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I did not find this teacher to be very student friendly. His attitude towards students is very condescending. He will not give make-up tests, even if prior notice is given to him. His office hours are pathetic, and he generally portrays an attitude that he knows it all. Most professors will work with you on finals week and let you take your final with another section if you have several finals that day, but not this teacher. Instead he sends out an insulting email that says his policy on this matter is for "our protection." He did not say why or how I would be in danger if another student took the final at a different time. I find this policy stupid and the email he sent out just plain insulting to my intelligence. His exams are very nit-picky, and the lab manuals are both a waste of time and graded way too difficult. The lab manuals are made by cutting and pasting screenshots and writing the procedures down. This is pointless for two reasons: One being that there are better guides that are already available on the internet, and two being the highly subjective way he grades the manuals. I received grades of Bs and Cs on the manual. Reasons given were "used tape instead of glue stick" and "sloppy handwriting." My handwriting is always sloppy, due to carpal tunnel syndrome. The lab manuals should receive full credit if the instructor can recreate the lab following the instructions laid out by the students in the manual. He claims to have students using the manuals as a source of reference after graduation. I highly doubt this, as there are far better tutorials on the Internet, and the subjects of the labs are extremely simple in nature. I question the subjects of some of the labs. I do not see the usefulness of learning how to use dialpad.com over learning how to set up a firewall, or the necessity of making antiquated coax cable. The teacher's lectures often contain falsehoods or half-truths that are said out of ignorance or PC hatred of Microsoft. An example of the above would be how he claims his Win98 machine requires AT LEAST five reboots a day. What he should say is that his knowledge of Win98 is so poor that he can't figure out how to set up the OS properly. Another half-truth is that Win98 is simply windows over DOS 7.0, which is not even close to the truth. All in all, I would not recommend this teacher as I find him arrogant, lazy, and not very knowledgeable of his subject matter. He is regarded as an imbecile among Western's IT professionals and among students who are technically proficient. In reality, you probably won't have a choice as he is (as of this writing) the only professor that teaches these sections. Most students won't notice the technical falsehoods, as their technical knowledge is probably not very high.
He could improve the class by:
1. Quit being arrogant towards students. He has the attitude of "me vs. them." virtually all of my complaints with this professor deal with his attitude towards students. I think he is paranoid that his students are constantly scheming to cheat behind his back. This shows with his policies on make-up exams and finals schedules, and his inability to work with students who are having problems. Loosen up. You are here to help us learn the subject material, not win some sort of contest by splitting hairs and making it a pain in the ass to take this class. Relax your exam policies. You already make two different versions of the test to prevent, in your own words, "cross-pollinization." What harm would it be to let students to take the final on a different day? Absolutely none. Not every student is a cheat, and I wish you would give students the benefit of the doubt.
2. Increase your office hours. One hour on Monday and Wednesday is not nearly enough.
3. Get rid of lab manuals OR grade them according to whether or not the procedure is correct, not whether or not "time and attention have been lavished on them," which is an entirely subjective method.
4. Leave notes on the websites until the end of the semester. Students do from time to time miss class for valid reasons, and leaving the notes on the website would not penalize them for this.
5. Get rid of the anti-microsoft agenda that is rife in your lectures. While bashing Microsoft may make you a popular guy at a Linux users group meeting, it is not going to make you seem intelligent to your more advanced students.
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