2.4
Quality2.9
Difficulty38%
Would Retake85
Reviews38%
Would Retake
85
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
13
4
10
3
13
2
10
1
39
What Students Say
“Professor KSM teaches using a reversed classroom system since she believes that students learn more effectively this way”
COMPSCI216 - 1.0 rating“Class is focused around education research, but in practice, this turns out awful”
COMPSCI216 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
51%
Textbook Required
0%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.42 avg changeRatings by Course
COMPSCI101
3.3
(16)COMP101
3.0
(1)CS216
2.7
(9)CS116
2.5
(2)CS101
2.2
(26)Difficulty by Course
COMP101
4.0
CS101
3.5
CS116
3.0
COMPSCI101
2.8
CS216
2.6
Reviews (85)
I thought KSM was decent overall. An average lecturer, but very caring and willing to answer questions. This was her first semester and Astrachan basically ran the class, so she had to lecture off of his slides. I think she'll definitely improve as she gains more experience and autonomy. The course is not too bad, but stay on top of the work.
Professor Martinez can be kind of harsh and rude during lecture but she can also be very kind. I dont like when used the random color generator to pick people in the class for participation. The lectures are online so if you miss class, you can easily catch up. There are ALOT of assignments, so stay on top of them. They require time to understand.
Very nice but lectures not always helpful, spends some lecture time focusing on unnecessary material like vocabulary and study tips rather than material relevant to course
Class is pretty doable if you stay on top of the work. There are A LOT of assignments (anywhere b/w 2-5 hours of projects + 1 hour of readings per week) so stay on top of those. Lecture's are kinda useless, most of learning comes from readings and assignments. Consulting hours are really useful. Her OH are also really useful
CS101 is a lot of work, but not too difficult. KSM does her best with a class that is hard to teach through only lectures. Lectures aren't super informative or engaging but there are attendance quizzes. Learned a lot.
Great professor, lectures can get boring but she really really cares about her students and their understanding of the material. Definitely have to be on top of your work and deadlines because she gives soooo much work. However, learned a lot about coding and would def take again.
Good Teacher.
Really cares about her students and always wants to improve her class to make it easier to learn and reach more students!
This course is a lot of work and if you don't think you'd be good at Computer Science, then I wouldn't take it since it is kind of difficult to get help and there are so many kids in the class. She is nice, but the work was not worth it.
Lots of assignments, nightly readings, and difficult exams. Lectures are optional but can be helpful, though half the content is usually unrelated
KSM offers a great introduction to the world of CompSci. She breaks down the concepts so that people who are beginners are able to pick them up easily. She assigns quite a bit of busy work and the daily quizzes can be tedious, but they are not very difficult to do. Overall she is a very good professor to take 101 with.
KSM is by far the worst professor I have had at Duke. Although CS101 is a 200+ person class, she tries to make large lecture like a small discussion. Her lectures are more confusing than informative, leaving students worse off (ironic bc her research looks at innovative CS education methods). Her tests are much harder than earlier semesters.
KSM is not a good lecturer. You'll learn everything from assignments and APTs, which can be time consuming but actually kinda fun and so satisfying when you're done. Tests were harder than previous semesters, but practice a lot and you'll be fine. There are many places to get help though! GO TO UTA HELP HOURS! Not an easy A but Python is useful.
Honestly she did a poor job in teaching a 200 person lecture hall. There is no doubt she understands the material- she just does not know how to teach lectures. She tries to make it like a 10 person seminar. Not approachable at all. Just not a good person and you will get so much busy work. You end up teaching yourself the whole class.
Terrible
Not fun
Kristin Stephens- Martinez is genuinely a horrible professor. She is not helpful to students and is not a clear lecturer. The class is completely self taught with really hard problems that are out of the complexity of 101. The amount of busy work is a complete nightmare, and you do not get a good coding skill set from this. Do not take it from her.
She tried too hard and it ended up back firing. Professors try to act like students cant grade professors too
Bad at helping students learn- leaves them out to dry
She just had an annoying voice and always expects you to understand her when she uses bogus analogies
Honestly- have you ever heard of a G.O.A.T. ... shes the W.O.A.T.
Every morning this year, I would decide if my day was going to be a good one based off this one simple rule- Will I see this professor today? She was the worst. I highly recommend everyone to avoid taking a class with this professor.
Compsci 101 was a nightmare with endless homework don't take it with her!!!!!!
