3.2
Quality3.7
Difficulty41%
Would Retake108
Reviews41%
Would Retake
108
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
40
4
17
3
11
2
10
1
30
What Students Say
“Long coding assigment due every week”
CSC330 - 1.0 rating“He is bad at explaining, slides he took from another course are sparse and there is no textbook so students are left to flounder and guess at what he will feel like testing”
CSC330 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
56%
Textbook Required
27%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-1.39 avg changeRatings by Course
CSCI454
5.0
(1)SENG265
5.0
(14)CSC483
5.0
(1)CSC589D
5.0
(1)CSC485
5.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
CSC330
4.3
SENG410
4.0
578A
4.0
CSC370
3.7
CSC116
3.5
Reviews (108)
Interesting and engaging. Class participation.
Tiny, perfect prof. Dapper. Uses chalk effectively.
Good Teacher!!!
great teacher
Great teacher, great attitude. Assignments are fair.
Excellent teacher. Not afraid to admit his mistakes and correct them.
Excellent prof, knowlegeable and experienced, highly recommend
I have learned a lot from him...and he is funny
He made an easy course hard!!! I am poor!!
Long assignments, tough midterm, good final..overall i've learned a lot from him
This guy doesnt mess around. He teaches you what you need to know, lots of work
best damn prof i've ever had
Wonderful Professor...must take his couse...
the best teacher i've ever had
Great funny guy, makes course so clear, best prof i've ever had
fun lectures, very good at explaining things
No Comments
No Comments
Great lecturer. To the point, really knows his stuff and listens to his students.
Nice guy but for some reason I get the feeling he's not cut out to be a professor
Great teacher, very clear in teaching and answering questions. I look for classes he's teaching.
Awesome Professor. Tries hard to make the coursework interesting. If you don't find his course interesting, get out of Computer Science. Really cares about the students.
very bright, mostly helpful. Sometimes he, like many geeks, has subtle ways of putting people down when they don't understand. This is obstructive to learning. A similar effect when pointing out exemplary students to the class.
Great guy. Really know his stuff. However, don't plan on learning much in this course, it's all fluff.
Not helpful; out to get people. Couldn't even be bothered to post the marks from the semester 2 days b4 the final. Sometimes seems like he doesnt know what hes talking about. Posts news of an extension for an asst 2 weeks after it was due. Gimme a break.
Very resistant to work, paranoid over students cheating/copying, his thoughts are never together as seen by his instruction. Takes days off lectures and makes it sound like he is doing us a favour! Extremely moody too!
Best teacher at UVic.
Really nice guy, but paranoid about cheating. Sometimes not very clear, but always energetic.
The worst ever!
Not the best, but he's not a bad prof
Seems very enthusiastic and knowledgeable, but he provides little to no guidance regarding assignments. Picky midterm (he asked questions regarding class presentations!) Doesn't communicate with TA as TA didn't seem to know that we had a term project!
10% class participation mark. Interesting course and he has a great energy. Don't even think of cheating in this course.. he'll have your head! He's one of the few profs who really takes an interest in teaching students the material. He had an extra 1-hour SQL lab to show us how to use SQL. He knows his stuff.
This course was called "Mining Software Repositories," but it could also have been called "How To Be A Successful Computer Science Grad Student." Dr. German has great energy and presence in class. He is a good public speaker. Highly recommended.
Hands down the best prof I have had at Uvic. He really cares about his students, and his classes have a great atmosphere. If you have an opportunity to take a class with German, do it!
Excellent teacher, his 10% made me goto most of his classes and I learned alot more that way. I'm more of a student that barely goes to class and learns from a textbook. He had lots of intuitive mini assignments you'd do every class and they taught me alot. When it came down to studying for the final I had already a huge basis. Best prof ever had.
I'm surprised how high he is rated. He's kind of bad at explaining things. Speaks fast.
Of all the profs I have had at Uvic, I have the most respect for Daniel. He expects quite a bit, but is an excellent teacher and has the utmost respect for his students and their ideas. His interactive method of teaching is very engaging and rewarding. I highly suggest you take any class you can find with him.
