2.6
Quality3.8
Difficulty45%
Would Retake85
Reviews45%
Would Retake
85
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
17
4
12
3
11
2
13
1
32
What Students Say
“Expectations for the assignments are brutally unrealistic”
COMP352 - 2.0 rating“Worst slides ever,he doesn't teach anything and expects you to learn everything by yourself”
SOEN387 - 2.0 ratingClass Info
Attendance Mandatory
7%
Textbook Required
40%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.25 avg changeRatings by Course
COMP354
5.0
(1)COEN352
3.6
(8)SOEN387
3.2
(5)Comp249
3.1
(17)SOEN287
2.7
(6)Difficulty by Course
COMP352
4.1
SOEN341
4.0
COEN243
3.9
Comp249
3.8
SOEN387
3.6
Reviews (85)
Very helpful by email. The MT had like 40 multiple choice questions and a few programming problems. The final was almost a replica of the midterm. Relatively easy provided that he likes you.
Nice and entertaining guy. Unfortunately, he taught an Intro level class as if everyone already knew the material. His assignment grading schemes were not very well defined. Honestly, about half the class dropped the course. If you're new to the material, I would definitely avoid him. If you're experienced, though, you might enjoy his class.
Worst slides ever,he doesn't teach anything and expects you to learn everything by yourself. Not professional at all.
One of the BEST in the department. He's very knowledgeable and willing to help out if you ask him. Plus he's hilarious and fun to listen to. He's a bit of a tough marker on exams, but you'll do fine if you read the material, listen in class, and do all the programming (i.e. do the stuff that's actually required of you as a student).
Stuart is one of the best professors at Concordia. Lectures are geared towards your involvement and can be quite interesting. His exams are tough - they test how well you know the material and can get tricky. He grades your performance relative to your peers so keep track of the class average and attend his lectures.
He's a cool guy. But as a teacher... Well, you'll need to figure out most of the material yourself. He goes on tangents A LOT so if you don't like that, AVOID. Otherwise, the classes will be fun but generally useless. I learned in class at the beginning of the semester but barely after. He had a valid reason at the very end of the semester though.
Ok, so here's the deal. He knows his stuff, just cannot impart it in an effective manner, so you'll be teaching yourself pretty much everything. Assignments were way hard, exams were ok. You'll probably end up with a bad number grade but a decent letter grade. Take at your own risk.
The WORST teacher I have ever seen in all my years of study. Shouldn't even be called a teacher. You might as well get paid because you will be doing his job which is teaching yourself. Doesn't explain, assignments are tough. "Powerpoints" are very useless. (I put quotes because they aren't really powerpoints). Avoid this "teacher".
Stuart Thiel is a great teacher. Assignments are difficult (i.e. expect to spend ~10+ hours on the harder ones if you're inexperienced), but instructive. Midterms/Finals are based on lectures, slides are not meant as a source of information. Being a keen listener, and going to lectures+tutorials will get you a reasonable grade. Course is curved
Material is given in 2nd week. Evaluation scheme given at the end of 3rd week via email, no outline. Talks in exams as if it is a lecture, as he makes lots of mistakes then he tries to clarify. He sends several emails about assignments as they are full of mistakes. Once he came to class for 15 minutes and left. Bottom Line: Horrible teacher! AVOID!
ATTEND CLASS! Yes, he goes off on random tangents a lot, but I used a timer to alert him of the time every now and again, and ever since, his tangents significantly increased in pertinence and decreased in length. Tests are rough, assignments LONG and HARD, but he's a very nice guy who WILL help you provided you attend and participate (NOT TROLL).
This professor has an extensive knowledge in Web Applications, and developed a very useful jar for one to understand and use. He has a very modern approach in teaching, down to earth, very vocal. He does like going on tangents, but its nice to have a less demanding lecture. The programming assignments are a little tricky, but exams are fair.
Very laid back and casual about his lectures. Unfortunately, this makes them little more than discussions about the textbook material, which he follows pretty closely. His exams are multiple choice AND multiple answers, and his programming assignments take rather long. But, he is friendly, approachable and answers his emails quickly.
Strengths: 1. Exams and lectures are intuitive, based on real understanding. 2. He is intelligent, has big picture vision, and understands the material well. Weaknesses: 1. Unfocused. Many tangents in lectures. However, since he is intellectual, tangents can be interesting. 2. Lack of practical skills. Inconsiderate about the execution of things.
