2.2
Quality4.3
Difficulty28%
Would Retake168
Reviews28%
Would Retake
168
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
25
4
20
3
13
2
21
1
89
What Students Say
“A horrible instructor”
CIS340 - 1.0 rating“He's the kind of professor that teaches you 1+1 and expects you to calculate the distance from W”
CIS340 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
49%
Textbook Required
48%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B
Grade Distribution
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Stable
-0.05 avg changeRatings by Course
CIS435
5.0
(1)CIS340
2.7
(75)CIS345
2.5
(40)CIS309
1.4
(21)CIS360
1.2
(30)Difficulty by Course
CIS360
4.6
CIS345
4.3
CIS340
4.2
CIS309
4.1
CIS435
4.0
Reviews (168)
Professor Olsen came in during the middle of the semester to replace old Professor. Taught from old Prof info which was really disjointed from his teaching. If he makes the class his it might be real good because he has energy and passion about the subject. However, him taking over in the middle was a challenge on both sides for learning.
Great Professor and a great class. There are 3 tests, 10 in class quizzes and assignments every week. The work is spread out enough to make the learning easy. Also there is no text book just read the slides and articles he gives. Also you get 2 typed pages of notes for every test.
This professor would be great BUT you get screwed because he is completely unorganized and incredibly ambiguous. For assignments the directions/due dates if any are hard to understand. More importantly, the fill in portions of the tests are written so poorly that 5 answers would make sense for every blank. Good guy, but horrible for assignments.
I'm in this class now. He is so vague with what he wants for homework. His fill in the blank tests are HARD!! Yes there's 2 pages of notes, but I would rather have NO notes and a fair multiple-choice scantron test. He gave out a pop-quiz just to prove a point and lower everybodys' grades, why? Hopefully I can pass with a C in this class...
The only nice thing about having so much dang homework is that you can basically fail an exam and still get a B. The work is so ambiguous though, most of the time I don't even know if I was right. If you ask questions about the homework before its due, he will just confuse you. The exams are incredibly hard too, they're fill in the blank.
Professor is very vague in his assignments. You don't know it you did the work correctly or not. He seems like a very cool guy, but not a very good teacher. Assignments are not clear since there can be multiple answers for each question. The methods he teaches(noun-parsing, verb-parsing) seem like shortcuts instead of actually learning proper uml
The class isn't as horrible as the prior posters make it to be. Yes, the tests have a lot of fill in the blanks, but they're not THAT hard if you study for them. I will agree that the homeworks can be a little annoying, but there's so many that you can do mediocre on the exams and still pass the class. Overall, a meh class but it could be worse.
Not a hard class but lots of homework!!! 2 pages of notes per test but tests are 'fill in the blanks'. Make sure to put all 'menu' items and details from software used in your notes since there are a lot of questions about it! Teaching style - somewhat confusing but it is easy to get a good grade.
He doesn't care about his students at all. He has a full-time job outside of ASU. Obviously using teaching as a side income, and it shows. "I was creating programs during my first week at deVry, so I don't understand how you guys think this is hard" Wow big-headed much? This was said on multiple occasions. Office hours = only 30 min. GOOD LUCK!! :)
To say Olsen is vague would be the understatement of the year. He has another full time job and it's painstakingly obvious that his teaching gig is something he does on the side. It's also pathetic how long it takes this COMPUTER INFORMATION SYSTEMS PROFESSOR to respond to an email!!!
Class starts off fine but the end of the semester is very hard. He tries to teach C# in the last month of class then makes you write a full application using C#. I turned mine in and he laughed at it. I still don't know C#. He tells you to use google as help. Didn't respond to my help email for the project. Can't teach coding at beginner level. BAD
He is pretty condescending and his handouts seem to be written by a two year old... unless, of course, he has his grad student TA write them... then they seem professional. Perfect example of why Devry is a joke, because they produce guys like him.
He's a nice guy but a meh professor. The final project is nearly impossible. C# is gone over in some detail but not enough to code the project he's asking for. Helpful to have programming background (CSE 110 helps). No textbook but expectations are set as if you had one. Tests are fill in the blank, and you never know what answer he's looking for.
I honestly didn't think this class was as bad as everyone is making it seem. The tests aren't bad at all if you do the two pages of notes he lets you bring. My only complaint is that he just throws the final project at you. There are only 3 tests but there's homework due before almost every class.
I took this course/instructor and for me, it was the worst. Many assignments are due before all material lectured. Exams are multiple-choice, fill-in, and free writing, i.e. write code by hand. Even 2 sheets of info in tiny type might not be enough for good exam grade. I believe material is important, however, he presents and explains it poorly.
Chris is really difficult to learn from. Lectures are ok, but he does a bad job of explaining the concepts behind things well, and this makes the final project HARD. He's also incredibly unhelpful when you ask him for help - just confuses you more and won't answer even if you've already tried everything. Nice guy, not a great teacher.
Chris Olsen is the worst. He's a nice guy but a bad teacher. He made me change my major cuzz his directions are insane and thats why I failed his class. Lots of HW assignment to work on, and a final project that I didn't even bother to do. If you're smart then take his class otherwise be careful has he is the only one teaches this course.