Very confusing, extremely difficult to follow in lecture. Often gets examples wrong or does not understand material fully when teaching. Really cares about students though, and will go the extra mile to make sure you understand. A bit neurotic when it comes to attendance and cell phones in class, but you get used to it.
I thought he was a nice guy, but after he laughed at me when I was clearly going through some personal anguish, I believe that he could care less about how his students are doing. Very rude when responding to emails as well. His test was unclear and he put questions on it that weren't touched upon in class.
He's a coding elitist. Made his one prerequisites for his course which had nothing to do with any previous course you may have taken. Bad at teaching - skips many slides, does not teach anything in linear way. Makes his exams extremely tricky and too long for the time - unless you guessed right with your cheat sheet your are screwed. Avoid him.
He's one of my favorite profs. I've also taken CSC 370 with him and I really like his teaching style. He emphasizes a lot on coding and practice, and basically never touches any theoretical stuff. He's going to give you a short coding assignment every week, and they are actually a lot of fun. I forwent playing video games to do them lol...
Daniel is arguably the best CSc professor at UVic in my opinion. 330 is inherently a tough course; it is for students who want to become much better programmers. Dan is always going to be there for students who are LEGITIMATELY putting in the effort and want to improve. His lectures are not dry, he is very enthusiastic. I grinded hard for the A-
His class has the worst grading scheme ever. The course has 10 assignments that are worth almost nothing, and 3 very difficult midterms. You must pass all midterms to pass the course. To make things worse, he placed questions on the midterms from future assignments which was never taught yet. The guy also has a really obnoxious attitude in general
Daniel will make you work hard for a high mark in class, but he will definitely help you along the way if you are genuinely putting in effort. He is one of the best professors I've had at UVic. Tests are kind of hard (mainly due to the time constraint), but besides that, he is a great prof.
Very good teacher
Tough grader. Speeds through his lectures like it's some sort of race. Really hard to keep up with him, his slight accent, and the speed at which he talks and writes notes. Seems very passionate and knowledgeable about the course material. Very good prof, just has a couple shortcomings.
Daniel is very passionate about CSC and he displays this in his lectures. He also has a bit of a temper to him and will deliberately yell out your name and tell you to shut up during class if your talking. No easy marks are given in his classes, you must work for them. Overall he knows his stuff but can be a bit unreasonable and has a slight temper
He motors through the course material pretty fast and I found that the assignments were way beyond anything we covered in class. Luckily they were not worth too much. It was nice to have no final exam and the mid-terms were fair. He did take quite a while to return the 2nd mid-term though.
Assignments barely count, are supposed to prep you for passing midterms but midterms do not reflect assignments much at all. He is bad at explaining, slides he took from another course are sparse and there is no textbook so students are left to flounder and guess at what he will feel like testing. He is proud to make students drop after midterms.
AVOID AVOID AVOID. Unless you are super into heavy programming do no take his class. Long coding assigment due every week. 93% of your final mark comes from 2 midterms (worth 31% each) and a final worth 31%. If you fail the first midterm in the first month of class, you fail the whole class.
He admits online that he only got into the field for money. Each midterm of 3 was worth 31% and failing any meant getting kicked out. He would have failed 42/86 students after the first midterm if he didn't have to change cut off criteria. A sign on his door says 'Education RIP'. He has zero tolerance and seems egotistical, so stay on his good side
If you want to code for a living and theres only class you can ever take at UVIC, make it your moral, ethical, and professional responsibility to take 330 with Daniel. Unless youve done ML/lisp before, you could possibly fail his tests, but theres more to life than a lousy C on your transcript. If you cant code by now, dont complain; switch majors.
Daniel is probably my least favorite professor I've had at Uvic. Comes across as extremely elitist and his lectures are not engaging. His grading scheme also made extremely long assignment worth extremely little, resulting in very little people actually completing them. I would not take another class with Daniel
Do his practice midterm questions and you could easily get 100%. He scales the midterm section if no one gets perfect. He can come off as rude but ignore it. The homework can be tough but his sample programs and online sources are available when you're stuck. He gives you test builds to check your outputs on homework to make fixes. Do work, get A+.
