Great class, prof records all the lectures and posts then on culearn, so if you didn't understand something you can go back and rewatch it.

I came into this course knowing nothing about computer science. Any nerves that I had were quickly diminished by Dave's incredible teaching style and personality. He teaches on the assumption that you know nothing about computers. He starts from the ground up, and slowly goes through everything so everyone can understand, not just the CompSci kids

If you are not a computer science major but need to take this class as an elective, Dave is the prof for you. As the commenter said below, Dave teaches his class so everyone can understand the material. Plus he's hilarious, and very approachable, and accommodating. You have to put in the effort but Dave goes the extra mile to help you succeed.

Gives tons of material that you can use and is always of great help. Injects light humour in his lectures.

Great guy.

Nice guy.

Awesome prof

all round good guy, very accessible out of class, especially if you join the class discord :)

Great guy, if you have experience coding, this class is a breeze, if not, as long as you actually try its pretty easy.

Great prof, is easier to approach than 99% all the other profs.

very good prof. humorous and funny. make difficult CS knowledge easy to understand. upload all useful materials for students. e.x. PDF of textbook. PPT of class. notes. recording of class. clear and fun assignments.

Best prof for comp sci possible, The material of this class is very easy to someone who has been programming for while but I still show up just because this prof is so good, and also entertaining. If I could have him as a prof for every single comp sci course, I definitely would.

Great teacher, Fun time, Always learning

He is a really good professor. He clarifies concepts really well when asked in class, he's pretty funny, and just overall a nice guy. One thing I want to point out is that the tutorial problem seems more difficult than the assignments themselves, but that's just my opinion. (But don't worry the tutorial is nothing to worry about)

Dave is the professor you will remember after finishing University due to the care and effort he puts into each and every lecture. He goes out of his way to make sure students succeed, maintaining constant communication even when he is not required to. He explains computer science in a way that even beginners can become advanced by the end.

Best Prof Ive ever had- funny, and genuinely cares about his students success. Will answer any questions you have in or outside of class, fairly quickly too! He teaches the course material in the most basic way possible, and if youve never coded before you might find it difficult, but if you do all tutorial Qs and follow along youll be fine!

Awesome professor. would want to take this guy for every computer science class I'd ever take. Very funny during the lectures but still holds an air of seriousness about him. Always very helpful and ensures that the material is very thoroughly understood. Cares very much for the students in his lectures and would recommend to everyone every time.

My fave class this semester because of what a legend McKenney is. Showing up to a 10 am class was never better, he's personable, funny, and makes learning fun. :)

There is not a single professor better than Dave. Funny, thorough, extremely accessible and a great lecturer!

Professor David is one of the best professors I ever took a course with. He posted all his lectures online, was very responsive and accessible, very caring and understanding. If you put in the effort, you will definitely pass his class.

Best professor I've ever had. I will miss Dave so much! So accessible I literally cannot believe it to this day!

This prof is amazing. i went into the semester hardly knowing how to use a computer and now i can write code with python. he seems like a very chill down to earth kind of guy who really wants to see his students succeed. I went into his office hours once for help and he was more than happy to assist. he hilarious af and will make an awful class ok!

I feel bad for never going to class but he's the MVP for uploading all his lectures online. I suck at programming and kind of struggled in comp1006 but that's my fault for not keeping up with the material. Nonethless, he's an excellent prof with a caring personality, and his assignments are always crystal clear. Would definitely take again.

I took this class the first time he ever officially taught, about 3 years ago. The man legit was hilarious and always available to ask for help or for random questions outside of class. I've since emailed him a couple times asking for advice and for other such stuff and he's taken time out to email me back with advice and such! Awesome prof!

Arts students : take comp 1001 with him for the easiest science elective possible.

All around great prof! Solid guy, clear lecture slides, knows what he teaches, very accessible. He even gets assignment grades back to you promptly!

Takes the time to record and upload lectures online for no extra fee which helped a lot. Really solid guy, never got bored of his lectures.

