2.8
Quality3.5
Difficulty36%
Would Retake218
Reviews36%
Would Retake
218
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
45
4
37
3
35
2
54
1
47
What Students Say
“Cannot get a fair grade”
CS367 - 1.0 rating“She does not listen to what students are asking and often responds emotionally”
CS302 - 2.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
28%
Textbook Required
28%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
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-0.78 avg changeRatings by Course
CS302367
5.0
(1)CS301
5.0
(1)CPS367
4.5
(2)COMPS310
4.0
(1)COMP400
3.5
(2)Difficulty by Course
COMP310
4.0
COMPS310
4.0
CS301
4.0
COMPSCI400
4.0
CS354
4.0
Reviews (218)
boring lecturer, always walked around class to check people's work even though class was large
I fell asleep many a time. She isn't a very clear or engaging lecturer.
Given the difficulty of the subject matter that she was teaching, I think she did a pretty good job. Some of the concepts were dumbified though, like the teaching of what "objects".. in programming you'd never program an 'bike' or a 'bike shop'.
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Decent teacher for the subject matter, but concepts are pretty dumbed-down (Programming for kiddies). By no means is this class easy; tests are fair and useful, and homework is a good challenge.
One of the absolute worst professors at the school. She manages to make some of the most boring material even MORE boring
60 minutes into her wonderful 75-minute power lectures, I begin to think that drilling a hole in my head is not really that unpleasant of an alternative to sitting through this class.
Deb is a great prof! She's really helpful and often available for individual help. She has a real interest in having her students succeed, and she tries to learn as many names as she can (although the class is large). Class is tough though.
Sometimes boring but material is clearly stated. The biggest problem is the amt. of work required by the class. I was in the lab all the time. The best part was the tests - they were similar to the practice exams.
Overall good class. Things were explained clearly. Sometimes however the lecture did get quite boring. Fair amount of homework and programming assignments; not too much, not to little. Exams were what I expected.
Frequently says things that are plain wrong. Questionable ability to actually program. Extremely boring. Stopped going to lecture before the first midterm and never looked back.
Straightforward, no-nonsense professor. She does a decent job of getting through the material, which is dense by any account. She is very friendly and doesn't put up with egotistical nitpicky cs students, which was a blessing in this case. Recommended.
She's very helpful. Lectures are clear. Lots of problem solving but worth it. Overall, good prof. because she gives good examples to help you understand the material.
although her lectures are power point and very boring, the material is easy to understand. she also makes herself very available via email or office hours if you are having troubles. makes mistakes in lecture occasionally but isn't the kind of professor who has trouble admitting they were wrong. overall good.
exams are very ambiguous! it became not so much a test on cs material as if i could decipher her language.
Well-intentioned, but Deb is a case example of why people need more training in how to teach before being placed in front of a classroom. PowerPoint is not the beset method for presenting the material and sometimes her information was just dead wrong. Super nice lady, but should not be in front of a classroom at this esteemed University.
Not very helpful, understanding, or interesting.
This is essentially an online class, which only meets once per week, with 2 quizzes/week and 1 online lecture/week. The material is relatively easy, but the exams have difficult multiple choice and are on paper. Prof. Deppeler is a great teacher in Team Lab, better than the TAs and very helpful.
Basically a "teach yourself" class. Toughest part was remembering all the calculus, the actual computer programming is pretty simple. Exams are weird though, really nothing like the homework/in class since you're not working on a computer.
Very mean teacher, do not get on her bad side. Don't expect her to let you sit in on a different class for ANY reason! The exams are alright but why on earth would you make a computer science class have an exam that doesn't involve a computer???? Programming is pretty easy with a few difficult parts. Expect to teach yourself all of the material.
Class was not hard at all. Exams are a mix of multiple choice and then "dry" programming (i.e. on paper). Very willing to help.
Deb was a decent teacher. You only see her once a week and you never really do that much, but she is willing to help if you have questions. She made going to office hours part of the grade, but they were actually very helpful if you got stuck on homework. Here grading scale is a little weird, but no big deal.
Very easy class as long as you go to individual and team labs. There's no lecture to attend. It's online. Really easy to get an A or B. She's helpful and explains things easily. HW can be tough, but easy with help from TA's and Deb.
She is COMPLETELY Useless. She's condescending to her students, completely irrational and doesn't have a heart. Harps on you for making small syntax errors and then her tests have to be editing 5+ times DURING THE TEST PERIOD. Very Distracting. Homework is infinitely more difficult than the team lab and a solid basis is not provided. NOT GOOD!
Very bad teacher, do not have high expectations. She doesn't care about you or any suggestions/comments you have. The exams have so many typos that you may want to die. I wouldn't call this computer science, it's using a computer as a calculator for Deb's terrible problems. You will teach yourself everything. This class is so disorganized.
Deb will not baby you, and wont give you answers, but she is helpfull. HW is HARD, I've never been to office hours in any class until this one, and I went all the time to get hlp with HW, and she was very helpfull.
Nice lady, decent teacher. Homework is hard and you will waste a lot of time on it learning nothing. Tests are tricky but dont count that much
Deb is very nice, and always willing to help. But her homework assignments are SO difficult. I'm a sophomore and have never had to go to office hours. Your TA will save you in this class. But nobody will baby you. If you're not an engineering student, this class will be very challenging.
Overall, a very good class for learning how to program in basic languages used in engineering. She is a bit monotone and lectures are boring, but she does a great job explaining concepts.
