3.5
Quality3.7
Difficulty61%
Would Retake119
Reviews61%
Would Retake
119
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
52
4
16
3
14
2
12
1
25
What Students Say
“He loves the sound of his own voice”
CS164 - 1.0 rating“Avoid if possible, and if not, be prepared for a less than ideal class”
CS164 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
21%
Textbook Required
3%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.56 avg changeRatings by Course
CS172
5.0
(1)172
4.0
(1)CI103
4.0
(1)CS370
4.0
(5)CS503
4.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
CS543
4.6
CS265
4.3
CS370
4.2
CS171
4.0
CS164
3.6
Reviews (119)
His lectures are extremely dry and hard to listen to (you're much better off just reading his course notes on your own). He takes attendance for lecture though so don't even think about skipping it. 10+ hours a week of homework. An A is possible if you put the work in though.
A great professor in almost every aspect.
He is very good at answering emails, even at midnight. He is very nice and supportive, I have spent hours talking to him about the class and my future at Drexel. This was his first year but he did a very good job teaching his classes. Right now, he mostly teaches freshman classes, and he is really good at helping you transition to college.
Mr. Stuart is a new professor who's still getting his feet on the ground at Drexel. Even so, his lectures are interesting albeit a smidgen low energy. He's a professor who's passionate about his work and will always provide help if asked. He's a pretty young guy too, so I feel like he can relate to the students well.
Professor Stuart was honestly one of my favorite professors. If you are interested in learning, definitely take him. He's down to earth and tries his best to help you understand difficult topics. If you just want an easy A, don't take him.
Amazing professor. He keeps students engaged in lecture with stories and jokes. His grading is pretty straightforward and his tests aren't too bad. Really cares about his students and is willing to work with them if they struggle and commend them for doing well. Overall great guy and great class.
Stuart is by far my favorite professor in CCI. He brings a unique spin, not only to the course, but to the field in general. He is extremely resourceful and brilliant.
Just a great guy super passionate about computer science. Be prepared to work hard, even if you come from a programming background. I'm at week 5 now and he has done a superb job of teaching new content in a very unique way.
Brian L. Stuart is the greatest professor to ever exist on the campus of Drexel University. Every lecture with this man is immediately understood and appreciated by all of his students. Brian L. Stuart is the most important professor at this university, graciously gifting his knowledge unto the young adults he believes in. He's also pretty hot.
All the assignments were about eclipses. Not only was it irrelevant or had nothing to do with computer science but the instructions were definitely insufficent. 70% of the things you are graded for are not covered in class. He has knowledge but I only suggest those who have difficult sleeping to come to his 2 hours lecture.
Lectures are boring and he doesn't take attendance after the first few weeks. Most of the class is self-study, just go over the slides and find some online resources in regards to your labs. If you need help, the best bet is to find time with the professor. Also, how is writing an eclipse going to help me develop a game?
He's very knowledgeable about computer science. His material is about understanding how you got to a place and why you got there instead of just being there. Very easy to talk to and very helpful
This professor gives ridiculous assignments that are intentionally vague and labs are very unhelpful. Any questions you ask will be met with a vague answer of "you have to google it/figure it out yourself". Assignments are also unreasonably difficult for an introduction CS class. Self-studying is the best option for this professor.
He is a friendly guy, has a comedic sarcastic tone during lectures. He tries his best to help you out if you go ask for help. Cons is that his lecture slides are convoluted with minimalistic technical jargons that you will have to study on your own to fully comprehend WTF is going on. I find the topics to be quite interesting. I learned a lot!
His lectures are difficult to listen to. However, you must resist the urge to sleep. Also, he gives 3 large papers and 2 major test. Therefore, you have very little leeway with your assignments. Much of the midterm and final are based on the lecture material. He does encourage learning about the importance of a grade which I did appreciate.