Daniel is extremely knowledgeable and passionate about what he teaches. He does not hesitate to give you detailed explanations if you have any questions. Sure, the assignments were challenging, but you learn a lot. My fav assignment was recovering deleted pictures. He provides insight into the memory side of coding. Definitely would recommend!!
German is one of the best profs I've ever had. He's passionate about the material and gives extremely fair tests. The assignments were amazing and pretty much taught you all the material. The lectures were also excellent, as he spends a lot of time demonstrating code examples in front of the class. I seriously recommend taking CSC330 with him.
My words can not describe how he is useful, knowledge, friendly, respectful. Daniel German has very high standard of work. My lovely and favourite instructor I have ever had. The MSR course is very challenging and passing this course is a big achievement.
A good teacher until he laugh at my question during the lecture. That is not appropriate
Assignments are all worth nothing, but are intended to teach you what will be tested on the midterms. Often he makes passing the midterms mandatory, but as long as you've tried the assignments and practised they shouldn't be hard. Very inspirational speaker, definitely knows his stuff.
German is a passionate and energetic lecturer and you will definitely become a better programmer if you take a course with him. He can also be rude and elitist like other reviews said (warning: never let him see you look at your phone). The assignments are a bit time consuming (nothing insane, about 6 hours every week) but you'll learn tons.
explanation is very unclear. Tons of mistake on his notes. Try to avoid his class !!!!
One of the best CSC profs at UVic. He cares about his students and wants them to succeed. He listens to feedback and adjusts his teaching methods to help students learn effectively. You have to review the lessons before coming to class because he usually has quizzes. Overall, you will learn a lot from him.
This was by far the worst class Ive had online. Course structure was inconsistent. Nothing was ever clear, grade scheme was vague and he wouldnt answer questions about it. Had quizzes every lecture (worth 30% total) which most people failed. Misrepresented what the final would be like and only gave us 1.5 hrs. I studied hard and failed the class
This class should not have been as hard as it was. He made lectures mandatory and quizzes every lecture worth 30% of our grade. On top of that he was inconsistent, didn't give us a breakdown of assignments until after they were complete, and changed the final 5 minutes before it started to something completely different than what we prepared for.
Pros: Cares about students and wants to improve teaching, responsive during lecture time. Cons: Keep up with material since quizzes are test level, avoid taking class with him if it has midterms/finals. Final exam structure was poorly communicated, tested only small subset of material. Will wait till classes in person to take a course with him.
Dr. German has a great camera, mic, light that made his lectures easier to focus. I wasn't a fan of 30% of our grade being based on quizzes every lecture, but as the term went, they got more fair. Dr. German adapted as the term went to fit his students' needs. He did change the format of the final right before, but not the examinable material.
This class is a joke. Material basically stolen entirely from a prof at UW who also offer this course on Coursera and all the lectures are free on the course website. When I say stolen I mean like there's basically no original content, though this UW guy's recordings are great, the fact that everything is stolen just doesn't sit well with me.
Unfair and rude. Taking 330 with him has been the worst decision of my life, doesn't care about his students and honestly he makes Voldemort and Gus Fring look good. The only reason I took this class was bc this dude in earlier comment said 330 is so important I have to take it. Wish I didn't, biggest regret at uvic. Run while you still can.
Wants you to show up to useless live lectures and you have to be there to get credit for the quiz that day, then posts prerecorded lectures that go over the same stuff in the lecture. I would avoid him if possible. The quizzes are also not always fair and want you to do things not in the prerecorded lectures.
Has no respect for students. Will not take your feedback seriously.
He seems nice and passionate about the material, however, there are no midterms or tests, only quizzes every during class based pre recorded material and the questions aren't usually fair when compared to the prerecorded videos.
Worst experience yet. We were marked based on topics that were not covered in class in the assignment, although its fair to say the quizzes before every lecture were also outside of class because we didnt actually have lectures. Instead we had a collection of videos he had compiled, which did not cover everything we were expected to know.
Absolutely awful. Blamed the students for getting bad grades and not participating when he just provided old videos for us to watch and ignored students when they voiced concerns over the way the class was taught. At the end of the semester he told us there were bonus marks for participating (never told us at the beginning of the semester).
