Voelker, Kurt  

Great professor, great teacher, enjoyable class

First of all, this guy is hilarious. You need to pay really close attention, but sometimes the things he says are just out of nowhere and off the wall, but funny as hell. I still have a list of quotes he said in class. He is an interesting professor, I don't think he knew too much about the material because he seemed to be learning it with the class, and he frequently made mistakes on the board, but 141 was easy enough with him, and much easier compared to some of the other professors. I would definitely recommend him if you can take him. He collected homework, and his exams had problems that were expected, no surprises, just go to lecture

He is a teacher that doesnt teach. You do all your learning from the books. he assigns labs that are a pain in the ass. It took him a 2 hr class period to figure out one of the questions he assigned us for hw and Im sure he still didnt get the correct answer. His midterms are completely unfair, he has a grading system that makes no sense. It just seems like he is a noob at teaching and its unfair to the students. I wouldnt recommend him.

kvoelker is horrible. He doesn't ever teach the material. The only way to learn anything is to read the book. The class is 2 hours and he spends the first hour sitting at his computer doing his own thing and the rest of the class works on their assignment. Then, the second half of class, he tries to figure out the problems that he assigned to us and doesn't have much success with it. His grading system is complete bull shit. There is no partial credit and he has zero leniency. On my first midterm I forgot a period on two problems and used parenthesis instead of brackets on another and it brought my grade down two letter grades. He's a horrible teacher, his hair is stupid, and hes awkward as hell. Avoid him if you can.

Voelker, he is very odd and funny so I like the guy! Haha. I would have to say that Kurt is a very smart guy when it comes to programming but he is not so great at presenting it to engineers. But I did see a very significant rise in his abilities to portray the material clearly in class as the year progressed (He is still learning MATLAB himself) and could tell that he REALLY cared about teaching us the material so that we could use it in future classes. But on the other hand he is not very lenient when it comes to grading... NNNOOOO partial credit! I mean you can do a problem 92.73% right and not get a single point for it, so that was a bummer but what are you going to do you know. But I can say that I know more about MATLAB than students with other professors. So what do you value more, learning or grades? If you care more about having knowledge take Voelker because I hear the other guy just doesn't care about his students.

Pf. Voelker is a very nerdy guy who tries to do his best to teach the material. This class is not difficult for the first few weeks, but then it becomes a bit more challenging. Reading the book is enough to pass the class, but to do well in it you need to spend some time programming. For his midterms Pf. Voelker likes to give his students written exams. Practice writing out your code by hand a few times to prepare you for the midterms. Overall I think Voelker did an Good Job and I would definitely recommend him over the other Pf. (Hutch.) Good luck!

Since the class is basically just MATLAB, Voelker assigns a couple problems every class and we work on them. Labs are worth 10%, and each midterm is 30%. He curves generously, though, and apparently everyone failed the second midterm so he decided to drop it completely and just make the final worth more. The reason he's a subpar professor is mainly because you'll come into class, and the lab will already be posted and people typing away. He doesn't actually address the class and teach the general concepts the lab is on until like 30 minutes into the class when everyone is already working on the lab. Maybe it's just a characteristic of programming in general, but you can't really get better without just practicing. So he will go over concepts and give examples on the board, and help students individually if you raise your hand, but it's difficult to do well if you're not naturally good at programming, without practicing. His midterms include written portions, but they are typically simple so you can definitely do well if you study/practice some problems, go to class, and ask for clarification if you don't understand problems in class. He doesn't return lab grades, though, so your only indicator of how well you're doing is the midterms you get back, which he takes a while to grade also. OVERALL he's not a terrible professor, but not the greatest, just kind of mediocre.

