Very fair when writing exams and extremely enthusiastic about astronomy. Lectures are interesting and funny, too. Helpful when students have questions, and also is receptive to feedback.

I love this professor. He's young, he keeps lectures interesting, and he really wants to get to know all of his students. His exams aren't too hard, and there isn't much homework. He's really helpful and is good at explaining the material.

Dr O, is one of my favourite professors! He's so enthusiastic about the topic and will go out of his way to make sure you feel comfortable with the class. Not a lot of hw and tests aren't too hard. Over all it's his enthusiasm and clarity that make Astro 101 so great. I recommend him and his class to everyone!

Dr. O is the best! His lectures are light and they're so much fun. He is funny, has a charming New Zealand accent, and is very passionate about Astronomy. He is also extremely nice and always there to help. He has all the qualities needed for a good teacher. I felt so sad when this class ended; I'm going to miss him so much!

Dr. O was hands down my favorite proff I've had!! Aside from his good looks & awesome accent, he does an amazing job teaching!! You can easily tell he is passionate about astronomy. One thing that sets him above other proffs is he tries to get to know students. Even though there were a lot of people in lecture he would do his best to learn names.

Dr.O's a bomb teacher with the an adorable quirky accent! He LOVES astronomy and teaching. He's a young prof who can relate to his students and his lectures are super amusing. His exams are harder than what I expected. But his review sessions before exams are VERY helpful. I wished I had another class with him! He made me fall in love with ASTRO!

I had the online class so we learned entirely from the book. He made himself available during office hours or if you ever want to drop by. His office hours are very helpful in explaining the materials and assignments and it is how I was able to go from a 68% to ending up with a 4.0.

Dr. Fraser is a fantastic person who is very passionate about teaching and Astronomy. However, his lack of experience shows in his clarity of concepts and what to know as well as his test writing. It's not a difficult class, but don't expect a 4.0 due to some lack of clarity.

Definitely the most enthusiastic professor I've had so far. It's obvious that he knows a lot about astronomy, and is very eager to share his knowledge. Sections didn't often correlate with lecture material, but both were interesting and informative nonetheless. Highly recommended!

Really, really great professor. The material can be confusing if you haven't taken a lot of science lately, but he goes far out of his way to help you understand the concepts. Very enthusiastic teacher (that's refreshing, right?) and genuinely nice person. Tests aren't as bad as you'd think - he gives lots of prep material.

Dr. O's really kind and the class is quite interesting.

Hands down, Dr. O is amazing! I had him a year and a half ago, and he still remembers me (class size200). Loved his teaching style and helpfulness. Really tried to get to know the names of all the students who asked questions and talked to him. Convinced me to switch my major to astronomy and I couldn't be happier! Bonus: he's easy on the eyes ;)

Super nice guy, very helpful, cares alot about his students. Also pretty easy if you pay attention and do the work assigned.

Learning materials are really exciting from which I can feel the passion of astronomists. Space images are beautiful and I'm pretty into the class. It's an easy class but I went deeper to learn more than what we need to get a nice grade. By the way, the lab video made me crazy once cuz I'd never made one before but not that bad:)

Fantastic class, definitely go to lecture. Even though he posts tons of helpful stuff online you should go just because he's enthusiastic, funny and excellent at explaining astronomy! Otherwise labs are pretty easy and interesting, and the tests aren't anything to sweat too much about. Do the work, go to class, and it's an easy A and a fun time.

Such an awesome professor! I have always loved astronomy, and even though I'm going to a different direction for a career, he has truly inspired me to love astronomy even more! It's been awesome to share something with him (ie. if you take an astro photo) and see him share it with the class. He is really interactive and has a great teaching method!

Dr. Fraser has a great personality, but I found the lectures to be disorganized and unclear. He does most of his teaching orally, so it is difficult to go back and look at the lecture slides and understand. Also, the tests are very hard to prepare for because he does not give any practice tests. However, he is friendly and inspirational.

Dr. O is extremely passionate about astronomy, and loves teaching it and watching students learn. The class content gets progressively harder, eventually leading into concepts like relativity and light. Don't expect a 4.0 in the class, because a lot of questions on the exams are ambiguous. He's also super adorable, and the lectures are pretty funny

He rocks. Need help? Contact him. Wonderful professor.

