Janzen, David  

Professor Janzen is one of the best professors I have had the pleasure of taking a class with at Cal Poly. He was always in a great mood, and willing to answer any questions, sometimes even taking an entire class period to explain something that wasn't part of the lesson plan. Sign up for any classes you can with Janzen.

Janzen is a pretty fun guy. He seemed excited to be teaching C to us (which must have been kind of painful for him at times). I got A's on literally everything, but on the final project (which I spent at least 15 hours on) I got a 70/100 because I put an include statement in the wrong file (So don't do that!). I talked to him about it and he said he could have failed me on it if he wanted, which was true, but for an intro course and given my performance, I felt like I deserved a solid A. Definitely take him though if you have the option, he's fairly understanding and answers questions fully.

Friendly, helpful, knowledgeable, makes class fun. Take him!

Professor Janzen was an okay teacher. He did not lecture much about actual programming and spent much of the course on Scratch and App Inventor. He spent little time on Java which didn't affect me, however if your new to programming it went way too fast. He spent hardly any time on Android and he was not helpful during the lab section of the class. In fact, he was not very helpful at all working with students one on one. Don't take him if your new to programming, however if you know Java and are in the Mobile section take hime because you will have no difficulties.

Dr. Janzen was great, he is high energy and cares about his students. The class its self is interesting and fun and gives a great introduction to programming. after taking 101 this quarter i was so glad to have taken janzen first quarter because the java that you learn is really helpful to someone without programming experience. If you have any option take janzen!

Professor Janzen definitely can't teach at all. His first failure is failed to recognize the student's difficulty with the class. This was supposed to be an intro. class but the way that he presented the materials seem like we all knew about everything. Not much of a help during office hour either. Honestly, his TA, kennedy was much bettering at explaining things than him. Overall, don't take this class if you're new to programming because you're not going to learn about anything since he would assume that you already knew. Also, don't take this class if you're a female gender because he would look down on you. He really enjoy talking and helping guys that are knowledgable about programming rather talking to a newbie. I have witnessed his enthusiasm changed from a newbie with an experience student. A teacher who can't teach, harsh grader, and can't treat students equally. Someone should replace his job because even a student could teach better than him.

Truthfully, I wouldn't recommend him for students who are new to programming. He doesn't lecture much and his office hours doesn't help much either. He could not certain students' struggles and tend to think that you know almost everything even though he tried to show you that he do understand. He spend way too much time on Scratch and App Inventor. He doesn't spend much time on Java and so students who are new could not follow easily. I do think his TA is helpful, but overall, I wouldn't recommend this guy for new students. Students with experiences might enjoy this class.

Dr. Janzen has a great personality and a wealth of knowledge about Android app dev. He is willing to help out his students to make sure they understand the material, during class time and office hours. Personally, I took the Mobile 123 section because I wanted to learn Java, and I heard that this was one of the more "challenging" as well as popular sections for CPE 123. The first half of the class is getting your feet wet with little programming and an overall understanding of Android development, but the second half is where the amount of work really ramps up because it is entirely Java. Don't be discouraged from taking this class if you don't have any programming background! The only reason students have struggled with the class is because they did not put the time and effort into learning Java, because Dr. Janzen basically has the lectures as videos you have to watch outside of class (so you get more lab time in class to work on projects and ask questions instead of listening to him lecture). The majority of your grade in the class is based on labs / projects, so just make sure you put in a reasonable amount of effort and it'll be an enjoyable class!

I had Professor Janzen for the new CSC 123 class focusing on Android. As for Professor Janzen himself, he is a very nice, kinda quirky guy. He's fun though, and has a very fun personality. As for the class, well, I had some difficulty with it. He started the class with some really basic programming using software called Scratch and Google's App Inventor. We later moved on to Java and the Android SDK. I thought the material he was teaching was rather hard, as I did not know very much beforehand. He didn't really lecture on Java at all, rather, he made us use some online thing. It was very difficult for me to learn the language. BUT!!!! IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT THIS CLASS WAS BRAND NEW AND EXPERIMENTAL!!! He explained that he usually taught upper level classes and that he wasn't sure how and what to teach us in this brand new 123 course. OVERALL, he was a very nice teacher and was very welcoming and helpful. Although his class was kind of difficult, it was experimental, and I did manage to get an A. I definitely would not hesitate to take him again.

Dr. Janzen really was a solid teacher. He really knows his stuff and his class was very interesting and it always kept me intrigued. The only real knock on him was that he did not present the material during class time, as it was very much a "learn it yourself" course and for someone who had no programming experience, this can be quite difficult to accomplish. His videos were often long and boring, but I can still remember some of the basics from learning java in my C programming class. Overall, Janzen is great if you have previous programming experience, but if you don't, it will be quite a bit of confusion and lots of extra work.