Chris Olsen is the worst instructor I have had in my entire life. You think in a C# course that we would use the in class computer to work through code together. Nope, he simply goes through some PowerPoints quickly and then says "ok, go home and watch video lectures.." That Microsoft has put together. Please, avoid this teacher at all costs.
Learn C# before taking this class. If you don't, you will be completely lost in his class because he goes to fast.The book also sucks.Good Luck!
One of my very least favorite classes and teachers. Learn the material on your own because that's your best bet of doing well. The project is a nightmare. He always stressed not to ask him questions and just google it because if you asked questions on the job you'd get fired. So good luck.
His teaching style is disjointed. His class material is scattered amongst ppt, copy/pasted wiki's, videos, pdfs,and word docs. You are left to sift through them... It is hard to follow the material when it is presented in so many different formats. His class needs a lot more structure.I could not learn from his style of teaching.
The Project is to hard for the material taught.Chris expects way to much from students,and makes the class overly difficult.Seems like all the material is just kind of thrown together in a mishmash of disorder.Chris either needs to figure out how to teach and restructure the material, or leave the position. He is hurting students more than helping.
I liked Professor Olsen. He's very charismatic and he makes class interesting, but it's still a challenging course. A significant amount of homework (which is somewhat helpful, but try to seek out more feedback from him at office hours) and fill-in-the-blank tests. The class kept me very busy and seemed to be more complicated than it needed to be.
I don't agree with a lot of what others are saying. The class is difficult, but I think Mr. Olsen does a good job of teaching it. By no means is it an easy grade, but I feel his lectures are well organized and that he gives you plenty of resources to help you if you get stuck. He is also available for appointments both in class, and via skype.
I took this class first in Spring 2013 and didn't dedicate as much time as I should have due to other time conflicts with school/interning. Retook in fall 2013, he changed the course structure to be much more aligned to be helpful. 3 exams, use resources, hard project - lots of time. Quizzes add up so don't miss those and study harder than scanning
Go to class, take notes, write down everything he does and the class isn't to bad. Having had no programing experience before this I found the subject challenging. Although, he shows you everything you will need to know to get assignments and the project done. Book is helpful plus you use it in 345, wish I had bought it for 340.
Tough class and a lot of work, but the tests were better than I thought they would be. You can do well if you prepare. He's so charismatic and class isn't dry. My biggest complaint is that he's really attractive and it made it hard to focus.
Console.WriteLine("This professor is a babe.");
Honestly the best teacher I have had at ASU. Very clear on what he wants and very clear on how to do it. Class is very fun, especially when he brings in his cat to demonstrate Arrays. 10/10 would take again
Don't take this class unless you're a CIS major. I didn't learn anything new. He reads straight from the PP slides, and most of it you already learned in MGT 300. He is unclear about expectations and ignores you if you ask a question that he doesn't know the answer to. Emailing him is a waste if time.
Pretty good teacher. Tests are pretty hard and there is a project you will be working on for much of the semester. Go to class and you should at least pass no problem. But oh my god, he is such a terrible dresser. I think his mom dresses him. #nostyle
He was a nice guy and all but the class was extremely difficult. If you have never learned code before good luck! I mean it. He was not very helpful outside of class, kind of rude. The project is extremely difficult and takes about 45 hours to complete. Does not go into detail much about the lessons and you have to learn a lot on your own.
This is a hard topic and you will likely struggle without programming experience. Professor Olsen is very strict with grading, but it is fair and follows exactly what the assignment requirement or question states. Professor Olsen uses sarcastic humor and wit to make the content less boring and dry. Overall a good professor to learn from.
Awful teacher who will make you want to change your major. C# is not a competitive language, yet we take two courses on it. The Dept. needs to change the language to Python and hire an actual professor, not an adjunct lecturer looking to supplement his income.
"Very memorable experience"
He's the kind of professor that teaches you 1+1 and expects you to calculate the distance from W.P.C. to Mars.
There's a HUGE discrepancy between what he taught in class and what he expects you to know on homework, quizzes, and exam.
On the exams, he'll specifically pick things that he only mentioned once in class. He'll then proceed to say it's fair game because it's in the book or that he mentioned it in lecture. Not only that, but he makes attendance basically mandatory. "Very logical".
Awful teacher when it comes to programming, very arrogant and that gets in the way of learning. He likes to brag that he knows more than phds but he is kidding himself if he thinks he can teach better than them, lectures don't mirror assignments, and that hurts grades.
Felt like many responsesfeedbacks from him were rude andor copied and pasted. Didn't know my standing in class until after I took the final. Be sure to email him with questions on grading as many errors are made by the graders. Swallow his sarcasm and he'll eventually help you out.
He is condescending in his responses to student questions and nonexistent throughout the course. He also takes a long time to grade assignments, thus making it difficult to know your standing in the class. There are two papers, weekly problems, midterm, final, project, and a case study. My advice is to find another professor.