Dr. O is awesome! It's hard to connect with students in an online course, but he really makes an effort to help and get to know you. He answers emails almost immediately, and is generous with his grading techniques. He makes the class informative, but easy to do well in. He's an excellent professor!

Dr. O is the man. Loved his class and learned a lot. He is very helpful and responsive and definitely cares about his students. TAKE HIS CLASS.

Professor O is amazing! I would take his class in a heartbeat. He is kind and genuine and truly wants his students to do well and learn. I have only met two professors that are this genuine and caring. We need more professors and people like him!

Fraser is definitely my favorite professor at UW. Very caring for his students and genuinely wants you to understand the material. His lectures are amazing and very interesting. Homework assignments were easy, and exams are manageable if you memorize facts. Would definitely take another one of his classes again.

Easiest class I've ever taken, basically pass/fail. Doctor O is fantastic, super nice and understanding. The class is really applicable to real life and the presentation skills you learn are helpful for other classes. His accent is cool.

Even though this course was online, Dr. O. was extremely interactive and always available for students. These courses aren't for the procrastinator as there was definitely plenty of work weekly, but if you did the readings and short activities, it was simple. The midterms are based close to the quizzes, so there were no surprises.

Dr. O was one of the most passionate and caring professors i've ever had. He genuinely cares about students learning and will make sure he is there to help you IF YOU ASK FOR IT. I don't know why people rated him poorly before... He is honestly so kind and helpful but again you can't sit around and expect it to come to you, go ask him questions!

Great lecturer! Always enthusiastic and energetic, really tries to engage with students. First half of the course is smooth sailing mostly but for the second half, material starts getting more difficult so keep up with lectures, read, or watch crash course (saved me for the final honestly) to back up that knowledge.

Dr. O is a super caring and kind professor. If you get behind he is always available to help you. I find Astronomy hard to wrap my head around personally but, taking this class really helped me do better in my Astronomy class. Dr. O is one of the gems on campus.

Dr. O is fantastic. He really cares about you as a person, trying to get to know you with assignments that help him learn more about you. Class was built entirely on presentation participation. Essentially public speaking class, but it is based more on effort than your own speaking skills. Very kind, relatable professor.

He's exactly what you want in an astronomy prof. He's weird and makes many many bad jokes in class but you really get his passion for the subject. He's just so excited! The class is easy but don't skip studying for the tests. If you go to class every time and ask questions if you're confused you'll be fine.

He knows his material. Good sense of humor, keeps class interesting. He also lets us create study guides in quiz sections to prepare us for the tests.

Super fun teacher and lecturer. Felt like some info that he lectured about was irrelevant to the tests and homework labs, but other than that I didn't really have any issues with his teaching! Could tell he cares about his students.

Very passionate and friendly. Makes funny jokes and sometimes brings in visuals so going to lecture is definitely worthwhile. The syllabus mentions getting 90% guarantees you at least a 3.0 which doesn't seem like much, but in the end the grading is not actually that harsh.

Very nice and explains topics well.

Solid professor and solid class. Some lectures are more fun than others but he is really good at keeping your attention. Some of his power points were a bit all over the place so I had to watch some crash courses on some topics, otherwise I really liked Dr. O!!

Best professor I've had since starting at UW. He's very understanding about situations outside of class. The topics for online discussion are very interesting once you get into it. His rubric is very straightforward; if you follow the rubric, you'll get 100% on assignments, no surprises. I wish he could teach all my classes.

Dr O is a really amazing lecturer! His classes are always interesting and very informative. He's very receptive to any questions & is happy to slow down or go over things again for clarity. Very nice guy. Wish I could take this class again

Professor O is a great Professor who shows a very obvious enthusiasm and passion for astronomy which makes lectures 100 times more intersting. Topic matter is also very intersting. The Professor is also very good at answering student questions and communicating. Great class!

