3.1
Quality2.9
Difficulty47%
Would Retake105
Reviews47%
Would Retake
105
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
23
4
23
3
24
2
15
1
20
What Students Say
“To those of you who have to take it, good luck”
CS121 - 1.0 rating“I'm told that this isn't a python course, but i don't know what else it could be”
CS220 - 2.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
43%
Textbook Required
0%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Improving
+0.58 avg changeRatings by Course
73800
5.0
(1)COMPSCI220
5.0
(1)INFO248
4.5
(10)CS160
4.2
(5)CMPSCI320
3.5
(2)Difficulty by Course
CS187
3.5
CMPSCI121
3.3
CS220
3.2
CS121
3.1
73800
3.0
Reviews (105)
The guy really wants to see you succeed. Not the easiest class but having a teacher that is on your side makes all the difference.
Anderson was a decent professor that clearly cares about his students succeeding. Its clear he doesn't have too much experience dealing with a class of over 500 students, but he did fine. Lectures were often boring and are overall unnecessary in regards to passing the class. Class is tailored towards non-cs majors. Professor is super approachable.
Lectures are not necessary for this course. You can do fine just following the online book. If you do go to class, he's a really good professor and definitely knows his stuff. He's fairly energetic and will answer any questions you have.
super nice professor, posts all lectures online along with class notes and code. Very approachable and very understanding. class is made for those brand new to cs and non cs majors.
Gordon's the man! He loves to talk about donuts, too. Lectures are optional, but helpful. He keeps things interesting, and knows his stuff. Definitely makes the material fun.
Don't think this class is geared to much to people who don't have any computer science background, have to stay on top of all the work in order to understand the class. he's a nice guy but I don't believe he realizes that from the get-go expects students to understand coding principles
Lectures are optional. The man is hilarious. He isn't a great teacher as he doesn't take into consideration that alot of students taking this class are new to programming.
A suburban dad teaching you about computers. It's a dream come true.
Class optional, attended a few(3-5) classes the entire semester
contrary to other comments on here, I only took this class for the IT minor and didn't know much about java... he doesn't know how to teach to under experienced kids. tests were really hard and there's no room for error if you want an A. 1 missed hw assignment and you've screwed yourself. think hard before taking this class
He is an amazing professor, good at explaining the basic concepts of CS even for non-CS majors. There is homework every week and if you are a rookie you will need to read the book(online). It is not an easy class, you need to do the work on the projects in order to pass. If you put in work you will be able to get an A+.
IT MINORS -- DO NOT TAKE!!!! take any other class to satisfy your technical requirement, this is NOT meant for people who have never done java. one of the hardest classes at umass hands down for those w no experience - no chance for extra credit, no scaling, it is all up to your comprehension of the material. if you fall behind, good luck
Gordon is really nice and hilarious. I thought the class was extremely easy although I had no previous java experience. It's really not necessary to go to lectures as you can learn everything you need from the book and online homework, but if you do go to lectures Gordon isn't a particularly good teacher
Professor Anderson is a very nice and funny guy. However, I had trouble with his class because he was confusing to understand at times. He does know a lot about programming, but he expects his students to know what he was talking about.
CS121 is pretty easy if you have programmed before, but it will likely be difficult for you if it is your first introduction to the subject. The online textbook isn't concise or great, Stack Overflow is your friend. The lectures are often slow since no one speaks although you are able to take the class completely online if you wish.
If you have programmed before this class will be a joke for you. The textbook is awfully verbose and a pain to interact with but the projects are easy and StackOverflow is there for your questions. If you haven't programmed before, get ready to work. His class is designed for people with programming experience. Tip, put notes in OWL for exams.
Anderson is a great guy and his teaching style is great. CS 121 is an extremely easy class even for someone who has no previous programming experience and Anderson does a good job keeping class engaging. Attendance is not mandatory, but if you do attend you get nuggets of knowledge from someone who knows a lot about CS. Highly recommend!
I found the lectures boring, annoying, and unhelpful. The book is not very good either. We go through so many concepts in such shallow detail that I did not truly learn anything at all. The class did NOT prepare me for CS187. My advice would be to either self-study or take an intro at another school, then jump into CS187.
I took this class to fulfill a requirement for an IT minor and it was definitely rough. There is no scaling which is sad, the final was horrible and brought my A down to a B (86). The class itself was fine up until the final. If you don't have any experience with computer science you should probably take another class.