Voelker is boring and useless. Classtime is much more effective if you start reading the book and working on the lab right away as opposed to listening to the one thing he's going to drone on about. Luckily, Matlab is pretty simple to figure out, the book is actually quite useful (buy it!) and your classmates will help you out if you get stuck. The midterms and final, while in theory testing you on what was covered in class, do so in a way that does not well represent the students' knowledge. Try to avoid making eye contact with Voelker during class or he will come over and distract you for ten to fifteen minutes. Overall, though, the class isn't terrible, and Voelker isn't a bad person, just a bad teacher. I feel a little sorry for the poor guy.

Computer science is a very powerful subject but this Neanderthal delivers it horribly. The class became a matter of showing up, asking questions, and getting answers rather than formally learning the material. Maybe it's the nature of the subject... which makes me glad I didn't choose it as my major.

This dude's a pretty low-key guy. He'd often come to the class 5-10 minutes late, then start writing a bunch of notes on the board without saying a thing. By the time most people noticed, there would be a wall full of writing that we were racing to jot down. Make sure to take good notes, because if you ask him a question based on a concept he had gone over, he won't help you at all and will instead tell you to look at the notes. When he does help you, he tries to do so in a way that he doesn't give you the answer but instead tries to vaguely guide you along the path; which I understand. Most classes were a 20-30 minute lecture and the rest of the period was spent working on labs. He assigns about 5 labs that are due on the day of each midterm, so make sure you don't get too far behind because although they aren't too difficult, the work WILL pile up on you.

Matlab is a really straightforward programming environment, and the material is presented slowly. We didn't get to loops until week 5 or 6. Professor Voelker isn't very knowledgeable past the content of the class, but he knows the material that he expects you to know well enough. For the difficulty of the class, Voelker is a great professor. He kinda sounds like John C Reilly as Steve Brule sometimes. Cracks some hilarious marks at others. If you're looking for an easy class, 10/10 would recommend. If you want to learn programming, (As an ME) I would highly highly recommend taking csc 234 (C and Unix) instead.

Interesting class but definitely tough if you haven't coded before. He's helpful enough but the labs TAKE FOREVER to complete and turn in. And your grade is 90% based on 3 midterms that are pretty tough. Was a cool class but hard to earn a good grade. Helpful in office hours but kindof rambles on while answering a question

Voelker is a chill guy and an okay professor. He knows the stuff he's teaching us and is mostly helpful when you ask him questions about lab assignments. Does tend to ramble in person or in class, which gets boring fast. The MATLAB material itself isn't too hard, but don't wait till the last minute to do the labs (night before each midterm) or you will regret it. He will NOT accept late labs under any circumstances, so be prepared! Midterms can be tough, don't over-estimate your abilities. It is easy to make silly mistakes on the day of the midterm so be sure to study. The first 2 midterms are hand-written as well, so be sure to practice without the computer. The last midterm is mostly computer (also open notes/book/internet/labs) with a written part, so it isn't as difficult as the first 2 midterms but you still gotta know what you're doing.

This class is an introduction to MATLAB. We had 3 midterms, each worth 30%, and the labs were worth 10%. The midterms were curved so none of them were that bad except the last one (the "final"), which seemed significantly harder than the previous two so don't let the first two tests fool you into complacency. In lecture, Voelker writes basically what you need to know for the lab/chapter on the board for the first hour then lets you work on labs for the second hour. The labs are somewhat time-consuming and occasionally have that one problem that you just can't figure out, but besides that weren't terribly difficult. If you have a question, Voelker is open during OH (although he does tend to mega-ramble, so have an escape planned) or you can find him during the open lab portion of the class when he tends to step outside the class and do who-knows-what on his computer. Overall not a bad class, a bit boring but that's to be expected for an intro MATLAB class.

I'm gonna give you a very quick rundown since I should be doing his labs right now instead of this, but I need a break. This is an intro to MATLAB class, a glorified calculator on your computer. There are 3 midterms worth 30% each, and the last 10% is the labs (homeworks). I find this ridiculous since each lab probably takes around 4 hours, and we get assigned 1-2 per week. Labs usually aren't too tough, just tedious. The midterms were on the borderline of fair and unfair. Most of the problems are fine, but a couple are not. For our first midterm, most students didn't know how to do the last few problems at all. One student complained in class that nothing we did in the labs or in class ever covered how to do those problems (which was true). Voelker responded with "Yeah but you were supposed to think hard and just figure it out." Other than this and for the fact that the labs are a LOT of work, the class was fine and Voelker wasn't too terrible. He tells you how to do the easy, main things, but be prepared to teach yourself anything past that in order to do okay in his class.

