Jason James - Harper College, Palatine, IL

Professor: Jason James

Department: Computer Science

College: Harper College, Palatine, IL

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: CSC122
• Grade Received: A+
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Professor: Cares Homework: Decent. Generous extra credit. Lectures: Hit or miss. He gets stuck showing low level details before the students have a general understanding about the idea being presented. What are you trying to show? Tests: Unfair. Qs are too specific and lectures don't emphasis what's important. Website: Confusing but info is there.

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: MTH220
• Grade Received: A+
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Underrated teacher, knows his stuff very well, tons of extra credit literally you can pass the class with just EC. Very understanding professor and amazing jokes. Super fun in class. Took him for discrete but take any class with him and youre passing with A. Unless you really bad at studies

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: CS121
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Helpful, lots of extra credit, available to help, and challenging projects. However, lectures are a waste of time, no one understands from the way he explains concepts. Speaks to the class as if the class is at his level of understanding. His website is a mess to navigate. Jumps from chapter to chapter leaving you clueless to which chapters to read

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: MTH220
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Technically, he doesn't just read from the textbook. He also makes memorable but unrelated notes about the author and the mistakes in the book. Very useful and insightful.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: CSC122
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Very nice and funny guy, but I couldn't learn anything from him. His lectures were boring, he explained concepts in a complex way, didn't tell us our grades until the third to last week, and didn't use the book. You'll get an A if you do the programming assignments, but you have to learn on your own, either from the book or YouTube.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: CSC121122
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

He's a great guy, I started learning CS from him. Now im at UIUC hanging in there.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: CSC122
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Has own website, straight to point with learning and grading scale. Makes computer science even more interesting to learn about. Tests are great. Best teacher I've had in college career (attended 2 universities before). Too many haters here ranting about some minor things.. For cs, it's either you get it or you don't, don't blame the professor.

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: CSC122
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

He is nice and gives a lot of extra credit oppurtunities. His lectures aren't the most interesting but if you read his notes before lecture you should be fine.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: CSC122
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

He is really sweet guy. Cares about students. LOTS OF EXTRA CREDIT. maybe you'll find his classes little boring at first but don't get scared too easy. He offers so many extra credit opportunities that nobody could fail even if they wanted to. Just take him. He is the best professor in CS.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: CSC122
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

This guy cannot teach. He is smart. But can't teach to save his life. You can learn a lot doing the labs and projects. But not through his lectures. I wish I could have taken another professor but he is the only choice for 4 classes at Harper.

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: CSC121
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

If you only need ONE SEMESTER of programming take him. Has a lot of extra credit. You will not learn as much but you still can receive an A. Failed all tests still received an A. How to pass: Make sure you read his website notes BEFORE coming to class and watch youtube videos. Ask for help and visit his office hours because he will help you a lot.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: CS121
• Grade Received: B
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Possibly one of the worst professors ever to grace this earth. Every lecture is basically him reading off his old code while never going deeper. Manages to crack unfunny jokes about off topic subjects in a way that only one person smiles per joke. Would not recommend taking this course if you have any other option. Good luck.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: CSC121
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

He tires so hard to be funny and tries to teach. Everyone in class can tell he wants to teach, he so badly wants to. But he can't, he knows his stuff but can't teach his stuff.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: CSC122
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

I took him for CSC122 and MTH220 same semester, really nice guy with a relentless dry but entertaining sense of humor. If you're the type that needs to be spoonfed information, don't take his class, you will need to study a lot on your own if you wish to succeed, but he was happy to answer questions during and after class. Also, TONS of extracredit

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: CSC121
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

I've never felt the need to rate a professor on here until I had this man as a professor. Jason James is quite literally the worst teacher I've ever had. Tries to be funny but isn't, goes on (too many) tangents, doesn't explain things at all. He has no idea how to teach other people. If you have to take him, may god have mercy on your soul.

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: MAT220
• Grade Received: B
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

They say those who can't do teach. Lecture is just him reading directly out of the PhD level textbook. He seems very intelligent but when asked to provide an example will silently rewrite the answer on the board and think that helped. Tests take about a month to be graded and no grades are posted online so just hope his wacked grading scale passes

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: CSC122
• Grade Received: WD
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

He knows how to code, but he doesn't teach it well at all. He flies through lecture, so it's nigh impossible to copy down notes. The problem statements for HW are hard to understand. He leaves most of the teaching to his website. Self teaching is not what I paid this guy money for. Got the first test back 11 weeks in. Class average was 57%.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: CSC122
• Grade Received: INC
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

He knows his stuff but his lectures are very poorly organized. He basically reads code that he probably wrote years ago. He goes off topic all the time. He is helpful if you ask him questions one-on-one but otherwise, he is pretty bad. He doesn't seem to care about the class, is always on his computer during labs instead of doing live demos etc.

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: CSC122
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Lectures arent helpful, most of his lecture goes over my head and I'm more interested in CS than the average student. He knows the stuff but doesnt teach it well in a lecture format. So hardly anyone shows up to class. But hes helpful on a one-on-one basis where you ask questions about your code. His website is vague with the assignments he wants.

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: CSC121
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

The problem I have with this teacher is that he grades things very late. My semester is nearly over, and he still hasn't graded the portfolio assignments from week 5 and 10. He doesn't have a blackboard either, so you have to ask him your grade, and it's not even an updated grade. A lot of his tests are take-home, but they're really difficult.