Pros: 1-Friendly, knowledgeable, helpful & accessible outside of class 2-Fast marker 3-Exams are logic and understanding based; the final contains all questions from midterm, so book time to see it Cons: 1-his lecture style will not suit everyone: very few written info &lots of spoken discussions (reading textbook is a must) 2-Expect grade curving
Inexperienced at teaching. Gives algorithm class without showing codes and doesn't understand how to impart his knowledge or instructions effectively. Lectures you like you already knew the material. Knowledgeable, but this makes it difficult for him to understand why students may not understand him. Exams are fair. Approachable and friendly.
HORRIBLE! AVOID AT ALL COST!! He can barely teach, exams were tough (multiple choice multiple answers) and his assignments were tough as well. Not enough info given. He makes more jokes than he teaches. Slides are useless, better off googling each topic or watching youtube videos. but the course is curved :)
He doesnt teach at all. His slids are not completele. You wont learn anything from him just read by yourself. You can memorize the book and get a good mark in midterm. No help for assignments. Assignments are not even clear.
Avoid this teacher if you have zero knowledge on the course. His assignments are unclear and extremely time-consuming for no reason as you don't learn anything from them. Classes are useless, since his exams are textbook-based and his slides are made for himself. Exams are multiple choice, but multiple answers with negative marking.
His approach to COMP 352 is ill-fitting for an undergrad course; it needs extensive streamlining and simplification. His lectures are too ad lib and he regularly derails them with unrelated tangents. Expectations for the assignments are brutally unrealistic. That said, he has good public-speaking skills and heavily curves the course.
Honestly, it felt to me like he is more concerned in appearing smart/knowledgeable/funny/relatable during his lectures than actually teaching. I would rather take someone boring who can clearly explain over him. I'm not learning anything from his teaching approach. Still got an A+ thanks to Textbook/Youtube/Coursera
Avoid this prof, he is more concerned about being likeable than teaching. Constantly makes jokes that are not relevant/funny. Assignments are extremely difficult (PHD level work for an entry class?) for no reason and you don't learn anything from them. The exams out of this world... Negative marking and multi-answer purely based on memorizing
Has potential to be an awesome professor. Interesting and fun lectures but overestimates the level of the students in this intensive course. Exams are reasonable if you read the book. Third assignment was extremely time consuming compared to non intensive courses. Areas for improvement: Assignment explanations + time consideration Slide points
Avoid if you don't like reading textbooks or multiple choice exams. Assignments are fairly long, vague and difficult. Class is light and interesting at times but almost completely unnecessary as the textbook covers pretty much everything you need to know for the exams. He's approchable and knowledgeable but his style definetly isn't for everyone.
Don't pay attention to older ratings. He's a great teacher and he's getting better each year. You can tell he takes feedbacks seriously. He clearly knows his stuff and makes classes fun. He is also very helpful during his office hours unlike many teachers. The class was on Friday's from 6-9pm in the SUMMER and yet I still looked forward to it.
Midterm and final was multiple choice/multiple answer. He has very little sympathy for anyone. The only reason I got an A+ is because I aced last assignment (which were unnecessarily convoluted and difficult for nothing) and the final by memorizing the entire book contents. YOU MUST memorize the Shaffer book, there's no other way to ace the class.
the first time i took him for comp 352 I thought his assignments were not undergrad level and exams very tricky. you do have to use the book to understand. after taking him in soen387, I can say he gets better every year, VERY approachable and knowledgable. you WILL work your ass off for assignments, but will use the knowledge in the future.
Super nice guy and He REALLY knows his stuff... the assignments are hard but for the first time this summer they were worth 0%. You do have to study his solution for the exams tho which kinda sucks. if u read the book, his exams are fair... if u need to take 352 take it with him.... or else u will deeply regret it (from experience) #kharma
This might be one of the worst proffesors at this school. He acts like a frat guy when he probably was picked on. Refuses to teach anything , his slides are about 10 words max and his exam are negative marking while being questions taken from a book he never goes trought. Basically he expects you to learn alone . AVOID AT ALL COST TERRIBLE TEACHER
Avoid at all costs he is definitely not a good teacher, he does not explain well what so ever, his exams are based on none of the little material provided by him. U have to teach yourself the entire and do not expect any high grades due to his very difficult exams. He does not care about his students at all. He only cares about him and his stories.