Not too bad of a class. Just make sure you do all the assignments, gives two late passes, but make sure you use them or they're lost forever. Study the things he said only once in class for exams, and read the "optional" papers he posts online. Final project isn't too hard if you have a solid understanding of programming.
I would rate him "0" in all categories if I could, and unfortunately, he's the only one that teaches CIS340. I would have NEVER signed up for the CIS major if I knew I would meet this guy down the road. By far, the biggest regret of my life - I'm not kidding you.
90% of these feedbacks are true. The only reason why the CIS program is ranked well for ASU is because the OTHER professors are picking up his slack. Also, the CIS program for ASU is "rising" ONLY because the others schools are taking it out and replacing it with Business Analytics program.
This was a TOUGH class and required a lot of patience. With that being said, the professor is exactly how everyone describes. Stay on his good side and you'll get a passing grade. Pay attention in class and ask questions! You'll regret it later when you don't understand the material. He expected too much from the final project for a beginner class.
A horrible instructor. If you know C# very well before taking this course, then GREAT. Otherwise, get ready to SUFFER. He said 30% of the students don't pass CIS340. I can't believe the school is allowing him to continue teaching. Ridiculous. The material is too much and unbelievably hard for a beginner class. Disappointed at the university.
Literally, the worst professor ever. He is tough and his feedback does not help you at all. He will deduct points for NONEXISTENT grammatical issues. He doesn't explain content and when I went in for office hours he was going off on random tangents and being extremely witty. I'm not sure how this guy was hired is still working at ASU.
One of the WORST professors I have ever had. Extremely rude and unclear. You can tell he is one of those people that is only at ASU for the paycheck and does not care a bit about students. Unfortunately he is the only lecturer for CIS 309 so we all have to suffer.
Olsen is the worst professor I've had so far. He was very unhelpful, rude to students, and did not desire to see students succeed. Assignments and testquiz questions were given to intentionally deceive you. As a student very proficient in C#coding in general, this class was extremely difficult entirely because of the instructor; 345 is far better
The first difficult class you will take in the CIS program. Expectations are set day 1.. You will be expected to do the reading, complete the homework, and show up for the quizzes. If you do not do these things you will not succeed. Every minute of class time is used efficiently. I would assume most of the complaints on here are from lazy students.
All these complaints are from lazy students. Just show up to class, take notes, read the required material, do your homework and you'll pass. I had not programming experience but scored hundreds on all my programming assignments. He gives you everything you need to learn C#. I don't understand why people complain so much. CS majors would laugh.
It's unfortunate that Olsen is the only professor available for 340. While he is a nice enough guy, he's a horrible teacher. Never felt like he wanted his students to succeed and before exams he'd brag about how poorly students performed on it. Some grading was completely arbitrary. You will struggle if you have no prior knowledge of C#.
Life will turn from rainbows and butterflies to a dreadful hell. He'll tell you where the woods are and asks you to build a bridge. Get him out of the CIS department already. Please.
I had to retake his class because I was taking too many time consuming courses at the same time as it. I am taking it over the summer by itself and it is not so bad. Watch the videos THAT HE MAKES over and over before each lecture so you can get a REVIEW instead of learning first time in class. practice things, dont just watch them.
Absolutely terrible teacher. Long delay for grades, didn't get the mid-term grade back until the week of the final. Very little feedback with nothing constructive. Literally "Incorrect answer, no math work shown." Vague instructions for assignments and inconsistent grading between tests and written work. Avoid this professor like the plague!
An awful lecturer who doesn't cover the material needed to understand assignments. His teaching style would be fine for an advanced programming class but he is the worst case for a beginning course instructor.
Absolutely terrible teacher!!! Get him out of the CIS department. Please!!!
Had him for CIS340 and he was vague and didn't provide good feedback. He is even worse for CIS309 online. His lectures do not cover any of the homework material at all. Session B class has about 5 essays, groups projects and homework assignments that are not relevant to what he is providing in lectures. I really don't kno why he is still here.
If this is your first programming class expect to work hard. Olsen is one of the best programming teachers I've ever had. He's very clear is what the criteria is for everything and programming isn't easy it takes work. You will not do well in the CS world if you really expect this class to be as easy as the rest of this joke of a major.
Here is the most unbiased review for this class. This class is a pretty large course load: Two individual research papers, a case study, two exams (tough), a group project, and 5 homework assignments. If you do the work and follow the rubric exactly, you can expect to get an A or B. Watch the lectures and study hard for the tests.
He honestly wasn't too bad. The tests suck, the quizzes are okay, and the homework was actually somewhat easy. Chris has a distrustful relationship with his students and he thinks everyone is out to cheat. If you read the book and sources he tells you to, then the assignments are pretty straightforward. Class will bore you but going is important.
I really really tried and still failed. I absolutely despise this professor, he expected everyone to already know everything and he did not teach well AT ALL. Intro programming class deserves a better professor to actually teach.....
Absolutely Horrible. He tries to appeal to people using very poor humor however he as a professor is bad. I had issues understanding his course he would not help when asked. I have a background in programming and i still had a tough time passing.
