2.9
Quality3.1
Difficulty26%
Would Retake93
Reviews26%
Would Retake
93
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
19
4
17
3
18
2
17
1
22
What Students Say
“Oakes is a terrible teacher”
ENG133 - 1.0 rating“Is a bit arrogant in the way EPICS and the learning community runs itself”
ENGR133 - 3.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
100%
Textbook Required
23%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-1.02 avg changeRatings by Course
ENG106
5.0
(2)ME433
5.0
(1)EE490
5.0
(1)ENGR170
5.0
(1)ENGR195
4.3
(9)Difficulty by Course
COUNSELOR
5.0
EPICS
4.0
ENGR126
4.0
ADFASDF
4.0
ENG133
3.8
Reviews (93)
EPICS cofounder.
No Comments
Great guy, very nice
Tom Cruise-look alike; nice but too serious
I learned so much from Prof Oakes and with only 5 homeworks for the whole semester. Walking away from his turbomachinery class I feel that I have a concrete understanding of the important concepts and problem solving skills.
Had him a few years ago, he did a great job preparing us for the exams while the other 106 professors got blown away by our lectures scores
Had him Fall 02. Great, nice guy, much better than other 106 professors (So i'm told)
First let me say that he is curently the best engr106 professor purdue has. Was not helpful at all for community service project. Would recomend not being on learning community. Complete waste of time!!!
An all around good guy. I was pretty confused most of the time in his class, but that was probably more my fault than his.
Had him in fall '01. Good guy, big nerd and at the beginning of class he'd always pick up the microphone and say, "Is this thing on? Whhhoooaaa!" My roommate and I found it hilarious on multiple levels.
No Comments
great teacher and guy
Great Professor and super nice guy, went above and beyond all other 106 profs. Had some interesting stories/problems from actual engineering situations.
he is very good at his teaching skills, very nice professor to be in class with
Very helpful outside of class.
Good, but not so good in Fluids. Try to get someone who is smarter in fluids rather than him giving you the wrong info.
No Comments
didn't learn anything from his lecture. he made everything looked harder than it actually is. but he's pretty approachable.
Oakes is great, but he tends to call people out of the audience and do so-called team-building exercises that I don't particularly care for.
Oakes screwed me over on several occations. He accused me of cheating, intentionally lowered my grade, and refused to help me with academic counseling - even though he was my advisor! I'm happy to have the class over with, and glad I escaped 106 alive. On a similar note, I would not recomend the learning community option for this class.
He was an okay teacher but the grading scale sucks ass!!!
Funny lectures, doesn't remember your name even if your his kid, makes learning MATLAB fun, what more could you ask in an Engineering Professor?
No Comments
If you want to learn something, change teachers...anyone is better than oakes.
I cannot stress enough, do not take a class with this professor. The class was not hard, he made it difficult.
He accused me of academic dishonestly, lowered my grade, and was ready to send me to the Dean for an error in software that graded our homework. He was too arrogant too look at the project code for the real problem. After going to his office multiple times he never remembered my name.
This guy always seemed freindly during lecture, but he was genuinely pissed off if you disturbed him during his office hours. I cant stress enough how nice he is during lecture, and how arrogant and un-helpful he is outside of class. He tries to go for the "buddy" feel during the first week, but its just for show. STUCK ON HIMSELF!
very nice guy. Seemed interested in helping. Workload was insane. Somebody needs to tell him that if you tuck in your shirt you should wear a belt
Good prof for how much work he had to do. Although, it is his fault he took on enough work that it effected his teaching and student interacting ability. Overall, he's love or hate. First impressions are everything with this guy. Bad impression, he hates you. Good impression, he will go out of his way for you. Decent overall.
very nice...... the first week..... very arrogant and stuck up.... went to office hours and made me feel like an idiot for something i just couldn't get.... don't go there anymore because of it
Very tough and boring class but he does his best to keep it interesting. Nice guy!
He did a good job, It's a decent class
Really knew what he was doing. Class material itself was uninteresting, but it was easy to see that he was the most experienced of all the engineering professors and knew all about it.
Nicest guy you'll ever meet. Didn't really care for how he taught the class. Would definitely recommend him tho.
Nice enough, but a total moron. Clearly has no grasp of programming. Class is offensively stupid and could be better taught by a trained monkey.