Failed the class (my first failed class) because I submitted my midterm 38 seconds late. So. Maybe I'm a little biased about it. He's a very traditional lecturer who obviously does it all day: he's obviously very educated in the subject, but his teaching style doesn't (at all) mimic Cal Poly's learning philosophy. Yeah, I failed the class, but the labs were intuitive and I know that I know the material. I use MATLAB for things like statics and linear pretty much on a daily basis. It's super important for engineers but I can say for absolute certain that Voelker is on the lower shelf.

To preface this review, I had never coded before I took this class, so it was quite difficult. Kurt Voelker has as much personality as the dark, windowless, and crowded classroom that you will have this class in but he occasionally will crack a joke and give speeches about how coding is the future of engineering. He tends to ramble and makes the tests insanely hard to complete unless you had coded before but will help you in office hours. Three midterms each worth 30% and 10% for the labs. The labs are due before each midterm and will take you hours to complete (so find a friend to split up the work). In the end it is worth it to learn MATLAB but boy is it rough, frustrating, and boring to get there.

Professor Voelker is wild. Half of the time his lectures put you to sleep and the other half he's making weird noises and just being a hilarious guy. His lectures are actually really good though, and I was able to learn a lot without having any coding experience before this class. He goes at an appropriate pace so that everyone can follow along. However, the key to succeed in this class is to read the textbook and take lots of notes. His exams are much more difficult than any practice problems he gives you. And the final is so much harder than the midterms, but I think he curves it. Unfortunately, this class is one of those ones where the material isn't difficult but getting an A is. However, I would still recommend Voelker if you actually want to learn Matlab.

Though he didn\'t spend much time teaching it was his first time teaching this class so I\'m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. He seems like a great teacher otherwise and once you get to know him he has some great thoughts about the future of programming. I believe he understands what it means to teach and what engineering students need to know. If your looking to learn programming, go buy a book and learn it your self. Good Luck, and Have fun!

i have no idea how i pulled an A- in this class. i got a C and a B on his midterms but somehow pulled an A-. voelker is a terrible \"teacher\" but a really nice guy. he truly cares and is a really smart professor but cannont relay the material at all. the only thing that saved me was the open notes, open internet and almost open neighbor tests. if i didn\'t have either of those i would have failed

Professor Voelker didn't require a textbook for his class which made things really difficult to learn. His labs weren't formatted for the new version of Excel which was frustrating. He was learning everything along with us since a lot changed between versions. He didn't give enough time on the midterms and there were 2.

The class consisted on 2 midterms and a final, each worth 30% of your grade. Captain Kurt is a major space cadet and would always get distracted with food during lecture and lab, because it was at noon. He also didn't seem to understand VBA very well (the excel coding you have to do). Still, you can do well in the class if you just use the internet, your neighbors, or your old labs to do well on the midterms and final. Its not too difficult to do well in the class. Kurts a good guy, just not a great teacher.

Professor Voelker is passionate about the work he does. He was really helpful in class and was always willing to listen to students' suggestions, especially if things were not working (sometimes happened during a test due to new Excel version being used and he hadn't been notified of the change before the course). The class can be challenging at times, yes, but his goal is to teach students not prepare them for failure in industry. He is also an interesting person to chat with and has plenty to talk about if you approach him. Definitely a quality, well rounded professor. Too bad I don't have anymore CSC classes or else I'd make sure to take him.