Olsen will regurgitate what is on PP slides only. A student will do just as well if they just showed up for quizzes and exam days. I feel Olsen makes a point to give as little help as possible. He is the worst professor I have ever had. Go to the tutors, they care and are better teachers of CIS than Chris. Shame on ASU, you are better than this!!!
THE PROGRAM: No BS. Watch All Video: GoToCoursDocs-CourMat-READINGS & AssignFeedBack. Tutors are ESSENTIAL(Lookup Definition,Literally). HW: DO IT (afterVideos!&Ebook). Quizzes: Review PP slds for 30min before ALL quizzes!! Exams: Practice "Hand" Writing Statements/Loops for FULL day before!! FinProj: NoProb. Bear Down. Bleed it out. !Go Devils!
Worst class I have ever taken at ASU. The material itself isn't that tough, but you might as well not even show up for lectures if not for the quizzes. The best instruction he gives is "It's in the book". Don't expect much more than that, because you won't get it. He has the lowest rating of all CIS professors at ASU, and with good reason.
Im not going to bash him. u wouldnt want some1 tarnishing your reputation online. But I will say that this is a really hard course you have to work hard and read alot know you will have to dedicate alot of time to it. study good for his quizes study even better for the exams and start on that project ASAP! ASAP! ASAP!!!! did i mention ASAP!!!
Getting a B can be easy. Study the ppt slides for at least an hour b4 the quizzes Read the book! Before u do the hw. Dont rely on ppt or lecture for them. The tests are 2 hard for the time he allows, practice writing all the loops alot for exam 1. practice writing all the uml diagrams especially classes and sequence diagrams. Start on project asap!
(Aramco) Olsen is not an ideal professor, but he is the only one teaching CIS340. The class is challenging and it includes 12 quizzes, 16 HW, 2 Tests, and one individual project. He gives extra credit for attending DISC meetings. Cons:The lectures are excruciatingly boring. Olsen is obsessed and thinks that everyone is out to cheat. Exams are hard.
The horror stories are a lie. I really enjoyed this class because of him. He is a hard grader for sure, but if you mess up, it's your fault. At no point did I feel like I was being cheated out of points. Read the book, keep up with the material and you'll be fine. It doesn't hurt either to watch some tutorial videos on C# before the class starts.
340 is going to be the first "real" programming class many CIS students have. I don't think Chris is the best choice for teaching beginners. I can see his style being suited well for higher level classes, but I think that he isn't very skilled at presenting elementary programming concepts. He's nice in his office hours but a jerk during lecture.
Olsen thinks all the students are cheating, he would criticize pretty much most students who ask questions.
Final and Midterm are cumulative and closed book/notes. Olsen will not even give you a study guide so good luck knowing what to study in depth. Doesn't seem to want to help his students to succeed, but if you work hard you can probably pull out a B. Good luck.
Deducts points for vague reasons on written assignments, difficult exams to study for since he gives no guidance, expects you to memorize every formula and concept, when asking for help most likely will respond saying it's in the lecture/ book, research paper, case study, weekly assignments and quizzes. A lot of work for a short class with no help
Very vague on instructions. This class was so hard and made me reevaulate whether I wanted to keep my BDA certificate. I ended up passing (barely). BE SURE to start papers early as those are 25% of your grade and that's what really saved me. Stay on top of the assignments in this class and you should get a B!
C# is a tough concept to comprehend and I can imagine it is tough to teach as well. But I think Chris is the best professor to teach it. If you put in the effort to learning this and doing all the hw you can learn alot from his class. Hes the funniest professor ive had. Just make sure to read the book and do the hw. Study all the quizzes for final.
Rude when asked for help and did not give any help. Learned more from my SCM class that covered some of these topics than this class. Uses a proctoring system to monitor online test taking. Learned nothing yet lots of work.
He is rude when responding to questions. He is extremely vague when it comes to grading criteria, and gives no chances to make up work. Exams are impossible because he once again gives no guidelines to what to study. Even the lecture notes are vague. It is clear that he is not here to help us succeed. Made me debate dropping my BDA certificate.
The dude was awesome, for example if you ask him what's 2 + 2 his response will be "If you go back to 2nd grade and open a text book your answer will be found on the fourth chapter. The guy enjoys trolling students lol. Really atrocious at his part. B
If you email him he WILL try to help you one on one. READ the book! tests are NOT solely on the formulas and are very text and terminology heavy. LISTEN to him when he says to keep practicing until you get it. Do your best on the papers because the tests are brutal and they WILL save you.
No recommend for each student. You will study EVERYTHING BY YOURSELF. He cannot help you to learn anything during lecture time. He don't talk about any key points of his powerpoint and textbook, you have to read the knowledge before each class. He is the worst teacher I've been meet. A LOT OF HOMEWOKRS! He usually don't teach you how to write code.
Great Instructor, knows his stuff, has worked in the business. type of professor you should expect from a Business school. Has real world input and expectations that will help you transition from the student life to the workforce. The course is a bit difficult but professor Olsen is there to help. If ye ask, ye shall receive. It's a weeder course.