CS121 is not a bad course in overall. It's not too difficult, and the exercises in the textbook are very helpful. But I think Professor Anderson should stop teaching this course. His lectures are totally useless - seems like he goes over something else during the class, barely goes over slides, and very hard to understand.
Went to few lectures (4-5) during this course. Based on the few times I have been to class, he is an engaging professor despite the lack of enthusiasm in most of the students. He provides very good information, and the course is learn-able entirely through the textbook. My main complaint would be that the course is too test heavy.
Just understand try and do all the homework and pass the exams. He gave us extensions on all projects and homework.
Gordon is not the best lecturer. His lectures cover the topics on OWL well though, but I basically learned everything by myself. Projects and exams are important and are graded harshly. Be very very careful and don't make stupid mistakes.
I never went to class (except like 3 times) because everything you need to know for this class is on owl. The projects are kind of tedious and the exercises are easy. The exams are fair.
Absolute meme material. Class A chap.
Class is basically self taught through the owls. After a week of lectures it is clear they are not helpful at all. The class is alright if you do all the homework and making sure you understand how code works. Exams are open book so you don't have to memorize all the formatting.
For anyone that has any previous Java experience, you don't need to show up to lectures. For anyone who has not, I definitely recommend going. Anyone can pass this class, you do not need any previous Java experience. Gordon was a great lecturer, and explained things very clearly. He extended multiple projects and assignments past their due dates.
CS121 is a joke if you have any prior coding experience. They make it very easy for you not to attend the class, and I only went the first 2 weeks. The textbook is very comprehensive and you can get an A easily if you do the homework and projects by yourself. He extends deadlines like there's no tomorrow and is memed a lot for it (what the hey?).
He records all his lectures and anyone with coding experience doesn't need to go or feel challenged. However, whenever I went, I loved his lectures, putting Pikachus in his slides, giving candy to people who raised their hands, and generally being funny. He extends deadlines often and students even made a meme of him.
I'm told that this isn't a python course, but i don't know what else it could be. There is no course outline, no direction, and most assignments i have to just figure out on my own via google. Anderson posts all assignments and quizzes late, and has many ambiguities throughout all of these assignments causing confusion among students.
Gordon is a terrible professor. His lectures are long, drawn out and extremely boring. He speaks in a slow monotone voice and makes strange jokes that aren't funny at all--they're just weird. His grading criteria hasn't been clear, his project instructions are frustratingly badly-written, and discussion's aren't really useful either. Avoid Gordon!
Monotone voice. Endless useless analogies. Spends a lot of time talking about grammar while putting none in the project instructions.
Professor Anderson is very chill and nice, but he is not good at teaching CS220. Lecture material barely shows up on quiz or projects - instructions were even confusing too - and he often goes off-topic in the lecture. I would recommend Gordon if you want a easy-grader, but I wouldn't if you are almost new in programming and wanna learn something.
This is not a good professor. Unclear grading material and doesn't answer emails. Don't take this class.
Pretty bad. Bad grader. Poor professor. Not involved in the class
If you don't have previous knowledge of comp sci this is gonna be really tough. It took me about a whole semester to figure out the bigger picture of java.
Gordon is awesome. Challenging assignments and attendance wasn't mandatory. What more can you ask for?
Gordon Anderson is one of UMass's most dry and uninteresting professors. He failed repeatedly to inspire any sense of interest in Data Science, and on top of that he was late to almost every lecture. The participation portion of this class is easily the hardest as it is so painstaking just to show up.
if you have no coding experience (I didn't) this is a really difficult class (even though it's suppose to be intro)! He spends more of lecture trying to make jokes rather than teaching, and is not great at explaining concepts. The grade is also heavily weighted towards tests.
They say you can do well in this without programming experience they are lying. CS 121 is designed so that you cannot do well if you are not a star programmer in order to keep their CS program prestigious. On top of that Gordon's lectures are useless (but he makes you go anyway). To those of you who have to take it, good luck. Otherwise avoid!!!
It shouldn't be a hard class if you have any programming experience at all. However, the Friday labs are horrendously set up, with very little time for the entire group to actually understand what's going on. The class was decent and straightforward, but the labs were disorganized and badly paced.
If you have no programming experience at all DO NOT TAKE THIS COURSE. The workload is outrageous due to the fact that the 1 lecture a week does not help you with anything. The projects are borderline impossible if you do not seek help from compsci majors. Most disorganized class I have ever taken in my 3 years at umass.. coming from an engineer.