Kristin was a good lecturer. Her card system for student participation was a little stressful, and she could be confusing at times, but the lectures and questions within lecture overall were helpful. The class had a ton of work, but the assignments helped you learn and buffered your grade, and the final could replace a really bad midterm.
Although her lecturing style can take some time to get used to, the class was enjoyable and made me interested in CS.
do not like. she answers your questions by asking YOU questions. she might be a brilliant computer scientist, but she sure is not a good teacher.
Though her lectures and teaching strategies are sometimes boring and borderline cringeworthy, you can tell that she genuinely wants the best for her students, and is very flexible with grading. As long as you do all of your assignments and not fail the midterms, you should be fine.
I really enjoyed this class. Lots of work, yes, but very rewarding. It is a big lecture hall, but KSM is good about making things clear and encouraging participation. Expect to spend quite some time outside of class coding and completing assignments. But don't say that I didn't warn you: coding can be addicting. You may find yourself coding at 2am.
The lectures do not really help with this class, however, they are good refreshers. Reading the textbook and do the hw helps the most.
ksm is not a good teacher, but don't let that deter you from taking the class, bc the structure is great (txtbook, apts, and assignments help you learn). she tries, but has random metaphors/can't explain things well/is just bad at teaching. but very manageable class, even if you've never had any coding experience, just stay on top of work.
It's a very easy class. Go to class to get your 75% of participation points, and you can teach yourself the rest using the textbooks and the guided assignments. APTs are fun and help you develop a good coding intuition. Showed up to class a few times after MIdterm 1 but still managed to pull my grade up from an A- to an A. Lectures feel frivolous.
Great professor!
She was the absolute worst. Extremely condescending, didn't care to help, thought everyone was a computer scientist. do not take a class with KSM
CS 101 was pretty easy. I think KSM tries too hard. Lectures could have been engaging but rarely were. Her strategy of gauging participation was very annoying and honestly disincentivized asking questions. There were too many moving pieces for such a simple class. I think she could do a better job of answering questions. It was fine.
Many lectures felt unnecessary because they were repeating the textbook, but you had to show up for attendance points. Pacing can be awkward (lots of time on easy stuff, little time on hard stuff). The content itself isn't too difficult, but there's a lot of busy work. I think achieving an A is definitely possible even if you've never coded before.
Honestly KSM is an okay prof. My main point in writing this was to say not to be discouraged from taking Compsci 101 just because she gets bad ratings on here. I took it as a non-major just because I was interested and really loved the class. If you're going to get help it's from TAs, so even though KSM isn't the best, it really doesn't matter.
Although KSM might not be the best at teaching, she's a professor who genuinely cares about her students . Her assignment instructions can be unclear at times, but her open collaboration policies made things much easier. It's a lot of work, but I learned a lot also. But, don't be discouraged from taking it despite what the majority of reviews say!
I enjoyed this class a lot. Dr. Stephens-Martinez explains the material well, and COMPSCI101 has many resources to get help. This class is extremely organized which helps to stay on top of the assignments every week.
Worst professor and class I've ever taken. Do not take a class with KSM
Literally worst professor ever, turned me away from the CS department forever. Incredibly unclear at explaining even the simplest concepts, I would always leave class feeling even more confused than before. Attending class is completely and utterly useless other than to get your participation credit.
Not really sure why she seems to be so polarizing here. I thought she was a pretty good professor. She helped me get interested in the subject and taught the class well. Was nice and caring. I had a friend who hated her though, but again I'm not really sure why.
My course with KSM might be the single least-engaged Ive ever seen a professor. The course was a flipped classroom where she didnt record any of the lecture videos and spends >50% of each class - the time where we ought to be asking tough questions - silent as we work through trivial group work. Class is easy but comically un-engaging
KSM's CS216 did not even feel like an actual class. There was no point in coming to class because it was flipped. All you had to was complete the weekly assignments. The material itself is not hard, but KSM deserves this rating because the recorded online lectures were not even taught by her so she genuinely did nothing for the class.
Completely feel like a Cousera course
Professor KSM's class was literally an EdX course. The flipped classroom was so annoying as class time was basically wasted. She was not good at explaining stuff and made simple things confusing which is not ideal for an intro compsci class.
SHE DOES NOT TEACH THIS CLASS. It is like watching youtube and learning by yourself. The exams are also weird. Would not recommend taking this class with her.
KSM is very good at what she does but she operates on a flipped classroom model so I don't think a lot of her students get to see that. She is very caring and accessible outside of class to help you, but beware you will have so much outside work because of the flipped classroom. Also, too many group projects with no accountability for others
Best Computer Science teacher at Duke. Everything she does is to guarantee your success in the class. If you put in the work to pay attention and learn, you will get SO MUCH out of the class. There's busy work, but it's to make sure that you are keeping up with the material, which I appreciate.