The lectures are a pain to sit through. He doesn't give a clear representation of what students should do to complete an assignment. As a result, most students receive a low grade. Some of the labs are entertaining but the way he covers it in lecture is boring. Class CS164
Pros: -Passionate and knowledgeable about what he teaches. -Respected by his students. Cons: -Lectures can be boring. -Power point slides are vague and difficult to study off of. -Instructions for projects are vague and difficult to understand. Overall good professor but lectures were boring and the instructions for projects were pretty vague.
Not a bad professor. His lectures can be a bit tedious and the way he explains things isn't always the best. His tests can be a bit tough and he doesn't do a good job telling you what to study. His class gave me the most stress, but I was very relieved to finish it. He will round your final grade, which is pretty nice.
He seems to know the material well and has a kinda weird sense of humor. For an intro level course, he covers too much material. Labs are generally straightforward, but projects are vague and do not relate well to material taught. Not afraid to give a bad project grade. Midterm/final is difficult but if you memorize slides/labs you'll be fine.
Get ready for the time of your life. Brian is a great fella who loves computers and binary numbers. If you don't have a linux based OS or a cardiac computer good luck!!
I take CS164 as a small class (15 people) instead of with other freshman, so midterm was take home. While Stuart's lecture can be dry, he is passionate and entertaining. Willing to help with any questions. My review can be biased as I have taken upper level CS classes prior to this course so material was easy cake. Hence, class was enjoyable.
He's a good guy. He can be funny at times too. However, the lectures were a bit boring. It wasn't easy to understand. Stuart knows so much information and he knows his material, but the way he explains it can be hard to understand. I didn't learn as much as I hoped I would.
Stuart's lectures are pretty boring, but he as a person makes the class interesting. His labs that he gives are fairly self-explanatory, but are easy 100's because of the many resources you can go to if you need help (Stuart himself or the TA's). However, his exams are fairly difficult, but if you study then you shouldn't get less than a B-.
Amazing professor, one of the best teachers I've ever head. Very knowledgeable and passionate about computer science, and always makes lectures interesting. Whatever the topic, he always has great story and background facts. Tests are pretty fair, if you understand the concepts from the lectures you should do fine. You won't regret taking his class
He knows so much about Computer science and that's amazing. But he shouldn't be teaching intro classes. He should be given graduate classes or upper class men. His lectures were pretty boring and he hardly ever got to the point. I barely got anything out of his classes and I was so glad that it wasn't a pre-requisite for the next class.
Brian Stuart made waking up for a 2-hour, 9AM lecture a pleasure. His passion for computer science shines through how he speaks, what he says, his body language, etc. Whether intentional or not, each lecture feels like a journey of discovery. Unlike some other professors, he's very involved with his TAs and the labs.
Dr. Stuart is a very intelligent man and he definitely knows what he's talking about. He has a deep understanding of all of the lecture material and makes class engaging and interesting. Some of the concepts are difficult to grasp, but the TAs are also very helpful outside of class for these concepts. Lectures can be boring, so bring coffee.
Professor Stuart was great for CS164. It was a hard class but you'll learn so much if you go to lecture and do your labs. Even if you don't pass the exams do your projects and labs and you'll do well. Really fun guy and super friendly, he's so smart and will talk to you about any questions or just for a chat. Great intro to compsci.
Great lecturer if you are actually interested in computers and software engineering. If you're just in this field for "a job", he may be a bit boring to you. No tests or quizzes, just assignments, which is really how all courses in software/engineering should be. One bad thing is the lack of clear criteria for assignments.
He is super into old people in the computing field but besides the stories he tells about them, his lectures are super interesting. All around cool dude.
Prof. Stuart is just great. You can expect a quick response for your emails. If you're stuck at anywhere in your homework, you could send it to him and he would go through your code. He really needs his students to learn the material rather than just completing the homework. He's the best for CS 283.
I took his CS 164 class as an Entrepreneurship major, just because I was curious about how computers work. We are in week seven so far and I learned so much! He knows his stuff and he is super passionate about it. I highly recommend the class. During the recitation sections, Dr. Stuart always explains everything in great detail.