Really nice lady. Very poor teacher. She is not nearly specific enough in any of the homework assignments. Her lectures are pretty useless too. I would recommend avoiding this class and professor at all costs.
Her exams do not always seem to be exactly on the material covered in the problems and labs, but they are not necessarily harder. Her multiple choice are designed to trick you though...
Good prof, HW problems are very hard but quizzes and exams are relatively easier. The class is a LOT of work, but do-able.
Deb is a good professor but goes over basic math concepts more than actual programming in lecture. Exams and quizzes are easy but homework is very hard, time consuming, and pointless. Easy to get an A, but a lot of effort must be put into the homework.
It's really awesome!!!! I definitely recommend this course!!!! All materials are easy! you must take it!!!
Deb Deppeler is the least organized prof you will ever have, I promise you that. Her grading is easy, but frustrating inconsistent, vague and useless. She puts all her lectures online, but they are not even remotely worth your time to watch. What to take away: Looking to learn something? Take a different class. Looking for a good grade? Get lucky.
There is absolutely no use in going to lecture. The only way to learn the material is to from the book, struggling through the programming assignments, and maybe labs. The TA's in this class are extremely useful. Take use of consulting hours. Our TA's even admitted the class should be worth more credits. Tons of out of class work. Very hard exams.
Lectures are next to useless. She is very unorganized with her notes and the few examples she does give are incorrect usually. Most is learned from the book and lab. Really nice lady but just doesn't do a good job.
Very nice lady. Very pointless lectures.
Though the material makes me confusing and I only got a little above average in my exams, I got an A. Deb has a very very generous curve.
Deb is an extremely frustrating professor. Her lectures are remarkably boring and nearly pointless. The material isnt overly difficult if you just read the book. The labs and programming assignments are the best way to learn. Grading was pretty fair but the multiple choice exam(s) are very tough.
Very boring professor. I found it difficult to say awake during lecture. Also, don't bother asking questions because she either won't understand what you mean or dismiss it because it's not on topic. Tests are unnecessarily difficult and designed to confuse you, but if you understand the material you should be okay. Homework assignments were fun.
Terrible. Stay away at all costs. Lectures are totally useless and unorganized, and book is only slightly better. Have fun teaching yourself how to program.
Lectures were power lectures that were boring, but I found that I did learn some valuable things during some of them. Lab was stupid because most of my partners either didn't talk or wanted to do everything their way. Overall though it was fun to get into programming and this class is generous when it comes to grading so I would say take it!
She's an average prof mostly because I am familiar with the material. She does a lot of examples in class. Try to read the book first before attending her class. Materials are quite easy. Overall, recommended.
Really a good CS beginning course. Deb's really a good teacher.
There are two types of people taking this class: those who know programming beforehand and those who don't. If you don't, this class will be hard for you. But stick with it, go to all of the lectures, read the material and use the TAs. You'll pass just fine. Overall good at lecturing, very organized. An effective teacher.
I have taken the subject before her with another teacher in high school and I gotta hand it to Deb, she proved to me that you can actually lecture programming. She does a good job going over code examples and key concepts that you should know for the test and future programs. Very good professor and very manageable class! You get partners too.
Overall good teacher. goes over examples well, and provides the options for help if you seek it!
Totally awesome teacher she is. If you go to class every time and listen well you will get a lot from it. Oh and her interest is Minesweeper.
NOT helpful at all
If I didn't have prior Java experience, I would have not passed this course. I feel sorry for those students who are new to programming and have Deb as a professor for CS302. She geared her lectures toward the intermediate levels like myself and prefers online office hours to regular ones. (when she's actually in her office) Take someone else.
I did not have any programming experience upon taking CS 302. Contrary to the other reviewers, this did not hinder me in the slightest. The class does not presuppose any prior experience. Yes, you may have to work moderately hard to catch up with your peers and you may have to learn some basics on your own, but this isn't the prof's fault.
I had almost no programming experience and found the course manageable. Read the textbook. Attend lectures and labs. I did all programs solo which helped with the concepts. Overall Deb is decent. She stops lecture to answer questions but only covers the main/important topics and leaves the rest to learn on your own. A's are possible with effort.
Horrible Professor. She did not take mercy on the students who had never programmed before. Don't bother asking questions, she'll be very condescending. I'm lucky I even passed the class. TAs and the book were 10 times more helpful than Deb's lectures ever were.
To do well in this class, FIND A GOOD PARTNER for the programs. Your studying and learning will be almost 100% facilitated in how much you put into your programs, its the most efficient way to learn the material. The class isnt entirely difficult but you will put a lot of work into this for an A. more than 3 credits worth for sure
I am lucky that I am taught by one of her TAs because I don't want to go to her own lectures. She is lazy and very condescending. She doesn't even write the solutions to the old exams sometimes just ask us to try in the eclipse, which is time-consuming. She replies email in an arrogant way
No programming experience. I only thought the first test was pretty easy. Looking back I learned a lot but it is a TON of work especially with the programs. Decent curve and extra credit. She was not very helpful in lecture but in office hours she was. Plus consultants (TA's) are helpful.
I had no programming experience prior to taking this class. Her lectures seem off topic most of the time but the class really helps develop your problem solving skills.
Good teacher, learned a lot in a short period of time. The class was fairly demanding time wise however. Deb was very willing to help and easy to talk to.
