Sena, James  

Sena's alright. Not amazing by any means, but he's a chill guy. If you get him, don't fret, just do the work and you'll get an A for sure.

Super nice guy. Very educated, but sometimes does get off topic but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. The old reviews don't do this teacher justice.

Sena wasn't that bad at all. I read the reviews before I took this class and I was worried about how bad he was going to be. He brought candy in all the time, we watched movies, and he made the class simple. This class is very easy to get an A as long as you do the work. The class consists of 3 tests, 3 presentations, 5 quizzes that count (you take 9), and attendance. The only problem I had with him was when he absolutely ripped a group after they did a presentation. For 5 minutes he told them how bad their presentation was and that totally embarrassed the group. First of all, their presentation was fine and second of all there is no need to embarrass people like that. He should have written his comments on the paper that they turned in. I would still recommend him for bus 382 though because it will help your GPA.

Okay, don't expect a whole lot from this class except for a great grade and some interesting OFF-TOPIC lecture. The guy is smart to the point where he seems a little bored with the material so he will deviate from the lesson plan often to keep up to date with the current "relevent" worldly issues. A bit boring in the material department but you won't have to stress out over this class. Simply be respectful and alive... you will get an A.

First of all, Sena hates Poly Ratings. He will make that known in class if anyone ever brings it up. He's a nice guy who knows his stuff, but doesn't know how to get it across to students. Quizzes and exams are very, very easy and you'll do a couple group presentations that don't relate to the class in any way, shape, or form. From talking to other teachers who have taught BUS 382 in the past, I didn't learn anything I was supposed to. Though Sena means well, this was one of the most pointless classes I've taken in the COB.

EASY class!!! i defintely recommend sena, its a break from the really difficult classes! HE doesnt expect a lot from you--and contrary to what others have said, he is a really nice guy!

This class is not challenging and is a good one to take if you have a heavy course load. Part of the tests are take home. The in class portion of the test is multiple choice and the exact same questions from the take home quizes. There is one presentation at the end of the quarter that is 15 min with about 4-5 people in a group. The final is take home and consists of 8 open book short answer questions. You will not necessarily learn a lot from this class--no need to buy the book, he has all the information on the slides. A good professor to take if you are looking to glide through a course.

People say he is a nice guy...but those are all suck ups. Dont trust this guy at all. Any teacher who talks sh*t about poly ratings is a clown. This Harry Potter's Dad look alike wreaks of failure. If I saw him in a downtown at night, he wouldnt walk again.

He's really fair on grading. He's really nice and funny in class. Class lectures don't have much correlation with the tests or quizzes though..strictly out of the book. There isn't really any homework either.

Where to start with Sena... he is a funny man with lots of candy and random toys that he will share with you. He's pretty hilarious but it was tough to listen to lectures at 8am, especially on Fridays. The class is easy; take home quizzes every night, 2 in class mc tests, 3 take-home tests, and participation(attendance). Take him... he's more entertaining than a lot of other teachers!

I truly am convinced that this is the worst professor I have had at Cal Poly. The only reason you should willingly take a class with him is if you want to learn how horrible a professor in a respected university can be. He is highly entertaining in terms of the amount of bs that flows from his mouth, with opinions on things he has no in depth knowledge of. The only reason I even care to post my opinion of this man on here is that he graded me terribly a few times even though I got my answers straight from the book. Only because I didnt incorporate his mostly bullshit(and unneccesarily numerous) handouts did I get a bad grade. He also makes incredibly rude, and what I would consider racist comments to the foreign exchange students; it is incredibly embarassing to everyone in the class, especially the foreign student he is poking fun at. A teacher this pathetic should have no affiliation whatsoever with a university as great as Cal Poly.

Useless. Not helpful in any way. Class time is a total waste with nothing educational, such as pointless youtube videos. He thinks he's one of those "cool" teachers by trying to make the class "fun", but it's really only frustrating and makes his students lose respect for him. Quizzes are easy, but be as detailed as possible on the take-home tests. He is extremely vague on his test questions and does not provide much help at all if you talk to him in person. Oh, and appeal any quiz answers you got wrong, because most of the time it is because he has the wrong answer.