Kept a list of kids who DID NOT COME, knew everyone's names and faces without having talked to you as a power move. Dangerman is intense but a good teacher. Do not talk or show up late in lectures he will get mad and call you out. Assignments are brutal but interesting. Exams are hard but fair. I got alot of good stories out of this class tbh.
Prof was pretty nitpicky at times. Got docked for following his instructions exactly, only that his instructions were poorly worded and not what he wanted. This was pretty evident throughout the class as his assignment pdfs felt like they weren't proofread at all. Outside that prof was very knowledgeable and willing to work with you if you asked.
He knows his stuff. Very high standards of programming solutions are expected but he's willing to help, given that you don't show up only when you need help. When I started the course (CSC502), 30 grad students were registered. 2 weeks later, 29 dropped out. I am an average student but I scored an A+ in this course (system for massive datasets).
All learning material + assignments taken from free sources; all learning from assigned reading with low-value lectures. Assignments were most valuable part of the course but w/ low final grade weight. Quizzes vague + short disproportionate to weight but OK at first; eventually dmg decided not enough attendance and made them tricky + irrelevant.
For a midterm worth 30%, he suddenly extended the time from 45m to 80m for in-class students without notifying CAL, thus most CAL students got less time then the students in class. Regardless of whether it was a mistake, such an error in a 30% weight exam is unacceptable. also sometimes in class he will make fun of students for asking questions.
Do you like 97% of your grade determined by 3 tests? Do you like losing 4% total grade on a single MC question? Do you like assignments worth 1% taking over 6 hours? Do you like disorganization? Do you like watching 1 hour of videos just to attend class? Do you like an otherwise easy course tanking your GPA? YES? Then, Dangerman is for you!
Great lectures and I quite enjoy the flipped lecture style - watching videos at home and having more problem-set solving focused lectures has been nice. The pre-lecture videos are only about 1.5 hours per week. What is awful is the 30% midterms with very few questions. Sucked losing a large percent of my final grade on one question.
97% of the grade is from exams. The other 3% from unrealistically hard assignments. Daniel didn't like that some skipped lectures, so he changed the pre-lecture videos so that you'd miss some content. All while complaining that not enough were watching the lecture videos.
Great lecturer but bad person. His exams are mean - designed to trip you up :(
Started taking attendance halfway through the term because he wanted to blame people skipping lecture for bad grades rather than his teaching, disorganization, insane grading criteria, or extremely difficult and tricky test questions. I'm a +90% average student and am worried about realistically failing this course despite putting in heaps of time.
Dan German is a petty and angry man. I fell into a trap by registering for his course, because he is clearly filled with hatred for students as "it is too easy to pass courses at UVIC" (his words). Of a total of 16 short answer/MC questions between two midterms (60% of our grade), at least 10 of them were purposely misleading. DO NOT TAKE!
He purposely creates misleading exams because he thinks it should be harder to pass the course. 97% of the graded material was split between 3 exams. His old reviews are good, so I don't know what changed in this man's head.
Understands the material very well, but made some very poor decisions in course structure (97% for tests) and delivery. Online videos are decently explained but lectures are disorganized and waste too much time. Could be a great prof with some tweaks. Also he should start using brightspace like everyone else
Extremely heavy tests. 97% in fact. The assignments are worth 3%. His lectures deteriorated over the course of the semester. Seems to ramble a lot. Great in office hours though, and it very knowledgeable when it comes to the subject matter.
Unforgiving grading scheme. Assignments were worth 1% each, and when I was 5 minutes late to hand one in he wouldn't accept it. Had trouble following his examples as he jumped from concept to concept and sometimes wouldn't finish them. I didn't feel comfortable going to his office hours due to his dismissive attitude towards students in lecture
Possibly the worse professor I've ever had throughout my two degrees at UVic. Dismissive attitude toward students, disorganized, and puts forth the bare minimum effort. He is ok in office hours but lectures are terrible so be prepared to do all the learning on your own. AVOID AT ALL COSTS.