Great lecturer, you can really tell he's passionate about what he's teaching. His lectures are long but necessary to do well in the class, he goes over them in detail in the recitations. His labs are well-structured and I felt like I had a good start to CS because of this class.
The best professor I had this term. Will answer any and all questions and always has office hours available. His lectures were very informative. The labs were great and really helped to get a better understanding of the lecture that week. I really recommend Professor Stuart. If you have the chance to take him, take him!! This class was great.
I was a bit frustrated with his lack of appreciation for modern technology, and his usage of Tranquility, a proprietary language he made for the course. It was very limited in capability and made it frustrating to create quality code. HOWVER, Dr. Stuart does know his stuff he made tranquility. There's not a question he can't answer.
Amazing guy. He cares about how deeply you understand the concepts, and not how high you score on exams. His lectures sometimes skim over stuff that is not relevant to the syllabus and that can leave you feeling overwhelmed. But it is worth it. Easily the most interesting class in the Fall freshmen CS/SE quarter.
He was one of my favorite professors. Class was super fun with him and the TA's and he really wants you to succeed. Some of the material is confusing, but he will help you if you ask for it. He isn't afraid to admit when he's made a mistake. In my class, he pushed back due dates for tougher than expected assignments and makes adjustments.
The problem set and code project are tough and hard to understand in the limited amount of time during the COVID with other class. Every week you have either a problem set or a coding project, both of which take a lot of time and effort to understand. The exam is rough, graded strictly. He is available to help but it is hard to understand.
Don't take this class in graduate school
Professor did not grade anything that was assigned to us and would often take weeks to get us our grades back. He left all his grading to his TA who took off points for things that made no difference to my understanding of the topics taught or the result of the code. Did not make the final until after the last class so we could not ask about it.
Don't take the class, it is so disorgnized and hard to follow. It's finals week already and he only graded theethings. Intruction of the projects are so vague and you need to wrote your own test files. Th textbook is written by himself, which is not helpful when it comes to projects assignment and exams. DO NOT TAKE IT.
The class material is difficult, but the professor is helpful and caring. However, there are too many homework and projects(4 problem sets and 4 programming projects with midterm and final), and a lot of them are too vague, at least to me. I find myself watching the lectures and recitation over and over again just to figure out what I need to do.
I loved Dr. Stuart for CS 164. At times, the workload (labs, projects, etc) was overwhelming, plus online lectures to watch. However, I looked forward to these lectures. Although they are long, Dr. Stuart is funny and you can just tell that he loves what he does and is dedicated to the subject. I have learned a lot throughout this class!
Coming out of covid there's a lot of "pre-lecture" material that you'll have to watch before class- i.e. recorded lectures from when Drexel was online, and these lectures are usually an hour at best, nearly 3 at worst. Don't expect to know your grade in this class, two days before the final and half of the quarter has yet to be graded.
The class was pretty fun. I went to his office hours a lot and he was very caring/fun to talk with. The work was challenging, but wasn't too hard. The only problem I had was the grading. 10 weeks in and only 10% of the grades are in.
A great guy you can really tell he enjoys teaching people! His lectures were enjoyable too there are a lot of lecture videos too that could help you further understand a concept. The class did feel pretty difficult to me, but Dr. Stuart was a very enjoyable person who loves what he is doing. A real nice guy.
So there are mixed reviews towards Dr. Stuart. My personal experience of his CS164 Lectures was pretty good id say. However, the labs he gave out were bad, leading to most students failing the final as the focus was on learning from the labs rather than lectures. As a professor, he's amazing, but I think his class should focus on the lectures.
Dr. Stuart is one of the most hard-working and brilliant professors I have ever met! He is genuinely the smartest guy ever and you can learn a lot from him. His lectures are a delight to watch and you won't regret going to his classes! The assignments and tests are no doubt challenging as hell but if you just know the material, then you are good!
I made the mistake of taking CS164 as an elective. Even most CS majors in my class found this "introductory" course to be ridiculously difficult. Grades don't come in til the end of the term. Made his own programming language that's hard to use. He says that grades don't matter but then his TA's take off every single point possible. Yep, no.