Amazing prof. It was his first time teaching this course but he made everything you needed to do well easily accessible.

Very welcoming and helpful during office hours. Really personable and funny in the class discord. Fast responses to emails as well. Overall really gives you everything you need to learn + get an A, really just up to you to put the time in.

Sorry i was salty, im good now

It was his first time teaching this course, however he made it pretty straightforward with video lectures and very useful example code.

Uploads all his lectures online (for COMP 1405 at least). Even made a Discord server for our class for easy communication between students, TAs and even Dave himself. Amazing professor all around!

- Really funny guy, makes an introductory computer science course as interesting as it could be - Conveyed material clearly, provided all resources including lecture slides and recordings - New format of the course: 3 tests and a final exam (no assignments), all on your own computer (or computer from school lab) using an exam software

Dave McKenney is a fantastic prof who is very helpful and thorough in his teaching. Lectures are enjoyable to listen to and cover all the material needed for the course.

He's a great prof for this first year COMP course. He's funny and conveys information clearly. He'll be available to help and he cares about his students. Do the practice problems and go to the prof or the TAs if you have any issues and you'll be fine. If you've programmed before you'll find it easier but still do work for it.

Dave (his nickname) is my best compsci professor and I took him because I saw the RMP ratings are good. He provides lecture recordings, which is a real lifesaver for me. Plus, I am also taking him for COMP1406. The real reason why I rated him 5 out of 5 is because he does fair grading schemes where he removes our worst midterm mark if applicable.

Dave was a great professor to have for COMP1405. He makes his lectures interesting, always tries to put in jokes here and there. Uploads his lectures which is perfect in case you miss any and is also a really supportive professor. When you go to his lectures, make sure you know the Lord of the Rings.

One of the best profs in Carleton.

Lectures are interspersed with video game humour. Posts EVERYTHING online. Assignments were generally pretty okay as long as you don't fall behind on the lectures. I'd recommend starting assignments at least 3 days in advance of the due date.

Never've had a better CS prof than McKenney, I've learned more in this semester than I have in any of my other CS classes! His lectures are funny, educational, and full of useful example code. Unrelated to academics, I have never had such an approachable prof for a CS course-- I felt totally unafraid to ask for accommodations or help when needed!

Best prof I've had at Carleton! Explains concepts as simply as possible, and you can tell he genuinely cares about his students. If you have the option to take any CS course with him, do it!

He is nice and available for you all the time. Just send him a message on discord and he will get back to you.

I took Dave for the second time in the 1406 Java course. Just like in 1405, Dave provides lecture recordings which is a true lifesaver to me. When pandemic came by, he replaced the exam with another assignment, as well as adjust the grading system with the worst grade(s) dropped. Also makes online office hours available on Discord.

I had him for COMP1405 & 1406. Very easy if you have prior coding experience. All lectures were recorded and posted. Assignments were short and straight forward. His lectures were light-hearted and clear. Midterm and final in 1405 were on computers and just about writing code, no on-paper evaluations. 1406 had on-paper tests. Great prof!

Hardest Prof I have taken so far, very harder marker and content is hard to learn under a time constraint, of course, it doesn't help that he gave us a very-hard final exam. The midterm was fine but that final exam was way too challenging. Places too much emphasis on run time complexity.

Great Prof, the course and exam were hard I agree but he taught it very well. Hopefully, he gives an easier exam for COMP1406. Otherwise, he is a really good prof.

Reall good prof, alot of content to cover maybe some lectures should be removed. But other than that its an okay course.

Course recordings are organized. And most of responses to e-mails/discord are ususally within one day. The lecture are clearly articulated. The difficulty of the final exam is basically equal to the last year's. The couseload is expectedly larger than normal as this is accerlated class with 1405 &1406 in one term.

