I am sorry that his class is required. Sorry guys.

Greg is a horrible professor. The class consists of an 8 year old powerpoint that we are required to review and do our own research and tell him what is out of date. Any question that is asked in class is answered with " I don't know, why don't you do some research and get back to me."

Super unclear grading criteria. He changes a lot of the assignments and their weight to your grade in the class. He gave us homework assignments on Excel that none of us had background on, unless you happened to be fluent in excel prior to the class. Hes a great person but I would not recommend him for MIS 200.

Greg assigned a semester long group project that added absolutely no value to my life in any way. He reads straight from the PowerPoint and offers no more educational Information; if you ask about this hell tell you to go read the text book. He constantly changes the syllabus and doesnt even explain the way his grading system works.

Did not teach anything in this class and I could not tell you a single thing we "learned." His grading scale is very unfair and he does not scale.

The worst class I have taken at UA so far. The most unclear and unfair grading system. You will learn absolutely nothing in this class. but if you use socratic and quizlet you will get 100s on homework and quizzes. The group project grading is the worst. Greg is a terrible communicator. TAKE ANOTHER PROFESSOR

Dont take this guy he literally doesnt teach crap. He gives you tests that he doesnt even know whats on them then will give you assignments that he hasnt even looked at. Would definitely not recommend

This guy is an actual joke. He bragged that he taught so well last year when it was all online for COVID. After the first test this year the average in the class was a 67%. What you do in class does not correlate to what you will be tested on at all. He doesn't even know what is on his own tests and does not know how to teach. Don't take whatsoever

Worst professor I have ever had. Test has absolutely no correlation to what he "teaches". I once emailed him very respectfully asking for HIS HELP submitting a completed assignment so that it would be in on time, and he replied "assignment is not complete until turned in" without answering my question. I am convinced he actually wants you to fail.

Doesnt offer any help to students when asks, doesnt read emails before he answers, tests are unclear, doesnt teach and only rambles. DO NOT TAKE.

Do not take this professor if you want to take MIS 200 for an easy A. He refuses to let you takes notes. The class avg for our first test was a 60 something, and he scaled one class by 12 points and our class by 4. All around he tries to make MIS hard and puts the blame on his students even though it is on him.

I took him online and he was nice up until the end of add/drop. Then he added multiple more assignments to be completed per week. Is not accessible to communicate. If you have trouble with your assignments over the weekend you can forget getting any sort of response from him. Tests are nothing like the review material that me makes you do.

Does not teach, must teach yourself all info via the text book Constantly changing the syllabus&assignments worth Will not work with you on late/misgraded assignments or attendance Will blame students for issues not himself Majority of class failed 1st 2exams Does not care if you pass "it is very rare to get an A in my class" -Greg first day

I would strongly advise against taking MIS 200 with Greg. He expects you to know how to do all of the in class assignments and if you don't understand how, he suggests to "watch a youtube tutorial on it" instead of teaching it. Tests are also very unfair and he finds the most specific and hard to reach questions.

Very disorganized with constant changes. Prepare to spend hours searching for, or trying to decipher, what you are being asked to do, only to find out the assignment is missing or the instructions were wrong. Grading is confusing. Exams seem overly complex, confusing and not reflective of key takeaways from the material.

He changed the way we do everything halfway through the class. He gave some classes curves and others none. Greg makes me cry at least once a week.

He does a poor job at communicating expectations clearly. The course itself isnt difficult. However, Professor Cottrell continuously proved to make this course confusing and frustrating. Take another professor.

This class was a thorn in my side. What is supposed to be a lower level class took away from my higher level courses. He is incredibly disorganized and kept changing dates and time and the curriculum assigned did not pertain to what was on the exam. If his goal was to make this class undesirable he met it. Find someone else if you value sanity.

This guy sucks. His lectures do not correlate to the tests or the assignments that are given in the textbook. His discussion response assignments are also from 3 years ago. Like isn't this supposed to be a class related to technology? Maybe the tests would actually be easy if he TAUGHT the material. If you miss bc of COVID too bad ur getting a 0

He's a really nice guy, but a pretty bad professor. Does not test on the material he says he is going to test on. Gives unhelpful study guides and advice.

absolute worst professor at the university, dont even bother studying for the tests because you will fail them anyway. none of the information comes from his lectures and to be honest, I don't know where he gets the test questions from.