He is the most disorganized professor at Drexel. His lectures do not have any correlation with the assignments. He often goes on tangents and the textbook for the course is made by him and it is not helpful at all. I would not recommend you to take this course.
Seemed very interested in what he was teaching. Class was pretty difficult, but the TA's were very approachable to help. Only problem was grades wouldn't come in until like 5 weeks after the assignment was due, or until the end of the quarter, this made it very difficult to tell how you were doing in the class.
Professor Stuart is very knowledgeable and passionate about his work. His lectures can be interesting, but only tangentially relate to most of the assignments and the labs. The TAs can be confusing and frustrating at times with grading. Overall, this class is incredibly difficult for an intro course and it desperately needs curriculum revision.
I had Professor Stuart freshman year for CS 164, and he was an awesome professors. He always made the lectures interesting, and was helpful during office hours. Best of all, he has a really good outlook on education, and he cares that you are actually learning for the purpose of true understanding as opposed to mindless memorization.
Dr. Stuart's course is very lecture-heavy. Class sessions aren't required to attend, but you're better off gong. Usually, there will also be 2-4 hours of video lectures per week. I liked him as a lecturer, but I know he can be polarizing - his lectures are very dense and packed with information, and he can sometimes go off on historical tangents.
Brian Stuart is one of the best. Just take his classes. He made a lot of content for students - a ton of helpful video lectures and websites that other CS professors also use. He's a good lecturer - clear, interesting, funny. There's a reason every CS student recommends him.
The guy literally wrote a programming language for this course. Highly recommend him.
This class is awful. I did not have good experiences with the TA's and they are the only ones who can help you if you get stuck on the assignments. Your grade is determined only by 8 assignments and they are very tough on grading them. Just an awful, dreadful, unenjoyable class.
Dr. Stuart is a professor with enough industry experience to back up what he is saying. He wants every single student to succeed, and will push you to pursue your passions, CS or otherwise. I found that his grading reflects your knowledge of the material and the work you put into it. My favorite professor at Drexel so far.
Really great professor who is very passionate about teaching. However, his course material is tough and his class will always be curved. If you are a student who asks questions and want to improve, you will love him. If you just want to get by with an easy grade, he is not for you
Systems Programming was my first class with Stuart. Very lecture-heavy class, and the man certainly knows what he is talking about. I felt no fear asking questions during lectures, as Stuart is very nice and explains all. Graded on HW only. The homework can be graded somewhat harshly, but my main annoyance was the time delay in grades.
No feedback and material was outdated. Grading is his priority not learning. Project descriptions were awful
Professor Stuart is very passionate about what he teaches and wants the people in the class to appreciate computer science. Overall, this class is decently hard because it's in depth and the purpose of this class is surely to root out unmotivated people from the major. Lectures are packed with info so make sure you get enough sleep the night before
Awful class. This is my first class on my Master's and makes me rethink if I made the right decision before choosing Drexel. Lectures are poorly explained, live lectures are even worse. I learned much more on my own than by actually watching his lectures. Instructions are vague and confusing. TA hours are inconvenient. Avoid it!
never take his class. he is the worst professor here who thinks he is funny but does not even know how to laugh.
never ever take his class. You can skip CS 164 and straightaway take CS 171. It has no prerequisites. Stuart thinks he is funny but my guy does not even know how to laugh.
He is awesome as a professor, but I barely understand the midterm and final that he given. The class will be easier if you have background in programming, however if not, it will mess up your GPA
Personally, as someone who has never taken anything related to CS in the past, taking this course as him being the teacher was extremely hard in my opinion. I always found myself struggling with the labs and especially the midterm and final. He's a very smart professor and very kind, but I just overall thought this class was difficult.
Ignore review bombing, professor Stuart is one of the most knowledgeable professors in CCI. You can get a entire quarter's worth of knowledge out of a single lecture-- assuming he doesn't end up on some tangent for an hour-- at that point you get several classes worth of knowledge. Is his grading criteria a little tough though? Yes.