I had never taken a prog. class and wasn't sure what to expect. I had moderate computer knowledge and thought that the class proceeded at a good pace. Deb was very clear explaining things and was more than willing to go over topics again. Exams were reasonable, if you can write code w/o relying on Eclipse, you'll be fine.
I had no programming experience, didn't buy the textbook, and I'm not very smart, but I managed an A without too much difficulty. You need to put in more than 3 credits worth of work on the programming projects, but otherwise, this class should be fine. Deppeler is a good lecturer and helpful in and out of lectures (despite being a little gruff).
Very hard to pay attention for a full power lecture. She spent too much time on the easier basics of programming and not enough when she got to the more complicated parts such as objects. A friend taught me everything I needed to know about objects in 30 minutes, whereas she spent 3 lectures on the subject and I still didn't understand them fully.
Don't take this class if she is structuring it. If you need a QR-B requirement, take a math class or something, this is much harder than anything. I already have tons of experience programming and I had no idea what the hell she wanted done in our programs. The exams are essentially made to trick you. Horrible class.
She recently restructured the class and is trying to adapt to it. The problem is not with her, but class itself: non-CS majors and CS majors are mixed with people with prior programming experience, so there is almost no curve. Her lectures aren't great, and it's probably more than 3 credits (just b/c of the programs). Don't expect an easy class
Home work given do discourage innovation. if you are familiar with programming go and read the book yourself ! You can learn more.
The worst professor I have ever had. Expect to read books instead of grasping the lecture because only easy stuff would be taught in the lecture.
.I have no choice , because it is the prerequisite for more advanced CS courses. This is the hardest course since I was born. I have little experience programming before and I did some AP computer course . The lecture sometimes is total useless, but sometimes are quite important. The course moves too fast. Work on the textbook.
I really like this class. She explains concepts very well and I am rarely confused
She's really nice and kind, especially if you go and talk during office hours or a special appointment. The programs are hard, and the exams are hard too. I easily get distracted in her lectures, which don't seem to match up with what we're working on for projects...
The book teaches the course better than she does. She doesn't usually focus on the topics at hand. The exams do not follow the course wellare worded to trick you. Programs sometimes require something that was not yet taught in class or taught right before the program is due. If you ask for individual help, she rambles. One of the worst professors.
Very helpful and takes time to make sure you know concepts if you come to her office hours for help on projects. She does a good job at covering things in lectures.
Even though this is an introductory course, she doesn't really teach you how to program. If you don't have a programming background, you'll have a hard time in this class. She can be helpful if you ask, but she can also be confusing.
Lectures were most boring things in the world. Terrible at teaching material unless you already know what you're doing. Really tough assignments as well
Deb is the reason I changed my major to CS. Lectures are to the point and on topic. Assignments are very well defined and a lot of material is provided to help you through them. If you pay attention, Deb is a good teacher
Deb is a good teacher if you pay attention and work for your grade. The problem with this CS 302 class from what I have heard is it didn't used to be an introductory class, so each year they have to keep dumbing it down and making it more simple. So they are still kind of experimenting. However, I found the class to be enjoyable.
Lectures are useless and exams are written to trick you. Doesn't give answer keys to her practice exams.
Deb is a great teacher, she does a good job of explaining the material, and cares that students succeed.
Test is interesting and gives a great intro to java, however, if this is your first CS class be ready to do a lot of learning outside the classroomlabs. Textbook was my main source of information as her slides are empty and don't include much information. Overall, learned a lot from THE BOOK and programs, not because of the professorlectures.
easy class, the worst grade you can get is probably a B
Posts lectures online which is awesome. Clear with instructions and lecture info, overall very good professor.
I had absolutely no programming experience before taking this course, and mostly took it just to learn about the field. The course doesn't presuppose you know programming and mountains of help are available if you go in to her hours. Tests were probably the only area that I felt inexperience hurt me, but she is very helpful for new programmers.
Unless you have previous knowledge of programming, taking Deppeler is a big mistake. Lectures are useless, and the textbook will be your best friend. Avoid Deppeler.
She is really great in office hours and her lectures only makes sense if you do the readings. You have to put in a lot of work but if you do, she really helpful. It is not an easy course, but it was really helpful in understanding coding and Java. I would suggest you do as much partner coding as possible.
While the lectures CAN be helpful, the majority of your comprehension will come from reading and doing extra work. If you know what you are doing or have prior experience, you can ignore or skip lecture. However, if you are new to this, her lectures will not help you, and even seeing her during office hours may not help you understand the material.
everything you learn from this class is from the textbook and google. The lectures are completely useless if you read the textbook. Everything is taught from the textbook, her lectures are worthless
So CS302 is a weed-out class, despite being an intro class, and weed-out classes are just basically designed to screw you over more than teach anything. They are a bad idea as a whole. It's not that you can't learn programming, it's that they are going to not teach you programming and see what happens. Terrible idea. She seems nice, though.
Not clear at all.
Her lectures are so pointless - you certainly are not there to learn programming, you're there to watch her make programs vaguely related to the lengthy projects that are due. You are expected to actually learn everything from the book. It makes her lectures worthless when a million youtube videos can explain it better than her. Exams are very hard
Do not take this class if you have no programming experience. The lectures are pretty much useless, all the important information is in the book which she does not clearly follow in her lectures. She is not very helpful in her lectures or office hours.
She does not teach the concepts you are expected to know. She doesn't even try; her lectures are just her coding and somewhat talking about it. This does not translate to doing well on exams, you need to read the book for your grade. lectures are worthless. This equates to vast amounts of extra time studying because you're learning without her help
Great lecturer. 302 relatively simple class. Do practice problems.