Professor doesn't respect his students, talks down to them and expects them to be inexperienced morons while knowing nothing about them
He is the best prof. I ever had in engineering class. He goes for actually helpful class, rather than teaching just useless stuffs. He taught things that other people don't and it is extremely helpful later. the only one class that I enjoyed to go to.
He is a very energetic guy, always trying (and usually failing) at telling jokes. Our section did consistently better on exams, he does a good job preparing you. His lectures are sometimes boring, but he tries hard to make them otherwise, since he isn't the one determining the curriculum, he can't always help it. Approachable. Overall good teacher.
he was my favorite teacher at purdue,i'm not even an engineering major anymore, but he honestly cares about his students,he even stayed almost all night once to help students when lots of students needed help,and he walks around and makes sure that you know how to do everything so that you do well,and he hosts review sessions and most teachers dont
Talks down to his students. Fails to acknowledge that innovation has come from unprecedented methods.
Oakes was very helpful in all of the classes. He DOES NOT talk down to his students. If you interpret it that way you may just have some self confidence problems. Oakes was nice enough to even hold a study session at my dorm until11:30 PM the week before our second exam.
He is the best professor in my life, he gave me a large amount of help in my first semester. He is extremely important for me. He concentrates on every student when he is teaching. He has the passion for engineering .
Very good professor
Professor Oakes is not a nice man. He seems to only show interest in you if you're a pretty girl, which is not right for a professor. I would advise against taking any course with this professor.
Professor Oakes is an awesome professor. I was in his EPICS learning community and he constantly met us outside of class to help us get MATLAB. He's really busy with EPICS and everything else, but he is a very nice guy and definitely cares about his students.
Professor Oakes was a phenomenal instructor. He hosted study sessions before exams and offered to look at students resumes for us. At times he stayed after class to help students finish their codes. His tests are difficult, but doable, and he's willing to help make sure you understand the material enough to do well. He also often fed us in class.
Reasonable professor, lots of trick questions, but that is honestly just how the department is set up. If you ask him for help, he will provide, there is nothing I can recommend more than going to office hours if you need them, they are really worth it. Class grading and difficulty are reasonable, just keep a level head.
Oakes cares about his students and that they do well. MATAB is frustrating, but he makes himself available to students for help. Go to office hours to get help, even if its for another class. He offered to look over resumes at office hours before IR, and he h alt of insight from being a recruiter for GE.
The way he teaches the class can be frustrating at times, but in the end you will really get to know the material. The online modules you are required to watch before class are unbelievably boring but do explain the material fully. In class he just goes over them. Quizzes at the start of every class. Helpful outside of class -looked over resumes.
Is a bit arrogant in the way EPICS and the learning community runs itself. Definitely watch the online modules ahead of time because he only briefly covers them in class- don't count on even that though because by the time he's done with his random tangents and whining to get to the lesson, you'll have already zoned out
Dr. Oakes is a terrible teacher. He does too many things to be good at teaching eng 133. On multiple occasions I would ask for help and he would ignore it. Blackboard has many issues but when I went to talk to him about it he acted like it was my fault the dropbox wouldn't take some files. If you have hime good luck because he doesn't care.
While the class format isnt my favorite, I made a lot of friends in this class due to the format due to the necessity of finding a study/work group to get the long problem sets done. As for Professor Oakes, he is a really outgoing, funny, and overall great guy. He has a busy schedule but will help you out of class with resumes etc.
Oakes comes off as very arrogant and he likes to hear his own voice. After a few classes, I realized that he rambles on about lessons that is not really all that applicable to anything in class. He almost never addresses students directly.
He has the ability to energize the class. I am a chill and sit in the corner student but because of this class's format, I made connections with so many people. His teachings methods are very effective since he's very experienced with students. The homework might get tough, but there is 12 of them and they are only worth 10% of your final grade.
Oakes does not teach, he expects students to learn how to code from YouTube. Homework nowhere near equivalent to the videos assigned to watch, it is much harder. This class heavily relies on prior coding experience. If you don't have any, you'll live but you have to work much harder. This class should be more than 2 credits for the work put in.
Does not teach anything and will flip out if you try to ask him a question. Even made a joke in class about getting paid to do nothing all day. Expects you to learn how to do complex assignments with only information from Youtube videos. Insane amount of work for 2 credit hours.
Lots of homework, but its doable if you can manage your team. Oakes is a great person to know for connections. However, he is not a great teacher for the 133 course. He organizes the assignments, but he does not actually TEACH when he should.