Greg is very disorganized and his exams dont follow the study guide be will give you 3 questions from the study guide and the rest will be random questions from an extra assignment he didnt teach but gave as homework once at the beginning of the semester that you completely forget about he makes it most of the exam take any other teacher

Absolutely horrible and very mean. Should not be a teacher.

He was unresponsive during an online test that he did not open correctly. He leaves out important parts of test material and his study guides are useless.

Tests ask way more than textbook material and you can study for hours just to get a C. Avoid at all costs.

Greg is hands down on of the worst professors at Bama. AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!! He does not know how to teach, just reads off of his slides. The first exam majority of the class failed (over 200 students) and still did not think he was the problem. Gives really confusing assignments that he never teaches and you have to figure out how to do yourself.

I attended every class and did every assignment on time, along with seeking help outside of class. I studied for hours for the exams just to make 75-80s on all of them (half the material for the third exam was based on a single in class activity we talked through once weeks before the exam.) All of this to make a B and ruin my 4.0 Avoid Greg.

this class had SO much random homework and assignments it was so easy to miss something. his lectures had nothing to do with the tests and it was painful to sit through them. he was also very hard to reach outside of of class and almost never answered my question when he would respond, it would be some vague answer that didnt make sense.

Greg, it’s a intro level 200 class. The test are passable but ridiculously hard for a intro class. I would be surprised if students took his class and still wanted to be MIS majors. I don’t understand the point of making students hate the material you’re teaching.

This guy is the definition of a loser. He does not care about your grade whatsoever. Office hours are a joke, he does not help you one bit.

I have been a straight-A student throughout my high school and college experience and never once have I bombed a test as I have in his class. I studied a collective 30 hours leading up to the first exam using the slides, notes, and practice exam provided by Cottrell. Unannounced to me, none of what we were given to study was actually on our exam.

This professor is RUDE! he does not help his students and does not care about you unless you are a MIS major. His tests are not even on the material in the textbook or study guide he provides. I would drop before the deadline and take a different professor.

I am currently a MIS major and his class alone is making me want to change my Major, I haven't even gotten into the upper-level classes. Tests are nothing like notes, lectures, textbooks, slides, study guides, quizzes, or self-assessments. He brings in speakers for over half of the classes or talks about stuff that doesn't relate to our subject.

Avoid taking Cottrell at all costs. Worst professor at the University of Alabama by far. If you want to hate MIS and your life, then take him.

Don't take this professor

Lectures had little reference to the exam and quiz material, you would be better served by just studying the book, but he does mandatory attendance so you can't skip his class. He had a dumb question about the motto on his exam, which would have been fine if it was just the first exam, but it happened CONSECUTIVELY. Study guide given 2 days before.

Does not allow ant late credit and or late submissions

Greg Cottrell is easily one of the worst professors I've ever had at UA. His lectures are filled with nonsense and none of the information given in the modules actually pertains to the course content. He just rambles on about students not doing well on exams and rather than helping understand why he just throws the blame back on the students.

The biggest thing is the test are nothing like the notes, lectures, textbooks, slides, study guides, quizzes, or self-assessments. He spends half of the class everyday talking about how no one shows up and how everyone is failing. There is a textbook but there is so much material given for just a 50 question exam so you don't know what to study.

Stay away at all costs. This will tank your GPA. There are easier ways to get through lower division business without taking Cottrell. Genuinely makes my brain throb in pain with the poor communication and impossible to study for exams.

Cottrell is the worst professor I've had on this campus. No competition. He does not prepare you for tests, leaves you hanging on the excel assignments, and is NO help when you reach out to him. DO NOT TAKE. I wish I would've heeded the advice of everyone on here!