Deb is a nice lady, but her lectures were not all too helpful. Having no programming experience, I found myself relying on the book more than anything else. Exams were tough, and programming projects were very advanced for an intro class.
Great teacher, but you can't just come to lectures and expect to understand. You have to put in a little time with the book and a lot of time on Stack Exchange. If you come in with that knowledge, she expands well on it.
Deb is a very nice person, but in general, 302 is difficult for an intro level class, especially if you have NO programming experience AT ALL. I enjoyed doing the 4 "big" programs and learned the most from these, but the exams are tough and meant to be tricky--not exactly ideal for someone with little experience as it is. Piazza was a life-saver
She's a good professor and tries really hard to make her lectures interesting. She sometimes lacks in clarity and fails to make the concepts easier to grasp.
Deb is an incredibly helpful professor. She knows this class has many non-programmers and is there to help accordingly, while also not dumbing down the material. Very important to go to class to understand what she prioritizes on exams. Start the programs early and ask a lot of questions to succeed. Do the homework problems, as they also help.
Lectures are sleep-inducing-only about 20-30 of the 250 kids show up. I went in not knowing much beyond loops, was in for a hell of a ride. Even friends that know how to program found it a tough course. Office Hours are a pain to schedule and the only exam help is the online QA forum. Exams&Programs are death if you've never studied this before.
Her lectures are sometimes helpful and she always lags behind the schedule. Her tests are easy.
She's okay
Had her for 302 and 367. Can't complain at all. Lectures were good and I felt prepared for everything. Not an overwhelming amount of work as long as you can grasp the concepts. Deb's pretty knowledgeable and not afraid to admit mistakes which I think is really cool.
She does not listen to what students are asking and often responds emotionally.
Deb is amazing. I had her for both 302 and 367... went in to 302 knowing absolutely nothing about programming and she was so helpful, and also part of the reason I decided to continue with CS. Absolutely would take her again!
This is a hard course and she makes visualizing computer science theory easier than it's ever been. I actually understand things following lecture, which wasn't the case in CS302 with a different prof.
Deb's midterms can be very very tricky to careless people just entered the world of programming. But she has a point in making those "trick" questions. They help you avoid real mistakes with potential real losses in the future. Make sure you double check every single problem she gave you in order to get above a B.
Deb's lectures follow a strict format, they stay on track and don't deviate from plans too much. You'll learn everything in lecture, and she does a fantastic job of delivering content. For me, Deb was a great professor, but I see why people don't like her teaching style; a lot of times when people ask questions, she'll brush it aside and continue.
Assign group project with random people which is making no sense. Cannot get a fair grade.
Go to lecture or you won't pass
Deb's decision to implement large randomized groups and randomized program quizzes is an ineffective way to apply the learned material. It is also very difficult to ask her questions about the material, as often times her responses come off as rude and condescending. Otherwise the notes in lecture are clear and the course has useful content.
She makes every student print tons of pages and bring them to class; she only used a computer to show code a few times. It is absurdly hard to get a good grade in her exams, and programming assignments are not interesting at all. I did not feel like she was a good professor, because lecture did not complement the assignments.
Puts you in a random group of 6 people for projects. Random people in the group take quizzes that count for the whole group. Makes you print hundreds of outline papers to bring to class over the semester. Doesn't answer questions. Exams are random CS trivia. Lectures drag on about info irrelevant to projects or exams. Learn nothing.
The professor is alright. If you go to lecture and pay attention you will succeed. The lack of use of a text book means everything will be given in lecture. So pay attention. The concepts are really dumbed down by her, making them easy. Make sure you pick a team (for the programs) as they are challenging. 3
Deb is an extremely caring professor and still tough at the same time. She wants you to succeed but she's not just going to hand you an A. You have to show up, pay attention, and work for it. Her lectures are clear and she is very willing to clarify if something wasn't. Overall I think she's a really great professor.
Horrible and atrociously taught class. Very rushed material, exams are just terrible since she doesn't give any code tracing practice before hand. Programs are just brutal and weekly hw quizzes are very stressful to take so prepare to spend your entire week traumatized by this class.
You get a lecture outline and have to fill it out with her, while this made me go to class more, it did make studying harder when I had to reread the nonsensical notes I had taken. Biggest complaint is the organization of the course, homework were open for three days with no syllabus so you have to check for them. I missed 3/10 homeworks.
I would avoid taking CS with Deb, if you can. The programs are really poorly designed - they'll give you some poor instructions, then change last minute, letting many students get 0s on programs
Deb gets a bad rep. She is a tough professor for sure and the amount of work in 367 felt more like 4 credits, but she always had clear objectives for lecture and assignments. Lectures are NECESSARY because her notes are all hand written, not online. She has eased up on her group projects and overall I consider her a knowledgeable teacher.
Half the class is data structures and the other half is whatever deb/tas comes up with. Make sure to do well on the midterm and final project
No curve for this class, even cs 300 can be curved to 90%
I had harder classes with students earning a around 90%, but this one has no curve!
I think Professor Deppeler is a fantastic lecturer. I feel that I learned a great deal from her and was consistently engaged throughout the semester. She goes through content by writing it down along with us, which fosters a kind of open, more conversational lecture environment which is great for asking questions. I would definitely recommend her.
Out of all the CS professors, Deb stands out as the most caring. In lecture, she makes the environment seem small so students can ask questions and really incorporates feedback into her teaching. Multiple times during the semester, she'd reexplain things in depth that had left students confused. There's no curve, but none of the CS classes do...