This class is designed so that a professor isn't even needed, because everything learned is self taught through Youtube videos. Approach to teaching coding to first year students is atrocious, the homeworks are hard and the simple youtube videos don't cut it. Be prepared to spend half the class listening to Oakes ramble about virtually nothing.
This class was alright in that it taught me a lot about Python and MatLab, subjects I'll use later. However, there's an egregious amount of work, and Professor Oakes and half the TA's don't know the material. All of the learning is done online, yet attendance is mandatory. It's honestly a very strange class.
We were required to learn how to code (Matlab and Python) and Oakes and the TAs were extremely unhelpful because they didn't know how to do it themselves. Terrible class.
Overall good person, but he really doesn't seem to know what he is doing in the classroom. He says how much he hates computers about 3 times a class, and most of the learning is done on your own. Still, as long as you go to class and do the homework/quizzes, you should be able to get an A.
Oakes is a goodhearted person, but as a professor who is trying to teach a first year engineering class, he's not the best. He cares that you know and understand the material, but isn't well equipped to get you there. He tends to "hate computers". However, he cares about student feedback, so going to his office outside of homework help can be good.
This class is based on flipped classroom so you learn all the material through videos. The professor didn't teach anything and barely knew what he was doing. He has so much energy and wastes like 30 minutes of class talking about irrelevant things. The class is two hours long and you are basically just working on assignments all class.
The class was actually quite easy. But in terms of management, it was a complete disaster. We were forced to attend 2 lectures every week, where we did absolutely nothing, since we had to learn everything from Youtube videos. Oakes is just not a great professor. He doesn't have a deep understanding of programming, and he doesn't put in effort atall
Professor Oakes was a horrible introduction to my first year as an engineer. I'd already had some background on the things we were learning in class, but I was still confused as we learned it and it seemed like I knew more than he or the TA's did. You'll be teaching yourself a lot of this content in this class and it'll take real effort.
Billiam Oakes is by far the worst professor. He says he teaches python, he doesn't know anything. We learn from some guy on you tube, and we get homework assigned on those topics. He has zero emotional control and regularly gets mad at students for asking questions. He is an awful professor who cant teach.
ENGR133 is really hard if you're not good with computers. Most of the class is coding, and you learn it from Youtube videos. I don't think Oakes really knows how to code, so I'm not sure why he is there. Definitely go to office hours because the TAs run them and are soooo helpful. That's the only reason I could do my homework and pass the class.
Homework heavy class. Oakes is hilarious and has amazing energy but is not the most knowledgeable. He's always down to help and very understanding, but most of technical help will come from the GTA or the TAs. Everything is group-based. You will be put into a group and be required to work with them for the rest of the semester.
Dr. Oakes didn't do a lot in this class it was mainly just the TAs. It can definitely be a challenging course if you don't have programming experience but on the whole I thought that they were more than fair with the grading and that the course was not bad if you put in the time. Solid class.
Lots of work, but really simple. The quizzes were more difficult, but if you know the material (show up to class, do the work), you'll do fine. William Oakes is really interested in helping you out. He goes on hikes with our class, has tons of office hour time slots, and is easily accessible.
*Online Synchronous Class. Professor Oakes is a very caring professor and willingly provides extensions and leniency when necessary. But, this class mostly runs on TAs and group work, so enjoyment of this class probably depends on group members. Material is relatively easy and learned by watching short videos that you are quizzed on.
Professor Oakes was very friendly and always willing to make class interesting. However, he didn't know how to teach Python or Matlab. We learned from Youtube videos and then figuring things out in our groups on our own. If you like learning that way, be my guest. But he is an awesome person!
He was my Senior Design professor. The reviews are true- he is incompetent and uncaring. He actually delayed my graduation. A week before grad he said my project wasn't finished, despite never expressing any concerns before, then held my future above my head for 4 months. Hi if you're reading this, Dr. Oakes. Thanks for wasting my time and money
For the love of God. No.
Dr. Oakes is an okay guy. He is quite annoying to have at 7:30 because he plays VeggieTales videos on the projector and then talks about garbage for 1 hour. He was decently generous on grading though and was a decently nice guy. Prepare to self-learn because Oakes does not teach at all. You will learn from your friends for the most part.
Almost the entire class is coding in a group you get assigned week 2. Good Luck... Most of the class is taught through youtube.