This class was easy and an absolute mess. The in-person lectures were incomprehensible, irrelevant, and redundant due to this guy's proclivity to go off on long, incessant historical tangents. His recorded lectures are, somehow, even worse. The assignments are vaguely defined, graded somewhat harshly, and always coupled with berating feedback.
He is passionate about computer science with lots of opinions on things, but this tends to make his lectures very interesting. I found that you can get away with learning most of the concepts in lab, however taking notes in lecture is very important for the exams.
Dr. Stuart was an extremely unique professor and was very knowledgeable. While the class was difficult and may take some time for people with no experience, Dr. Stuart is very helpful and caring. Tranquility language (language made for this course) was not difficult, and Dr. Stuart explains it very well. Just have diligence and you should be fine.
Professor Stuart is always worth your time. If you are coming into Drexel as a freshman CCI major, his class will encourage you to push yourself in CS and think about things in a new way, even if you have previous experience. There are always opportunities to challenge yourself, and he will always inspire you to do so. 10/10
Prof Stuart is really great except that course 503 was a bit harsh. The TAs were not the best for that term and I have heard they are not great otherwise as well. The only good thing is that prof Stuart cares about your learning so you can email him anytime.
Great professor and very understanding. The course itself was kind of weird and a little hard to understand. Stuart was really understanding and help you personally if you go to him. He is also a very enthusiastic person.
This is one of hardest classes I've taken. It focuses on a system that does not have a lot of outside resources and is based on C. One of the only resource is his textbook. So READ! The assignment can be confusing and he did not have feedback for us until finals week. But Dr.Stuart is very kind, flexible on the due dates and is open to questions.
He clearly has a love for the subject and is teaching for a reason. I had him for my first term of college, and this class made me realize that computer science is an extremely complex and beautiful field. He is an example of someone who followed their passions and made a career. He understands the subject and can explain it well!
BLS is an amazing professor. He will make sure that you learn the material and if you actually put in the time and effort, you will thrive in the class. Definitely one of the professors of all time.
My previous review was removed, so I will keep things barebones. He is not for me (Or anyone else whom I have asked). He loves the sound of his own voice. Be prepared to teach yourself.
Enjoyed his lectures. He also provides recorded lectures for students who don't come to his lectures. Very interesting person and very experienced in various fields of computer science. He's also pretty funny so I appreciate his humor. Lectures and labs are rarely difficult, but require some thinking to understand.
Fun dude
Professor Stuart is really passionate about computer science and teaching in general and it shows. His labs are designed extremely well and even if you have experience in programming, his intro to computer science course is still insightful and informative, but a bit easy (not complaining) if you know how to program a little.
In fear of my post being removed, I'll be brief. Brian Stuart, from myself and everyone I have spoken to about him, is not a good teacher by any means. Tough grader, rambles during lectures, and is unapproachable. Things takes weeks to be grade, and grading is still unclear. Avoid if possible, and if not, be prepared for a less than ideal class.
To be fair, coming into CS 265 with Stuart, I was excited as he was great for CS 164, however, Stuart for 265 is rather horrendous. His lectures are very haphazard and hard to follow as he sidetracks a lot, as well as not having lecture slides besides the echo recordings. Very harsh grading on assignments and doesn't provide good feedback.
Very rude professor, this class structure was horrible. There were only 4 assignments throughout the term and they were graded by the last day of finals week. Lectures were horrible he just rambles about random things. No slideshows or notes either. Harsh grader with no feedback on assignments. Smart guy but teaching isn't his thing.
The other poor reviews for this class said it all well. Lectures are directionless. Harshly graded by 4 assignments through the term. The highest grade on the final was an 80. It is to the point where I genuinely wonder how many of these positive reviews are actual students, considering the trend of deleting negative reviews. Avoid if possible.
Dr. Stuart is THE best and most knowledgeable professor I've had as a freshman at Drexel. You can truly see that he wants his students to succeed and understand the material. The course was difficult and stressful but he did a phenomenal job at helping me to understand why computers and programs work the way they do. The stress really paid off.
