The best professor in CS 302. He teaches clearly, and the materials are taught in a more applicable way.

Pretty decent lecturer. People complain WAY WAY WAY too much about the class and blame it on the professor. He's a nice guy that is (too) willing to answer questions during lecture and might end up taking half the lecture to settle one person's qualms. Its not fair to say he's easy or hard as all of the CS302 sections are run the same, gradingwise.

As a Comp Sci course, programming homework is really necessary. I do not quite agree with the previous comments that there is TOO MUCH homework. On the contrary, I believe that if you could read through the clear guidelines, you may find it easier to finish the HW. In addition, I think Dahl is the one who teaches the best.

Do not take this class unless you have some knowledge about programming already. The claim that it is 3 credits worth of work is a complete lie, this class is insanely time consuming and without a doubt the hardest class I took this semester.

Great professor, really helpful office hours. I felt like many of his lectures were useless especially in the beginning of year because the homework covered it well. However, it is a lot of work for a 3 credit class.

He's pretty good

People complain a lot about this class, but it wasn't so bad. Go to lectures, and try to pay attention and you'll be golden, and if you have trouble on one of the programming assignments, go to the TA consulting hours, they will help you immensely.

He's a pretty good professor. His lectures are concise and he never went off task, not even once throughout the whole semester. The homework, reading, and labs are a lot of work, but he cuts everybody some slack with those. He's very accessible, and will answer everyone's questions at the start of every lecture.

Solid choice for a professor. Explains very well. Many people don't listen to work on CS, but if you listen to him, trust my, he gives you good advice to make your programming projects a lot faster. A lot of homework.

His class was a great into to programming and is the reason I'm studying computer science now. People who like programming usually like his class and it's not to hard. But if you're not interested and can't push yourself to study, be ready to fail the first midterm.

Gary was a good professor. The course material is so basic in 302 that it sometimes makes it hard to stand out as a good professor. He mainly taught by going over code examples in class about the things we were currently covering. I would have preferred a few more slideshow lectures, so if there are two instructors for 302, maybe go to both.

Gary gives really good feedback and instruction. He made the material very accessible for me even though I had no prior programing experience. Tests were pretty difficult and homework can take awhile. However, homework was very problem solving oriented, so most people found it a lot more enjoyable than other classes' homework.

Professor is very nice and teaches things in a clear manner. A weekly assignment is presented that is related to the topics discussed in class. The weekly assignment is pretty interesting and is a good practice for midterms and for real application of materials taught in class. Exams are not bad; if you study for it, you're on the right path.

Gary takes lectures slow to make sure that everyone understands the material before proceeding. Even long lectures with him feel short and easy.

I think Gary is probably the best professor I have had at UW - Madison. He's pretty respectable and likes to help out his students. Just be aware that this class will require you not only to pay attention in class, but work outside of it. His review lectures before tests are nice, but you need to expand on that and study yourself.

You are assigned weekly programming assignments which usually arent hard, but just a big pain in the ass. Lectures are very clear and and he is receptive to questions. I found exams difficult to study for with no practice problems.

Very clear and informative lectures. Gives helpful answers to in-class questions and seems genuinely concerned about your understanding. Would definitely take another course with Gary in the future.

Always clear when answering questions. Will definitely take again

Gary is a nice guy that obviously cares a great deal about teaching computer science to UW students. He's great at explaining complex concepts and he's a joy to listen to. His lectures can be a little example-heavy, meaning that it's sometimes easy to get lost, but the online study materials help make up for that.

Many people seem to have mixed thoughts about Gary and I think this is because many people confuse the class with the professor. Gary is a top-notch professor that is very caring and presents the material well. The class CS300 is rather difficult, but that is not Gary's fault, rather the structure of the class. Great professor, difficult class.

Gary is an awesome professor. He is a very nice person and I personally prefer his code examples and his way of using comments to teach it than slides. The class is difficult but he helps make it easy. Try to take his lecture.

He is a very nice person who takes effort to make you understand all concepts. Probably one of the better professors in the university. The projects are well designed and clear.

Computer science can't be taught super well in lectures. It's something that requires your skills to develop of it rather than learning any material from lecture. With that in mind, Dahl was a decent prof. Most people didn't pay attention to lectures and did other things on their laptops though. Definitely cares about students succeeding.

Gary is the man! He's a great lecturer and covers the material well. Super helpful when answering questions - you can tell he's very qualified. He talks kind of slowly, which could be a good or bad thing depending on how quickly you learn - for me, long lectures sometimes got a little boring.

Like others have said CS isn't taught super well in lecture. I ended up not going to class and just sitting on TopHat - but Gary does a great job of trying to make it interesting. Always super responsive in emails and willing to talk in person. Overall a great prof

Gary is a very solid choice for CS300. He does a pretty good job of explaining and visualizing concepts in lecture. The programming assignments he writes are much easier to follow than Kacem's. You can afford to skip a few lectures there, it's not highly weighted. Tophat and Zybooks are used and mandatory for the class.