Greg is simply the worst teacher I have ever had. He never teaches in class and just reads off a slide. Exams are nothing like what you are taught or the material given. Then when you get to the exam, nothing you have gone over is even on the test. The excel assignments are brutal and you won't pass any of those assignments. Worst professor at UA

DO NOT TAKE HIM IF YOU DO NOT HAVE TO! He barely lectures about what will be on the exams. He instead talks about how people should change their major to MIS or goes on and on about fantasy football. The first two exams were a joke. Pretty sure he was trying to be funny and put questions on the exam that have nothing to do with the class material.

His lectures were boring and wasn't helpful. He spent the first 10-15 minutes of class talking about life or the weather. He gave a study guide for each test but it wasn't that helpful. It was basically a broad list of terms. He gave out extra credit towards the end of the year only because the test score averages for the first 2 tests were so low.

Do not take this professor. I repeat, do not take him. This guy is absolutely the worst professor at The University of Alabama. Tests are almost impossible to get above a C on, as he does not prepare you for tests in any way. Just all around a horrible teacher. If you are thinking about taking his class, think again. You can thank me later.

Greg is genuinely my least favorite person on this earth. Tests are impossible, mandatory attendance, he picks people out in the middle of class, and doesn't teach you anything you will need to know on the tests during the lectures.

DO NOT TAKE COTRELL!!! You may think the class is easy in the beginning but he makes it way harder than it should be. He gives study guide quizzes before each test, but does not release what you got wrong until after you take the real test. Plus, the test is nothing like the study guide. He gives excel homework without teaching us how to do it.

Professor Cottrell gives extra credit, and generally wants to see his students succeed. That said, his class ALWAYS felt like a waste of time. He would talk most of the class about things that are completely unrelated. I wouldn't care that much if his tests were easy, but they were hard. Worst professor overall that I've ever taken.

Greg is awful. He is extremely rude to students if you're not an MIS major. The class is all over the place and he makes simple concepts extremely complicated. You can't contact him by email, only Teams. Each lecture is spent talking about how assignments are graded, then he lectures for 15 minutes. stay away at all costs!!!!

Worst professor I have ever had. This man does not know what he is doing. All he ever talks about is why you should be an MIS major rather than actually teaching what you need to know. Tests are nothing he talks about and he gives excel homework that he never shows you how to do. He also has no personality and does not care about his students.

Exams cover way too much information that is impossible to go over. Thinks MIS is our only class??? So ridiculous. He seems like a nice guy but he needs to get off his high horse and realize he is an awful professor.

Tests are way too heavy on material. We took our first test on Scantron and it took him 25 minutes to get everything passed out. By the time I started the test, I only had 25 minutes to take a 50 question, difficult test. He's also extremely passive aggressive.

Just awful. Awful

Do not take this professor if you rely on lectures to learn information. You will have to learn a lot of the material on your own, an attend help sessions.

I cannot stress how much I would never recommend taking this professor. If this is on your schedule, I genuinely advise you to drop MIS and retake with a different professor another semester. You can spend hours studying for the test, and it will still include material you will never have seen. The questions are bizarre.

He is extremely rude to students in class and gives out lots of homework that gets much harder at the end of the semester. Gives extra credit but posts grades rarely and is overall not someone I would not recommend.

I missed a week of school due to a crisis in February. When we finally met after he canceled 3 times, he just criticized me and asked multiple times what I had experienced that prevented me from attending class despite me telling him I don't feel comfortable sharing. He took an hour to say that he doesn't feel comfortable giving credit then. 0/10.

Professor Cottrell made his class more difficult than all the other MIS professors. He is really nice and accessible out of class, but in class he has unclear criteria and you never know what's gonna be on the tests.

I have always been an all A student, but this was the hardest class I have ever taken. He does not go over ANYTHING that will be on the tests and rambles about nothing that is relevant to what we are learning. The tests are impossible. I would study for hours and would make Ds and Cs because none of the material correlated.Excels are impossible too

Evil. Took him online, all assignments due at 7:00 on Friday except exams which opened on Friday and were due at 7:00 Sunday. Would not round up my 93.9 to a 94. Consider someone else. His TA did almost everything as well.

Took a class for my MBA program. At the start of the semester he said he was considering a data analytics certification like Tableau or maybe SQL, I assume. Instead, we did a useless group project that taught me nothing. Now I'm having trouble finding work, as a certification would have been extremely useful in making me more marketable.

