Assignment heavy but very easy. Requires you to read the textbook a lot to understand what must be done for assignments. Grading was super laid back. This class is required for CS majors, so don't worry too hard about it. Most people I know are going to get As or A+s even though it was hard at time

Professor didn't really do much other than email us that we had extensions on the assignments. The course never met synchronously and I never watched any of the professors prerecorded videos since they were all from 2015. Overall he was a nice guy who was flexible with due dates and understanding of the difficulty of the content in the course.

Other people leaving reviews on this page are disgruntled because of two people stirring the pot in this terms' Discord channel. The class was hard (but graded lightly) and the professor hasn't nailed online teaching; I don't understand what the big fuss is from everyone

I probably would have found the material interesting in any other situation. The class was completely asynchronous. The lectures were from a graduate-level class and they were hard to understand. The work is difficult and takes a long time to complete, even though we were working in groups. I don't think I will be able to remember anything from this class. There was no engagement and no incentive to perform beyond the bare minimum.

I was told that he is a caring professor. He is an easy grader. However, the way he conducted this course was terrible. He was completely absent from the course unless you sent him an email directly. He would change due dates around often but he only sent out an announcement that he did so once or twice throughout the entire term. Thankfully, it was always set to a later date. The website he created for the course was terrible. It didn't have any formatting and it was hard to read. Quizzes and tests were posted on there, publicly accessible to anyone. Apparently, the course was supposed to be synchronous but the professor decided to make it asynchronous without informing the department heads.

Develop a schedule with your group. Watch his website like a hawk in case he decides to change anything.

Would not recommend the course to those that do not have to take it. Class takes a lot of time to get the work done, and it feels like you're jumping all over the place. Lectures are scuffed recordings from another class which make it hard to watch and learn from.

Not present

Develop a schedule with your group to get the work done, and budget a few hours each time

The material itself is likely fine, not that I had the drive to read any of it. Online learning has butchered plenty of courses, and this is no exception.

Regrettable experience. Nowak is normally an earnest and engaging professor. This class allegedly was supposed to be synchronous and it was entirely asynchronous; we were told to read some materials each week and do the assignments. He was utterly absent otherwise, save if you e-mail him directly with a question or comment. There was no engagement and thus no drive to perform beyond basic capacity. More than any other class, it felt like as long as I said what I thought was correct, then I was correct. I don't know if this is on the TA's or Nowak himself, but the result is that I'm left unsure if I actually know what I'm doing or if I'm in a series of lucky guesses and "close enoughs" to get decent grades.