Professor Janzen is great! He is incredibly smart and his 123 class on mobile development is really fun. We learned some basic java and had to apply that in the lab. Only problem I had in the class was we had to basically learn how to code in Android on our own through his videos that he recorded. It wasn't great sitting through a 10-50 minute video of him talking when you're at home programming. Other than that though, his midterm and final were pretty straight-forward. Just keep up with the material he presents and you're good. We had to go up in front of the class to present a couple times. Our class being from 8-11am sucked but he made it worthwhile. Overall, I would recommend this class.

Really hard to follow, this class has way to much of a workload. Be prepared to spend countless hours on group work. Consider taking 308 and 309 instead.

Good teacher, but this course is intense. It's worth it to get a taste of what you're going to experience in the industry. I highly recommend him.

Dr. Janzen is the best software engineering teacher at Cal Poly. Dr. Janzen knows all about software engineering and knows how to teach it to students. The 402 class focuses on requirements and some design on a large scale project with an external customer. This class is great as you can use it to relate to real world aspects of how a team is ran in a software company. There were quizzes and a final, but most of the grade you earn is based off your project and the final product you produce at the end of the quarter.

Excellent preparation for post-college future

Dr. Janzen is a really good teacher but he's an extremely harsh grader.

I have the hardest time with Dr. Janzen. Although he seems like a great professor, he is unable to deliver it as well as other teachers like Clint Staley or Chris Buckalew. For example, given so much information in his class, he has always been vague of how to grade you. You don\'t really know if you\'re going to get an \"A\" or a \"B\" or a \"C\" or even worse. I have a very hard time that he expects so much work out of you when you have other courses to fulfill and accomplish at Cal Poly. I would ask you to avoid him when you can because there are definitely better teachers out there.

Professor Janzen is a wonderful professor. It is so obvious that he cares about the success of his students, and he works so hard to ensure that success. In the capstone sequence he expected more out of us than we thought we were capable of, but then with his help and guidance we all achieved something spectacular. I *highly* recommend him if you want someone who is going to be rooting for your success. I also appreciated how thoughtful he was in picking the assignments we did and the processes we had to put into place. He never forced heavy process when we didn\'t want it or need it, and he let us pick the tools we wanted to use. It felt like he was trying to encourage enough process to ensure success, but not burden us with too much. The capstone sequence is a great class and Dr. Janzen is a great professor. I am so glad I got to have him.

I'll make it brief: 1) This is not an agile course like he claims. It it entirely waterfall. You spend 8 weeks doing documentation, and 2-3 scrambling together a prototype. 2) No feedback on documentation. 7 out of 8 groups complained about the little feedback we received. He says "This is just like the real world." (bullshit). You are expected to revise documentation without revisions, so you NEED to go to his office to demand feedback. 3) Final grades are pulled out of his ass. Grades are not updated online until after the final. How they're done: 1. How he thinks you did in the class 2. How you think you did in the class. 3. Considers input from teammates. 4. Looks at the three grades, and decides what your grade should be. This class is a total shit storm. Take with caution!

Professor Janzen is the man! His lectures are very relevant to the processes that will be encountered in industry. He always tries to enable the success of every student. Really suggest taking him.

Good teacher, but he put too much emphasis I think on the business side of the class. The class was Android Application Development. Instead of focusing on just doing cool things with android he was more focused on us making something that we could get rich off of.

I took his 409 when it was the Android course. This was the first time a class like this was taught at Cal Poly. I am so glad we have professors at Cal Poly who are willing to take on challenges like this and spend a lot of their spare time working to make great courses. Was the course a little rough the first time? I suppose so. Some of the labs weren\'t totally clear, etc. However, I have no doubt that the course will keep getting better and better, and considering he had to work up the curriculum from scratch (there is no \"standard\" for how to do these courses, no standard books, etc.), I was highly impressed. I learned a lot and it was super fun to make a project that lives beyond the class. Take this class (with this prof) if you have a spare tech elective! (Heck, even if you don\'t!)

Great professor that is probably the most reasonable one and most lenient one I've taken in the CSC department. He's lenient, but he can be strict as well. The main part of this class is the App you'll make. Don't fret if you do bad on the quizzes, the final is straightforward enough that you can make up those lost points. You should put nearly all your focus on the labs and the App you will make, as those are the most points. Complete the labs on time and start early. Also, put a lot of dedication in your app, the other students in the class will be judging it! Overall, this class depends solely on yourself. Janzen doesn't put anything necessarily hard, but he does assign a lot of stuff, and some of that stuff takes a lot of time. This class is time-consuming as there's much work to be done(but difficulty-wise not so much), but if you do all the work, expect an A.

Dr. Janzen is a great teacher and his Android development class was a great class. The class was relatively easy in terms of workload and grade. However, the workload will be determined based off how big of an app you decide to do for your class project. It was fun learning how to create Android apps through Dr.Janzen's relatively straight forward labs. If you do all the labs and pass the final and do your final project, you can get an A. Great class taught by a great teacher.

I learned that if I were to take up hunting, I should shoot deer, not bears, because a bear will hunt me back if I successfully wound it. Fascinating! I didnt know that the key to production and operations management was so brutally simple!