Course Evaluations

Session: Summer 1, 2015 Instructor: Valentin Voroshilov Course: CAS PY105-A1 Elementary Physics 1

STATISTICS REFLECT FREQUENCY OF RESPONSES
Number of students enrolled: 89
Number of students responding: 59
Percent of enrolled students responding: 66
Poor Superior
SECTION A: COURSE EVALUATION: NR 1 2 3 4 5 Mean StDev
1 The extent to which you found the class intellectually challenging 0 0 0 17 26 16 3.983 0.754
2 The extent that assignments furthered your understnading of course content 0 0 0 7 20 32 4.424 0.700
3 The extent that the class normally met the required number of hours 0 0 0 6 17 36 4.508 0.679
4 I found the textbook/cases/course materials 1 0 3 20 19 16 3.828 0.901
5 The extent to which I would recommend this course to others 0 0 6 14 21 18 3.864 0.973
6 I would rate the course overall as 0 0 2 12 30 15 3.983 0.777
SECTION B: INSTRUCTOR EVALUATION: NR 1 2 3 4 5 Mean StDev
7 The instructor's ability to present material is 0 2 2 12 22 21 3.983 1.008
8 I would rate the instructor's enthusiasm as 0 0 2 8 25 24 4.203 0.805
9 The instructor's ability to encourage questions/discussion is 0 1 6 12 17 23 3.932 1.081
10 The instructor's mastery of the course materials is 1 0 0 5 14 39 4.586 0.650
11 The extent to which the instructor's grading criteria are clear and fair 0 1 0 4 17 37 4.508 0.774
12 The extent to which the instructor returned assignments in a timely manner 0 0 0 3 11 45 4.712 0.559
13 The instructor's overall rating is 0 0 4 5 24 26 4.220 0.872
SECTION C: ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: NR 1 2 3 4 5 Mean StDev
14 How would you rate your Boston University Summer Term experience, overall? 0 0 3 16 23 17 3.915 0.877
NR Yes No
15 Are you a Boston University student? 0 46 13 1.220 0.418
16 Are you an international student? 0 12 47 1.797 0.406
NR C or less A- or A
17 What grade do you expect to receive in the course? 3 0 5 18 33 3.500 0.661

Course Evaluations

Session: Summer 1, 2015 Instructor: Valentin Voroshilov Course: CAS PY105-A1 Elementary Physics 1

STATISTICS REFLECT PERCENTAGE OF RESPONSES
Number of students enrolled: 89
Number of students responding: 59
Percent of enrolled students responding: 66
Poor Superior
SECTION A: COURSE EVALUATION: NR 1 2 3 4 5 Mean StDev
1 The extent to which you found the class intellectually challenging 0 0 0 28 44 27 3.983 0.754
2 The extent that assignments furthered your understnading of course content 0 0 0 11 33 54 4.424 0.700
3 The extent that the class normally met the required number of hours 0 0 0 10 28 61 4.508 0.679
4 I found the textbook/cases/course materials 1 0 5 33 32 27 3.828 0.901
5 The extent to which I would recommend this course to others 0 0 10 23 35 30 3.864 0.973
6 I would rate the course overall as 0 0 3 20 50 25 3.983 0.777
SECTION B: INSTRUCTOR EVALUATION: NR 1 2 3 4 5 Mean StDev
7 The instructor's ability to present material is 0 3 3 20 37 35 3.983 1.008
8 I would rate the instructor's enthusiasm as 0 0 3 13 42 40 4.203 0.805
9 The instructor's ability to encourage questions/discussion is 0 1 10 20 28 38 3.932 1.081
10 The instructor's mastery of the course materials is 1 0 0 8 23 66 4.586 0.650
11 The extent to which the instructor's grading criteria are clear and fair 0 1 0 6 28 62 4.508 0.774
12 The extent to which the instructor returned assignments in a timely manner 0 0 0 5 18 76 4.712 0.559
13 The instructor's overall rating is 0 0 6 8 40 44 4.220 0.872
SECTION C: ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: NR 1 2 3 4 5 Mean StDev
14 How would you rate your Boston University Summer Term experience, overall? 0 0 5 27 38 28 3.915 0.877
NR Yes No
15 Are you a Boston University student? 0 77 22 1.220 0.418
16 Are you an international student? 0 20 79 1.797 0.406
NR C or less A- or A
17 What grade do you expect to receive in the course? 5 0 8 30 55 3.500 0.661
Student Comments:

About the Instructor: ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Punctual, respectful of class end-time (much appreciated)/ Extremely knowledgeable about content, very effective at breaking things down to digestive pieces, and presenting it in a logical, glowing manner. Highly engaging demonstrations. Great use of tools/props. Good energy (especially for a 9am class). Improve: Imagine

it is difficult to being out one’s best teaching given the inherently fast-pace of a summer course, so it’s hard to

say if anything I found negative is due to the professor or the time-constraints of the course. That said: Professor Voroshilov has a very matter-of-fact/this-is-so obvious aspect to some of his statements, which I personally like,

but could be discouraging to some students. If that’s just his personality, then I’m not saying he should change it,

just be mindful of how others might perceive it. Professor Voroshilov is excellent. Very clear. Makes students understand. Strong: Lots of examples and writes them out complete. Improve: Be more clear when explaining why he chose

which equation to use to solve a problem.

Enthusiastic. Available for help. Improve: Assuming we know everything. Don’t be condescending.

Great. Very engaging. Really emphasizes/demonstrates material. Improve: Be clear on PowerPoint. Sometimes when following it is difficult. Office hours are helpful. Improve: Lectures spent too much time on calculation. Very helpful and informative lectures. Did lots of practice problems in class. Improve: Clearer writing.