This class is very very easy, its also very very useless. Sena does everything online, tests, quizzes, and relies on a group presentation outside of that. The online thing is fine and dandy, but the information is so generic and useless. This course makes me really not happy with Cal Poly, I'm here to learn not to have useless information conferred to me by someone who has surprisingly lasted over 20 years as a teacher. How, I have no idea. He reminds me of a hobbit, he just sits there, goes through his pointless slides with relatively no information on them. They do not help with quizzes/tests, or any part of the class. They just make you hate life. He also mumbles to himself a lot, and refers to himself in third person, which further makes you question how strange this guy is and what the hell he's doing teaching. If this class is not a requirement for you, DONT take Sena. If it is, just deal with it but don't expect it to be a good class. It most definitely is not, but you can get a descent grade with pretty much no effort.

I just finished the quarter and I'm still not sure what this class is about. I don't think he knows either, because there is literally nothing that you learn in class that applies to the test. And you still have to show up because he takes roll every day. Half the time I have no idea what he is even saying, the other half I can tell what he is saying but I have no idea what he is talking about. Buying a "clicker" is a waste of $40 because 80% of the time you are using it for stupid trivia. Literally. But you have to buy the darn thing because you get a grade for having it. The tests are online, take it at home, closed book, closed notes (what?) which I think just means he's too lazy to show up to class and run scantrons through a machine. I have never learned so little from a class. And him passing out twinkies and fake play dough for some unknown reason doesn't make up for it. I usually am the type to suck it up and just get through a bad class, but if I knew how much of a waste this was I easily would have gotten a substitution class. So yes, my advice is to avoid this class if possible. Find a better use of your time and money.

382 was overall an OK class. Sena is a genuinely nice person and his intentions seems to me to be sincere. That being said, as it relates to the class, he is very disorganized and random and unfortunately it affect students' perception of him and therefore their perception of the course in general. I think the material is all there and people take it for granted how valuable it is because it just seems like a lot of common sense. It really isn't that simple, the common sense in this course only developed into such after billions of dollars of mistakes and research by corporations. That being said, Sena doesn't really do a good job in presenting this material only because of how random and sporadic he is. He will be presenting the material one second, then telling us a random story about how his sons went to McDonalds and ordered big macs. Most of us just very confused as to how these short random storys relate to the material. Another quirk that bothers me with the class is the sheer amount of printed material he brings to class each day. A lot of it is extremely redundant and unnecessary, especially since he could just upload them all to polylearn. The class consists of (6) individual takehome/online exams that you have and hour and a half to complete, (5-6) article summary papers to submit throughout the quarter, and a group research/presentation. Overall it is a relatively easy class and the material should not be taken for granted. Try absorbing as much of it as you can, as a lot of it can be extremely valuable job/internship conversation material. Definitely an easy A if you take the exams seriously and are respectful towards Sena.

Dr. Sena doesn't unnderstand java to the level it is promised in this class. The assignments are very difficult considering that none of the matieral covered even applies in the slightest amount to the assignment. Not to mention that he can't answer any questions becuase he doesn't know enough about the subject himself. I would not recommend him to anyone for this class. The college of business should be doing better.

Mr. Sena is OK. He just need to go back to school for couple more years.

If it weren't for Dr. Peach's bus 387 class, this would have been the most worthless class that i have ever taken in my entire life. Sena's lectures are irrelevant, and his voice will put you to sleep. He walks and talks as though he is the smartest man ever, yet as we all know 'those who can do, and those who can't teach.' For nobody is this more true than for doctor sena. On a positive note, you will be sitting in front of a computer for five hours a week, so you will be able to do your other classwork, or check your email. You wont get less than a b on any of the tests, whether you know what you are talking about or not. i didnt even buy the book for the class and i got an a

Sena is the man, doesn't matter what anyone says. Take him

His teaching style is a joke, if you came to college to NOT get an education then this is the man for you. Class time was a complete waste of time, he rambled and could not convey the material in any sort of coherent manner. If you do the work you will get an A; however, the work is complete bullshit and you won't learn anything from doing it. This class is basically a nice reminder of mindless highschool busy work. This mans classes tarnish Cal Poly's reputation.

Average grade on 1st midterm was 88%. 2nd midterm was 99.5% Final was 96%. Pretty helpful teacher too. Enough said

sena is a nice guy, but he likes to waste class time messing around and telling jokes ( i prefer to get out early). this class is extremely easy. the first few midterms were just questions lifted right off his weekly open-book quizes (the answers for which are word-for-word in the book). the projects are very easy as well. there really is no reason not to get an A in this class. the final was kind of different, but it was still easy. overall i would recommend Sena in you want an easy A.