Deb is a great lecturer. Her classes / projects can be difficult at times but she does a good job presenting the lecture material. She has been one of the better lecturers that I've had within the CS department at UW-Madison. Works hard to present clear information.
I took CS302 as a professional development class in 2015. Easily the hardest class I've ever taken, but also the most fun. Deppeler was accessible, both after class and during her office hours. Her lectures made programming as easy to understand as is probably possible. I use what I learned in this class every day at work and I love what I do!
Overall a decent lecturer.
Deb is a great instructor in lecture, however, be prepared to have no idea what to do for programs. Instructions are unclear, things you end up being graded on are left out, and extra requirements are only told in answers to piazza questions and never updated on the assignment page, so if you don't see that specific piazza post, you're screwed.
Deb's lectures are largely boring and contain a lot of unnecessary filler. Thankfully they were recorded and can be watched at 2X speed to save time. Assignments are a grab bag of unclear grading criteria and black boxes that will determine your final score. Figuring out what needed to be done for a project was often confusing.
Her class is the most disorganized class that I have taken in UW Madison. She does not answer emails, piazza and overcomplicates concepts in her class. Additionally, she gives vague instructions on programs and would recommend going on youtube to learn her classs material.
She uses note packets and as long as you go to class and follow along in lectures you'll do fine. Her exams aren't bad at all, but prepare to spend a lot of time working on the programs. Overall one of the best CS profs I've had.
Deb is a great professor! Her lectures are very clear and they were very helpful. Always bring the lecture outline to class to fill in. Do the online readings before the exams! Both exam averages weren't bad and the programs didn't take too long. But, there are 2 exams and 6 programs (you can do a 7th one and drop 1) so do your best! Good luck!
Deb's lecture is fine. She'll give you worksheet to fill out during the lecture. But she doesn't give you any clear explanation of her assignments, and she often (almost every time) changes the assignment details without any notice. The homework instructions often got many confusions. But she's the only professor teaching this course. so good luck.
she only received points B/C lecture material. But she is a terrible professor in distributing her lecture and assignments. She would change the requirements a hour before its deadline. Most (90%) of her quiz question and assignment description are ambiguous and unclear. Why Unacceptable: even students clearly point out her fault, she won't admit.
Makes ambiguous quiz questions, changes homework requirements right before deadlines, create useless group projects. Worst teacher ever met.
Professor Deppeler makes CS much less interesting. If you plan on spending time trying to learn the concepts in the class to a greater degree, you won't be successful in the class. She values tests that require memorization of the lecture outlines over programming assignments that require a degree of skill and critical thinking to complete.
Her lecture is fairly clear. That's all. This class require you to watch the email and Piazza ALL THE TIME or you will miss changes to homework requirements, home pages, quiz and etc. Everything I submit on this class involves quantum theory because you never know if your answer is wrong or the professor's answer is wrong. It's a MESS. DON'T take.
Professor Deppeler makes CS much less interesting. If you plan on spending time trying to learn the concepts in the class to a greater degree, you won't be successful in the class. She values tests that require memorization of the lecture outlines over programming assignments that require a degree of skill and critical thinking to complete.
Great teacher and tried to involve the class in lectures. Passionate about the subject. Did group projects, but allowed some to be done individually. Switched to online classes REALLY EASILY. Made herself available for questions. Had lecture packets so you could foow along and fill in the blank during lecture.
Deb is a fantastic human being and a pedantic but effective lecturer. HOWEVER! This course has absolutely awful organisation; a masochistic personality is recommended if you are to take this course, as projects will take up a disproportionate amount of your time while being worth triflings. Dont waste your time on projects, study for the exams.
Great professor for a very busy course. Constantly check Piazza
This class and professor are very unorganized. Grading criteria is not specifically listed. The professor puts on a facade of being very eager to help but in reality doesn't care that much about the student's success in the course. The programming assignments take a lot of work but aren't worth a lot. Exams are based on memorizing random terms.
Deppeler is a good lecturer, that's it. The rest of her class is filled with confusion that's easily avoidable. She randomly changed the grading thresholds for an A, which shrunk the AB threshold. An 89.4 ended up being a B, and an 89.5-90 was the AB threshold, although an 89 would be an AB in previous years. Very unforgiving when emailed about it
Professor Deppeler is good with lecture, but her class is terribly organized. All of her assignments had some sort of confusion or error that would take way too long for her to address. She will randomly change deadlines, and grading thresholds. The midterm was a test on memorizing random things from the lecture notes rather than the key concepts.
At the start of the semester, Deb's lectures were a bit slow and my class got a lecture behind, but as it progressed she got better. Deb is a very pleasant person and is very accessible. The class has a lot of individual projects, one group project with random people, and one group project with people you choose. Lectures are posted on canvas.
Deb had one of the worst organized classes I think I will ever take. Simply put it was terrible if I could avoid taking her I would. She is a very nice and kind person but unfortunately for us that doesn't mean she is a good teacher. If you take her class hopefully you can read minds because it is almost impossible to know what she wants.
Deb definitely cares, but she will follow a very strict, although non-optimal format. The one *amazing* thing is she actually recorded her lectures so you are not forced to go to lecture which is automatically a +1 from me (She would be 3 otherwise)
Deb is kind and committed to her students. Personally, I love her lecture format, as the fill-in-the-blank style notesheets keep me engaged and attentive (especially with the new online lecture format). At times, her instructions for programs can be hard to parse, but once you get into the meat of it things generally make sense.