Professor Olsen is a great guy, He knows what he talking about and knows the business. Uses real life examples multiple times every class to make it easy for even the least experience programming students. Even if you have no idea what programming is, go to class, read the book and pay attention and you will do just fine. START FINAL PROJECT EARLY!
His lecture slides are literally no help whatsoever for this class, his lecture videos are also of little help and his PoW assignments are riddled with vague questions and typos. I also found him to be absolutely no help on discussion board questions and we frequently had deadline issues on our assignments.
BY FAR the most incompetent professor I've ever had. Posted the midterm and instructions (which I screenshot) stated that its open book. A student posted in the discussion board asking if we can use the ebook. He then CHANGED the instructions to be closed book, and failed to acknowledge his mistake. It's so infuriating and he keeps doing it.
Professor Olsen is the bomb dot com! You can always count on him making you laugh. He uses real world situations or examples to his lectures. Very accessible to reach outside of class. Wants you to learn, not just get a grade. Its hard work but so rewarding. You make practical programs that you can use in the future. I would take the class again.
CIS 345 is a difficult and time consuming. However Chris does an awesome job preparing you for everything. He gives examples in class plus he posts the correct answers after it's due. You don't even need the textbook. Just study what he gives you. For any other help, he is available practically 24/7 by email or IM. There's no reason to not pass.
Professor Olsen really knows his stuff. He is really helpful and goes into detail when he needs to. He always wants students to understand the topics discussed in lecture so do not be afraid to ask questions. The grading criteria is pretty clear. You will have to understand C#, its syntax, and how it works. Only 2 exams and 1 final. Funny sometimes
Go to class. Everything is covered in class and requirements for this course are clear.
while class is not mandatory missing lecture will hurt you as every class covers lots of new material. Many classes have in class components that have to be finished by the next day, with a new assignment due about once a week. Both can be fairly time consuming however assignments are about the only way to really understand the material in full.
Chris is very real with students about him being a procrastinator and knowing that we are procrastinators, but his analogies are spot on for teaching. He is so straightforward and organized, so you know from the get go that if you put the time in you will succeed. DON'T SKIP and use the ICs for everything! And a cheat sheet on the tests.
This is a great class. Not super difficult but you learn a lot. 2 midterms both with a study guide. 2 mini projects. Be sure to give yourself enough time for them because they arent that mini. Especially the second one. Just do the work and youll pass pretty easily.
Chris is one of the best professors I have ever had, his lectures are fun, funny, and engaging and he tries to come up with differing analogies so that you will actually understand the material. This was my third coding class and I've never had a professor go as in depth as he does. If he can't help you code, you need to pick a different major.
Awful professor: disorganized, ignored email, lots of mistakes on grading and assignments
Vague and unhelpful.
I'm a GPA3.9 senior student and I need to say that he made this class extremely hard for students. The basic knowledge for this class is just supply chain and simple math, but he made it so hard for us to understand. And he s the only one who teaches CIS309 in ASU!! And CIS309 is in the ABDA certificate requirement OMG!!! I'm really mad!!!!!!
He tries to make class engaging with humor, and I definitely learned a lot in the course. His style of teaching is just a little disorganized. It's sometimes hard to follow and take notes when it doesn't even seem like he knows where he's going. That said, he's not as bad as some people make it seem. Just come to class and don't skip assignments.
He is a very fun teacher and has a lot of knowledge about the industry. His teaching is disorganized but he explains concepts very well and is very enthusiastic. I visited him with non-class things during his office hours and he was super helpful. He even helped me with an assignment from a different class. He is also pretty funny
I enjoyed having him for my CIS340 class. He was very helpful for whenever i had questions outside of class. He really tries to help you understand what you are doing in the class. I also really like that he provides a lot of resources that you can look to if your not understanding the material. I honestly would recommend him for this class.
Disregards students who cheat. He barely replies to emails. If he answers your question, he doesn't answer it in a straight forward way and leaves you more confused. His grading guidelines are ok, but the exams are extremely difficult that brings your grades low. One wrong question on the exam and you miss already half of the exam. Horrible
Funny guy.
I am a former student of prof. olsen. let me tell you that he is a GENIUS. I got a job as a software engineer after asu. I owe everything to prof Olsen. yes his class is hard and tests but no one will teach you the basics of coding like him. I am still using EVERYTHING that he taught to this day for my job. Take his class seriously, seriously.
Super hard teacher. avoid at all cost. I am a triple major and this class has been harder than 2 of my capstones. if you have to take him because you signed up late defer a semester since you will probably fail anyway.
If you already know the material for this class, you will be in good shape. If you have to learn it in class, well plan to spend a LOT of time on your own to figure it out. This is a CIS class for Accounting Majors and he forgets that it is very foreign material to the students. Plenty of homework on top of a semester-long group project.
Terrible professor. You'll never get clear answers to your questions. All he will say is to refer to the syllabus. You will have in-class homework due twice a week and then an assignment due at the end of every week. His grading scale makes no sense considering how the tests are weighted more than the projects that you have to work on for a month.