Class is insanely easy, but the teacher has NO idea what he is doing. If he can't stand being bored for 2 hours twice a week, then it won't be a problem. Also, his grading makes no sense....PS Access is the most clumsy program ever

I don't know why I bothered to wake up every morning to listen to this guy. He wasted the whole class with irrelevant bull such as showing youtube videos of the dumbest things which were completely pointless. The online quizzes aren't too bad, but they don't test you on how well you know the material, they test on how detailed you can read the book. You can get a question wrong by misreading ONE word in a paragraph. The take home tests are that bad and the multiple choice tests are "honor system". Don't get me wrong, this class is an easy A for sure, but it's almost not worth it to have to listen to this incompetent man for 2 hours straight.

I would like to have the Dean refund my tuition. Why would anyone have Dr. Sena teach a course on Strategy when he does not know anything about the materials? DO NOT take him unless you want an easy A, do not care if you learn anything and are happy sitting in class (IF YOU GO), laughing as he tries to talk about a subject that he has no idea about. I also highly dislike when he talks badly about other teachers right in class. Makes me wonder why he is allowed to stay at Poly. I would recommend someone else for this course, I heard Geringer is the best professor but I could not get in to his class. I also heard Ramsey is good.

ah the sena if you want a breeze 401 class, then take this man. You get a general overview of everything you have learned in our other biz classes. He trys to spruce up his lecture by focusing on a specific industry each class; such as casino, tobacco, auto etc. Grade based on quizes (take home mult choice), 3 tests (also mult choice with questions straight from quizes, in class), and small group presentation at end. Thats it. no papers. no thinking. and somehow i still got a b+

Sena is an interesting character. At the very least, he will make you laugh, provide tons of candy/food, and bring in some interesting videos. However, he teaches this course as more of a broad overview of stuff you have probably seen before. I won't beat around the bush - it's an easy class, and he will even tell you at the beginning that the average grade tends to be in the A-/B+ range. Basically, it's a great course to take if you have some other tough ones to worry about, but if you're looking for someone who is going to force you to learn and study hours on end, this isnt the guy for you.

hahahahahhahahahahhahahahahahhahahhahahahahhahahahahhahahahahahhahahhahahahahhahahahahhahahahahahhahahhahahahahhahahahahhahahahahahhahahhahahahahhahahahahhahahahahahhahahhahahahahhahahahahhahahahahahhahahhahahahahhahahahahhahahahahahhahahhahahahahhahahahahhahahahahahhahahhahahahahhahahahahhahahahahahhahahhahahahahhahahahahhahahahahahhahahhahahahahhahahahahhahahahahahhahahhahahahahhahahahahhahahahahahhahah...I got an A. I never get A's. I wish my GE's were this easy. You could turn in a bowl of alphabet cereal on the take home tests and get an A.

Sena is an idiot. He knows nothing about management strategy. Take this class with a friend because he is big on attendance and you will absolutely want to kill yourself during his lectures. He hands out about 30 different multicolored pieces of paper a day for no apparent reason. But it is by far the easiest A I have ever gotten in college. Quizzes are a breeze, the Take Home tests are kind of a bitch, the presentation is a joke, and you have no final. Take him if you want an easy A but be prepared to be bored out of your mind during every lecture....but he does give you candy just about every day.

You only need to read my message to understand Sena and his classes. If you want an easy A, take this guys class. This goes along with 401 and his other (I think its 391), both are incredibly easy. If you want to learn something, you can but you have to try and learn, but you dont have to try to get an A. Most classes in high school were easier. His classes are fun too he gives out free food/candy and is just randomly funny. If you want a B+ or better to boost your gpa, take him as a teacher.

Are you serious? He knows NOTHING about strategy, has demeaned one of my favorite professors and stands in front of us with no training in Strategy? thank you, GHANDI

Sena is an asshole, who should not be allowed to teach at Poly. He is even less classy than Perello. During class he made fun of a foreign exchange student for not knowing something about America. He is a terrible person and probably my least favorite professor at Cal Poly. I hate this guy and wish he would be fired!

Sena is a cute old man who tries to make lecture fun and exciting. He brings props & FOOD to each lecture to keep the class interested. It is a bit elementary, however, the class is overall very easy to pass. It involves 2 midterms and 2 essays (short answer). There is also a group project and presentation to do. The class is pretty standard and not that difficult.