He is honestly very nice,I interacted with him multiple times throughout the semester but isnt a good professor. We are halfway through the sem. and approaching our 1st exam and he has not taught us one thing. He goes off on long tangents for the entire class and never relates back to the topic. Grade is 60% of tests but going to class is pointless

I think Greg Cottrell is an awful professor and doesn't care for his students. He doesn't have any of his material on the tests and expects you to know all of the information and make good grades. he will not take the blame for the whole class doing bad, just say that you aren't studying enough.

There are four tests. Greg checked out years ago. He told us today in class that he is overworked. He uses our lecture hour as a break. He gives the whole student body the metaphorical middle finger everyday when he goes over current events and says it is on the test. He lied. He doesn't teach. Drop the class, find a professor that has the time.

Class: useless. Prepare to teach yourself, read every bit of your textbook, and give up on class unless you want to learn about the Saints and tennis technology. Tests: Cottrell made a 90 when taking his own first exam. In all of his sections, the highest grade was a 78. This req. class is going to ruin my average. Unbelievable. Pls replace him.

This dude blows

Just dont do it im sorry Mr. Cottrell is a nice guy and is very respectable, but is not good at translating information about MIS.

My opinion is that Greg Cottrell is objectively unfit to continue as a lecturer at UA. Based on my experience in Greg's MIS 200 course, I believe there are grounds for a formal grievance per the UA Faculty Handbook in relation to: test content, instructor's demeanor, comparative course workload, remedial measures. FYI, I am a 4.0 student at UA.

Greg really needs to teach a class in patronizing people, it is what he's good at. His tests are based on lectures and random tiny little details from textbook. Everyone failed his first test in my class so he had to give extra credit (even though he "doesn't believe in it"). Just do not take him.

His hectures had little to do with what was on the test and the test questions were often unfair. This was the only class i've ever taken in my life where I could study for hours and not do well on his tests. He also would not respond to help if you asked for it. He would just say look at the syllabus, and when I did it never helped.

Literally so bad. Had him 2 years ago for 200 and still easily the worst professor I've ever had. Extremely patronizing and hard to talk to. Don't take his class

Can't say enough bad things about this guy. Spends the whole class talking about 9/11, then tests on material he has never spoken of. Started doing attendance quizzes in NOVEMBER after people realized attendance was otherwise pointless. Actively tells you to NOT contact him if you need help. Material's not difficult, he is just a terrible teacher.

This man literally gave in class quizzes took them him self and literally failed his own quiz. He's a terrible teacher talks about nonsense and there's nothing that is on the test that he talked about . Literally has given tests nobody knew a thing about.

He quite literally has no idea whats going on at all. Barely knows how to use excel himself and does not understand how to teach.

Do not take him, gave us an online quiz on Exprep and proceeded to get a 50 because someone else wrote his quizzes and didn't look over them before giving them to us. Doesn't know how to use the program that he is responsible for teaching. He was very condescending and did not receive criticism well when students suggested a solution to a problem.

Absolutely terrible, very condescending and super vague when you ask for help. Lots of homework that doesn't pertain to the lectures. The TA's don't know what they're doing either so you better have a friend who's taken MIS before if you want to pass. Gives out pop quizzes that he can't even pass himself.

Guy is terrible

get ready to fail

Doesn't help if you ask questions after class, and he will tell you to meet him during his office hours. Makes assignments that don't make sense and will tell the class that nothing is perfect. Mades a 50 on his own quiz. Honorary Yapper. Tests contain material that isn't gone over in class.

I had the unfortunate of taking a course with this guy, and it has left me with a sense of frustration.The challenges was the scattered nature of his work, making it incredibly difficult for students to locate essential materials. This guy seemed to blame students for confusion rather than addressing the fundamental issues with the course structure

I am begging you not to take this guy. Legit horrible

Greg Cottrell often convinces me through his lectures that he has no idea what he is talking about. I have never known a professor to deviate from the lesson so often while reading directly from the slides. The best way to study for MIS 200 with him is to do the modules on the textbook, because I promise he won't teach you effectively.