Easily the worst professor I've had at UVic. Many mistakes in his lecture examples, prerecorded videos and answer keys. Exams were out of 16 marks (but he did scale to 15) and mostly multiple choice (few chances for part marks). horrible experience
The lecture videos were decent and clear for the most part. A bit of an odd course structure (homework 3%, exams 97%), especially with the assignments being so long and in depth. I didn't do the assignments, but I found that the exams were pretty fair and easy as long as you watch all the lecture videos and do the practice problems. Not a bad prof.
Dangerman's teaching style can feel "all or nothing". His exams were weighed so heavily that each exam question was worth more to our final grades than all his assignments put together. Most of your learning is done out of class, watching his pre-recorded lecture videos. Put together, it can make falling behind pretty easy if you're not careful.
My girlfriend broke up with my because I spent every weekend doing his assignments for only 1% each (unessasarilly extra for 1%). but skill issue x2 I guess:(
Daniel German is good at lecturing, I'll give him that. However, if you have a conflict with office hours and try to contact him by email be prepared to get the most vague and useless replies. Also don't take a class with 42% pass fail midterms. That part is on me, but just don't don't it.
Good professor, but unnecessarily difficult questions on homework worth 1% each, and exams with questions that require you to have extensive knowledge of a language including the niche oddities and features nobody would use.
Not a course you can put on the back-burner. But if you have the time to invest in it and attend all the lectures you will become a much better programmer. German's lectures are great.
nice man who likes his students, very respectful and kind. slightly hard tests tho
Good lectures, but fairly 'difficult' grading schemes. two 42% mid terms (84% of total grade). Not horrible just gotta treat each mid term like a final.
RUN. RUN RUN !
Dangerman's class has a tough grading structure, but his lecture videos are decent. Stay on top of the content, and unstuck study can be a helpful study tool alongside the practice problems. Exams are fair if you engage with the material.
Eager to engage with the class; values personal connections to students (learning their names, helping them individually); very important lectures and likely to fail if you skip.
DG thinks its effective to make 2 exams must pass and worth 81% of total grade. Lecture notes and examples consistently riddled with mistakes. When he's not making a mistake on a whiteboard example, he is either joking about students failing his course or publicly humiliating those who cant answer his on the spot question. Avoid if you can help it
He tests on materials that have only been discussed in class, some info that you won't be able to find online or in the very limited resources he provides outside the class. The weighting of his exams is ridiculous as you basically have 2 finals in the middle of the semester while you have other classes and commitments. he publicly shames students
Most of these negative reviews are because he is VERY test heavy. If you can get past that he is a very caring professor who takes the time to get to know his students. His lectures are very engaging and definitely worth showing up for
DO NOT TAKE THIS COURSE PLEASE I REQUEST YOU TO NOT.He is the worst. He has no idea how to design courses. He is the worst prof in UVic. Do not think you can do well on his exams,he will make sure you dont. 41 % each 2 midterms, where 1 midterm was worth only 18 marks. the weight of each mark being more than 2.5 %. DO NOT TAKE UNLESS YOU WANNA FAIL
Although the course structure may seem intimidating, the exams are fair. Attending lectures and studying the provided material will set you up to succeed. His assignments, while not worth much grade-wise, are excellent learning tools if you are seeking an intro to sql. He is also helpful during office hours.
Daniel is a strong lecturer, and you will have to attend lectures. If you don't pay attention, you will be called out. He is quite sassy. Put in the work and you will do well, but don't take this class with him if you don't test well- the tests are fair, but the midterms are 41%, 41%, and 15%, with 3% for 3 assignments.
Very hard class, wouldnt' recommend taking with this prof. You entire grade depends on 2 tests if one goes bad you are out of the class. For me both went bad, and I'm in international student, paying that amount for 2 tests wasn't worth it any way. He has no sympathy and critical grader.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
56%
Textbook Required
27%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-1.39 avg changeRatings by Course
CSCI454
5.0
(1)SENG265
5.0
(14)CSC483
5.0
(1)CSC589D
5.0
(1)CSC485
5.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
CSC330
4.3
SENG410
4.0
578A
4.0
CSC370
3.7
CSC116
3.5