Agree with the previous commentator. Class was taught similar to CIS majors in a class designed for accounting students. Expect vague answers to any questions you may have. The group project is a semester-long and very difficult, expect to spend many days working on it. The homework is also similar, each one taking several hours for few points.
Took his CIS 340, and CIS 345 Class, Hard class but he really taught my programming like no other professor. Something about his teaching really sticks with me. He could be a little more friendly when you have questions, other then that love his metaphors and jokes, keeps a hard subject a bit lighter.
I took this class Fall 2018, and it was pretty easy considering I had no clue about Java Programming. He teaches with analogies so you can understand the concepts, and gives you plenty of time for the In Class Activities/Homework. If you got a bad grade, it's probably because you didn't put in the work. Just follow the directions for an Easy A.
Took Olsen for both 340/345, chill guy. I highly recommend going to lectures, they give you a solid foundation of the concepts. Youre provided with all resources needed to understand the material covered, though its up to you on how much effort you want to put into the course. Learn how to pseudo code:debug - youll rely on em in the real world
Great Professor, tough sometimes but he gives you all of the information you'll need to pass. Go to class, read for class, and you'll pass. He's accessible outside of class if you need, don't be afraid to ask a question if you have one. Do the assignments, and practice! Python has been tough but enjoyable. You'll use it in the real world!
He's currently teaching Python, and roughly half the class is sitting at an 65% or below, and the other half is barely scraping by. When you ask a question, he's really vague about the answers, and it just seemed like after the fifth week, he stopped caring about his students; he became more more mean, and stopped HELPING when someone asked him.
Everyone either loves or hates the guy. His humor is pretty rough and if you're a snowflake you'll get offended pretty often, but I suggest not taking it to heart and you'll realize the jokes are pretty funny. The homework requires more effort than most classes but that's not a bad thing. Your grade definitely reflects your effort in this course.
This class requires you to put in ALOT of work outside of class. It's a very difficult class and you'll have homework almost every other day. The exams and quizzes are weighted heavy. Olsen is very strict and does not respond to communicate to questions on email quickly. The TA will be your best help in this class.
Great professor. This class takes a ton of investment and has big assignments just about every week, but it is all useful and builds up in your mind over time. The constant assignments in this class make for less studying time when you take the exams and quizzes. Highly recommended if you are serious about learning the content.
Chris Olsen is easily one of the worst professors in the accountancy degree map. He is egotistic and self-absorbed and convinced that if he helps anyone individually he'll be accused of violating some terms of ASU for fair teaching. As a result of the later, he is remarkably unhelpful when it comes to helping students succeed. He's also just rude
Worst class Ive ever taken. The assignments and final project require hours/days worth of effort to complete but the quizzes and exams comprise 70% of your overall grade. First test had a class average of 72%. Use code examples from the videos for your exam notes. The instructor is unhelpful and arrogant, to top it off. The course book is useless.
Smart professor but expects alot and doesnt explain the fundamentals clearly for noobs. Do all PE, HW, 1 Project (30% total) to hoard as many points as possible. The project is hard don't wait to do it. Quizzes (25%), 2 Exams (36% total), Final (9%). Study or you will fail these examinations. Other: so many videos, no extra credit, no mercy.
While his video lectures are useful to learn Python, I did not enjoy his teach style whatsoever. He does not incorporate any element of interactivity in his class, which makes learning the technical content tougher. Futhermore he is frequently arrogant and points out general mistakes of students which is not motivating at all.
By far one of the worst CIS professors at ASU. If you ask him a question, he will just tell you to rewatch his lecture videos to find the answer. He is also very lazy and condescending. It takes him weeks to finish grading and always talks down on how students don't understand his content. Does not care at all about how covid has affected students
I took many issues with this professor. His greatest quality, none. He changed due dates without letting the students know. We wasted an entire class because he forgot to set up the table for us. We were unable to login, and he refused to lesson to our feedback. This man does not care about the class. He provided no helpful feedback for assignments
I won't waste my time reviewing the professor with a worded message. Take a hint from my peers. He's absolutely awful.
If you like having straight feedback to specific questions you won't get any from him. Everything is answered indirectly like he is a monk trying to open your eyes, anything that goes wrong is never his fault and knows exactly who to blame, and nothing you do will ever be good enough. For an introductory course, you are expected to know it all.
I feel similarly to the other responses here. This is the worst CIS course at ASU. He is a tough grader. Grading of exams is ridiculous but they are the majority of the grade. Poor teaching style, really doesn't care
This is by far the worst professor I've taken at ASU. He's condescending and claims he offers so much help but will never give a straight answer. No tutors, TA, or Y grade option was offered. He wastes your time if you do meet with him. AVOID HIM AT ALL COSTS. Or if you're a CIS major and need to take 345 with him plan to take it twice.
Majority of your time will be spent on PE/Projects even when majority of your grade is exams. Does not do a good job of preparing you for exams, not helpful when you ask questions, directions are unclear/vague. Hard to schedule office hours with and there is no TA you can run to for help.