Gordon is a funny guy but a terrible teacher. We never finished the lesson for the week in class, and the lab sections do little to help. If you are good at learning on your own with an online book, you'll be fine. If you need a useful professor and guidance, this class is not for you.
121 is NOT an intro class, despite the name. I had no programming experience and feel I have learned little to nothing from gordon and neena. the only way to pass is to make friends in the cs major that know what they're doing and have them help you. most of the one day a week lecture is spent goofing off and not learning material
Pros: Gordon is a great person, funny, and nice. Cons: SWE was probably the most useless class I've taken, including gen-eds. It was hella easy though. Your call -- I would not recommend it.
Gordon has a very arbitrary grading style, vague goals per assignment, and is a very dry teacher
It's a large lecture and make sure you sit in front and shut down your phone/laptop and don't let your friends press iclicker for you. and you'll find the lecture helpful. Exams are only 40 percent! Make sure you start the project early if you have no prior experience (and don't copy codes from others// it's happening) Go to office hour.
Sensei Gordon is a great human being and is generally beloved in the 187 class. His lectures are boring but he is very accesible in and out of class and he tries to be as helpful as possible.
Gordon tries really hard to be engaging but most of his jokes fall flat. Lecture pacing is really poor - I think we've at most covered half the planned material in any class this semester. If you go to his office hours, though, he's really helpful, and will sit with you for as long as it takes to help you understand something.
Probably one of the hardest classes in the major, data structures is not an easy subject to learn, and gordon does not help one bit. He spends more time making jokes than actually teaching the subject. Pay attention in lab and on projects, and go to the Excel sessions and you will do fine
CS187 is the hardest class I have taken while in college, and Gordon does not help at all. He focuses on being funny rather than teaching the course material. I can safely say that the TAs were much more helpful than Gordon. Would not recommend for CS187 unless you enjoy teaching yourself the entire course.
Gordon never finishes the lecture slides. He doesn't explain the material well, and I find class to be very boring. On the other hand, the online book was very helpful. I don't recommend taking this class if you don't want to teach yourself, which is what I did the entire semester (I had no prior experience).
Gordon is a horrible professor; he gives misleading information throughout the course, is insufficient during the lecture and in his office hours and makes the course harder than it is. For students with little to no programming experience, do not take his class unless you are willing to go bald and still end up with an unsatisfactory grade.
Ok. This guy is a god. Has clear dad energy. Tries to make a lot of jokes that are mediocre, but mad respect for this dude who is trying his best. Definitely a kind and wonderful soul, but lectures can get boring. Gotta grind for that A, but it's possible. Wouldn't recommend for those who have never programmed before. Also: do the homework.
He's the better of the two choices for CS121, but he's not the best. He cracks lame jokes and then apologizes, doesn't really understand questions when he's asked by students.
He seemed to care about helping students, but lectures were so boring I couldn't pay attention. He kept making jokes that were distracting and frankly unfunny. I learned everything from the textbook, though this course is going to be hard if you don't have coding experience. Not the worst professor but he really didn't do much.
He really isn't the best, but it may not be his fault. CompSci shouldn't be taught in a lecture going slide by slide, it should be taught IN JAVA where students can see IN CONTEXT what is going on inside the code, and how to write it themselves. ALEX LEE on YouTube was my saving grace, highly recommend watching his videos, especially for beginners!
I received a 76% in this class. But you see, I received an F. Why? Because you automatically fail the class if your test average is below a 50%. Other than that computer science is not something that can be taught in a lecture, not to mention Gordon cannot teach whatsoever. The projects are impossible BUT it doesn't matter cause I failed anyway :)
This professor was not very helpful especially when classes were put online. I tried attending his office hours for help with a project and help didn't help me what so ever. He only got frustrated. You must get 50% or higher average on exams to pass the class. The class seems so so easy at the beginning and then it goes down hill real fast.
The class is going to be boring in a lecture format either way, so I can't blame him for having a boring lecture. Exams were done on Moodle during lab and it was hard to type and visualize code into a word document. It's ridiculous to grade iClicker inputs on correctness when the point of lecture is to learn. Projects were hard but possible.
