James Sears

School: University of Massachusetts-Lowell
Department: Computer Science
Location:Lowell, MA
Overall Rating
rated by 3 students
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 Professor Sears is clearly passionate about C programming language. His lecture flows well, easy to follow, fun to read, packed with real-world case studies and programs. I was struggling to understand the textbook by itself, and his lecture was a great help to me. He is a fair grader, and expects his students to make reasonable effort in learning C, as required for any programming languages. Although he is strict in programming assignment grading, he does provide clear and detailed instructions upfront, such as proper programming standards, programming assignment point deduction list, assignment submission checklist, programming requirements, and sample assignment solutions. He works hard himself as well. He always responded to my emails and questions within 24 hours, sometimes even within a few hours if my questions were related to an assignment. Of the 3 classes I took last semester, he was the first professor sending out an email to all his students, only 20 minutes after IT brought the Blackboard system back online, which was after 9pm ET.
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 This guy is full of himself and is very condescending to general inquiries. Snarky remarks to emails if he decides to respond. The worst professor I’ve had.
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 Do not expect anything except deductions in this man's online courses. In his "intro" course, you will feel this the most. His fixation on comments can potentially lose you more than one letter grade on assignments that are worth alot. That makes them as important as the rest of your program. His message responses are only occasionally human or empathetic. The rigid nature of his courses reflect this. He is capable of flexiblity, just for himself. He alters his own schedule at his leisure. Don't expect any help beyond lectures & notes, not even a hint to where to find help. He expects you to sift through all his notes and video. It could take a while if you missed something specific. Good luck if it was multiple specifics. You have no chance in a time crunch. C is a prerequisite for many courses, and his course is the only one available online. That makes him a gatekeeper of sorts. The only reason I can imagine why is to filter out students. I'd like to hope this isn't true. There are a several demographics who don't have equal access to or support for computer science leading up to university. I've taken him twice. It's my misfortunate, but it doesn't have to be yours. Just take the required course, pack it up in a little box, then burn it. After that you're free to pursue other programming courses professors.

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