I understand that this is a difficult course, but he did not make it any easier. Despite having good lectures and supplementary material, the quizzes and exams were SO DIFFICULT. And then on top of that, you don't see what you got wrong unless you schedule a meeting with him which makes it hard to improve. Do poorly on the project & fail the class.
He's gonna make you work for a good grade but youre gonna understand python very well because of it
He is strict but fair. If you attend all classes, the answers to the projects are provided. He may not give a direct answer, but he does navigate us. His teaching method is different. He encourages critical thinking skills and does not simply "spoon feed" us. That is why a number of peers do not take well to his class. We have to earn our grade.
Do not take this clown. Lectures as if he's the greatest thing to grace the earth, and doesn't make it anymore obvious that he doesn't care about you. You would think a professor would be accommodating to a global pandemic, but he just doesn't care, and probably assumes this is the only class you are taking. Stay away, a monkey could teach better.
Hear me out, you can only learn the best out of CIS 345 if you dedicate your time in this class and review the materials with him during office hours. He gives you advice for studying, memorize tricks and especially coding mindset. You cannot expect to just code well by doing everything once. Actively find him and talk to him, he will help!
The quizzes are going to murder you. theres only like 5 and its 25% of your grade. You are passing or failing based on 40 questions, not to mention the insane levels of unpreparedness he gives you for these tests and intense workloads of the PE's and assignments. Cannot emphasize enough how bad this class is. No TA, very little help, and just bad.
Lectures leave you unprepared for homework assignments. Does not have a TA or provide clear answers when students ask questions. Homework assignments are meant to test your critical thinking but you are left on your own to get your way there.
I took this class to learn Python. As many before me have said, his weighting system for everything is all out of line, and missing a few questions will tank your grade. The most frustrating part of this class is the lack of help, he will 9/10 times respond with "watch the videos" or just not at all to questions.
One of the worst CIS professors. No TA! He doesn't answer questions directly. He thinks he's a PSY major. Class has 5 quizzes(25%) + 2.5 exams(45%) that contain questions not even remotely close to the HW, which you will be doing 2-3 times per week (no, you can't start early). Olsen is proud to be a gate keeper in CIS so don't expect any help.
It's like he hates to teach. Ask a question - he'll tell you to re-watch the lecture, or won't address it in any way. You can't get answers to your quizzes/exams unless you schedule a meeting with him. Only the quizzes, project, and exams matter. The project is insane, the exams tricky, and quizzes only have like 8 questions. No room for mistakes.
By far the worst professor I've ever had. The dude rarely answers messages, and when he does he is condescending and unhelpful. Just tells you to go back and re-watch the lectures. During finals week he did not answer or even address a SINGLE question pertaining to the final exam or final class project. Was totally absent. Avoid at all costs.
After taking this class and dealing with him, I am like 95% sure that these 5 star reviews are just him coming on here and writing fake reviews. Read the 1-star reviews and take heed. Don't take class with this dude if you can help it.
I can see why people struggled in this class. The content is just difficult and theres lots of work which cant be avoided. However his lecture videos are pretty helpful as well as doing the homework helped apply the content. Main troublesome thing is he is slow to respond and usually responds with rewatch lecture. Also cant see your quiz scores.
He's "meh" at best. His expectations are clear, and the workload is heavy but not outlandish. He is just extremely condescending if you ever ask for help, and is very hard to reach outside of class. Each week you have an assignment (3hrs) and two exercises (1hr) due. I'm usually a very fast coder, but the final project demanded 16hrs from me.
I was excited to take this class since I enjoyed and excelled in my CIS 340 with Prof Altaf. To my frustration, Professor Olsen is an arrogant professor who has irrational teaching ideologies that convinced me that the success of his students is not in his best interest. There's no TA, office hours are useless, and the workload is very heavy.
He is a great guy to talk but terrible Professor at teaching. Guess what, watching videos is how you will have from his response. To be honest, if you think of passing his course, forget about it and be ready for taking him again cuz you will fail at your first time.
Professor Olsen is a good professor! The course material, which is not his, is a whole different story. I feel like he has his hands tied with how much he can help during the project. The material is hard, and he does a good job teaching but take notes because it's hard to remember everything. He gives great advice and is helpful!
His teaching is extremely unclear, never available outside class and has no TA. Quizzes and projects are extremely difficult and he does not prepare you for them well. I recommend taking classes with any other professor unless you have no choice but to take classes with him.
Avoid at all Costs. You're given a project that you work on the whole semester and its a complete headache. I took this class online and the instructions for the project are very unclear. He doesn't even use ANY of his own material. Even his canvas announcements are signed off by the other professor. Exams are difficult. Expect no help from him.
Professor Olsen's class is a challenge, but using Unstuck ai alongside the lectures helped me stay on top of the heavy workload. While he can be distant, his teaching style rewards engaged students. With consistent effort, I was able to earn a solid grade.
Entirely unhelpful when asked questions, no clue on how to properly teach students foreign material, and has no intention to help you learn or pass this class at all. Professor Olsen does not use his own material, clearly because he has no clue what is going on half of the time.