Overall a very nice, caring, respectable professor. Personally this class was difficult for me as I am not very gifted in physics, chem, and other sciences. Midterm and Final are difficult, but you can boost your grade through easy self checks and working hard on labs/projects in section. I suggest forming a study group to review with every week.

A wonderful teacher who makes you want to show up to class. Im not a B.S. Major but Dr. O made me almost want to switch :)

Dr. O is a great guy who is very passionate about what he teaches. Very lovable guy and will guarantee to make you smile. He goes really fast and goes through slides with a lot of information fast. I recommend rewatching the Panaptos posted to really get the information, though. Easy material to follow if you just pay attention.

Dr. O was such an amazing professor, definitely one of my favorites at UW so far. I took this intro class just to fulfill my last five natural world credits and going into it, I wasn't expecting much - I knew embarrassingly little about our planet and universe. But every lecture turned out to be very insightful and entertaining, I learned a lot!

I really like this course

Such a good guy. I suck at anything sciencey, but he was so kind and reassuring about it. Once I went to office hours and I was really confused about something, so I apologized and said I wasn't good at STEM. He told me not to talk like that, and that I was actually doing a great job. Awesome prof and really cares about his students.

Dr. O is a fantastic professor! I genuinely enjoyed every lecture, as he is so passionate about the subject matter and wants to ensure that people are learning. Hes a super nice guy and a great presenter. Definitely take his class!

This man is amazing! He's my Honors Storytelling in the Sciences prof and he has single handedly made my freshman year great! This is really that one class that will give you a real sense of community as Dr. O does lots of improv & get to know you stuff over zoom! He's the kind of teacher who cares more about learning than grades! Easy & fun class!

Storytelling in the Sciences was the most useful class I have taken thus far as a STEM major. The content is fun and engaging, the grading is completely based on effort, and the projects--two presentations--are very low pressure. Would definitely recommend!

This prof is really passionate about astronomy and it shows. It makes the learning more enjoyable. The class itself is truly set up to serve the students, and that makes a big difference.

I highly recommend Dr. O as a professor. The class is very straightforward, and he really seems to care about his students. Definitely one of the best professors I've had that makes online class interesting.

I was really scared of taking this class because I did not know what to expect but wow, this professor is amazing. He is super caring and considerate about his students and COVID. He eliminated exams in this class and we only had to do quizzes which were super easy. He makes it super simple for students to learn, he is the best!

Easier than most of my high school classes, I took ASTRO101 online. You do have to refer to the textbooks for notes but there is no final and only weekly quizzes & discussion sections. The pre and post-tests are a free 1% extra credit if you do them, the video game was surprisingly fun, HIGHLY recommend if you need an easy A.

This class was pretty easy. The quizzes are like hw assignments so very easy. He gives you a whole day to complete it but they are on fridays so dont forget to do them. Very understanding and very funny guy.

Unlimited redo homeworks, easy but thought provoking discussion prompts, and a fun project at the end. Great guy, loved his lectures too! One of the easiest classes I've ever taken at UW. I looked forward to doing the work for this class every week, and one of the 'textbooks' was a video game which even had a plot! Amazing class!!

Dr. O is such an amazing professor! I came into this class concerned because its presentation heavy, but no worries, he made every effort to make students comfortable and prepared for their projects. I highly recommend him to any curious honors students :))

Dr. O is the best prof I've had at UW yet. He is so excited about teaching his students, you can tell that his job actually brings him joy and that just makes it so much fun to learn with him. He gets students involved and answers questions, and he is so sweet. You should say hi if you have him, he is the nicest.

Every negative review seems to be about his online classes. Take ASTR 101 in person, he’s such a sweet guy and we had no midterm nor final! He made our quizzes (which I hated, but were doable) out of more points so our grade wouldn’t be hurt as much if we made small mistakes. One short essay quiz a week, three labs, three discussion paragraphs.

Was a very low effort class for me. No mid terms nor finals. Only weekly short essays that weren't too bad. Most of the subjects for essay can be found on his slides with extra research. The labs were easy (mostly bc our TA was very helpful). He's very passionate about what he's teaching!

