Steven Zeil - Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA

Professor: Steven Zeil

Department: Computer Science

College: Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: CS361
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Decent professor but has potential to be much better. While he has a good grasp on his materials, his methods of presentation are not the best. He comes off as extremely condescending to students, with a fair amount of ego. I would suggest for Zeil to develop an alternative method of presentation other than solely posting very long online notes.

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: CS361
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Dr. Ziel, A true professor. I would say that Dr. Ziel is probably one of the hardest professors I've ever faced in my college career!! Dude...I have a masters in Biochem and Molecular Biology. I am struggling through this classs, but at the end of the day, I believe I might get more out of this class than any of the other Computer Science courses

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: CS252
• Grade Received: C+
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

14 assignments 1 final. I did 13 and needed like a 50 but got like a 64 on the exam. I'm new to Unix and an avg. student so this class is definitely doable. Just work on your stuff early because some assignments take awhile to do. He responded quickly to me when I had a question. Overall, just glad this class is done lmao

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: CS252
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Worst teacher every, no help what so ever, sent him a whole paragraph asking for help and got a one sentence response saying "don't over complicate things". Possibly couldn't program himself out of a paper bag,

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: CS330
• 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:

Easiest professor ever. Only true Computer Science majors will learn and understand that once you graduate, the money is there. I am 28 years old and have a 150K job thanks to Dr. Zeils help.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: CS350
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

This man is a true horror. This man's material is so outdated that it might be as old as him. It's written with no true care and very little applicable information for the assignments. Later on in the class, it is even worse when you have to implement more in-depth items within the build gradle file, utilize javadocs, and create the stupid graphs.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: CS252
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Terrible professor. He doesn't really help when emailed and his assignments don't work.

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: CS252
• Grade Received: B
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Avoid When possible! Just listen to everyone else that has rated him because they're all true. Its just a fact of life if you attend ODU and major in CPU science that you will have to take him for a course, so best of luck to you when that happens friend. Were all pulling for ya. Also, CS252 is pass/fail I put B as the grade because its middle.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: CS350
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Taking CS350, have taken 2 other courses of his, the only reason I have him for this class is because no other professor offered it! Very condescending, not good at communicating or helping with assignments whether that means guiding you to get it right or to find where you went wrong. Does not provide the info needed for assignments.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: CS350
• Grade Received: B
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Hardest class I've had to take, but it certainly is doable. Expect to put in countless hours a week into this class. Zeil is a genius; I think everyone agrees about that - but he forgets that you aren't. He can be condescending if you ask questions. A lot of info isn't explicitly listed, so look through all his public information. LEARN GRADLE!

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: CS390
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Videos I found about the topic online were my best friends in this course. The textbook (and by extension, his notes) are extremely dry and make problems more difficult than they need to be. The book only makes sense after you understand a concept you learned on your own (usually through outside courses). Very confusing/frustrating experience.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: CS350
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Avoid taking his classes. I guess i cant honestly say he is a terrible teacher since he doesnt actually teach. He just throws up his awful online lectures and calls it teaching. He expects you to know things that he never mentions and when you ask for help he is super rude. AVOID!

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: CS350
• Grade Received: WD
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

I would not recommend taking any class set forth by this professor. I have gone through two of his classes, and both have been horrible. The professor does not teach. He sits back, behind a vaguely written website that barely contains enough information to understand what students need to do for any given assignment. CS 252 was not as bad as CS 350

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: CS390
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Don't take him if you can. He likes to make students do all the work. He's only there by email, which means never. He'll make students read the textbook, his lectures and never gives any help. Either you get an A or you'll fail. No partial credit. He likes to sit back and relax while watching his students learn on their own.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: CS250
• Grade Received: INC
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

Zeil's classes are a scam. His Unix course is required for Computer Science majors, but is automated with no support from Zeil. One assignment required a specific output, which I received. I used the wrong function to receive the correct result. Zeil refused to explain this to me, causing me to fail. I paid a few hundred for an online quiz.

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: CS350
• Grade Received: C+
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Do well on the Midterm & Final. They come from the course readings but are challenging. Be sure to complete the first 3 assignments and the labs EARLY as they will come back to bite. He is feared by many but isn't that bad. Simply do the work, although he can be a bit ambiguous at times(his teaching style) Choose your group WISELY.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: CS330
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

His material is hard to follow. You'll spend hours trying to discover the smallest bits of testable concepts, buried in his website material. Good person though. Prepare to dig and dig to get answers and concepts. smh.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: CS361
• Grade Received: WD
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

My biggest mistake was thinking going to community college for 2 years and finishing my degree at odu was a big mistake. As soon as i got to this class i was completely lost. He was talking about stuff in his lectures i didnt even learn. Even a few of the students that was at odu since freshmen year was lost.

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: CS382
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Apparently he doesn't know who's in his classes. Sounds unorganized. Here's one of his "rules". "having to go look up your name to see which of my courses you are talking about is annoying." We annoy him.

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: CS330CS361
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Look, Zeil isn't the best teacher. However, having to learn things on your own is how you progress in this field. Test and debug your programs before submitting them to the auto grader. Do the reading and code to your hearts content. Most of the people complaining are just bad at programming and aren't willing to make the effort to improve.