One of the best profs in the CS department! Love how accessible, patient, and understanding he is with his students. Some may complain about the "workload" like the final project worth 50%, participation mark of 20% but the final project is something very useful if you want to be a developer in the future, and participation marks are so easy to get

I had Dave for 1406 last year and 2406 this year. Lecture content is delivered well, and he managed to get me interested in web development even though I strongly disliked it before this class. He is very accessible and friendly. Project pushes students to learn more independently which solidifies their understanding. Overall a very good prof.

10/10 GR8 PROF

Very nice prof course content is interesting.

The other people complaining about the 1405/ 1406 Z section are being totally unfair and have completely sunk his rating. The class had a few issues but it was also in an entirely new accelerated format which we all optionally signed up for. The content was a lot but that is the nature of a 5 week course.

Dave is an excellent prof, very approachable, and explains concepts clearly in his videos! But do not take Z section if you're not already comfortable at coding. Lots of material to cover in very little time. Fair midterm, but final was difficult with HUGE emphasis on runtime complexity, so I wish we could've spent more time covering that.

1405Z/1406Z was a new course in Fall 2020 where you do 2 courses at the same time. It is definitely a hard course but Dave is an absolute gem who really cares about his students. He isn't a bad teacher at all, he just experimented with a class and it failed. He is very accessible, funny, and caring. Look at 2406 reviews for better picture.

He gave us a fair exam for 1406Z. I was worried about this final exam after the 1405Z midterm and exam. He took our time limit in consideration. The questions were fair and demonstrated our understanding of the course. While the practice material was not relevant to the exam, the final project let us understand OOP concepts better while helped us.

Dave is an amazing prof. The other reviews, especially regarding COMP 1405/1406Z should NOT be taken seriously. That course is an ACCELERATED course that combines both first year programming courses into one, so of course it's going to be difficult. Students were aware 1405/1406Z would be accelerated. This does not make Dave a bad prof at all.

Dave is an amazing prof, and an even better friend. He taught COMP 2406 very well and we ended up with an amazing project in the end. Course had alot of content as there is alot of the fundamentals of web dev and tools you use in co-op, so it was very fair in terms of difficulty.

Easily the best prof at Carleton COMP1406Z was so cool and fun. The project was really fun to develop!

Java is fun to learn. I just wish he had some more clarity on the assignment.

There were some times Dave made me feel dumb for asking questions. He answered but his tone was a bit discouraging. He emphasized writing a plan before coding and LEARNING. I loved the lecture style and the Ta's were the best! He extended an assignment's deadline which was cool! Gave opportunities to earn points on the next assignment! Good Prof!

I feel like people are being too harsh with the comments. Professor David is one of the best Professors I've ever had. Though the assignment instructions were vague. You could always reach out to him on Discord or Email and he'd reply within a day. His lectures were very clear and easy to understand.

Had 1405Z and 1406Z with him, and those were a trainwreck, not set up well online. Was dreading having Dave again for 2406, but this course was actually really pleasant. The lectures are all no BS, just the content you need to know, which saves time. He teaches relevant material, not 30 year old standards. He is also super accessible on Discord.

Best professor I've had thus far, his helpful lectures along with tutorials made this class way more enjoyable than I thought it would be. Would easily recommend 10/10 you'll do great.

Great!

The reality of most of these new bad ratings is that most of these students went through grades 11/12 online and got high inflated marks. This class was light if you have the slightest programming experience. Dave is amazing, and easily reachable. The midterm was medium, Project was easy but lengthy and the final was a joke. JUST PUT IN THE WORK

Dave McKenney is a great Professor who really teaches the material well. I don't understand the low ratings as I took 1406 with him as well and didn't have any issues. I'm not doing as well in 2406, but this is due to my own fault. 2406 is a really useful class, and you should take it with Dave if you have the chance!

Took over after another prof left, handled it pretty well. Good quiz format, pretty straight forward and easy-to-understand tutorials. Also really straightforward grading format (showed every detail being marked). Each assignment PERSONALLY took a whole day's length (10-12 ish hours)

Was super active in giving advice, tips and feedback on Discord. Assignments were often challenging, but in general they felt fair. A lot of "free marks" were available from weekly quizzes and tutorials. Recorded workshops by the TAs were a very useful aspect of this course.

