Jim is a great professor that helped a non-CS major with no programming experience really understand the material. The programs can be tough at times, but you have the ability to work with a partner for 3/4 of them. Homework is all online and walks you through the entire course . Inspired me to take another CS class.

His lecture is so awesome and useful because he always talks about the exception in the code which we never think about before. Going to the lecture and doing the in-class questions will help you comprehend the content better and get higher grades in the exams.

I knew very little about computer science and programming before this class, but Prof Williams was a really great teacher and passionate about the subject. I'm definitely more interested in pursuing cs because of him and this course. It wasn't an easy class, but I recommend taking it.

Professor Williams is really respectful to everyone, if you have a question he will go out of his way and write code to walk through an example. He tries to get everyone to grasp the basics, then goes a little beyond the scope of the course to try to get a deeper understanding which I really liked. Probably the best professor I've had so far.

One of the best professors I have ever seen. Writing code can be boring, but Professor Jim Williams makes it interesting. He explains everything very clearly and tries his best to make sure that everyone understands everything. His lectures are relaxing but very useful. I start to like writing code after taking his class.

This was one of the first CS courses I've taken so I don't have a lot to compare Professor Williams to, but overall he did a good job with the class. The class was tough but he made lecture worth going to as his lectures were set-up in a pretty effective format. Definitely recommend him

One of my favorite professors. He really cares and wants you to understand the material. He is really approachable and I thought he explained the concepts really well. Great person, one of my favorite professors.

I love this Jim! He taught me how to think as a programmer: be logical, divide large program into doable parts, problem solving ability, etc. Didn't have any experience with programming before I take his course, but doing okay here. He responds to Qs on piazza really fast, helps u understand the problem instead of directly telling you the answer.

Professor Williams is the best professor I have had during my first semester! He is so inspirational and approachable. He is always there to help you out if you have any questions. Some people may find CS 200 difficult but I think it's just moderate work if you really put your mind and effort on it. And do reach out to faculty to get help!

You can tell Jim wants the best for his students. He's always willing to take the time to help students in office hours or even after class which made getting through the class a lot easier. CS200, however, is pretty brutal. The "big program" milestones take an absurd amount of time to complete and the tests are fairly difficult to prepare for.

Jim is a good professor. He provides effective and inspirational feedback on your projects. Tests are generally not tough but make sure you devote time to projects and always be willing to ask for help.

Focus on the tiny details/rules given in lectures and team labs and tests are doable. Big programs are a ton of work so don't procrastinate. Lectures are relatively dry but it's important to pay close attention

I have had some CS experience, but overall I felt Prof. Williams' lectures were great. He is engaging, good at explaining, and goes through many examples. He delves into intricacies which can be tricky at first, but ultimately pretty instructive. Homework was consistent, but reasonable. The 2 projects were fairly demanding, but good challenges.

CS 302 (the older version of 200/300) was definitely not easy. This isn't a coasting class by any means. However I went from knowing nothing about code to loving it, and Jim was a great professor. He is clear, passionate, and gives great examples. I feel like he genuinely cares about his students. 100% dad material.

Let me preface by saying this: CS200, what most angry people are here for, is a weeder class. It's meant to be difficult. Jim gets a really bad wrap. He's passionate and his lectures are the opposite of pointless: he goes in depth about all key points. Labs highlight all aspects of the language you need for the exams. Good professor overall.

He gets a bad rap but the reality is the intro CS courses are difficult. They are designed to weed out the kids who thought 200 would be like their high school CS course, which it's not. He offers a lot of resources and opportunities to do better, so take them if you fall behind. I was never confused in his lectures. Don't let people scare you.

I ended with a 95% in this class. To get an A, you truly have to put in effort from day one (only 13% of people in my lecture got an A). Go to every single lecture and pay attention, thoroughly complete every program, and learn from the lab material (the material in labs often shows up on the tests).

He is amazing

This class requires you to do a lot of outside work. I think that he is a fantastic teacher and explains things very well, but suffers from the fact that we only get 2.5 hours/week to meet. I will admit I wanted to pull my hair out when working on Sokoban, but can you expect anything else in the computer science field?

Take him

Have you seen a gem?If not, go and see Jim...

I really liked professor Williams and he has made me reconsider my major and maybe change to comp sci. He really knows what he is talking about, is very nice and always willing to help. While the class itself is kind of hard, if you don't mind coding you will have fun.

He's actually really helpful when it comes down to clearing any confusion and expectations for the course.

Jim is so nice. CS200 can be hard for people who don't know anything about programming but Jim's lectures- although a little boring but it's CS you know- always covered everything you were expected to know. He always took time to answer any and every question a student had and gave me a genuine interest in programming.