I had Cottrell during the Fall of 2022 semester. This class was a nightmare, the first exam was like a sledgehammer in the fact that 95% of the questions on the exam was on material not covered during lectures. If you didn't read the book, you were screwed. also the quiz/exam questions were ripped straight from the book problems.

Cant say enough bad things about this man. He gives lots of HW and does not show you how to do it in any way shape or form. Attendance isnt technically mandatory but he often gives lots of random in class quizzes that count for your grade. He doesnt teach actual material, just goes on random tangents and kicks u out of class if ur not listening

Do not take, please just trust me.

Avoid taking this d-head online as much as you can, or just avoid taking him at all. He doesn't provide any explanation on how to do the Excel assignments and gives terrible questions on them, and he gives the worst feedback you could use. This guy is making a summer class harder than it should be.

Gives too much homework that gets graded very funky, has no type of leniency or remorse towards extensions on any of the work / test he gives with strangely early deadlines. Would not recommend this man by all means.

He never teaches what the tests are on and wastes a lot of class time doing nothing

Professor Cottrel is just rude. Overall tests were very similar to reviews, but the in-class quizzes were random and you were given five minutes to complete them which was not enough time. Questions were over things we had not yet covered in class

DO NOT TAKE THIS PROFESSOR. Nothing he teaches in class is on the exams. There is a high chance you will fail this class. He doesn't know how to teach and he shouldn't be teaching.

Content is not bad just not a great teacher. Answers questions poorly and does not seem to care on how his students do in the class. Had a technology issue during an exam and said good luck, this class is all done on a computer and would be nice for a little help.

I can't say what I want to say about him on here, but DO NOT TAKE HIM. He is by far the worst professor and doesn't teach you a thing.

Do not take. Though this class is not very difficult, he is always rude to students. Also, don't even think about skipping class because he does class quizzes everyday. Also, if you are sitting in the back of class, he will come up and call you out and make you answer questions.

DO NOT TAKE HIM. I just took his final and genuinely half of the things on this exam were not covered in lectures nor on the study guide. His weekly assignments and extra credit can help boost your grade, but he is not helpful when reaching out for office hours/help.

Dont recommend. I missed a test due to a funeral(Excuse absence). I sent an email and was told he would count it as the drop test we are all given. Study guides are useless. weekly in-class quizzes, which aren't hard. Overall if you can get the other professors, I would recommend that as he uploads their recorded lectures to Blackboard.

I definitely don't recommend!! The class is not extremely hard but he is very rude and doesn't care about giving all the information. He also heavily relies on his T/A (probably more than he should) to do most of the assignments. His main contribution is reading off the PowerPoint slides. If you can, pick another professor.

Professor Cottrell was one of the most difficult instructors I've had. His lectures were disorganized and often hard to follow, making it difficult to understand the course material. He wasn't very approachable during office hours. The exams felt disconnected from what was taught in class, and grading seemed inconsistent. WORST PROFESSOR EVER!!

Terrible Professor.

Just an all around bad guy. Super rude and really bad lectures. Not really sure why he is a teacher at UA. They should fire him and hire one of his TAs to replace him

Just a bad guy

Do not take him

Very unorganized and rude. Talks down to you when you ask questions during his review and makes you feel bad about yourself for not know material that he didn't explain well. DO NOT TAKE AT ALL COST.

Do not take Greg. His lectures are very confusing and he will ramble about things that are not related to class. He does not do a good job about reminding us what is due during the week. There is a lot of homework but he does give you a good amount of time to complete it.

this guy is making us pay for everything to do class and homework and everything.I'm having to spend 400 dollars just to take this class. Dont TAKE

I would highly avoid taking this professor. He comes to his own classes unprepared and just rambles on about things instead of teaching the actual materials. Not only does he make you purchase texts books but makes you buy a subscription just so he can keep attendance for the class. If you can't find another teacher, wait till next semester

seriously Do not like Cottrell. I do not respect him at all. Do not take him so that he can get fired.

It was literally miserable going to his class. He rambles on about nonsense things pretty much the entire class and maybe spends 1/4 of the class actually teaching the material. Also, excel takes a large part in this class and he never ONCE opened excel in class to teach it to us. He expects us to learn this on our own through QuantHub.