Professor Stuart is a phenomenal professor. Very old school, but if you pay attention and put in effort, the class is very rewarding.
If you have little to no experience with CS I would not recommend that you take this class. You will essentially learn the basics of TUX and SSH. A great way to describe this course is that it 'Builds Character'.
Really enjoyed the class and how BLS taught it. Lots of assignments but the lectures really do help out in actually figuring out how to do those. Only thing is that the lectures are really long because it is 3 hours.
I had professor Stuart for OS last year, & it was a phenomenal class. His lecture slides are very empty, but if you question him on anything in class, he can go into a 30-45m talk on it & clear up any issues you have. The assignments required lots of reading of the source code & the textbook. Final exam avg was 45% but heavy class curve of ~17%
I took the CS 164. It was a complete waste of time in my view. He wants us to learn a language(tranquility) he created, which won't be used anywhere in the industry. Indeed, he is a good professor in the sense that he is very passionate about computers, but the class isn't just what I believe we need. AVOID THIS CLASS!!! if u can.
BLS is the firm old-fashioned kungfu master of CCI. When he hands out finals, Vordt's theme plays. Every flaw in your work will be noted. But he is an amazing lecturer. Knows his stuff better than anybody. And the class is curved very generously. Despite some arrogance, he's a nice guy who just wants to push you to be a real computer scientist.
Not sure what my experience would be like in other classes, but I loved having him as a professor and I believe he gave an excellent introduction to computer science. I still go to him for office hours and he's just been inspirational and is one of the reasons I still feel confident in pursuing a degree in CS
SKIP CS164!! difficult and too much effort required. There will be lab every week which won't be taught, you'll have to teach yourself, there will be 3 projects which too won't be taught. the name of the course is intro to cs, but it's not! not at all intro. I had no prior coding experience, and this class wasnt easy to navigate.
I have attended every lecture. At the end of this quarter what did I learn? You guessed it, NOTHING. His lectures are very tedious and rarely provide any context on how to do the homework assignments at all. Everyone failed the final exam since it was impossible, at least there was a curve at the end. He is smart but not good at lecturing at all.
This class literally made me withdraw and change my major. Not to scare anyone, it's just my personal experience. He is a good person but not the best professor. It felt like the purpose of his lectures wasn't to teach you the material but to show what a great expert he is and to scare away anyone who is not as obsessed with computing as he is.
Absolutely amazing professor. In every class I had with him, he seemed genuinely interested in the topic and was willing to help. Class goes pretty fast. Only gripe is that he makes us learn his own language, so be prepared for that. Had to drop this class for some mental health reasons, but I plan taking his class again next quarter. 11/10
Very passionate professor, I can understand how this class may be difficult to someone with little cs experience but its worth learning. For the people saying you don't reflect his passion, maybe cs isn't the right field for you? If you're at all actually interested you will love this professor.
Don't listen to these paid reviews. He just yaps in lecture and the final was made extremely difficult for no reason. Terrible professor and a terrible class.
Stuart is not the boogeyman like the others make him to be but 164 is not easy and not a great intro to CS. It climbs the ladder of abstraction which itself makes sense but he requires you to learn binary in the beginning without a very in depth explanation. Tranquility is a pointlessly annoying language you have to use but the class is manageable.
Dr. Stuart is a class act. I took his class for CS-164, and he's open to helping anybody who asks for it. He's knowledgeable, funny, and gives great lectures on interesting topics. He has the difficult job of weeding out CS students in their first term, so many of the bad reviews come from there. Overall, 10/10, would take again.
He is passionate and knowledgeable, beyond that it is hard to say much good. The class is very difficult for beginners, it seems like the only way you could do well is if you already know a lot about CS, as the students who did were the only ones to excel, the final exam median score was 60 which shows this. Time I spent on his class > all others.
I had very little programming experience before taking his class, but I still managed to get an A, which I found achievable. If you don't understand something during the lectures, I highly recommend going to his office hours. He genuinely cares about you understanding the material.