Gary was an awesome professor. Anyone who said otherwise probably wasn't really listening to what he was saying. He teaches you by making you think of the answers, instead of just telling you the answers. At first, I hated that, but ultimately it helped me learn way more. I hope to have Gary more in the future.

This is where you are introduced to the computational thinking and real computer science. Hope he could teach CS400 in the future!

Gary's a nice guy, always responded to emails and was accessible outside of class. His lectures are dry, but you'll be teaching yourself most of the material in this class anyways, that's just CS. I will say that I wish he uploaded more detailed diagrams/examples to canvas -- I ended up relying on Mouna's lecture notes and Zybooks for exams

Dahl does a good job in lecture of covering content, and he uses interesting graphics to explain CS concepts. CS300 has a project almost every week, with many being optionally group projects with another person. The exams are straightforward if you pay attention in lecture and there are TA's available for help with the projects.

EVERYTHING that you might need to know for programming projects or exams will be covered pedantically in lecture. Gary doesnt get enough love for the thorough, well-orchestrated lectures he performs. The only students who might not thrive in this course are those unfamiliar with Java programming.

He's an amazing lecturer who works hard to make the sometimes boring content as interesting and interactive as possible. The programs can be pretty difficult, but the program grading and exams are very fair.

Gary is great. One of the best professors I have ever had.

Great at explaining things, his lectures are good and the course is laid out well.

Gary wasn't my initial prof but during COVID my actual prof did really short videos that didn't always help me much. I ended up watching the bulk of Gary's online videos to get through the last few assignments and to study. He is a dry lecturer sometimes but he does explain things thoroughly and clearly. Stay alert and you'll be fine.

Gary should be the example for how to run an online course. His weekly schedule is very easy to follow and his videos have a very high production value with a green screen and background music. When I had him in person for CS300, I thought he was a bit boring , but now with 2x speed on his videos, I love him.

His classes itself can be challenging at times, but Gary is an excellent professor and his lectures are the best. Also pretty responsive on Piazza and emails back quickly. Would take a class with him again.

Also took CS300 from him. One of the best professors in UW-Madison. Explanation is crystal clear. You rarely need material outside lectures. All HW is reasonable and gives you great skills. Just choose this guy if you aren't sure which section you want to enroll.

I also had Gary for CS300, and I will say that his material was much better for higher levels of CS. Gary still tends to not like to show solid code - which I dislike - but he is able to explain the specifics easier in these harder classes. If you are choosing Gary, don't choose him for beginner courses.

Best professor I've ever had at UW Madison. I had him in person and online. In person Gary is super great because he is nice and you can ask him questions after lecture. Pace is just slow enough that you can work on that weeks assignment while he is going over new material without missing anything. Online Gary is also great.. ran out of room

Gary is a great teacher, I think he explains things well in his lectures and does a great job teaching. I've never reached out for help from him but I've heard he's not super great at that but you can usually figure out your problem by rewatching lectures. Overall, he's a great professor for CS and I really liked him.

Gary can be a boring, dry lecturer, but he explains the content very clearly so its easy to understand. There were 4 group projects that counted for 40% of your grade but were easy to do well on. Gary also allows you to access all of the course materials during exams which makes them fairly easy.

Gary is great at explaining things and is very accessible through piazza, office hours, and email. I talked to him quite a bit throughout the semester via email and office hours and he was always so helpful. Also a very cheery person overall. He's a solid choice.

Gary's lectures do a fantastic job at covering everything you need to know for the weekly projects and exams. Just make sure you stay on top of those and you will do fine in the class. He's also very responsive on Piazza and the class is very well organized.

I really enjoyed his lectures. They were a lot shorter than what they would have been in person, and he always tried to make the content kind of fun. The class was super well organized, other than some late grading. Would love to take again

Worst part of the class is the group projects, but if you get stuck with a bad group and contact Gary as soon as you can, he's very helpful and doesn't penalize you. His lectures were super organized and straight to the point. It's also very clear he cares for his students a lot. Class was a little challenging but very fair, learned a lot.

He is very involved with the students and seems to care more than the average professor. Class is difficult though, and a lot of the material comes together at some point. Does seem like a LOT more work than a 3 credit class should be, but professor Dahl does make it bearable and somewhat enjoyable.

Gary is one of the best professors I've ever had. He really cares about students' well being and is constantly asking for feedback for how to make the class better. He is really responsive outside of class, which is huge, especially for an online class. HIs lectures are straightforward and not too bad. CS400 is tough, but Gary makes it manageable.

I don't know what to say. This man is a god. No doubt he is the best professor I've had. He really cares about students and adjusts the course according to our feedback. His lectures are pretty good. Assignments really help you learn the concepts. If you have the opportunity to take his class, go for it.

His lectures are really good, very clear.

