Rutgers University Student Instructional Rating
(Online Survey - Sakai)
Saied Jason
jjs435
Summer 2018, 01:640:250:H6 — INTRO LINEAR ALGEBRA (index #02089)
Enrollment= 23, Responses= 11

Part A: University-wide Questions:
Student Responses Weighted Means
Strong
Disagree
1
Strong
Agree
5
No response
 
Section Course Level Dept
1. The instructor was prepared for class and presented the material in an organized manner. 0 0 0 1 10 0 4.91 4.60 4.65 4.62
2. The instructor responded effectively to student comments and questions. 0 0 0 1 10 0 4.91 4.51 4.55 4.54
3. The instructor generated interest in the course material. 0 0 1 1 9 0 4.73 4.30 4.37 4.40
4. The instructor had a positive attitude toward assisting all students in understanding course material. 0 0 0 0 11 0 5.00 4.51 4.58 4.61
5. The instructor assigned grades fairly. 0 0 0 0 11 0 5.00 4.40 4.46 4.39
6. The instructional methods encouraged student learning. 0 1 0 3 7 0 4.45 4.25 4.40 4.40
7. I learned a great deal in this course. 0 0 1 2 8 0 4.64 4.26 4.46 4.45
8. I had a strong prior interest in the subject matter and wanted to take this course. 0 0 1 5 5 0 4.36 3.56 3.72 3.48
 PoorExcellent 
9. I rate the teaching effectiveness of the instructor as: 0 0 1 1 9 0 4.73 4.38 4.55 4.45
10. I rate the overall quality of the course as: 0 0 1 3 7 0 4.55 4.30 4.43 4.26

What do you like best about this course?:

I liked how the instructor went into depth about concepts with proofs instead of simply doing computations. However, I also really appreciated how he considered all student's needs and found a middle ground for both me and the other students who don't enjoy proofs.

It was thorough and the workload was evenly spaced out throughout the length of this course. In addition, when I had difficulty understanding the material Jason was very good at explaining it another way so that I could understand it.

Great guy, great professor and the best teacher I could ask for.

I liked the application aspect of it. I think it can help make a connection with the material and have a longer lasting impact on retaining what one did in class with a theorem and increase your understanding of why a particular method is useful.

I liked how the open note quizzes would test our knowledge directly after the lecture, because it felt like instant practice to reinforce the material we learned and would make our doubts easier to articulate. Also, the teaching was very thorough and clean, it felt like a good pace to learn at. Very much respect the fair grading amongst students and explanation of material when asked questions.

I liked how Jason was able to break down the concepts in a simpler manner. All of the theorems that we have to learn for this course can be overwhelming, but Jason was able to properly teach us how to apply these concepts computationally and theoretically.

The professor is pretty nice and helps us a lot on understanding each concept. He is also being patient and confirms every answers do repond the question raised by students. Every step of theorum are proven, and also comes with an example, which helps me understands most of the problems.

Very engaged with the class and encouraged to ask questions. Went over material as many times needed.


If you were teaching this course, what would you do differently?:

I would be more strict about slacking students. Sometimes students in the class were on their phones or laptops in the front row, and that was really distracting. Other times, people would talk in class or take away from other student's learning.

The theory and proofs behind the math seemed difficult to understand at times.

Nothing.....he knows what he is doing.

maybe upload what theorems/key points we will discuss in a class prior to the class, maybe an outline on sakai. I feel like it might give more class time fro examples and application rather than it take up a lot of time just going over the theorem in full during the short time together.

Although the proofs were nice, I believe that there was 70 percent proofs and 30 percent examples, but the exams and quizzes only covered that 30 percent. I maybe would like to have seen proofs tested, or less proofs in the class because sometimes I would zone out knowing it was not relevant to me. Great teaching and understanding of the material, but the only slight flaw was that you answered some questions in complicated language to make sure you didn't make any theoretical errors, but I could sense that people did not understand you. When instead you could have answered in simple, layman terms. Also, too many points taken off for computational errors, I don't think it is that relevant to our understanding of the material i.e. 4/5 points off for 1 wrong number in a matrix... sorry I'm just salty

I wouldn't change anything.

I think I would use a powerpoint when I were teaching. Even though it is quite good to have a same pace with students making notes, sometimes it is still unclear. In this case, the powerpoint could also be uploaded to sakai, and students could take less time on taking notes and more time on practicing problems.


In what ways, if any, has this course or the instructor encouraged your intellectual growth and progress?:

The instructor was very receptive in office hours and learning beyond the material. I felt as if I learned a lot because of the instructor's willingness to help inside and outside of class. Also, he was very encouraging and easy to approach which further helped me grow intellectually. I really appreciated that the instructor went beyond his job description to help students.

Since I commute from NY state, my commute is 4 hours in addition to my 40 hour job at KPMG. It is very hard to be attentive constantly working from morning 6 to evening 5:30 and going to class. However, Jason's lecture material not only engaged me but made me rekindle my interest in Math. I lost all interest in my earlier classes and I only took it because it is a cs major requirement. However, I might just pursue Math major after his class.

I think matrices are an interesting tool regarding numbers and functions especially dealing with dimensions. By the end of the class you really get a look at how much information can be imbedded within a matrix.

Definitely taught in a way that compelled you to understand the material theoretically, not just formulaically, through the use of proofs and I appreciate that. Brought back some of my old interest in mathematics for sure.

It was interesting to see how Linear Algebra can be applied to computer science and statistics.

I feel like I am more confidence on using linear algebra and understands the theorums of those related problems. It also helps me be more exact on every steps when view a problem.

Encouraged to think abstractly about mathematical concepts


Other comments or suggestions::

Instead of writing everything out on the board, it would be nice to give students more time to think and draw those connections out themselves. For example, if there was a rather unimportant observation, instead of writing it out, you could instead relay it verbally. Sometimes too many words drown out the important details. Different students also learn in different ways, so it might be a good idea to engage in more group activities or different methods of learning. For example, an active learner might want to talk out a problem to figure out a solution. A visual learner might appreciate a graphical interpretation of a vector instead of numbers in a matrix. These weren't complaints about the teaching, but suggestions for the future. Overall, I really enjoyed this class because of how much I learned.

The instructor was well prepared and articulate in answering questions and explaining the material. If anything, I would say maybe to use sakai for announcements about class instead of email only because thats what Im use to but also because everything is kept in one place and easily accessible. other than this I think the instructor did a great job.

Loved the class overall, thank you very much.