I took 101 with KSM and really didn't want to take another class she taught again. 216 confirmed I will avoid her hereon. KSM's has her focus on CS education and in turn caters her teaching style and lectures to be new and inventive. However, it ends up being quite esoteric, and many students seem to lose respect for how unfamiliar the class feels.
KSM is a great professor that genuinely cares about our learning and success as students. The flipped classroom turns some people off, but she if you go to class she puts a lot of effort into making sure you understand everything. She also has a very forgiving late policy.
She made the class flipped and all the videos are from Brandon Fain (much better than her) Doesn't teach much in class, and has all sorts of different kinds of works and assignments scattered around, which makes the class hard the manage. Really feels like a Coursera class to me, makes me wonder why the hell did I pay all my tuition for this.
"Oh I heard KSM is teaching CS216 this sem. Does she teach well?" "Umm she doesn't really teach, so I don't know what to tell you."
Does flipped classroom but has required in-class activities so you'll end up spending twice as much time as you'd spend on a regular lecture on class alone. Homework is often unclear, and there's a lot of it in addition to a final project and four exams. Only saving grace is it's open note, but that doesn't make up for the brutal course schedule.
Pretty sure she writes reviews on here to pad her own rating. Often rude and unsure about her own assignments, heavily relies on the TAs to help students out. Does little teaching of her own and if you can't learn via youtube videos you won't gain anything from this class.
Prof. KSM is very caring and understanding of individual circumstances if you approach her outside of class. The course itself is flipped classroom and most likely more than 10 hours of work per week on average due to pre-class videos & quizzes and homework assignments. There is a semester-long group project that is very open ended and not too bad.
All materials are from another professor in their group. Only exercises in lectures. Ridiculous mode of exams. Lack of trust in students while her mode of exams would simply lead to misunderstanding.
NOT DROPPING THIS COURSE IN DROP/ADD PERIOD IS THE BIGGEST MISTAKE I HAVE MADE AT DUKE.
CS216 is a very easy class. However, KSM does not want her students to do well. Instead of making her class more complicated and advanced. She just tries to screw students over in other small ways by making trick questions or excessively deducting points for formatting and other things.
KSM is not a good professor. She knows very little about the material and relies on other professors' work to teach her class. Yet when you use outside sources to aid your learning, she doesn't allow it and marks points off because it doesn't "demonstrate your own understanding".
To be honest, this is the most useless and boring course I have ever taken. The nature of the course is the coursera course. Moreover, the exam is hard and the grading is really tough. Some minor mistakes would drag you to A- level. You can only pray when doing exam while learning nothing in the class.
KSM is a perfect example of academia failing in the real world. Class is focused around education research, but in practice, this turns out awful. Flipped class w/ videos from other professor. In-class portion is waste of time w/ 4-5 mini ungraded quizzes and time for practice. Everyone goes on Zoom and few pay attention. Feels like coursera...
Everything useful I have learned has been from Brandon Fain or the TAs...because it's flipped and we use Fain's videos (which are helpful). The in-class peer instructions are not helpful, and her explanations are vague. Extremely inefficient lectures. Unless you want to be a guinea pig in KSM's CS ed research experiment, don't take this class.
KSM is a "CS education" researcher, so she gets very defensive when people complain about her incredible research-backed teaching style of making you learn all the material outside of class from video lectures by a DIFFERENT prof, and spending all of every actual class period giving pointless quizzes, each of which gets taken twice for some reason
In class, you can learn almost nothing. The professor is just asking meaningless concept questions and reading the PPT. From this course, what I only learn is that it is really easy to become a professor, Prof.Kristin just reads PPT and uses OTHER PROFESSORS' VIDEO AND PPT to teach!
The videos from Fain are good. The actual teaching is hideous. Also the grading system is hideous. What an embarrassment.
Professor KSM teaches using a reversed classroom system since she believes that students learn more effectively this way. This results in students learning from a separate professor that has no involvement in the course through video lectures, while Professor KSM wastes 3 hours of your week doing random surveys through class and teaching nothing.
I loved CS216, and learned so much from it despite having no Python coding experience in the past. Strongly recommend taking it!
