So much work! Even though I had research and 400 level math classes, this was easily the toughest just because of the sheer volume of work. Abover qeverything else, she expect students to type the math problems which sucks real bad. I think she doesn't realize that students are taking classes other than CSC 245 too, we can't devote all our time!!!

Her style does not match this course. She will "teach" you something "basic", but then on the quizzes or homework, she gives questions that she has really didn't cover. I spend hours trying to find what she did not teach us. I dread her class. She is sorta nice, but be prepared for bull crap questions. She is the worse teacher I have ever had.

It was difficult to tell exactly how she wanted solutions to be formatted, and would grade impossible. The TA's couldn't even really answer questions. Student would ask questions on our classroom site, and wouldn't get answered until sometimes a couple of days after they were asked. She didn't put a lot of time into the course or seem to care.

The worst teacher already teaching a hard class is a bad mix. If you can avoid taking her you should. Weird grading scale, which may seem good but it is to counter balance the unreasonable amount of hw. Lotz is uncaring, seems bugged by the students, huffs when students ask questions/ask for clarification. Barely answers/vague on piazza.

Content of the class was simple but somehow she managed to make it difficult. All I will say is she said exam 2 would be shorter than exam 1 and it was twice as long lmfao.

Overall, not a bad teacher, her tests (online) are extremely hard but not because of the material, it's the time limit she gives for them. Overall doesn't seem like she really enjoys her job, when asked questions she sounds almost angry that you asked them. Do not recommend taking her for any class if she acts that way all the time.

She is an awful teacher that does not provide real and meaningful examples. Do not take her class at all.

Genuinely haven't ever had such a horrible class, a course meant for freshmen is getting abysmal test averages and she probably does not see a problem with how bad of a teacher she is despite it being plainly obvious.

Her lectures are very thorough and she does a wonderful job explaining the material. However, don't bother going to her office hours or reaching out to her. She's extremely rude and impersonal.

Dropping this class cleared my skin. Mean teacher, she should consider a new profession if she obviously can't stand speaking to students.

She speaks down to her students and quote said "many of you have a lot of work to do before the final exam", after giving an exam which the majority of the class recieved a low score. She should consider a new profession.

Awful professor, super bad attitude, not approachable at all

It does not seem like she enjoys teaching; very rude to her students. Additionally, does not write specs explicitly with a clear rubric.

Very standoffish for absolutely no reason, and a boring lecturer. Not much new content different from 210 either.

The specs for projects seem purposefully confusing and disorganized , her lectures are monotone and boring, and she is not a very nice person. It does not seem as though she enjoys teaching, so what is the point of being a lecturer if that is the case?

Genuinely the worst project specs I have ever read. Very vague and lots of room for misunderstandings. Additionally a boring lecturer. Stay away.

The long assignments are unreasonably extensive, and you have to make a 20 minute long video explaining what could be easily checked by graders by just looking through your code base. As others have said too, she is just plain rude to students who just want help or clarification.

The first of the long assignments was like 10 times more work than the literal final for 337. In addition to this, we also had to make a 20 minute long video (it was difficult not making it much much longer) showcasing the project and pretty much every single edgecase that could happen.

We literally have to write in English, not code, describing very basic things that we already learned in 210. She is not approachable also, and has a bad attitude it seems.

I already learned all of this content in highschool, but with the way that the specs are written and things are explained super vaguely it is difficult to do well. The teacher is very monotone during lectures and as others have mentioned, rude to students who just want help.

The content in this class is not difficult, but is made difficult by confusing and vague wording in specs and slides. It almost seems as if this is by design, as if the professor wants to make things seem complicated when they are in reality super simple.

She is condescending to students when they are simply asking for clarification, and it seems she has some sort of superiority complex. Additionally, she writes the worst specs I have ever seen in my entire academic career.

The assignments are very unorganized. It seems there are communication issues between the TAs and the professor, as every TA has a different idea about how things should be graded, and different TAs interpret the specs in completely different ways, which just goes to show how badly the specs are written.

The specs for the programming projects are extremely lengthy and vague, and it is almost not worth it to ask questions in Piazza, as the TAs and professor go out of their way to not give you straight up answers.

This class should be named "reading comprehension" with the amount of time you need to spend interpreting lengthy and poorly worded specs. I feel genuinely bad for anyone who English is not their second language, who has the misfortune of taking this class with Lotz.

A lot of busywork. The most I have ever seen. It isn't difficult stuff, but her poor explanations and weirdly phrased specs make it difficult. Also rude, as many others have mentioned.

These projects are really, really, really large and badly described. The professor is also avoidant of questions and answers them very vaguely.

This is genuinely the worst class I ever ever taken due to terribly lengthy and poorly written project specs, and a professor who is very unapproachable and rude.

The most boring lectures I have ever attended, try not to fall asleep challenge (impossible). Additionally, asks for wayyyyy too many random features to implement in project specs and does not explain how they are supposed to work well enough. Students are constantly trying to clarify what she meant in the specs on Piazza, and she is rarely helpful

It has been like 3 months of review of stuff I learned in high school up until this point, and even though I already know most of this stuff, the deliberately confusing wording on quizes, exams, project specs, etc. makes it difficult to get an A in anything. You really need to be an English analyst in order to do well in this class.