This online course was a nightmare to navigate. The majority of this course is a project sectioned into parts, and a couple tests and assignments. There is no feedback and everything took forever to grade. This was the worst online class I've ever taken, and when many people emailed with complaints he just responded with links to the lectures.
Absolutely terrible professor. Assignment instructions were extremely vague and didn't grade anything during the semester so knowing what your progress in the class is impossible. Also very hard to reach, he either didn't respond or it took over a week for a response. Do not take him if you can
CIS 360 in my opinion is the hardest class on the accounting major map. For that reason I don't see any professor teaching it getting positive reviews, but I thought the instructions were always vague on vey difficult assignments. Prof. Olsen could have been a lot better about responding to emails. Take it in person if possible.
It's a shame this class isn't better since it's mandatory for ACC majors. The class is super disorganized. The professor is not the "teacher"- he's simply the class moderator so don't expect anything helpful to come from him. My advice is just to do the assignments and hope for the best.
Genuinely the worst professor I have ever had. Gives passive aggressive responses to *literally* every question asked of him like it's ridiculous that we would even ask. The instructions for the course-long project are vague and you get no feedback during the entire time. Its worth 30% of the entire course grade and you get 0 feedback. Gee, thanks!
Your grade is heavily based on a project that he doesn't grade until the end of the semester so you really have no idea where your grade stands. We were never told of a final paper until the last month of class where he said "you should have been working on this all semester", the module wasn't even published in canvas. Take any other prof.
anytime there is anything due for this class, I would just want to jump off the building instead. very vague instructions, does NOT provide any helpful guides, whenever you ask a question, he either just NOT answering, or just give passive aggressive response as if we have any idea on how to complete the extremely difficult assignments and projects
RUN! Most difficult class ever. Doesn't grade assignments until literally the very end of the semester so good luck guessing your final grade. The assignments pretty much make no sense at all and if you ask a question you will receive a passive aggressive comment that just says "the pdf lays everything out". Get the additional Textbook to survive.
Worst teacher at ASU. ASU needs to do better. If we are required to take this class the teacher needs to know how to teach and learn that assignments are expected to be graded sooner. Grading the last couple weeks of the semester is unacceptable. Get a new teacher or make the class not required because truthfully I didn't learn ANYTHING!
Worst Professor I have had the displeasure of taking at Arizona State University. Online course is structured easily enough but assignment are vague. As many others have said professor does not grade parts of the final project until final week of class. The final project relies on feedback from previous parts so this is quite unfair.
If you aren't religious, pick a religion and pray.
I've never taken a class where I would rather walk into oncoming traffic than sit through one of the assignments. His only response to my questions were to refer back to the slides and make sure I knew the concepts. If you mess up your database you might as well withdraw from the course because GOODLUCK trying to get a hold of him to help you.
If you want to be ghosted take his class. Professor does not respond, nor does is very helpful. I had to do crash courses on YouTube to understand the assignment. Please find another professor.
If you like surprises take this class because 40% weight of your grade isn't submitted till the last day!
He is genuinely the worst professor I've ever had in my 4 years at ASU. He forces you to use slack for communication but then makes everything due the same week and won't respond until the night before it's due. He doesn't grade any of the project parts until the last week of the semester, and when he does give feedback it's so passive aggressive.
What a joke of a professor. Gets mad if you ask questions, gives us instructions for the class project once 90% of the class is done. Is super passive aggressive. The content is difficult, and he makes it an absolute nightmare. You will cry and question your life decisions in this class. I don't know if miracles exist but you need one to survive:(
The instructions are very much unclear when it comes to assignments and projects. You will be looking all over canvas just to find the correct files to use to complete your project. The professor is super unhelpful when it comes to responses and giving feedback. My advice, take this class in person or with a different professor.
this dude buns
Do not take this class, don't take it just because its an icourse. this was the worst class I've taken all of college, none of the lectures are taught by him. The instructions for all of the assignments are extremely vague and unclear. He is not accessible to get in contact with and does not respond to emails or slack messages.
probably the worst class I've taken at asu. Impossible to get in contact with and if he does respond he is very un helpful, gives copy-pasted feedback on assignments to all students, has you submit parts of your project throughout the semester but doesn't grade it until the end of the semester so you have no idea what your grade is going to be
Genuinely the worst professor I've had so far at ASU. He was very difficult to reach, didn't show up to his own office hours multiple times, and took months to grade things. Assignments (particularly the project ones) had very vague instructions, and asking him questions didn't clarify anything.
It would be easy to make another review bashing Professor Olsen like the ones you see here, but that's not actually helpful. This class really forces you to learn new processes otherwise not seen in any of the other degree requirements besides ACC 330/444. I can assure you, if you follow the rubric for the assignments you will do just fine.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
49%
Textbook Required
48%
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CIS435
5.0
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2.7
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2.5
(40)CIS309
1.4
(21)CIS360
1.2
(30)Difficulty by Course
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4.3
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4.2
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