Really REALLY easy professor...Online quizes, tests, and take home written exams, plus a group presentation is all this class is about. Everything comes from the book so there really is no reason to go to class except for attendance (which he does take everyday and will affect your final grade if you don't go to class)..You don't learn much and his power points are excruciatingly painful but it's an easy A although you won't learn anything

Sena and the 401 General Management and Strategy was by far the worst I\'ve taken at Cal Poly. This is my first entry on polyratings.com and I had to put it up before registration starts for Fall. The class is extremely dull and his lectures are all over the place. I find it hard to believe he\'s worked in industry at all as I would for sure never hire him. He claims to be highly proficient with computers which I also doubt. He is truly a bad example of someone who has been kept around far too long at Poly and is wasting away. I guess he tries his best but the material could be so much more interesting taught by someone else. Try to avoid this professor if you like challenging, stimulating classes. If you want to sit on Facebook on your phone all class, this is the one for you. But then you probably shouldn\'t be at Poly anyways.

James Sena is by far one of the worst teachers I have ever had at Poly. BUS 401 is a joke and its pathetic how the whole class spends there time texting, facebooking, and ignoring any useless information he attempts to teach in class. By the 2nd weak you already wish the class time wasn\'t mandatory and even then you will look for any excuse to get out of the room. Worst class ever and the Sena is just a joke!

401 with Sena is a very easy class. Quizzes are very important in his final grade calculation so do not miss any of them. Also, he allows for collaboration on quizzes, so get a group together and share answers. The tests have two components, online multiple choice and hard copy written. The online tests are hard and completely from the text book, read the chapters and good luck! The written tests are easy enough - just make every answer is long and relatively thorough and you will be fine. For the presentation, he does not like generic PowerPoints, so be sure to customize them to your topic. Also, do NOT read from your notes. Aside from these two things, everyone does well on the presentations. Overall, an easy class.

Definitely an easy class. Did probably 10 hours of work the entire quarter. VERY VERY boring presentation of material, but this is contrasted with his interesting comments. If you really listen, it's hilarious. He makes no sense. To give yourself a little taste of this, this is one of his quotes: My son works in Ohio, he works with a lot of grandmas, granted he speaks Spanish". After this statement he offered no explanations. Also, he says "3 ice cream cones" and "things along those lines" A LOT. He also talks to himself very often with phrases like "Come-on Sena. Sena, we can do this" and my favorite of his self-talk: "Can we do it? Yes We can! I can do it!"

This class was a very easy A. Everything was online with the exception of a group project. However, the lectures (that you must attend as he takes attendance) do not cover any of the material that is tested. To be perfectly honest, I don't think that I learned anything in his class.

I just wasted half of my summer in this class. Sena is an extremely nice guy, but you will learn nothing in his class. It might be an easy A, but you will seriously gain nothing from going to class.

Sena is a big jew. 4 tests and 1 headache of a project, no longer online tests due to students caught cheating this quarter. Come on guys are you stupid.. Sena is also useless for help.. if i could take it again i would take it with any other professor.. you've been warned

Sena is an extremely kind and nice professor. The class consisted of group assignments, a presentation at the end, few quizzes, and 2 midterms.

This class was a joke and waste of time...which I guess is what I wanted as a graduating senior who does not care anymore. You have weekly quizzes on the computer that are super easy. Just remember the vocab from the chapter. The first midterm was in class and not too bad. If you study for a few hours you will get an A/B. The second midterm we took online and you can google all the questions. The final was optional so I didn't take it since I already had an A at that point. You do these really confusing projects throughout the quarter with your group based on the company you are given. No one ever really knows what is due and what to do for the project so everyone basically wings it. Finally, you have your presentation that is really easy. He does grade a little hard on this presentation but still nothing to stress about. Overall, you will learn absolutely nothing but hey if you are a graduating senior it is a one less class to have to worry about. Just be prepared to do pointless assignments and get As on them.