This course should be an introduction to c++ but it never felt so with him he expects you to know everything and the only students that actually pay attention and ask questions are those who have a background in coding , he's always joking which makes it even worse, you have to fully depend on yourself it's basically self study.
Worst teacher ever
absolutely worst teach ever!! he is rude, brag about his PhD, teaching methods are trash. If you have to take any course with him u better just change your whole major and you are welcome.
This professor only cares about his status as a "Dr" with a PhD Degree, cares only about himself or his own life and talks to his students until they make them very uncomfortable to be with him.
He teaches the class like everyone has a background in programming. Youre basically paying to learn the whole class alone.
His teaching method is basically live coding and slides. During the live coding, going over new concepts is very vaguely covered and only looks at the implementation, he just wants the program to work. And when it comes to slides, he will go over his point form theory format slides without having any examples of what these new concepts do.
DEFIANTLY NOT RECOMMENDED!!, i really wish i can give him a 0 he doesn't even deserve the 1, the assignments are way too hard for this course, he is a very tough grader, his classes are pointless you will never learn anything, live coding sessions are trash he just does it cause it's fun for him. and if you don't call him DR he will kill you.
DON'T TAKE HIM at any cost, this is an intro to c++ class and those with coding history fail it. He teaches it as if he's just going through a review of stuff you know already. The midterm and final are multiple choice (each answer has multiple correct answer and he doesn't specify how many). His grading is really tough, the avg of the class is D
Assignments are way too hard for an introduction class :/, teaches like everyone knows c++ and has a lot of attitude... I had to do a lot of self teaching in that course. Avoid him at all cost!
If you want to teach yourself the course by all means go ahead. His assignments Jeeeez good luck on them if you dont have background in c++ hell make your life miserable. Oh and he expects you to know c++ right from the get go even though its an introductory class
Ok he gets a lot of hate from people because of the class being to hard, but I find he was a great teacher. Easy to talk to, replies to you pretty fast on Discord, and willing to re-explain things. He creates a class the really pushes you to feel like a programmer and learn how problem solve in your own unique way. Not spoon feed, but well worth it
You'll waste 400$ by taking him. If you didn't learn programming before, you'll have to teach yourself online. His assignments are way too difficult. He gaves us another teacher's slides because his are useless. His live coding are just him playing around, he doesn't explain anything. He reponds quickly to emails but he's arrongant.
Dr. Thiel teaches a tough course and makes it fun, but his methods are too hands-off for many students' liking. As an intro to OOP, live coding lectures are the bare minimum. Labs are Pass/Fail, Assignments are terribly challenging & have hard deadlines. No feedback on work. Exams are good but have some convoluted questions (e.g. Fibonacci Seq)
This course despite being an introductory course is fairly challenging. The lectures are not useful unless you've read the textbook ahead of time, and they feel more like group review sessions. The assignments are easy if you practice the live coding session material. Stuart is very responsive and will answer all questions promptly through discord.
Constantly went on tangents, no details on his powerpoints, impossible to follow in lectures. If you're not good at self-teaching, avoid him at all costs. Should've changed profs when the TA told us about Udemy in the first class.
Avoid this professor at all cost. He acts like a frat guy and goes into random tangents every class. Do not believe the other ratings. Impossible exams, where it was his first time teaching Java, while having so many C++ questions. He most likely wrote the midmterm the day before, hence why it had so many typos. He keeps talking about Minecraft.
Be prepared to teach yourself a lot if you take him,to do well you must send him many emails,Very knowledgeable and chill guy, ideal for higher level courses,but for COMP249, avoid him. Evaluations are very hard. PPTs are not helpful. Overall conveyance of material is poor. I would take him again,BUT for 400 level or a masters course,never for 200
Fun guy. Great lectures, make you feel like a coder, makes sure you understand. But, Extremely tough evaluations. Exam designs not really analogous to class material design. Might have to guess what the question is asking. Will feel like you don't know much after a test. Replies to emails very fast, but lazily. PPTs useless. If you want an A+, run.
Very accessible outside of class; answers promptly and politely - Super nice guy. However, from an academic standpoint, I feel like he had trouble conveying his knowledge for a class as introductory as OOP II. As others have said; would take for a higher-level class. Also, be warned: brutal exams.