An enthusiastic and engaging lecturer. If you don't have prior programming experience you will have to keep on top of the material or else you will fall behind, as all topics are very closely linked (it's intro programming, duh). If you properly manage your time for this class, you won't be as salty as the people leaving angry reviews.

Jim is by far the best professor I have had here at UW Madison. We all had to register with TopHat which is an app used to submit answers to questions the professor goes over in class. TopHat was very useful in keeping me engaged with what was going on and testing my knowledge. I think my class had a B average which is pretty good.

Jim was a fantastic professor and was always ready to help you to understand the material. It's not his fault that the class material is hard (it is a weeder class), and you can see that he tries really hard. Give him a chance (but you will have to work as well).

He's funny, personal, and clearly knows how to teach along with being proficient in the area of study. He made this the easiest class that I always looked forward to.

Jim may be a bit boring, but the lectures are useful to hammer down concepts. ZyBooks and ZyLabs are where most learning takes place, so plan your own time accordingly. Jim was openly available to help in person or Piazza, and he gives a very thorough intro to Java. The tests are a bit tricky, but they help you understand the nuances for CS300.

This is a weeder class, so be prepared to work. There are many assignments and some labs are difficult. That being said, this was still my favorite class this semester. I am new to java and still managed to keep up with the material. Jim's lectures were asynchronous and very helpful. He also just seems like a nice dude.

He is a very nice person, he responded very fast on Piazza. The workload for CS200 is big for people who have never taken any cs related course even though it's an introductory course. I have no experience in coding, so I struggle a lot in the beginning, but if you go to office hours, TAs are very helpful and solve my problems very quickly!

Jim is a very nice guy. The class is very time consuming, but you get out what you put in. Some of these other reviews conflict with my own experience; if you put the effort in, youll acquire some basic coding skills. Exams are easy so long as you keep up with the material.

Super nice guy and many projects go into grading so you can bounce back from a bad score. I went from an F to a C!! Shout out to Jim ��������!!

I've never taking programming/cs before. While it was difficult / quite a learning curve, I felt like the structure and instruction in this course made it a lot easier and manageable. There's quite a lot of homework. Exams are fair and you get two attempts.

I had no coding experience, lectures probably could have been run differently as we basically just went over practice problems and not actual learning and throughout semester less people showed up. Helpful at answering questions, it was a lot of work for me with no experience so definitely budget a bit of time for the class, exams arent too hard

Jim is a good professor but his lectures are kind of drag and don't really help all that much. Most of the learning in this class is from the online textbook and group "labs" that you do every week. Jim is still very helpful and makes himself and all of the TA's readily available to help.

I like Jim's class very much, his lec will come in two forms! In-person and online classes. I took the in-person class and his class was not mandatory There will be an online test every three units that will use honor lock which is really simple, although I don't have any I can also get very good grades for this class based on the basics!

I had no coding experience and this class made me want to continue in CS. Jim is a nice guy but this class is designed for you to learn with Zybooks. Human-graded Zylabs are not that hard as long as you follow the style guide. I'd recommend taking this class with Jim, but be prepared to learn on your own. Also look into taking WES-CS 304.

Honestly surprised by the number of bad reviews. Jim is very kind to those just learning, but he does expect work to be put in. Course created to boost success. Don't fall behind. It is a self-teach class, but if you do all the activities, you will learn the material well. Reinforce ideas. I loved this class and wish Jim taught higher level CS.

I'm shocked that Professor Williams has such a low rating. CS 200 is a lot of work, but if you get into the groove of staying slightly ahead of the curve, you will be fine. I came in with ZERO coding experience and managed to do quite well in his class. The TAs are extremely helpful, and lectures are interesting. BE PROACTIVE, and he will be great.

Jim genuinely cares about his students and goal as an educator. He is approachable & accessible. Initially, I found him "bad" but that changed when I put effort into class and paid attention to lecture. Lectures are gold; ensures that everyone has a chance to interact and adapts lectures to accommodate students' doubts. Prepares you for CS300 well.

CS 200 isn't too bad under him if you put in the work and do the homework. Lectures are kind of useless, you learn all of the material through the textbook and canvas activities.

Prof.Williams is really good at getting you excited about the ideas behind coding. However, the online videos are slow and the Canvas (classroom website) activities are not always well explained. Even though Prof. Williams is great, %92 of the learning is done through an online program which you pay for like a textbook, and could learn on your own.

While his lectures might not be too effective, he is super helpful if you visit him during office hours. If you don't understand the concept in a lecture, don't blame the professor, get up and GO TO OFFICE HOURS.

Between the Canvas quizzes, Zybooks participation activities, challenge activities, team labs, and Zylabs, it's about 10+ hours every week for 3 cred. As far as tests go, he has tested every 2 weeks which is more low-stakes. Not much class time, only 1 lecture and 1 lab per week. He is all about making it engaging, fun, and accessible and it shows.