A large portion of your grade comes from group projects, and my group was terrible. I spent way too much time trying to make up for their lack of effort. Thankfully, Gary adjusted the curriculum mid-semester to be more balanced and he even got rid of the group aspect of the final project. Lectures are clear and concise. My best CS professor to date

Great professor. I had some personal emergencies during the semester and he was very understanding and helped me manage my work. Fantastic at teaching.

At first glance this man struck me as another one of those jaded professors who only teaches because the university makes him, but he actually does care about his students and if you ask him for some help he'll probably be happy to oblige. I would give him a 5 if it weren't for the dead-soul monotone that can make his lectures hard to sit through.

Gary's lectures are second to none. He is very well organized.

I greatly enjoyed Dr. Dahl's lectures. The "fill-in-the blank" notes were also extremely helpful. The only things I would change are perhaps the group projects-- making them open-ended for P2 and P3 really resulted in uneven roles. A more rigid project specification could have helped, as well as more resources to practice syntax and algorithms.

Professor Dahls classes are lecture-heavy. But he makes recording available for everyone to review in case you miss out on anything during his lecture(s). His fill-in-the-blank lecture notes are simple to understand. There are 24 assignments (1-2 per week), 3 projects, and 3 exams.

Gary is a magic man, I used to learn Red Black Tree by myself, which cost over 10 hours. But he can make you understand RBT within 3 Lectures. His Lectures were good organized, notes were printed and displayed in Lecture which was clear to see If you enrolled in another Lecturer like Florian... Maybe skip his and jump to Gary or watch Gary's video

Good Professor. He teaches Red Black Tree very well. You can understand his lectures easily.

Great professor and takes your feedback very seriously. Does a lot of demos of concepts/data structures in class. Tailors the class and makes changes to the course structure according to students' feedback.

This guy knows what he is talking about and is receptive to feedback.

Caring and nice professor, doesn't post completed notes so you kind have to take your own notes or rewatch the lectures. Course has weekly programming activities, 3 group projects, 3 Honorlock exams of varying difficulty. The weekly activities build off on what we learn in class. If you need help, use Piazza or go to CS office hours.

Gary is a good professor. He teaches concepts well. I do not like CS 400 though. Group project is horrible and a waste of time and I learned little from them. I also get some horrible team members. The most useful thing I learned from the group project is practicing git and that's it.

Professor Dahl's lectures are quite good at helping you learn concepts and ideas that might be difficult to understand normally, like Red Black Trees, Graphs, Lambdas, etc. and his guided notes are useful for hitting the most important aspects of any particular topic. His group projects and exams are annoying usually, so be weary for those!

Good lecturer. Gary's lectures go over course content, especially self-balancing trees in great depth and the tests in CS400 do not stray too far from lecture. As long as you pay attention and do the handouts you will do well since he teaches well.

I had a pretty good experience with Gary. I sometimes wished the example problems would be worked a little more slowly and in-depth. The projects are not fun, but that's an issue with the CS department, not Gary. The exams felt fair overall.

Gary's awesome. The randomly chosen group members for the projects are horrible though. Some people that take this class are not cut out for CS.

Gary is probably the best professor I had in the CS200, 300, 400 intro series. He is well knowledgable in his field and has well organized lectures. However, the group projects are stressful if you don't have a good/responsive group and you really can't do anything about it.

Dahl is ultimately a solid professor. His lectures are a bit hard to follow because they aren't guided notes. He gives you an outline and bounces all over the place in teaching it. However, he does truly care about his students and if you put in the extra effort to pay attention, his lectures are valuable.

Among the CS professors, Prof. Dahl is definitely one of the better ones. Exams are ~a third of the total grade and the workload matched the credits. However, hmk/exam instructions are nonsensically organized and contain spelling/grammar errors. TAs and Prof. Dahl are also pretty unhelpful at clarifying these organizational misunderstandings.

The class itself is crazily horrible. Tons of info but you'll think most them are poorly structured so you will feel lost easily. But the professor is nice. Since everybody feels this way, tbh I hope the department can redesign the class.

Enjoyed this class a lot more than CS300, as the projects are much more streamlined and not filled with as many redundant requirements. Gary does have a particular style of lecturing that some don't like, but I found it very informative as long as you stayed engaged with the examples. Group projects can be hit or miss.

Gary is a good lecture, which sadly is outshone by the classes poor organization. After weekly projects release they are often buggy and clearly not setup in enough advance to have been tested. I do homework early in the week and sometimes had to fix bugs in instructor code. Though this isn't really Gary's fault.

I really enjoyed his teaching style. He would always suggest that we take notes about how he does certain things to try to replicate it at home instead of trying to repeat after him right there and then. I also liked that he emphasized things that people found difficult or confusing in the past. The class is hard but see you on the other side!

The structure/logistics of 354 felt very outdated, which isn't entirely on Gary since it was his first semester teaching it. Hopefully, as time goes on, it'll be more like 400, which I also took with Gary and found much more organized. I liked his lectures, but his style definitely isn't for everyone. Final was easier than midterms by a good bit.