Never take this guy for anything. Completely unorganized and extremely lazy. He even showed us c++ examples for java midterm prep because they were already done from a previous class of his. The assignments are very vague and he always talks about random games. Jokes about torturing students academically.
Lowkey Stuart is a g, he may not be the best at conveying the information he has, but he is always accessible outside the classroom, replies very quickly on discord. Though the format of his exams was odd, he did cover up for it with that beautiful curve. All these factors make up for a good professor, not just the conveying of info.
This guy is not suitable for teaching, he just doesn't know how, regardless of his abilities to code. Be ready to read and teach yourself from scratch, and save your tuition to someone else more worth it.
The lectures are more on the conceptual side - the labs and tutorials (and textbook) supply the practical side of things. He's good at getting you thinking and excited about the possibilities with what is being taught. I liked how he would test some things out on the spot so we could see how something works in detail. Very helpful outside of class.
Very energetic and excited about the class, a funny guy. However the first half of the course's lecture notes contained no examples, any demonstration was done live in class but a little too quick for my comprehension. Would definitely suggest watching some videos on youtube for the material found in the syllabus or any reoccurring buzz words.
I have had Dr. Thiel for COEN 243 and COEN 352. He is very entertaining and I think he is a very nice guy. Unfortunately he is not a very good lecturer. He frequently gets lost in tangents and points outside the scope of the lectures. I think he is a nice person, and very entertaining, but not a great lecturer or teacher.
This guy is great lol. Like yeah he does talk a lot about other stuff but tbh he still gets the material delivered so whatever. Also he's good at what he does so he's not useless like most conU profs. Only thing though his slides are pretty useless to study like they're only good to look at during the actual lecture.
Good person and really showed his passion in the first class, thought finally got a good teacher but I guess I was wrong. As a basic c++ course, assignments and labs are hard. Lectures are disorganized, basically learned nothing from the lecture. I was excited to learn coding at the beginning of this term, but he's made c++ a nightmare for me now.
Took this teacher and got a better grade than I thought. But I wish I didn't take him because I'm suffering in later classes. I learned nothing in his class. OOP2 is too important to be taught by him. You will struggle in later classes because of how much he skips important stuff. When you're dying in c352, you'll look back and think of thiel.
He tells us that he isnt here to teach and that this class is to be learned on your own. Gave our midterm on a weekend and took a bereavement leave for a week and said he would post videos for the missed lectures and never did. Just rambles about random stuff as he reads the powerpoints
I think this professor is underrated. I found him a very good professor. He is very accessible; he used to spend 30-60 minutes after the 3-hour lecture answering students' questions, and he was also available on discord even at late hours. He is passionate about what he is teaching and knows his material.
I think this professor is very approachable and funny. It is not always easy to understand everything as it is a coding class but you will not be surprised by his exam if you look into the samples provided. I must say it would make your life a lot more easy if you check Programiz review and some videos. Stuart is really sweet though.
This prof is underrated. I do understand why people don't like him. However, you could easily ask him questions about anything and anytime. He's very accessible outside the classroom and the most relatable prof. He makes everyone laugh during lectures. His teaching should be improved, but he has a potential to be a great professor.
Here are my thoughts on Professor Stuart and the course. -Very approachable Prof and easy to ask questions. -Passionate but goes on tangents, which I think are interesting. -Tedious assignments. -Tedious labs. -Easy final exam. I loved the course, and would 100% recommend especially if you have previous programming experience.
If you are already good at coding or would like to push yourself, I recommend him since he really goes in-depth on the subject and you can ask him more advanced questions, but if you're not, you might be a little confused, as he often goes on tangents. Also, I know Dr. Thiel likes to read these ratings, so please, no more Saturday morning exams!!!!
Stuart is a good teacher overall, he expect you to learn code by your self which is great, because there are so many ressources online, he then teach in class how it works behind the screen and more technicall stuff that you won't likely fall on if you learn by yourself. On this note, his exam are mostly focus on the technical stuff.
Dr Thiel is one of the professors in Concordia. You will get to learn everything if you attend all lectures. He open to help students outside class. One of those professor who will care for you if you participate and interact with him in the class.
Great style of teaching, he is really passionate about the subject and will go in-depth, and will not mind answering any question to the best of his abilities. However, I do not like his exams at all. They do not accurately measure your knowledge, as the main difficulty for most questions is the ambiguity of the meaning of of the questions/choices.