Great prof. I've had him before for COMP1406 and his 2406 delivery did not disappoint. His class is a lot of work, but you'll learn a lot. I would take him for a third time if the opportunity arose

I took 4601 with him in fall 2021. There are 10 labs and 2 assignments throughout the courses. No tests! The workload is insane; the difficulty of weekly labs is just like assignments in other classes. And the assignment is like the combination of labs that we did. The content itself is interesting, though. RestAPI, Web Crawler and Recommendation

No idea with what's the sudden hate on Dave for first year courses. I've had him for 1405/1405Z in Fall 2020 and I just had him for COMP 2406 Fall 2021 and he's great. Organized, easy to understand, and accessible. Lots of people will only realize this when they take crazy hard classes with professors who dont care-and genuinely do not care AT ALL

Prof McKenney has a course Discord and it's amazing. He is extremely organized when it comes to online teaching and posts everything you need to do per week an organized manner. He also responds to almost every student's question throughly in the Discord (which is a ton of questions), along with his TAs. Assignments/tutorials are also very fun too.

Dave's one of those profs that you don't realize how amazing they were until later on. Course was organized with the schedule posted every week, class Discord was nice to ask q's & tutorials/assignments were moderate in difficulty. No midterms/final exam. Overall, Dave was really caring and only tested on what's taught, so no surprises!

I don't think he is rude at all despite what a lot of people are saying. I never experienced this. He answers questions directly, no bs. Always accessible outside of class. Good teacher. No exam too :)

Extremely organized class, would take again. I think all the hate is far from my impression of him, great professor. Watch the lectures as he takes a lot of examples from there towards the assignements. Easy mark if you work hard!

- Dry lectures, but are very informative - Gives out lots of free marks -> 10/12 quizzes worth 1% each - Lots of tutorials so make sure you're on top of the content every week (11 tutorials and 4 assignments) - Very helpful on course discord if you run into problems, and his office hours are usually empty.

I really enjoyed this class. It was well-structured. The main lectures were prerecorded, and live lectures reviewed material and addressed student questions. Assignments build on each other, incorporating new material. He uses lots of examples. He was easily accessible outside class via Discord and was very helpful and approachable.

I feel like most of the problems with the "Z" courses stem from the nature of doing 8 months of work in 4 months, Dave made this hard task as easy as he could while maintaining the integrity of the course, I failed the first half because of a bad sleep and he allowed me to retake the exam, truly a Prof that cares, the course is really hard though.

Assignments were fun and he taught well.

Good at explaining, code examples in lectures were helpful. Love that lectures were fully online. Fairly lenient grader. The 10% credit for the incentive program was quite generous. Most things were right level of difficulty, but I think it'd be near-impossible to do the 1406Z project if one hadnt done Java before & hadnt done the 1405Z project.

This class focuses a lot on hands-on work wrt the subjects. Weekly lecture content was not long or intensive, and he and TAs were readily available to help with answers and solve issues students are facing. The work builds upon itself throughout the term so don't slack off and you'll be smooth sailing. Option to work with a partner on everything

Generous with his marking. Good and funny prof. Should take him.

Taken in W2022. Good prof, I didn't watch the lectures but assignments were easy and straightforward. You get a tester that basically gives your grade. Only downside is the strict filenaming (I lost 10% for an uppercase letter) but I think that applies to a lot of CS profs. No exam since online so cannot comment on that.

Great teacher with straightforward expectations. Very organized and has bonus marks.

Dave is an amazing prof. His course is very well organized and he provides test code with most assignments that basically tell you what grade you would get before you even submit the assignment. He has kahoots during lectures that allow you to win bonus msrks and to top it all off, his exam was maybe the easiest I'v ever taken.