Let me prephase by saying Deb is legit a nice person. She is, however, a terrible professor. She somehow makes the simplest stuff sound incredibly complicated and is unnecessarily pedantic about the smallest things. I did it by trying to understand what she's trying to teach and then learn that online. This class made me want to kms for real
The grading criteria for her course is strict, but she knows very well how to equip students with knowledge, so if you follow her lectures closely, all the exam content and tests appear in the course and an A is not difficult. She doesn't offer complete notes, but she offers recording of lectures and her English is easy to understand.
The lecture notes that Deb uses are really good. These are the only lectures that I actually found worthwhile attending because of the lecture notes.
It seems like her goal with the course is to make people feel bad about themselves for not having their projects finished a week ahead of the due date.
Professor Deppeler is a good teacher, but I don't like the way she teaches. Her lectures are just writting concepts in outlines. The code examples are simple, while the homework quizzes and exams are much more difficult. She deletes lecture recordings after a period of time to make students watch videos early, but nobody likes that.
She really thinks when we have a problem with the class that it is our fault. She only does paper outlines for lecture for an hour and a half, talks concepts the whole time with simple examples that don't help with "homework" (quizzes) or projects much, and its just dry/unforgiving teaching style with high standards. Wish I could continue this list
Honestly, if I knew the other prof(4.7/5) would teach cs354 in the Spring Semester, I would drop this immediately. I feel that I'm spending much time and learning nothing from her class. The concepts in lectures are very confusing. The exams and homework are very difficult. Highly recommand if you want to challenge yourself, otherwise, avoid.
Professor Deppeler gives clear, detailed examples for every concept covered, which there are many. Class is appropriately difficult for someone having never coded in C. CS354 is obviously a CS/ECE requirement, but you will learn quite a bit concerning the low-level workings of a computer if you pay attention.
Prof. Deppeler definitely cares about the students in her class, but the lack of organization made it hard to follow her intentions at times. The lecture outlines are fine; the course is light once each of the data structures "clicks" in your head. Big group project was unfairly distributed, without consideration that some did most of the work.
350 characters are not enough to describe how atrocious this class is. Deb's lecture outlines are *mildly* useful for when it comes to exams, but they do not help you whatsoever for the projects and quizzes. Even the exams are pretty tough and extremely demoralizing
I love her in the way she is like my aunt. Unless you seek a professor to be your aunt, run! take other professors! If you can't, here the things that you must bear for the entire semester: - She is interestingly low in tech, despite the fact that she's cs prof. - She regularly writes sth wrong on her outline. Photo-hunt time! etc.
Professor Deppeler is very underrated in my opinion. I think her lower rating reflects the difficulty of the course she teaches as opposed to the teaching style. The content can be a bit dry, but professor Deppeler gives you all the tools and knowledge you need to succeed if you put in the work.
Deb's teaching style this semester has been awful. She speaks in a monotone, barely explains the lecture, but just dictates what she writes. I struggle to read her handwriting and she randomly uses short forms only she knows the expansion to. Dry material, no effort from any of the teaching staff to make it better either.
Deb is a good person, but not the best professor. Her lectures are boring, slow, and monotone of her writing over PDF's (from the old professor) and filling the blanks in with gibberish and shortened words no one understands. Expects you to finish a project every other day. Lectures barely help with HW. Pick another professor if you can.
I think Deb is a really kind person, and I enjoyed her more personable lectures since she really seemed to care about her students. Her lectures are dry and the content itself is pretty dry and difficult, and she would sometimes confuse students accidentally. Expect to work pretty hard for an A since there are a lot of confusing concepts.
Deb may be a nice person, but she is an utterly incompetent lecturer. Her lecture material is a tangentially useful resource with almost the entire course repurposed from Prof Skrentny's version of the class. The lecture material with vague short forms and useless info did not at all prepare and left me feeling underprepared the entire semester.
Emailing this person is like emailing a brick wall. She fails in communication, and lacks understanding. She also changed the grade of my final project based on the results of my final exam (both entirely unrelated to each other)
Deb's lectures are brilliant if you're taking 354 a second time. They're basically review. She lectures like the student is supposed to know what's coming up next. She does assign textbook readings, but who can expect a student to perfectly grasp something out of a book? Horrible grading, horrible communication and insanely bad at answering doubts.
This course was great. The lectures were engaging and the expectations for the course were clearly outlined. Deb adapted really well when we switched to online for the semester, holding regular question and answer sessions.
Never touched the textbook once. She uses Skrentny's lectures so everything you need can be learned from watching the lecture at 1.5x speed or going to class. Pretty challenging class.
Professor is great at explaining concepts and lectures are useful. I do the readings after watching lectures which helps a lot. MAKE SURE U DO THE READINGS. Exams are not too hard and doable. Make sure you make friends in class so that you can help each other with hws and projects. Both hws and projects are good practice for exams.
Deb is a bit rigid in her emphasis on exams over projects, but she's also a kind and dedicated instructor who puts a ton of effort into her courses. Lecture attendance is 100% mandatory to succeed. Use office hours and start projects the day they are assigned. Exams are mostly fair, but typically include a few obscure "gotcha" questions.
super underrated shes a good lecturer and actually wants you to succeed 10/10 would recommend
The lectures are recorded and available for two weeks. As long as you watch all of the lectures and follow along, you should have absolutely no problems getting a good grade in this course. The projects greatly increase your understanding of the content, and in my opinion weren't very difficult provided you understood the lectures.