The grading criteria is vague for exams but other than that this course was amazing
My background is about 5 CS classes and found this class as a breezy and properly-paced introduction to Python. KSM is very caring and accommodating outside of class. My final grade was rounded up, ty. Every test has a retake which made things way less stressful. Spent around ~3 hrs weekly. If u finish assignments u will def get an A
Prof. KSM was understanding of individual circumstances and let us turn in homework late w/o penalty via slip days. Her lectures did seem a bit like review of videos that we watched for the prepares, but they were still good. The exams weren't difficult if you did the practice exams and homework, but the ESNU grading can be frustrating.
As a CS major, course is conceptually easy, but KSM creates a lot of busywork (comprehension quizzes & participation). KSM apparently specializes in CS education but I think she overdoes it and treats students like middle schoolers who need hand-holding. Still uses Fain's recorded lectures but attendance to her sessions + recitation also required.
It's hard to judge the class because KSM grades on a different scale, but the content was very easy and the courseload was definitely manageable. She's also very lenient with late work and the exams are very straightforward (coding exams are open note and basically just HW problems, in person are straightforward if you pay attention at all)
KSM really cares about you learning the basics of data science, and her exams are very straightforward. The ESNU grading can be a little tricky, but it's definitely a good foundational class and is very manageable. When I took it, I had only taken 201 and I found the course pretty easy still.
She has a lack of communication with the concepts she teaches, and would benefit from a better mastery of the knowledge she's supposedly educating her students on. To do well, you must do most of your learning outside of class.
She was not very responsive to students' demands and she does not communicate effectively, leading to students being confused and left to tend for themselves. Specifically, lectures were not helpful at all and I am perplexed as to why lectures were mandatory. It's crazy that a 95 is an "A" in the class. Do not take her class.
Trust me: 216 may be classified as an "easy" CS elective, but this class is not worth taking at all and I completely regret it. Cutoff for an A is a 95, grading is not clear, and lectures are absolutely worthless/waste of time (they're mandatory). Whoever said KSM makes me want to KMS ate because that is to true.
Take a different CS elective is Prof. Stephens-Martinez is teaching this course. The content itself is comprehensible, but Prof. Stephens-Martinez's grading policies are unclear, harsh, and unforgiving to students. The grading system needs to be updated to be a proper representation of every student's abilities.
The grading policy is really unclear and the Professor hasn't particularly helpful
KSM is not necessarily a good professor, but her class is super easy so I can't complain. Definitely the easiest CS elective and a guaranteed A for anyone who puts in even the slightest bit of effort. Not super interesting content but Python/Pandas/SQL definitely useful for data science/CS resumes. Grading super straightforward. Would recommend.
Anyone complaining about this class has clearly never taken 250, 310, 330. The cutoff for an A is a 95 because the content is for middle schoolers. If you spend 1 hour/week on this class you will get an A. The tests are EXACTLY like the study guides, just with different numbers. All tests, homeworks, and projects can be redone for a new grade.
KSM was communicative and easy to talk to. She was forgiving and very willing to work with students on deadlines, help with assignments, etc, and responded quickly to emails. I liked the flipped classroom and didn't find any of the homework too much. It was a manageable workload.
Actually absurd. Her research is in student performance/improvement so we had to collaborate with the people in our ASSIGNED lecture seats. Teaches nothing and relies on someone else's videos. Asked for mid-semester feedback to tell us why we were wrong instead of changing anything. Makes grading so complicated for no reason. 95 for an A cutoff
dude idk what ppl on here are talking about. cs216 is so chill. you practically have infinite late days on HW assignments, in-class exams are almost identical to practice, and the final project is graded super easily. ive used the python data stuff in this course in my own research since this class so its pretty useful too
Took as elective for stats major. Flipped lecture style leads to a lot of busywork/wasted time. Only need 90% on HW to get full credit. Worst part is ESNU rubric - it is much better to copy her explanations exactly to get E instead of trying to think through the content yourself and write your own answers. Useful content but bad class structure.
1. A beginner in DS can even handle this course. 2. A course filled with too much stuff, where many of them do not provide valuable outcomes. 3. Grading is too strictly followed, which may be good, but the ESNU rubric is too arbitrary. 4. Prof. KSM is hard-working and takes things seriously, but has absolutely no idea of what ChatGPT can do.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
51%
Textbook Required
0%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.42 avg changeRatings by Course
COMPSCI101
3.3
(16)COMP101
3.0
(1)CS216
2.7
(9)CS116
2.5
(2)CS101
2.2
(26)Difficulty by Course
COMP101
4.0
CS101
3.5
CS116
3.0
COMPSCI101
2.8
CS216
2.6