Voelker was an odd teacher. On the first day of class we had a professor swap and I was pretty annoyed to find out that I was going to have him instead of the teacher I had signed up for. However, he really grew on me. He was a little hazy on teaching the material, but if you asked him specifically what he meant he was very happy to go over it again. Although he\'s very awkward in a social sense, he got us through the course with little difficulty along the way.

Always looked high and his teaching reflected it. Nice guy but slightly creepy. Easy exams but tedious assignments. Spend plenty of time. Other programming faculty consider him a "special bus" instructor from their brief comments when they heard I had him. Recommend another instructor if possible.

It's week four, we are on lab 9, and I don't even know know how to do lab 4. Voelker hasn't taught me a thing. I started reading the book the other day and learned more in 5 pages than Voelker has explained in the last 12 classes. He is terrible at teaching the logic and thought process behind coding. If you have never coded before, good luck. Read the book.

He does not accommodate to students who have not had any computer programing experience in the past. The class was completely divided between those who have had a previous class, and those who were new to the whole thing. Considering how the class doesn't have any prerequisites I thought this was completely unfair on his part. He is not helpful to ask for help, the book does not relate to his lectures or assignments at all (waste of money, don't buy), and his instructions are completely vague. He fails as a teacher.

This class is a waste of time, Voelker babbles on about nothingness and I learned absolutely nothing from this class. The first day of class he drew a picture of a computer on the board and began to ramble on about "how a computer works," he also spent at least 2 hours lecturing about how binary number counting works (something you don't need to know at all). The assigns programs sporadically and always pushes back the due dates, if you ask him long enough in lecture he will basically give you the entire program. This class was a waste of time and should not be required for stats or math majors, C++ is from the 80's anyways, who uses it nowadays?!? Voelker is the most boring, dumbest, and laziest professor I've had in my life!

He can be a cool professor at times, but he makes no sense. His lectures do not really help with the labs. His office hours do not help. He leaves and doesnt even help you. His lectures are confusing. He is just a weird professor.

Lecture is pretty irrelevant to lab. He usually talks about the labs for like 5 mins each time so sometimes it is helpful. I have never programmed before and am not very good at it and I still pulled off an A-. All you have to do is put forth the effort, ask a lot of questions and be very good with google. If you go to office hours and look really lost he will sometimes tell you how to do the programs. Oh, and he put massive curves on the tests too :)

Nice guy, but terrible teacher. He tells you what he wants, and not how to do it, while introducing a single concept which will help you get there, but not how to apply it, along with COMPLETELY leaving out several crucial components to the project. His office hours are your best bet for help, but he still is vague and your lucky if he even sees you. I don\'t know of any other teachers who do 235, so if you have to take it, and you get Voelker, good luck...

I took 235 and 236 with him. He\'s a funny guy and kind of rambles on a bit but i really enjoyed his class. His labs were very fair and he was more than willing to help you out a lot if you asked for it. also, he doesn\'t mind people helping each other out. this is very different than other computer science classes i have taken where it is often forbidden or limited to one partner. He also is pretty fair in his grading of the labs. in many csc classes you have to have your lab working perfectly to even turn it in. voelker will give yours a look over and make sure it\'s generally working and move on. a lot of the stuff you do is manipulation of output which isn\'t terribly important in the long run but good for becoming more a more comfortable programmer. i would definitely recommend taking him. He\'s not the best teacher but he\'s pretty good he\'s not too difficult (though, the material is difficult for many. a lot of people just don\'t really get programming), and chances are you\'ll learn a lot. and plus, he\'s a really nice, quirky guy.

This guy is hilarious. He is extremely helpful and funny. It is a pretty easy class and if you give any effort he will make sure you pass. Great teacher.

Voelker was definitely an oddball. I had a hard time learning from him because he spent a majority of class time talking about how students in India were way smarter than us and how the world will need more mathematicians to be able to program. However, he's fairly helpful in office hours. If you give a reasonable effort in the class and look like you're paying attention, he'll give you a decent grade. I had a borderline A/B going into the final and finished with a solid A. Lecture's are pretty pointless but going to class will get you on his good side.