Debra is an amazing professor who really cares for her students and is by far the best CS professor I have had thus far. The projects and tests cover exactly what she goes over in lecture so as long as you pay attention it's really not that bad.
Someone asked her a questions, her answer was "Instead of you asking me, I'll ask you that on a quiz". Too bad she is the only professor for a required course
Deb was a pretty good lecturer for 354 in regards to teaching C programming and x86 assembly, though she tended to be less clear on the machine organization topics later in the semester. Despite this, her exams aren't too difficult, and most projects contribute greatly to your understanding of the material. Keep up with the material to get an A!
I really liked Deb, but she's hit or miss. If you learn slowly, you'll struggle because she flies through things, but I personally think her explanations are really good. I learned a lot from the projects & the exams were straight off the lectures, never looked at the textbooks. Would 100% take again but I'm someone who this stuff comes easily to.
Debbie will teach you the material with some effort and you'll probably not enjoy a bit of it. After seeing her responses to students in class, she simply doesn't care about your performance. She's not the worst professor I've had but she isn't winning any awards. On top of that, the class material is quite challenging. Good luck to you.
Her recording only lasts one week. Her homework was much more significant than what she taught in the class.
I genuinely enjoyed Deb. Her handwriting and lecture style can be hard to follow, but you learn A LOT if you do. I rewatched some of the lectures after attending them to clarify my understanding. Quizzes are challenging but you are given many tries, exams definitely require a thorough understanding. I would love to see her again in future courses.
She didn't answer your questions when you ask them during lecture, but instead told you to watch the lecture videos, which were only up for 1-2 weeks, or made some random remark. The only good thing about her is that she was helpful when going over exam questions during office hours. Her projects and homework can be tough to figure out on our own.
She was just not that helpful. The content was difficult, and when attempting to review the content we couldn't go back and look at lectures that explained it as she deleted them every two weeks. There was so much content covered during lectures, which were difficult to pay attention to. So much work after midterm 1. I hated this class.
Can't believe it's 2023 and she still had us handwrite the notes + no recordings. The pace was super fast but she forbids people to take photos of her notes. She got so annoyed by people taking pictures that she just directly took her paper/slides off the projector. Definitely the worst professor of my life. People should avoid her at all costs.
No lecture recording at all.
In lectures she has an issue of people taking pictures of the notes, where no professor does. Sometimes some people ask questions and she straight up ignore the question entirely. Looking at the other professor for cs354, go with him if you want to be taught by a real educator. Go with her is you want someone who treats teaching as a chore.
Deb was a really good teacher, clear outline of the material and really good practice given to get students to know the material. The tests were on the difficult side of fair, with small things from lecture that were just glossed over potentially being a question worth about 5% of the exam. The projects take time but do teach you a lot.
Deb is an enigma. Some days she explains topics super well & assignments are crystal clear, others you struggle to figure out what's important & what on earth to actually do. Class is a lot better with a support system, whether that's classmates, Discords, or TA office hours. Tips for success: go to every lecture, and take the class with a friend.
Canvas page was very organized and her information to access what topics we are studying were very accessible. Past this, her lectures were a mixed bag on whether it made sense or not. Additionally, no lecture notes were posted after class, except the blank outline. Homework and projects took up a large chunk of time, even if they weren't difficult
My issues were with trying to use accomodations with the professor. When I initially went in to discuss the accomodations (which I had been approved for by McBurney) I was essentially blown off and told to simply "apply myself" (along with a long lecture about her daughter). I did fine but I really felt singled out for a disability I can't control.
One of the horrible instructors in UW Madison.
I found it quite hard to get help from her or the TAs. She has a tendency to ramble and not explain concepts very clearly. She forgets that there are other students waiting and takes a long time to get to you. She has also yelled at students for taking pictures of her notes during lecture even though she goes too fast sometimes.
Deb's lectures are great and have all the information you need for exams. Reading the required textbook is also super helpful. Only issue I had with her was that she wouldn't answer a lot of questions- she would either say that we have to figure it out ourselves or say that we will learn it in the future. Kinda mean but good lecturer.
I guess there is nothing I have to say
Her lectures are great on the 2nd watch/if you already know the topic. That's where the "positives" end, she was test-heavy and she gave no study guides or ability to view your previous exams. Only recorded lectures for the week and virtually no help/very unclear on how to do the projects and homework. You'll have to teach this course yourself.
Lectures are good and explain everything you need to know with notes and examples. Deb really cares about her students learning, and I can see why people don't like it. She's paranoid about cheating, she doesn't allow people to take pictures in lecture, she takes down recordings after 2 weeks, and doesn't allow any colabing. Tests are very hard.
Deb really cares about our learning, and that is why her class was tough. She encourages students to learn by seeking answers themselves by writing code, searching man pages and reading the textbook. 354 is difficult but if you take it with Deb you will learn a lot. Lectures are great. Start p3 early and study for the exams and you will be fine.
Worst. She thinks her exam is easy because she knows what's on the exam. She likes to test just 1 line of notes (out of thousands line of notes) as a 3 pt question on Final Exam (1 pt overall grade) because she has no idea what the core of the course is and she herself cannot solve some of the problems that's the core of the course.
