven't found any yet...
4.   I personally feel like the major weakness with the instructor was the lack of important course material presented in-class, before homework and quizzes were due. Students would be left to read and hope they understood the material, and get very little helpful information from the actual lectures themselves.A major strength is his enthusiasm for the course.
5.   Strength - very knowledgeable about the subjectWeakness - not the best at explaining it to students effectively in a clear way
6.   The major strength is the overall understanding of Computer Science theory. However, the weakness there is not a fixed structure in class, rather is seems to be just a review of the homework and quizzes.
7.   He was enthusiastic about the subject the entire time, which is a great trait for a teacher. He answered students questions in lots of detail, which was also great.
8.   Very knowledgeable of the course work. Difficulty of homework.
9.   Knows how to engage the class to the problem. Keeps focused.
10.   he is very interested in the subject. but i felt the class was too fast. the homework too advanced from what we learn in class
11.   No weaknesses, he is a great teacher!

What aspects of this course were most beneficial to you?


1.   The homeworks were the most challenging and I actually enjoyed figuring each problem out.
2.   Algorithm run-time
3.   Writing code, learning how that code may be used in real-world applications
4.   The concepts about different data structures and algorithms.
5.   homeworks
6.   The homework assignmens
7.   Overall improvement in my coding.
8.   Understanding of current uses of the course work that I was learning.
9.   Learned many aspects of computer science I had not previously explored.
10.   the programming of course
11.   Going over the homework was a big help.

What do you suggest to improve this course?


1.   Occassionally I felt the challenges presented in the homeworks tended to be much more challenging than what was gone over in class. Maybe working through more challenging problems as examples in class could be beneficial. That said the homeworks were still very doable given enough time.
2.   
3.   More time in computer lab
4.   I would recommend teaching the content in the classroom, before assigning it as homework and quizzes, rather than essentially going over it after the homework and quizzes have been turned in.
5.   keep the SI sessions; they were pretty helpful
6.   Maintain a constant useful quiz questions. The early quizzes seemed a little pointless
7.   One thing that frustrated me was when the instructor would say "Oh wow! This is great, you are all asking the right questions". Ideally, I don't think we should need to ask the right questions to learn the content, it should be taught to us. I think that when the instructor hears a great question he should write it down and make sure that the topic of the question is gone over in more detail for the next class. Like computer science, I think teaching should be constantly innovated and optimized so that tomorrows students will learn more than today's.
8.   More explanation on later assignments.
9.   
10.   take it slow maybe
11.   More visuals like PowerPoint, otherwise it's great as is!

Comment on the grading procedures and exams


1.   Seemed fine to me.
2.   
3.   No comment
4.   Everything was graded in a decent amount of time.
5.   good
6.   Some of the questions on the quizzes seemed a little pointless, such as what is the IBM keyboard shortcut for eclipse... I understand how these questions are to introduce people into the course. However, the applicable use of these type of early questions, on the quizzes, makes it hard to take seriously.
7.   I liked the way things were graded on the exams
8.   Fair
9.   
10.   fair
11.   Everything was graded fairly and timely.

Other comments?


1.   N/A
2.   
3.   10/10, would learn data structures again. Keep doing what you're doing James!
4.   None
5.   
6.   
7.   N/A
8.   
9.   
10.   youre a great professor
11.   I recommend this course to anyone with an interest in furthering their knowledge in computer science. It is a course that you must show up for and be prepared to work! Overall this was one of the best courses I've taken and it has helped me towards my minor.