There's not a certain word I can use to describe Professor Voelker. He's just very...odd. He lectures about the program, but then when it's time to do the program, the lecture barely helps. He KNOWS that students struggle with programs, but just kind of pushes through anyway in order to cover all the materials in the quarter. Don't get me wrong, I liked this professor, but I just wish he stepped up and helped students out a little more. He's very nice and understanding, so if the whole class struggles with a program, he'd push the due date back a little. He curves his tests quite a lot. I'm glad I took this professor, because he showed understanding. He didn't make students feel stupid like some professors do.

I had not done any sort of computer programming before this class and got a B+. It is difficult material but does not require a lot of out of class work. Usually, you finish the homework during the lab time. When the whole class was struggling, he would extend due dates which was helpful. The only down side was that he was not that helpful when you asked questions during lab. But he is approachable and very entertaining! I would take another class with him.

Although he speaks in monotone, he is very intelligent and if you go to office hours he will help you so much even on his own time (not office hours). He will help you with every project and if the class is behind give you more time. The midterms were rough and I got C on both but did fairly well on final and homework. The midterms (2) and final were all worth 30% of grade each then homework 10%. So I still ended up with a better than okay grade. I liked him, he is a good teacher not the best but really cares about his students.

Some of the topic information is quite boring, but he "wakes" you up by striking conversation with you and your classmates. There will be a couple presentations, which I HATE!!! I would rather get a root canal than perform a presentation, so that is my biggest warning for this class to others who feel the same way. However, it is an easy A, I got a B+ because I refused to do one of the presentations. He tells you what is going to be on the test and most of it is interesting so it is easy to remember and write about. There are a few essay questions and then there are mulitple choice questions. We had only one exam and he made a paper we were already suppose to write the final exam!! SoOOOOO cool. At first there were a lot of essays, but then he got tired of grading all of them so he cut it out. I would definitely recommend this instructor. The class I took completed the F GE area.

Voelker is a nice guy. He is two page paper happy. "Just right up two pages on this and on that." BS stuff really, most of it I just pulled out of my ass and he loved it. Easy grader. Lectures were BORING. We sat there as he tried to get the class to converse, while not going over much material at all. He didn't even give us a 10 minute break. We just sat twiddling our thumbs while he extended what could be a 20 minute lecture into two hours. It was a lot of work for such a BS class, but it was easy. I think I cracked open the book three times or so and got an A.

The two previous negative ratings obviously only reveal those particular students' immaturity. To write something so adolescent and unconstructive is ineffective at best. I guess every class has it's share of negative people, so whatever. What I like about Professor Voelker is his fairness and explicit expectations of us students. If you do the work, study and get involved you will do well AND enjoy the course material. I learned loads of incredible stuff and it was VERY interesting. I looked forward to class and I liked the material he presented. If you want an easy A, this is it!

Voelker is a paranoid ex-hippie (who clearly wrote the entry below this one.) I dropped the class on day three out of frustration with this dolt of a teacher. So much for getting a quality education here at Poly.

I completely agree with the post about Voelker being a paranoid ex-hippie. I read that before I registered for his class and on the first day it is absolutely obvious he is totally tweaked in the head. The whole class is pretty much him discussing national survaliance and how freaked out he is that he is being watched (and we should too apparently). At the end of the day he isn't a bad teacher and he is actually really entertaining. Its occasionally difficult to listen to him with out laughing your ass off because he says the funniest, most parinoid shit. Assigns about 1 single-spaced page of writing per week. Not hard, annoying yes, but if you can bullshit, ur golden. PS you will actually learn some interesting stuff

Voelker is the man!! He is definately a paranoid hippy but he is pretty entertaining. The whole class is watching YouTube videos about how we are being spied on by the government. No book and no homework really. Just two easy midterms, making a group movie, and a kind of annoying paper. Take him for an easy A!!!!