Learn Comp Sci in the year 2024 by watching her write in different colored markers and write thousands of line of code based on the marker notes in class. prepare for exams with no recordings, no study guides, nothing. Doesn't post grade cutoffs, just guess what your grade is. Don't ask for regrade, will dock your score 5 points merely for asking.
don't waste your time. switch majors to avoid this person.
Gets upset at any students seen taking pictures of her notes in class, records the lectures just to take them down within a week, and doesn't upload her own notes. Half the class is self taught through textbooks and Linux commands on a terminal. No practice exams, past exams or study guides, just a list of topics that might be covered in the exam.
Boring lectures with handwritten notes, no slides or animations, feels like in the 90s. Recordings are removed from canvas after a week. She does not share completed notes with students. The canvas page is way too complicated to navigate. The exams are ok, just with some trivial stuff.
big time yapper, takes down lec vids after a week, and gives a bullet point key word outline for review material. prime uw madison cs prof tbh
If I had to describe my experience with Deb in one sentence it would be: She told me 'C'mon you should know that!' when I asked a question about something I clearly didn't know. Lectures are the same horrible format as Jim Skretneys, but at least she puts the lectures up for a week so you can download them and refer back later
Meh class with meh notes. Always felt like I was lacking concepts or information on the exams or on the homeworks. The homeworks took a lot of time and I never ever felt fully prepared or that I had all concepts ready. The TAs were super nice (except for one, always felt like they never wanted to be there and was super unhelpful).
The class itself isn't bad, the issue is dealing with Deb, which ruins it. Half the time she is MIA and ignores students' questions online. She often seems passive-aggressive toward students, and her lectures are surface level, while the exams and homework often require much more.
The class really soured for me at the end when the Piazza was completely ignored for the days leading up to the finals and when no resources were given for studying the final other than a few hints on what may be on it (spoiler alert, its cumulative). The immediate morning of the exam the Piazza was closed, so no last minute questions I guess?
The content is pretty difficult, and her old-school style of teaching does not help this. Lecture videos are deleted so for the final exam there was no chance to go back and watch anything you forgot. Piazza posts were ignored a lot. Felt like taking a class from the 90s.
Condescending, says "we don't have time for this" to certain questions. Gives very little advance detail about exams. Regrade policy was verbatim "If I agree, I will recompute your final percentage. If I disagree, I will take 5 points off for the extra work to come to same grade as is already recorded." Avoid her if you can, good luck if you can't.
Worst professor I have ever taken. She takes off lectures, doesn't tell the questions you might have gotten wrong, no clear grading criteria, very condescending. Exams were full of crap, lied about the material thats going to be on the exams, it felt like she wanted people to struggle. There is literally nothign you can do to practice for the final
Difficult class, long and boring lectures, and tricky exams. Deb is a old fashioned lecturer and felt like it was an outdated format.
Condescending, often leaves students' questions hastily or not even answered. Lectures are old-fashioned fill-in-the blank, and videos are removed after a week. Lies about exam contents, which are already tricky and hyperspecific. Gives neither practice nor cutoffs prior to exams and gatekeeps exams from being viewed, likely because they're reused.
The class is taught horribly. The only study material is lectures and home works, but she deletes the lectures and doesn't reopen home works for practice. She also keeps the final grade cutoffs a secret and said she would remove 5 points on the final project if you requested a regrade that didn't result in 10 points back.
Generally just unhelpful...no posted cutoffs, ignored piazza questions, would not post lectures even though they were recorded, snaps at students during lectures and sits in a chair all lecture and hand writes notes...hard class, but deb did not make it easier by any means....
Lectures were very good and explained topics clearly. I don't understand why there are so many negative reviews. Projects are very manageable if you pay attention in class. Also very accessible outside of class, was a really nice person and happy to help.
Condescending teacher with a very antiquated way of lecturing, just filling in an outline. Often skips questions if she believes we should "already know" certain material, and has no lecture slides to review after class. No review material is posted, but homeworks have most of the test material. Class is not hard if you go to every lecture though.
Easiest class in the CS department. Her lectures are subpar at best, but the textbook they picked out for this class, the one by Patt and Patel, is probably the best textbook they could've picked. I stopped attending the lectures after a while, because the textbooks just taught so much better, and had questions that better prepared me for the exams
Lectures are just fill in the blank and they are NOT recorded and NOT posted online. Starts off really simple but then the content gets a little easy to get lost in. Project keys are not posted so you can't use those to study and later on, homeworks don't help either unless you got them correct. No cummulative final tho
CS252 with Prof. Deppeler was not that bad. Course material is a little dry but just go to lecture and pay attention and you should be fine.
Tough class good professor, caring and willing to meet with you to help. Only downside is she kind of expects you to have an "ah-ha" moment way to early sometimes in her explanations.
Technically attendance is not required but she doesn't post lectures nor filled notes DESPITE the fact that there are only two lectures and one of them is at 8am. HWs are more like a test/quiz bc you only get one attempt on a canvas quiz. She writes very small on the projector but gets mad if you take photos bc she thinks youre recording her (???)
The fact that she records every lecture and chooses not to post them is weird, its a CS class even if the lecture was in the afternoon half the class would just watch the recording. Content is fine, but many people choose to read Skrentny's notes from last semester. I wish you could regenerate hw's after finishing to practice for exams.
Debra is OK. I found CS252 to be a very interesting course, but mostly because of Patt and Patel's Intro to Computing Systems (very good textbook by the way). I learned almost everything from the textbook. She gatekept all of her lecture materials up until the final few weeks, which is weird. She does have a +2% extra credit quiz though.
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