Good professor. Knows material very well. Sometimes confusing, but due to physics, not him personally. Strong: Posted the slides. Explained things well. Improve: Accent/handwriting hard to understand. It ends at 10:20, not 10:30.

Very clear. Made the course fun. Improve: Handwriting could be tough to read. Some things/calculation not well explained. Improve: Difficult to understand. Often rude to students asking questions. Pompous/arrogant. Very clear on the course policy and gives many outlets of problems to do to understand the course material.

Improve: The lecture is quite boring and hard to sit through because it’s all mathematics. I wish I can understand

the physics better. Very knowledgeable. Improve: Simplify explanations. You lose us sometimes when you talk in circles. Great, enthusiastic professor with helpful PowerPoints and in-class problems. He is witty and clearly understands what he is teaching and presents material well. Always available for

questions. He is very forthright and tries to be very clear. Improve: For online questions, he expects us to understand them before really explaining the concept and sometimes leaves the questions without an explanation.

He seems to like physics. Improve: Explain concepts.

He clearly knows the material very well and cares about his students. Improve: he does not explain well. He also belittles students when they ask questions. Enthusiastic. Improve: Include answers in all problems shown. Improve: Failure to receive feedback from students constructively. Handwriting is very poor. Dr. Voroshilov is a great professor as he is very knowledgeable and is always willing to answer questions.

Improve: His handwriting is fairly messy, but he’s easy to understand verbally.

Incredible professor. Excellent at explaining. Absolutely hilarious. Genuinely want us to succeed. Improve: Write neater.

Strong: Works out the problems live. Improve: Too fast. Don’t skip parts of problem. Bad penmanship.

Strong: Interesting lecture.

He absolutely understood material. Improve: Condescending when answering questions. Discourages people asking.

He always began from a position of unknowing and built from there. Improve: Sometimes he wouldn’t completely

solve a question even though some students are confused. He knows the material very well. Improve: The classes were sometimes boring.

Improve: He is a very poor lecturer. Too fast. Does not clearly go over material. Doesn’t finish solving problems.

Not engaging. Better organized PowerPoints.

Very nice. Clear that he really wanted students to learn. Improve: Handwriting. Rules about attendance are too strict. Great demonstrations in class and homework assignments were very helpful. Improve: Clarity of tone.

Handwriting.

Very enthusiastic. Very punctual. Hilarious. Improve: The small English mistakes become unnoticeable by the end of the course. He knows what he is doing. Improve: Sometimes difficult to understand.

Incredible instructor; best one I’ve ever had at BU. He above puts the chemistry department to shame in how

thorough and passionate his lectures are. I would change to a physics major or minor if he taught every class. Improve: Maybe slow down a bit on PowerPoint slides with equations on them. This instructor is phenomenal, I was never distracted. Best demos, best lectures.

The examples were very thorough and thought-provoking. The demos were interesting and made our material more applicable to real-life scenarios. Improve: It seems that the professor could be condescending when answering questions, which I believe made people less likely to ask them.

He emphasized his handwriting was messy and hard to read so he made sure people were following along so that no one would feel lost. Improve: Not being so overwhelming would help. I went to office hours once and

didn’t go back because I felt intimidated that he didn’t really want to help – we get you know the material, but

some people like me learn slower.

Strong points were his mastery of the course material. He was always able to answer questions. Clearly. His demonstrations were also great, and the slides were well-prepared.

Improve: Lectures sometimes were dull because we’d just work through problems together.

About the Course: ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ The course covered a lot of content, but it was presented in a way that made it relevant to life/the real world, so it was interesting throughout. Office hours were greatly appreciated. Improve: The course did not cover optics, though admittedly it may be overwhelming to include it. The labs need work. I spent more time in labs trying to figure out how to set things up and wondering what the instructions were getting at, than actually learning the

content. Maybe it’s just me, but the labs were of zero help in understanding the material.

Very clear verbally. Homework helps. Improve: Neater handwriting. Strong: Good lab. Fair exams. Challenging. Improve: Less homework. Very interesting. Strong: Fast-paced. Strong: Homework assignments and lectures. Good basic physics course. Improve: Time for smaller groups. Good course. Improve: Very very heavy course load in limited time. Students should be warned about that before

making other commitments (jobs/other course). Improve: Boring topics. Great class. Good lab teaching assistants. Interesting experiments. Homework was very helpful in clarifying concepts. Good course. Went at a good pace and fair grading and exams. Moved quickly. Plenty of office hours to help keep pace. Organized. Homework helps. Help with office hours. Improve: Bad explanations.

Professor and teaching fellows extremely helpful. Improve: Don’t put so much in labs. Pressed for time in lab and

that one lab where most people took the full time was horrible.

Strong: WebAssign – great tool.

Improve: The lectures are too early. The textbook is useless.

Improve: Attendance/lecture/quiz policy shouldn’t be changed partway through course.

Very well-structured. Not too fast paced. Strong: Straightforward. Improve: Better lecturer. Homework problems were a good preparation for the exams. Improve: Lectures somewhat difficult to follow and

too long. Strong: Pretty comprehensive. Improve: Why do we need to take attendance? Are we still in grade school?

Course is of an adequate difficulty. Grading is very fair. Love the class. Great introduction to physics. Don’t see

anything to be improved.

Very fair in terms of time expended on studying and homework. WebAssign problems were relevant on tests and useful in conceptually understanding the material.

Exams and homework were very fair. Overall great course.

Strong: Demonstrations. Good distribution of time on topics. Improve: WebAssign assignments were sometimes too long and challenging to complete on time, especially since I have a full-time internship (35-40 hours a week) in addition to this.