Professor Fraser is very kind and enthusiastic. I took his asynchronous, online Astronomy course. Pros: the lectures are engaging, he is accessible, and he offers a variety of assignments. Cons: the midterm and final were quite difficult. If you do all the readings and study, however, you should not have too much trouble getting an A.

Fraser is an amazing professor and takes the time to learn the names of students who ask questions and engage in lectures. I found all of the content very interesting which made it easy to pay attention and retain information. However, the quizzes every week can be difficult, they are all short answer questions

Grading: HW 40 - Exams/Quizzes 60 Seriously if you read the chapters assigned and take a few notes you should do about a 10/12 on your quizzes and for review for midterms just do the review he provides and you should do just as well. Everyone that is an instructor/TA genuinely cares about the students and if you reach out you get a response fast!

Dr O was amazing! He started each class with a clapping exercise and improv. The course is pretty much all participation, and all of the activities that we had to turn in for a grade were very straightforward. We had 3 presentations during the quarter, and they were very manageable and fun to do! I would highly recommend this class!

The class is great if you like astronomy. You better read the book to understand anything. The wording on the quiz is a bit hard, but it should be simple if you can get the big idea out of the question. I like STEM, so ASTR 101 was easy for me. I don't recommend astronomy to people who hate STEM. Labs and quizzes were graded heavily.

Dr. O is a great teacher and person, but the online asynchronous course is very difficult. Even while doing all of the readings and watching the lectures, the quiz questions are very difficult. If you are REALLY into astronomy, I would recommend this class. If you are just looking for an easy NW credit, I wouldn't recommend this course.

A passionate professor that makes the course very enjoyable! His course is abstract and more challenging but he does care about his students and is very accessible outside of lecture. I was able to get concepts cleared up and redo my labs during his office hours. Take this course if you are truly interested in Astronomy, not for easy NS credits.

He is very funny and kind and his tests align with his lecture material which is rare for UW professors. Also his TA's are kind but his labs were graded weird, I did them with a friend but we would both receive different grades.

Amazing professor! The class was super enjoyable.

He is very passionate about what he is teaching and he tries to keep things intersting, do not expect this class to be light or easy. This is definitely not 101 level. (Winter 2023)

This guy has such positive energy. Total goofball and makes learning complicated concepts fun! You can tell he has so much passion for teaching and for science.

His lectures are very fun to listen to and they cover pretty much everything you'll need to know. The textbook is necessary for the online class but only as supplemental material. Do the self checks, he takes questions directly from them for the exams. Take good notes and you'll be fine!

Dr. O' is a very engaging speaker who knows his subject well. He appears to enjoy his students and his job. The concepts are clearly presented, and his tests correlate to his lectures. Grading-wise, he is fairly easy. I basically flunked the first test (65%) and still managed a 3.5 because of all the easy points available during the quarter.

Fantastic class, fantastic guy

Dr. O was fabulous. He is so enthusiastic in lecture that it makes everyone interested in the subject manner. When more than half the class missed a test question, he removed it from the test, saying it was his fault he didn't teach it well enough. Tests are not too hard if you study, and labs aren't either. Great class, would take again.

Professor O' is a captivating lecturer who brings astronomy to life. His engaging style and clear explanations make the material accessible. The textbook is optional, but study tools like Unstuck AI are helpful for exam prep. Overall, an enjoyable class if you're interested in the subject.

Such a charismatic and funny professor! Made learning the content really fun and provides ample opportunities for support/help for those with less scientifically-oriented brains. would recommend for anyone looking for a natural science credit from an outside major!

Oliver was the best professor Ive ever had for the best class Ive ever taken. if you are an astronomy major you need to take this class the trips to the observatory were so fun and while the coding for the final projects was brutal at times it was so worth it.

This guy is super passionate about what he teaches. Everything he says will be on the exam is always on there, and there aren't any surprises. TA's we're both great when I took the class and they were always easily accessible. As long as you have a pulse you should be fine. Love this guy.

Great professor overall. Very funny and I like his voice/accent. Did find it hard to actually LEARN from the lectures at points, so my quiz section carried most of my learning. Lectures are 100% enjoyable so don't skip em. I would definitely recommend this guy, he will motivate you to learn more about astronomy. Tests were hard (somewhat).