I had a great time in Professor Gordon's 121 class. Professor Gordon made the transition to online learning run super smoothly. I am currently taking Professor Gordon for CS 187 which is asynchronous, and the lectures are very engaging. He really puts the time into making slides and lectures and explains concepts in detail. Boosted my CS confidence
Prof will not respond to emails, all communication must be through piazza. Projects are graded 100% by gradescope, so you could get a project 90% right but have one bug throwing the whole thing off and get a zero. Poor class organization -- textbook Qs were due after labs on the same topic, for example. Prof was also really uncompassionate.
Professor Gordon knows his stuff but he would often reply to piazza posts 1-2 days after and would often be vague with his response. As a result, I mostly relied on the TAs for help with this course and used the textbook to learn everything. The work in this class is hard but if you set enough time for it, it's possible to do well in this class.
The most unorganized class ever, worse TA's. Exams were v unfairly graded. The solutions for midterm reviews are wrong, TAs are not even a bit helpful, Labs and projects were interesting but v unfair and super late grading for labs. V poor faculty for an imp course. 187 is a v interesting class but the faculty has managed to make it miserable.
Gordon was a nice professor. However, his lectures weren't always very helpful, and we relied on Zybooks to learn the material proper. In Fall 2020, when I took it, the projects were okay for the most part (except for BigDataSorter). Exams were difficult, but not impossible. Not a bad choice for this course online, but your mileage may vary.
Both lectures and labs were optional. Don't show up to lab unless you have questions, and lectures were pretty useless too to be honest. Learned everything from the textbook. Weekly projects were generally very easy and are autograded. Tests so far have been very easy but also very easy to not do well since there is no partial credit at all
Gordon isn't terrible at teaching but to be honest he's quite boring. Personally I just used zybooks to carry me in the course because I didn't feel Gordon was that competent at teaching the material.
Gordon isn’t the worst at teaching, but his 187 class is really poorly managed.
His teaching could be better, but the reason I'm giving him a 3 instead of a 1 is Gordon at least seems to care about students.
Very useless/unhelpful lectures and labs, you basically need to teach yourself everything and there is barely any partial credit. 0/10, do not take his class.
Extremely difficult grader and barely helps out students. Lectures/labs are useless and everything is basically self taught. 0/10 do not take this class.
I'm sure Gordon is a nice dude, but he's being super lazy when it comes to designing exams and programming projects.
Better than the other section
Gordon and Neena are caring people but terrible professors who cannot teach students or manage difficult classes effectively.
Gordon isn't a good professor when it comes to professing. Although he is caring, it is tough to go through his class. I took CS121 over the summer session and it was awful. The material I learned was thanks to YouTube and Zybooks. On Piazza, the professor gave only one worded answers, and couldn't properly explain the questions;
Epic professor. Very engaging, fun, teaches in a way that really bridges from what bad students like me are familiar with, to stuff you need to know for good performance in the class. Holistic class. Loved it
honestly not the worst professor that i've had, but CS is designed in a way that you basically do have to teach yourself. Anyone complaining about how they didn't learn anything is because they either haven't gotten that concept down yet, or are just too lazy themselves to go back and review the material that they need to. use lectures as a review.
Convert from base64 for review: aHR0cHM6Ly9wYXN0ZWJpbi5jb20vTGJkVjh0RUw=
Gordon Anderson is super kind and friendly to all his students. Unfortunately his lectures are quite tedious and boring, but not mandatory. Overall CS 187 is very doable if you get used to using the ZyBooks textbook to help you with all the projects.
Professor Anderson's lectures are rather boring but he is funny at least, and you don't need to go to the lectures if you don't want to. Overall, the class isn't very difficult because zyBooks conveys the information very well. Make sure to thoroughly check your lab answers though.
Down-to-earth guy, reasonable with flexible demands. You do not need to know R prior to this class. Learned a lot of great techniques, I feel I can confidently put R on a resume under Skills. Pay attention and the class will be a breeze.
I love Gordon and the way they've structured CS320. If you get a good team, then this class is gonna be a great experience. You need to learn most of the coding part on your own, and Gordon teaches things such as SCRUM, Agile, importance of diversity etc.
Gordon is a great guy. Class attendance is mandatory but it's worth going since he covers the code and the concepts needed to solve the in-class activity and the lab assignment. The class content is only more useful if you decide to go deeper in R language.
I enrolled in this class last semester but had to drop it and take it this semester instead. He changed the whole syllabus into a really effective one that is so helpful to students; he is very interactive and explains very well, and is so accessible outside classroom. He is a really amazing person and a great professor! Would definitely recommend!