Doesn't explain much isn't much help does know the homework he gives kinda weird only good thing is he plays veggie tales before class starts
Prof. Oakes is teaching a heavy coding class, when he doesn't even know how to code himself. The homework is too difficult, and you will be coding things you can't comprehend. Office hours are always so busy, and there is never much help.
Incompetent when it comes to anything with computers, asking him for help is like asking your cat to do your math homework, he just looks at you with blank, unfeeling eyes. Don't take this class and if you do, don't take it at 7:30, get ready to spend 12 hours working on junk for this 2 credit class, and good luck. Live laugh love, stay away <3
Oakes is a good guy but a meh teacher. You teach yourself the course w/ youtube videos outside of class. ENGR 133 is almost 100% Python and Matlab coding w/ some Excel. There are a ton of office hours to get help on assignments but be prepared to spend ten minutes explaining yourself before getting help. I feel like the TAs run 90% of this course.
Professor Oakes is completely incompetent. I cannot believe that the exorbitant tuition gets me this geezer who links us to a highly-subscribed youtube channel for python instruction. The videos don't even cover the homework content. Finally, Oakes is very creepy. He always finds a way to touch his students and invade their personal space.
Given the structure of ENGR 133 (and I assume 131/132), Oakes doesn't lecture much. When I took 133, the class used a flipped classroom structure which outsourced the lectures to youtube videos which I found inconvenient. He also stressed me out when I'd ask questions so if you're shy gl. He does give valuable stories from being an engineer though.
This class is not an entry level coding class. Be prepared to learn engineering coding solely through YouTube videos- no lectures really. Your grade is decently dependent on your luck with your team, which can be your downfall if you have zero coding experience. Be prepared to work hard and you can do well. Grindset.
very hard class
I had Professor Oaks for Engr 133 and for my EPICS lab. 133 is a flipped classroom and operates in groups. He did not seem to be proficient in what he was teaching. My Epics lab my team was all freshmen we were just thrown into the wolves with very little guidance. He has an interesting persona.
My engineering team was doing our project and we got stuck at one point and Professor Oakes basically told us we could just not do that part of the project if we didn't want the 10 points then said we could just not do the project at all and walked away. Homework is ridiculously hard, and we are not learning anything
This course is terrible for those with little to no coding experience whatsoever. The course is taught completely on your own. Your grade solely depends on how well your team knows how to code. Also, Oakes never answers students' emails. Most of the time if you ask him a question, he will flip out on you. Terrible class, would NOT recommend!
Professor Oakes has a unique personality. He is very accessible outside of class, but sometimes when I asked for help I felt like he was talking down to me. I think it was just him being frustrated the code was not working, and not directed towards me. If you have prior coding experience the class is not that bad but if not good luck.
If this is your first time coding, do not rely on the instruction in this course-- it is in the form of outdated videos from YouTube that you watch outside of class. Oakes has a ME background and it reflects in the poor coding practices being taught. Otherwise, very easy course if you have prior coding knowledge. TAs didn't have much experience too
For this class, you are supposed to teach yourself the coding before class and then work on assignments with your team in class. This can be very difficult if you do not have a coding background. Oakes has a very interesting personality and does not explain concepts well in lab, but office hours saved me. He will make sure you get it done right.
Most of the "lectures" he gives is about something that is irrelevant to this class. Only redeeming quality about this professor is he will stay up very late with you in office hours to get your code working. Terrible class but worth if you don't want two semesters of coding. You'll hate yourself in the moment but thank yourself in the end.
Professor Oakes is a good engineer and professor. He is willing to help students and will go above and beyond to assist them during office hours. However, I have issues with how the 133 is structured. Some topics are not taught at all and then are required for homework. He also relies heavily on TA's for assistance, which can be wishy-washy.
A class with a heavy workload but manageable. If you have any experience in Python or Matlab, this class will be relatively easy. The difficulty of assignments ramps up fast, so be prepared for sudden: "what on earth is going on" moments. Oakes is a GREAT guy but an ok teacher. He's funny, but by god, he is a yapper. The TAs are, um, something...
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
100%
Textbook Required
23%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-1.02 avg changeRatings by Course
ENG106
5.0
(2)ME433
5.0
(1)EE490
5.0
(1)ENGR170
5.0
(1)ENGR195
4.3
(9)Difficulty by Course
COUNSELOR
5.0
EPICS
4.0
ENGR126
4.0
ADFASDF
4.0
ENG133
3.8