Lab46 Wiki

Read what others have said about the experience (note there's value in objectively informative comments, regardless of the subjective perspective in which they were written):

The “TL;DR:” version:

• Positive: “Great teacher. The class encourages trying things and asking for help when necessary.”
• Negative: “He is an awful teacher. He will not tell you what to do but tell you to look it up and figure it out.”

Notice how the pivot point regarding perception is how individuals embrace asking questions and experimenting/exploring/playing, thinking.

Perhaps one of the most genuine, heartfelt yet informative comments I have ever received (edited for length, condensed from multiple paragraphs):

• This has been very academically challenging semester for me with many long days and nights. However, despite my time constraints, this is the one class that I would never skimp on. I could have chosen to scrape by if I felt the desire too. However, I am in a unique position; it was my choice to take this class. I knew what was ahead of me and I refused try any less than my hardest. … I noticed that I was given bonus points for “grokking the unix way.” It blew my mind! Not only was I given the chance to solve a problem anyway I wanted to, I was also being rewarded for it. … Fantastic. The learning environment allowed for unlimited growth and learning through experimentation and application. This is such a rare aspect in any course. … This is one of the first classes that I have ever taken where I actually learned something that pertained and were useful to my hobbies and interests. … Despite many fun of the fun projects we did, I did find the work a bit tedious at times. However I am aware that this is sometimes the nature of programming and not every script can be a whirlwind of innovation and progress. … From the bottom of my heart, I would like to express my sincerest thanks for allowing me to take this class. This semester has been a pleasure.

Here's a subjectively positive, objectively informative comment:

• “Matt Haas really cares about his students and wants to do his best to let them learn. This is something I have seen since the first moment I have stepped into his class. I am able to ask questions a lot in his class, and Matt promotes people asking questions. This is helpful for me to understand my responsibilities that I receive from this class each week. Like in every class there will be success and failure. When there was failure and I needed help on getting back on the path of success, Matt was always there to make a suggestion on what I could do differently to fix my mistake. What was actually really helpful was that Matt was there to help, yet, he also had us branch out to the other students in the class if we needed help. We as a class were not always relying on Matt for help, we were taught to reach out to others first and learn to collaborate and then if really stuck, reach out to Matt for help.”

And a subjectively negative, yet objectively informative comment:

• “Truly the worst human being Ive ever encountered in a professional setting, wearing the title of professor when in fact hes at the school less than Im at my minimum wage job WHILE going to school. All the meanwhile never going step by step through examples rather loosely giving a terrible gist of something he expects us to just find online when HE SHOULD BE TEACHING IT IN THE FIRST PLACE. I dont pay thousands of dollars a semester so that I can be told that not only is there no tutor available, and get the same experience id get from an online coding camp for a horrendous amount more but at leas if I did a coding camp Id actually learn something; With the beautiful addition that he is rarely there, unnecessarily strict, rude, and petty. This culminated with the fact that hes the only teacher available for the later major-related classes ends in students like me transferring colleges. To consider yourself a teacher is con- artistry. My only recommendation IS TO DO EVERYONE A FAVOR AND QUIT!”

Back to subjectively positive, objectively informative:

• “The online material provided is excellent, especially when compared to traditional textbooks and the asynchronous style used in the computer science classes at CCC are much better than the other courses of study I have taken. Due to our rolling discord server we are able to get feedback not only from other peers taking similar classes, but also give easier access to ask questions outside of normal class time.”

• “Availability due to the open teaching style on campus and having access to discord nearly 24/7 makes it easy to work around the already busy schedules that Haas many of us have while studying computer science. We also follow a low level approach in using traditional C as opposed to higher level programming languages which I believe will pay off down the road.”

One final negative, still with indirect hints of information:

* “Being annoying and unnecessarily vague. He has no passion for teaching and I could learn more about computers by watching one get run over on the freeway than I could from this guy. Hes awful. Sad excuse for a teacher. Basically tells you to google everything. Never goes over what you should directly be doing in class. Just loosely the idea of it. His classroom environment is unnecessarily toxic and their is a social hierarchy of such were normal students are at the bottom and people who bow to his feet are closer to the top which he is obviously at in his pyramid. I would recommend transferring schools before I would recommend this teacher.”

And a positive, indirectly informative:

• “Instructor is a great teacher and will stress that you actually learn the material. I would recommend this to anyone who has a genuine interest in learning course material and not just getting a free A. The course was fun, the projects were pretty cool and we got into the topics at a low level; I have watched a lot of lectures on similar topics online and they did not deep dive into the intricacies of the C language, which I think will have unbound benefits moving forward. If you are passionate about the material, then this is an excellent place to learn it. It is a difficult line of study but the concepts are presented in an easily digestible way.”

I will admit, I tend to be rather polarizing. I don't try to be. People seem to LOVE my class and style, or loathe it. I've not experienced much middle ground in quite some time.

I think the problem stems from what Computer Science is.

• if you are willing to do the work, learn, and explore, it is simply “the fine art of thinking”
• if instead, you avoid work, don't read the instructions, and avoid thinking and conceptualizing and figuring things out on your own, then it is “despising all the aspects that makes Computer Science what it is, and blaming me for not catering to your misconception of what you mistake it to be”