"Jesus Jim" - James Sena

Sena is a super easy teacher if you are checked out and just want an A without really learning anything. You do learn from the individual assignments and quizzes which is nice but the lectures don't really help but Sena is an old man that loves to teach SO GIVE HIM A BREAK OKAY. You wouldn't be mean to your grandparents if they were teaching so don't be mean to him. He's just older so using technology can be difficult but overall it was an easy class especially for senior year.

take this class if you want an easy A-. Sena is literally the sweetest teacher ever and is very understanding. he always comes to class with a big smile on his face, tries to crack jokes, and sometimes bring candy. he isn't the best at teaching the material but that's cause he's old. idk why everyone is hella mean in the reviews bc it's not like he's an asshole teacher??? this class is kinda like bus387 where it's about general business stuff that probably won't be relevant to your concentration so idk why ppl are mad that he can't really teach the material, cause I doubt you guys would even take the time to actually learn about business management and strategy with a better teacher. he grades heavily on attendance (subtracts 0.5 from your final grade for every class you miss) so I guess it can be a pain to come to class, but you can just do hw during his class. everyone just goes on their laptops the whole class while he lectures in the background anyways, and he still smiles at you and continues lecturing. your grade is made up of 5 quizzes, team assignments, individual assignments and a group project, which all aren't that demanding.

I took very little away from this class...except maybe resolving some of the worlds most pressing issues such as "who invented barbed wire?" or "why does the sun rise?". James Sena taught information that was completely unrelated to the topic we were studying at the time. In addition, he has a very poor knowledge of the technology that he is supposed to be a master of. Do not ask this man about any problems you may have regarding programming, in general, for you will come away with more misinformation and doubt than before you came in.

Jim Sena spends his class time lecturing about irrelevant stories, and most troubling, misinformation. In a technical field such as Information Systems, the wrong answer in an interview can cost you a job. I do not doubt that many, many of Jim Sena's students lost out on job opportunities because they used the information learned in his classes to form answers to interview questions. Examples: "The web runs on Java", "Java compiles into HTML", "Japan is suffering economically because their children spend all of their time waiting in line for video games". Are there not enough professors out there? Is Cal Poly _this_ desparate?

Take someone else. I have no idea why Dr. Sena is the MIS concentration chair. He rambles in his lectures, has poor grasp of database design concepts (I hear his off-campus projects are a bust), and is very arrongant and tough to deal with. Take Barry Floyd if you can. Regretably, you probably won't have the option.

Jim Sena, What can i say... He

Try to talk to him more and u will get more benefits from him! And for the cisco class, you mostly learn by your own, so do not expect this is an easy class! I think this is time consuming class (if you know nothing about networking) but this is nothing do to the Professor! Good Luck!

Dr. Sena makes me feel like I sat on the toilet for two and a half hours and nothing came out...in other words, very unproductive. He does not present the material well AND gets upset with his class because he received poor ratings on the evaluation! If you take him, expect to learn on your own.

The teacher announced on the first day of class that he didn't know what the class was about. That became obvious as the quarter went on. The course became a daily paper fest, and during the quarter we amassed a great collection of hand-outs, most of the material within them plagiarized rather blatantly from other sources. Several of his tests were plagiarized wholesale from other universities. All it took to find his sources is to put a string of text in quotes into Google, and voila! One test was taken, including misspelled words, from an MIT professor's site. Another came from the University of Wyoming, a third from University of Indiana. Occasionally he would point to a chart in a PowerPoint presentation and say, "I did that chart." Moments later one of the students would find that chart on someone else's web site! What gall! He referred to a group of African American women in a video as "bitches" and made disparaging remarks about the black people in New Orleans as "four generations of people picking up welfare checks." When we enrolled at Poly, we were required to sign a pledge about honesty and plagiarism. I think he should be held to the same standard. Avoid this guy. He's way past worthless as an instructor, and his class was a confusing waste of time. His homework assignments are relatively easy... just regurgitate the materials in the notes of his PowerPoint presentations. But, wow, are those references hard to find! The two $110 books were unused. I am just grateful it's over.

AVOID PROFESSOR SENA! Normally I'm very nice in these ratings. However, Professor Sena and whoever tenured him need to get reamed. He is not a good Professor. Firstly, he's NOT KNOWLEDGEABLE. He doesn't know his material. He's way behind the times and he had less comprehension of the current IT world than most of the students. He presented a great deal of incorrect information. Second, he's INCOMPETENT. He can't teach. His lectures are very boring. He reads right out off his notes and has difficulty handling questions. Third, he's INSECURE. He gets very defensive about any and all feedback. He doesn't listen. Consequently, he only gets worse as a teacher. The list goes on and on.

Really a nice guy, but cannot teach for the life of him. Tries to make the class fun, which is cool, but in the end you learn very, very little and realize that all you did was busywork.