This prof is amazing. I don't like his exams but he is extremely resourceful outside of the class. You could give him a DM and he would respond to you ASAP. I would take him again as a professor in the near future.
Fun professor, good guy but grades his programming classes based off of autogenerated word questions. Ends up being a reading comprehension class just as much as its a programming class. 20% of grade was programming and 80% was multiple choice tests/exams with plenty of trick questions He would be great teaching a small class.
Though he does most things ok, he is a total weirdo to begin with, when it comes to his jokes and comments. Secondly, this guy makes assignments that make no sense at all. Boring, long, super complicated, and theoretical coding assignments. Exams are fully MCQ and judging based off the questions, he expects you to have a pHD, just like him.
He is horrible when it comes to his assignments. They are really not clear and ambiguous. You spend hours to understand what he wants and finally struggle with his horrible code test. Also his lectures are trash, and his slides are even worse. I'm not gonna take him again what so ever.
dont take it in summer 2 or 1 , its a heavy course and little to no time to study especially if u took 348 with it
This professor is awful. His grading is sick, no matter how good you are, you find yourself in a big competition and at a certain point, you don't study for yourself, it's like you're there to just be better than everyone else, that's it. He said that literally. Assignments are so heavy and not clear. DO NOT TAKE HIM, you'll regret it so much!!
Good prof, very engaging lectures for what can be a dry topic. He is younger and in touch with students. Slides are ok and have good text refs. Assignments push your understanding. Exams can be tricky multiple-choice-multiple-answer but it's all about the curve and a lot of ppl don't get that when they whine about it. Grades come insanely fast.
His lectures are funny. he's the kind og guy to make a dad joke and wait for your reaction. Assignments are autogenerated soeveryone has some variation of the same assignment. Most PPts are just questions that you're supposed to know the answer to. Better to attend and take notes and use outside sorces to learn the material
highly recommend.
To be honest, he's a really nice guy. Unfortunately, I don't go to uni to have nice profs lecture me. With that said, his teaching style really isn't my style and he goes off HEAVY tangents. His teaching style isn't for everyone but I can't knock on him for it. His sample midterm/finals questions are on the midterm/final so memorize that! GG Stuart
I've had him before, his teaching style is not for everyone, but if you ask questions he'll make sure you understand. However, his exams are terrible, and this session he made it worse, by basically giving the exam in advance in the practice quiz, so everyone just learned everything by heart instead of actually understanding anything.
Amazing lecture. He knows a lot about history of what he's teaching if you're interested in that. he gives a ted talk about his life experience a lot before the start of the lectures. His test is REALLY heavy but he will curve you even heavier. I don't recommend him for COEN 243 because he expects you to know some basics in programming.
His lectures are decent and he will answer questions and overall engages the class. He seems to care about his students and its easy to get in contact with him outside of class via discord or email. His lectures are typically more applied and his tests are more heavily theory so you typically have to study outside of class to be ready for the tests
Mixed feelings about Stuart. On one hand, he cares about his students and engages whether it is online or during his lectures. On the other, during the six weeks I had him, I can't tell you one single thing I learned other than memorizing his lectures to ace his tests. Exams are very theory based, and he goes more over practical stuff in class.
A different approach of teaching.
Doing a JAVA course in a 6 week summer class is hard but this guy made it simple, his exams are not hard at all, the assignments are clear and labs are perfect. This guy can make any hard course simple.
The grading is so unclear you get 90% overall and it's a B. His exams you should only memorize his sample examples because the questions are not written documentation n human language. His a fun person but a terrible prof.
Stuart is a master of tangents—lectures often focus more on his personal life than the material. Exams seem designed to leave you questioning everything you thought you knew. No hints, no preparation, just a guessing game. Grading is a mystery, and feedback is nonexistent. If you enjoy confusion and unpredictability, this class is for you.
Class Info
Attendance Mandatory
7%
Textbook Required
40%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.25 avg changeRatings by Course
COMP354
5.0
(1)COEN352
3.6
(8)SOEN387
3.2
(5)Comp249
3.1
(17)SOEN287
2.7
(6)Difficulty by Course
COMP352
4.1
SOEN341
4.0
COEN243
3.9
Comp249
3.8
SOEN387
3.6