Difficult for an intro class if you have 0 CS background experience. Drifts from subjects a lot during lectures. Midterm / final are made to be near impossible to get 100s, his own words. Mean score for Fall 2024 term was 60; teaches a lot of concepts but doesn't really give you time to absorb it. Just "learn this today, forget it next week".
Just a bizarre class. The material in 164 is just odd to me. I didn't mind tranquility, as weird and sketchy as it is. It just would've been nice to code or do something useful. Instead, we spent the class doing weird stuff like digital circuits and the final was bad. Avg was a 60 in my class. The grades are very frustrating but the curve is decent
Brian Stuart is the human embodiment of a coding error. He explains things with the excitement of a wet napkin. Also VERY SAD that I got caught cheating
I slept through each class and rewatched the lectures after and still got an A. People complaining about Stuart probably switched majors after 1 year. The course covers almost every computer science topic briefly so as long as you pay attention and do well on assignments you should be fine.
Tough intro course, but worth the effort. Lectures can be dry, but engaging with the material and using tools like unstuckstudy for study prep really helped me succeed.
Spring 24/25. Challenging Assignments. High Expectations. Very knowledgeable, intelligent. Wants you to think, not just regurgitate. Helpful during and outside office hours. Unique perspective on grades - you don't start with 100% and get deductions for mistakes, instead you start with 0 and get rewarded for demonstrated understanding
The professor as a person is good and reachable. But the class and the tests are completely in different level of toughness. I wouldn't recommend it as there is no grading criteria and being graded with the final exam + too vague homeworks
Professor Stuart is a very knowledgeable professor but he is very unfair towards students. Only 7 assignments and its currently week 10 and only one assignment has been graded. The assignment that is graded, the feedback is useless. The stuff that was noted does not relate to your code and to add on the assignments build off of each other.
Summer 24/25. Class structure is horrible. No assignments were graded even after withdraw deadline. How am I supposed to get feedback for progress in this class? Exam upcoming and only 3 of 7 assignments graded. This guy has the biggest ego and just rambles on in class. He doesn't care about his students at all and is super harsh on grading.
This class was easy and enjoyable. It should've easily gotten a 4 or 5 from me but the term is literally over today and our week 4/5 assignments have yet to be graded. Fortunately the professor gave an easy final and relatively easy assignments with generous grading. Great lectures, great professor, atrocious grading speed. Would recommend.
I would love to give a 5 because Brian Stuart is the CCI GOAT. He is extremely knowledgeable and insightful, and gives charismatic, interesting lectures. Unfortunately, his devotion to doing things "the right way" means he takes FOREVER to grade things (because he is giving very detailed feedback), and makes him come off as egotistical.
Great professor with great views. love him
Honestly a great professor, knows how to explain easily during the lectures and the labs associated with them really solidify your understanding with the topic, easily accessible during the labs and answers any questions you have and the TA(s) are also very helpful. Great class to introduce computer science.
For an intro-level class, Professor Stuart definitely makes it daunting and difficult. However, he is an excellent teacher and truly wants students to succeed, not just regurgitate content. He is full of knowledge and will answer just about any question you have in detail. He is very approachable and caring. The class workload is super manageable.
Honestly for people who are just stepping into the computer science field without any prior experience, I believe this course would be a lot harder. But if you have some experience, it will definitely help you with understanding topics in the class! If you come to Drexel and you see you have this class just beware of the final, it was so humbling
Professor Stuart is a pretty chill guy and is always willing to help. His lectures aren't the best and boring at times. The labs aren't too bad, and you can finish them during lab time. I don't know why he uses Tranquility when it's useless, and we will never use it again. Also for some reason he likes to make the final really hard
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
21%
Textbook Required
3%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.56 avg changeRatings by Course
CS172
5.0
(1)172
4.0
(1)CI103
4.0
(1)CS370
4.0
(5)CS503
4.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
CS543
4.6
CS265
4.3
CS370
4.2
CS171
4.0
CS164
3.6