I actually liked Jim, but more than that I loved CS 200, it actually made me switch from being in the humanities to being a comp sci major because I loved it so much. I would say that it is super important for you to work ahead in this class and not get behind because there is a ton of work. Lectures don't really help but they aren't terrible.

The prof is nice, I quite like him. He shows caring in lectures and is pretty interesting. I dropped it because I'm not required to take this and I just can't bear the work each week. As an elementary class it's not too hard, just annoying. But if you do spend time on it, it would definitely give you a solid foundation in those harder classes.

One week's lecture activities will not take you more than two hours. zyLabs are like playing video games, although some students complain about the 10-minute re-submission lock after you submit your program for a grade. Team Labs are fun sometimes. HIS ONLINE CLASSES ARE THE BEST! I love the way he structured the course.

He really cares about being fair to students. Go to office hours!!

people giving Jim 1 star cuz there is lots of homework is dumb af. Its an intro coding course, of course there is going to be a lot to learn. If you have any innate coding ability this class will be very easy and youll find the homework simple, if a bit cumbersome, but ultimately beneficial as you learn the basics of Java.

Jim is a great professor, CS 200 itself is a very easy class if you don't slack and just do the assignments on time, most of the course is taught through zyBooks, and online lecture materials posted by Jim. There are also amazing TA's in the Office hours and in the weekly Team Lab sessions. It is very easy to get help, if you ask for it.

Jim's lectures are amazing, he tries to accommodate everyone, I came in with 0 programming experience and 0 confidence but at the end of the course, I feel very confident and prepared for CS 300 and I also feel I learnt a lot of valuable information from this class. The TA's for the Team Labs were amazing and I received a lot of help from them.

Jim is a great professor with lots of energy in the class. Classes were not mandatory except for labs

Lots of tests. Get ahead when you can, the workload can be intense at times. Pay attention to the little things. How to code is often less important than how the code works from a memory perspective. The online zybook textbook work can take a while.

Professor Jim is a very passionate person about his class. He cares about the students, even taking time to talk about mental health. He also explains why he assigns us work, listing research on the most effective teaching methods. He is very clear to understand in lecture and by far has the most beautiful voice I have ever heard!

I hate going to in-person classes but he uploads so much content on the Canvas page so that you can learn on your own. If you learn best from working with others, this class could be hard for you. If you like learning on your own, you'll like it. He's a funny and nice professor too

Do participation activities before going to lecture. Lectures are a good learning source only if you do those beforehand. Prof Jim is very helpful outside of class and is definitely very knowledgable. He explains the concepts pretty well and is very approachable. You can see that he is excited every time he teaches something new.

Jim is a great professor. He's engaging in his lectures, helpful if you have questions both in-person and via email, and you can tell he genuinely enjoys both the material he teaches and teaching itself. There is a lot of weekly work but it's manageable - I came into this class with no programming experience and I did well overall

CS 200 is a class that could be taken without a professor. His lectures were pretty useful, but most people did not go. He explained things very well, and it was really easy to get help in this course if needed. Nice guy and very knowledgeable in the subject area.

Lots of homework but it really helps you understand the material and reinforce your understanding. You can get help in the class pretty easily.

You'll be working on something for this class every day of the week. For me, the lecture attendance was mandatory (tophat), so was lab attendance (TAs checking u in). You get content from Zybooks, it gets reiterated in lectures and Canvas videos and then you apply it in labs/projects. Professor seems to care that students understand the material.

Any word that starts with "wh" he says as "hw" so whenever he says what it sounds like hwhat and whenever he talks about whitespaces in code it sounds like hwhitespace and it gets pretty annoying. As a teacher pretty good though.

Professor Jim's lectures are engaging and he's genuinely passionate about the material. While the workload can be demanding, he explains concepts clearly. Using unstuck AI alongside the textbook helped me stay on top of the course.

funny guy, i took this class in high school tho. slept thru every lecture and maintained a 99 throughout the year. i do like the way the assignments are spaced out and the labs r cool. GIVE CREDIT FOR IB SL COURSES THANKS!!!!!!!

Good for cs 200

I love this guy. There are so many resources available to study (quizlits, tons of canvas quizzes, and Zybooks). There's also a bunch of extra projects. ALSO i put an online exam into my google calendar wrong and missed the deadline and I told him exactly that and he extended it no questions asked! Super understanding!!

Was really understanding regarding an injury I had in my right arm and counted it as an unusual circumstance for which pretty much bumped my grade for tophats and my overall from B to AB

An extremely organized class with lots of resources and a consistent schedule. He is great at explaining concepts and lectures are very helpful. A large amount of busy work in this course, some of which is quite challenging and or time-consuming. Tests were inconsistent in difficulty. Participation is required through topHat.