It is official. He is the GOAT of the Informatics department. Spectacular Professor. Knows his stuff, very caring to students, and very willing to accomadate
Very accessible outside of class. Genuinely interested in helping students learn. I talked to him about LLMs early on in the course and he said he would talk about it later on, which he did! Bad things are: his voice is perfect ASMR material. His emails can be very blunt. Takes a while to discuss regrades on lab assignments.
I can't stand him. He is the most boring lecturer I've ever had. He fails to teach his students well. Everyone in his section (including me) did badly on the first midterm exam, yet he did not consider curving the grades, instead indirectly blaming us for not studying enough. His practice exam do not at all mirror his actual exams. DO NOT TAKE.
very easy class
if you're looking for an easy elective to take, TAKE THIS ONE! it's also a really useful class, and the assignments are very low-stress. attendance mandatory but only meets once a week, and you get a cheat sheet (double-sided) for the midterm and final. not a great lecturer, but the zybooks/hw helps to learn
Made typos or assignment errors without fail every week. I wish I was joking. However, the class itself is the easiest cs class I have taken and on top of this he gave 5 easy bonus points to the final grade. I ended the class with a 101 with minimal effort. Also gives double sided cheat sheet for the midterm and final.
The class is heavily weighted towards the homework and the labs. This is fine, as the homework and labs are usually very straightforward, and you can get mostly great scores on them overall. Apart form that, there are weekly textbook chapters due every week, and the tests are weighted a ton. Easy A, you'll learn a lot of SQL.
Hardly went to class but I'm still on track to get an A. Lectures are online, and zybooks is mandatory. Labs are quick and easy. No final, instead there are 4 quizzes given and that is it. He's a pretty good lecturer and cares about students.
he is funny and nice. attendance is not mandatory. he seems like a good person
He is very funny so prepare to let out a big chuckle. You can tell he is a good person with genuine intentions.
Get ready for a snooze fest. I found it nearly impossible to pay attention to this man because of how slow he lectures. The class was easy enough... but not taught well for someone with 0 coding experience prior to CICS110.
He's a good person and the class is fair. Nothing is too difficult really. Lectures get a little bring sometimes but that's it. When you get to Big O notation, learn that inside and out because that is 50% of the class.
Great professor. Class is very easy. He takes attendance but I def skipped multiple times with no problems. If you finish your work early you can just leave class. Coursework very easy to follow along. He used ZyBooks and lectures (can be a bit dry and he talks slow). He's very easy to talk to and overall nice guy. TA's were useless though.
My rating would be between a 4 & a 5. He is very kind & a great professor, but he teaches very very slowly. The way that he teaches the course makes it almost too easy. However, he provides great class resources & takes lots of interest in everyone's projects. Really nice guy.
Can be a bit slow, and towards the semester you'll notice a huge drop in attendance as people start to see the lectures as increasingly unhelpful and repetitive. But for a class this important, there is no other professor you'd want leading you. Gordon is kind and fair and an extremely down-to-earth educator.
Gordon Anderson is a really nice guy, but he speaks very slowly, making it hard to sit through lectures and follow along. The workload includes practice code due every Thursday, a lab file every Friday, and a big final group project, for which he was very supportive. Open book exams make things manageable overall. Very down to earth and helpful
Great professor - very accessible and genuinely cares about student learning. The class can be a breeze if you engage with the material, use resources like unstuckstudy, and apply yourself. Highly recommend taking this course.
Gordon and Neena aren't terrible choices for a professor but your mileage may vary.
Weekly quizzes and hard exams. He is such a boring professor but the material itself is not too bad.
Gordon is a great professor. But oh my god, I really wish this wasn't an "informatics" course. It's filled with info kids (CS rejects) who feel the need to be combative with him every day about their missing assignments and low grades (THEIR fault). They make finance majors look like geniuses. Off topic, but we need to abolish informatics here.
Had Prof Anderson for 248 and 345. Great lecturer who explains things very clearly, plus course material is super organized and he posts detailed slides.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
43%
Textbook Required
0%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Improving
+0.58 avg changeRatings by Course
73800
5.0
(1)COMPSCI220
5.0
(1)INFO248
4.5
(10)CS160
4.2
(5)CMPSCI320
3.5
(2)Difficulty by Course
CS187
3.5
CMPSCI121
3.3
CS220
3.2
CS121
3.1
73800
3.0