The class wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't an unreasonable amount of work for the projects. Each project is seriously more work than all of the homework for other classes (210 or 337) combined. On top of that, the specs are written so badly that you have to clarify something about every sentence, and her answers to questions are vague and rude.

I have learned a very minimal amount, and yet have had to do the most amount of work of all my classes by far in this class. She is a professor who values busywork and reading comprehension above all else.

When students ask questions (either on Piazza or in-person), she gives super unhelpful answers and is rude for no reason. It does not seem like she enjoys her job teaching either, and she doesn't seem to be very passionate about software.

She gives very unclear instructions and the class is disorganized. It is also very difficult to not fall asleep during lectures.

I'm not sure why this is a CS course in the first place, because the professor and TA'S are so stingy and exact on the wordings used in answers - DESPITE the fact that they themselves are worded terribly. Get ready to do everything by yourself, because lotz will not help you - and neither will the TA'S.

You need to have incredible English reading comprehension skills in order to decipher what is expected from the specs. I feel really bad for any students who don't speak English as their first language. Also, there is basically no reason to ask questions, because she will answer them in the most unhelpful and vague ways possible.

Not engaging as a lecturer, rude when approached, and gives vague project specs.

She basically goes out of her way to give unhelpful "answers" to students questions, I really don't get it. Just give simple, straightforward answers and don't be rude.

The class was not organized well and the teacher was rude. It might have been a bit better if there was an actual textbook. Like everyone else has been saying too, the project specs are abysmal.

She gives the least clear instructions out of any professor I have ever had. Not an engaging lecturer either, its like she has no passion for CS.

The specs are very lengthy, and yet, tell you almost nothing. That is actually a good analogy for this class: lots of words, very little meaning.

She has a noticeable lack of enthusiasm for teaching, the lectures are very difficult to not fall asleep during. Also, she has a habit of giving the least helpful possible answers to questions.

The most uninteresting and rude lecturer I have taken at UofA. Also writes very unorganized specs.

The questions on exams are literally consciously written with confusing and convoluted wording, and the project specs are written intentionally vaguely. Someone earlier said something about English comprehension skills being the most relevant here, and I agree. Terrible, stay away.

Very confusing for me, being someone who doesnt speak English as my first language. She words things so confusingly.

Is not clear at all about what she expects specifically for projects, and is rude when asked for clarification.

There is so much overlap with 210 (and what I already learned in HS), that I didn't start actually learning anything new until about the last 1/4th of the class. Additionally, as others have pointed out, she overcomplicates things through wording them weirdly, and is a bit rude when approached.

I have to spend probably about half the time of doing my homework trying to decipher her convoluted wording. She is also just not very nice to be around and speak with, somewhat rude and demeaning.

Poorly worded project specs and boring lectures.

I can barely keep my eyes open during lectures, and I have to roleplay as an English major to understand the project specs.

She almost seems annoyed at you for asking her clarifying questions, and her answers to your questions are almost always unhelpful or vague and cryptic.

Its so weird, it seems like she would rather catch a student not following confusingly crafted phrases exactly, than actually care about whether they understand the overarching concepts.

She is very specific about wanting you to answer questions exactly as they are worded on slides, whether or not you actually understand the content is irrelevant. Also she is pretty rude, and does not seem to like teaching.

The most confusingly worded project specs I have ever read, along with a lecturer who is boring/monotone and rude.

This class and professor honestly ruined CS for me. She grades based on buzzwords instead of conceptual understanding, writes purposefully confusing specs, and is rude to students who don't suck up to her.

This was the most boring CS class I have ever taken, and the professors monotone lecturing did not help. She also is genuinely rude to some students but not others its weird

This felt like a horrible English class, where the professor marks zeroes on questions because they personally don't like your wording on a free-response. All exams and quizzes are free response btw. I received several C's (and one F) on written tests, for content I knew well and could demonstrate in projects.

I thought that 210 with Mercer was bad, until I took this class. 100x worse than my other bad CS experiences, this professor is a gatekeeper that uses the English language to trip students up.

She should consider a different profession

This course made me quit CS. Probably the rudest and most useless professor I've met at the uofa-not only that, this course is just a repeat of 210,except there's a lot more term memorization that you have to do. If you want to hate CS, this is the professor for you. A fifth grader would explain more concisely than her. Please go work at mcdonalds.

Boring lectures and confusing specs

The specs were extremely long and convoluted, and her teaching was boring and uninspired

I literally fell asleep during class one time, and the homework was unreasonably time consuming, mostly due to needing to decipher her writing.

The group projects were incredibly time consuming, and did not count for very many points despite that in the end. Every homework assignment was a chore, it was the CS equivalent of busywork fr.

I took this class with Lotz a couple semesters ago, and I remember the lectures being super boring and the homework taking so much time (not because it was difficult, it was just tedious).