Logical professor with great assignments and tutorial exercises. Main lectures were asynchronous, with supplementary live in-person lectures where he went over additional examples and gave out bonus marks for the top Kahoot scorers! The readings seemed overkill to me, but I'm glad I did them since they had really helpful examples. Very trivial exam

Great professor, very organized grading, if you do all the reading and put in a total of 48 hours for the assignments you are guaranteed A+.

There are recordings of lectures and u can go to the in-person lectures, held 1/week for extra marks w/kahoot quizzes. He does examples and if u didnt attend, he posts recordings and the code. Assignments and tutorials are clear and if u needed help there's a Discord server with TAs. Exam was very similar to the kahoot exam review.

Very well organized course. David posts everything online. Him and Tas are very accessible on discord. Gives very good lectures and explanations for course content, as well as their practical use. Assignments have clear and detailed specs. Lectures and example code all online too. Textbook online and free. Goated fr.

Dr. McKenney is a really cool professor. He is very relatable to students and is an overall funny and good guy. I can tell he cares about the success of his students. COMPZ is not challenging if you have basic programming experience already. Exam and midterm were a little bit challenging due to the time restriction.

David McKenney is a great professor. He gives great practice problems, and is always available on the course discord to answer students' questions. I really enjoyed the class project and found it very relevant for students to be able to do. Some test questions may be challenging, but ultimately they pushed students to develop their problem solving.

Take this prof's course, people gave 1 because they struggled in the fast version course, but it is supposed to be challenging (whole credit in one semester). Lectures are well organized, grading is fair. The midterm was harder than the exam and a higher exam grade will override midterm. TAs were nice but they know little about the course projects.

Very smart and friendly professor who is very generous to give bonus marks to her students.

Amazing prof. Z course is hard but dave made it easy. Very useful course, Amazing prof.!!!!!

super kind and funny

Great prof. Spend some time going over the materials she posts online and you'll do amazing. Also, don't try to cram the final projects in the last few days.

Ava McKenney is a decent prof, would take their course again. She isn't the best at explaining concepts and teaching (as in she doens't have that knack, not that you can't understand), and some lectures are just very plain, and feel like you're listening to notes being read. Lecture content is kinda skippable, but was generous with extra credit.

Everything is basically online. If you don't like go to school, you can pass with an A+ still. Assignments are decent. Tutorials are nice. Exam was excellent. Overall, if you do the readings OR watch/attend the lectures (don't have to do both), you'll be fine.

The rating below explains the course outline pretty well. I found the course manageable and I really never stressed too much in this course. I would recommend taking it with this prof as this is one of the easier classes to take.

W24. 30% Tutorials (10), 10% Online Weekly Quizzes (Best 11/12), 40% Assignments (4), 20% Final (MCQ). They teach well, weekly quizzes are free marks (you have 2 attempts), assignments are sophisticated but doable, tutorials are long but also free marks. Final is very good and fair, you can gain extra credit from doing Kahoot in class.

Ava was a pretty good teacher. There were a lot of readings, but they weren't hard, and neither were the tutorials and the quizzes. The assignments weren't super hard either but they took time to do. Final exam was really easy; the questions were similar to the quizzes, so if you did the readings you should be fine. She also gave extra credit.

Amazing professor. Posted lectures online and had optional in person lectures. Small readings each week which matches exam questions almost exactly. Take 1406 with this professor!!

The course material was taught well, readings were informative, assignments weren't incredibly difficult to ace. Final exam was very easy.

Great professor, clear lectures and helpful materials. Assignments are manageable with the support of Unstuck study. Easy final, definitely recommend taking this course.

Ava's sarcasm, humor and personality make lectures very entertaining. It was a bit odd that the class was advertised as in person but 50% of the lectures were online

Course requires you to pass the exam to pass the class. Fun class if you enjoy learning, but be ready to spend at least 45 hours watching lectures before even considering the time to practice. Teacher enjoys recording lectures and makes lots of jokes. Exams and midterms are extremely stressful because theres no practice and questions are ambiguous.