Professor Voelker is awesome! I was nervous about taking this class because I knew we had to build websites and I have never really had any computer skills. But Professor Voelker explains everything really clearly and is there to help you whenever you need it, and he is hilarious! He made what could have been a boring class and subject and made it my favorite class to come to - and I'm a Rec major! They majority of the class was concentrated on building two major websites- and he was totally helpful and understanding because some of the computers were having problems. Anyway, I would definitely recommend him to anyone, and I recommend taking Computers for Poets for an Area F GE- don't let the name scare you away- there is no poetry in it!

He really is just a bad teacher. He's a nice man, but as an educator he fails. Be prepared to sit through the most boring lecture in the universe, go to a lab that he doesn't explain, bug the nerdy kid sitting near you for help because God forbid the actual teacher answer any of your questions, and then walk out of the two hour class from hell with a head hung low with mild depression. or maybe thats just me... The up side is his test are relatively easy, pretty much just questions directly lifted from the homeworks, so buy some flash cards and you're set. So good luck if this is your only available option for an area F! You'll probably recieve and A or a B, but is it really worth a quarter of suicidal thoughts?

This teacher is absolutely horrible. I wanted to take CSC 310 as a GE: F course because I knew it would be easy. I read the other reviews about Voelker and thought he wouldn't be so bad because people described him as a hippie and laid back. NEVER take one of his classes!!! Homework: it's basically like middle school history hw, where the answers are copied straight from the book. Easy stuff, but even though you copy the right answer down, he will still mark you down some how. Lecture: Summarizes what the book says at the end of each chapter. Talks about random stuff. Acts like every student in the class is mental challenged. Is really awkward. He thinks he is being cool and funny, but he isn't. Lab: There is a lab portion in which you work on basic HTML. He thinks he knows everything about HTML, but he doesn't. One time I got marked down on my coding because I put a space in an image I had saved. He said that you cannot put a space in anything in coding. WRONG! I asked tons of csc majors and other people I know who do coding for a living and they all said he is wrong. He thinks he is right all the time so you can never go in and ask him to reevaluate anything. Midterm: Midterms are easy. Exact same questions from the homework. Lab midterm is easy as well. Overall, NEVER EVER take Voelker. I'm being completely honest. The class is super easy, but you will get random points taken off for no reason. Cannot discuss anything to him because he thinks he is right all the time. Mocks people in front of the class. Basically comes off that everyone in the class is mentally challenged. He should never be a teacher. Hope this helps you out. Wish other people were more honest before I signed up for his class.

I thoroughly enjoyed this class. I wanted to learn some basic HTML code and how to set up a website and Voelker showed us how. I'm not sure what the person below me is talking about. He was a bit of a loon but I would take another class from him. He laid everything out very clearly and the class was a piece of cake. Take it if you can, it's an easy area F and he teaches you things that you can use in the future.

Professor Voelker was an excellent instructor, as he delivered/presented the course material coherently and clearly and his willingness to assist students did not go un-noticed. He stayed after class ended (at 6:00pm) to help students -- so there would often be several of us who would stay to finish up the labs.... He would ensure all students had their lab questions answered before he left - and I greatly appreciated that. He was also knowledgeable of the subject, answered emails promptly, and did not overload students will nonsense work. Definitely take him for CSC 310 - Computers for Poets, and be prepared to learn about HTML and webpages... Really, not that frightening! He walks students through the HTML process... and in the end, the subject matter IS useful!

Professor Voelker is awesome! I definitely recommend taking this class for your GE F. He is a funny guy and truly wants each student to not only do well in his class, but enjoy it at the same time. You will learn the basics of HTML and web page design with a bit of computer history mixed in. An easy A if you do the work.

This professor is just... weird. He tries to make very odd jokes and didn't really teach us anything. All we had to do for the class was about 10 labs in pretty simple HTML, with a tiny bit of Java. Everyone just brought their laptops to lecture and wrote up the code for an hour before we moved to the lab. I'd still take this class again for a very strange easy A.