Western Kentucky University / B / Robert Byrd

People say he's hard, and it's true--He doesn't mess around. He actually teaches and expects you to know what he teaches--a rarity for the CS department here. The less intelligent or slacker-type CS students might feel like he doesn't answer questions or makes everything too difficult, but if you're a good student and really want to learn--he's your guy.

Dr Byrd is an absolutely abysmal teacher. First off he is dyslexic. This means, when it comes to grading you he is searching for a very specific answer, simply because he can’t read anything else. He has counted answers wrong that start with "An increased number of" instead of "more." He misspeaks himself in class but will hold you to a specific answer among a number of unintelligible retractions. He demonstrated absolutely no talent programming whatsoever. His tests are mostly regurgitating buzz words. His group programming projects are horribly complex. Despite not having any previous experience with visual programming or database normalization he expects students to master the techniques in less than four weeks by independent study. Perhaps the most annoying facet of his class is that he forces you to use Borland Builder without being able to patch and update the software for known bugs. This bugs will keep you program from compiling, will cause Borland to shut down without warning, and prevent the absolutely critical step of linking with the ODBC. Dr. Byrd is an assistant professor, and he remains an assistant for very good reason. Why Shinhelm keeps him at all is a mystery.

If you have made it this far in C.S., you know how Dr. Byrd can be. His tests are among the most difficult you will find at W.K.U., especially considering the broad range of information you are expected to know. Here's a hint: anything Dr. Byrd discusses more than once a week will be a test question. This is his way of making sure you pay attention. As tough as this sounds, he IS dedicated to educating us. He will do everything in his power (jokes, verbal assaults on microsoft, whatever) to make his point. The circuits you design are actually kinda fun, just do really well on the first quiz. He assigns your circuit project partner based on that score. He groups students together based on similar scores, so if you screw up...you'll have to do the work for the moron he assigns you to.

This is a very nice guy, but obviously not a teacher. It is a shame that this guy is the only teacher for cs-340 and cs-360. He makes the exams worse than any history test you have ever taken; With a lot of very detailed junk that he must randomly pick from the book. (Closes eyes, and turns to page 214. "Ok, Paragraph 2 on this page... There's a question"...

He also has his class pets. If you spend a lot of time in his office and try to get him to like you... You will get an A, even if you got a C or D.

As long as you don't require sleep, praise, or a moderately stress free life, this course is THUPER!

Byrd is a good guy, but he could use a little work on his teaching. He's pretty knowledgeable, particularly in CS 340, but he doesn't cover all the topics very thoroughly. But that doesn't mean he won't ask VERY thorough questions on the exams/quizes. Don't get me wrong, I learned a lot from the class, and found the concept was actually more interesting than I initially believed.

The exams are horrid... he gave us study guides, but they were pretty broad, and the questions were tough. All of his tests are about the same--short answer on EVERYTHING. You'll have to describe, list, define, etc, etc, etc. Not BS-able! :(

Another prime example of the Computer Science Department allowing an instructor to "teach" a course that he/she is not qualified for. In this class Rob Byrd considers something "taught" if it is mentioned in class. If he thinks he understands a particular topic in the course watch out; that part of the test will be unbearable. He made the students build computers using actual logic gates and wires; the problem with this was he barely understood what needed to be done himself. I feel quite certain that the students in electrical engineering would have had a difficult time finishing these projects. As far as tests go, the class average is a 'C' which in my opinoin reflects that the instructor did a poor job of teaching the material; Byrd seems satisified with a 'C' average. Hmmm. Finally a word about the tests, typical Byrd, he will review for the test by saying you need to know chapters 1 - 3. This is as detailed as it gets. When test time rolls around the questions are so specific that if you did not read paragraph 3 on page 235 you will miss the entire question, and since the next four questions rely on that first question you are assured to fail the test.

Pitiful

Not to scare anyone, because Dr. Byrd is the only professor who teaches this course, but he is absolutely an awful teacher. His test resemble more closely to a history exam rather than a computer science exam. He offers little to no help on the projects in the class which are 400 out of 1000 points. Plus you have to teach yourself to use a visual complier (Borland Visual 5.0) because if your like me you've never used it before. Its not the end of the semester yet, but it has been a long one.

Ths class was a pain, it started painfully slow, the tests were overly based on memorization, and the last part of the semester was hell. Furthermore, grades are very subjective and generally only one group gets an A and grades go down from there. Make sure you get on his good side....

If you have never programmed in Visual C++ before, this class is a tough go. In this course, your team is required to produce a substantive Windows application using Borland Builder. Class presentation of the project is assigned in lieu of a final. Dr. Byrd is more than willing to help with Builder problems, but you will be crunched for time trying to get the project completed. The tests are mostly listing with a few essays.

The tests are mostly listing and the final is composed mostly of material from student presentations. If you study the handouts, you should do okay. 15% of your final grade comes from attendance.

This man has no idea what he is talking about in the class room. He does not have any networking or novell creditials. This wouldn't be a problem, except that when he lectures he spreads misinformation about networking in general and does not provide the education that students should be expecting. How hard it is to stick to fundatmentals of installing, maintaining, and upgrading of a Novell Network server and workstations?

Discussion class. Although it's not the easiest 'A' you can get, if you go to class and study a little before exams/quizes, you should be alright. The biggest part: 40% of the grade came from writing an 8 page paper about a topic from a list and giving a 10-15 minute presentation over it (with a class handout).

Although some of the material seemed a bit 'off-the-wall' to me, Dr. Byrd is a friendly teacher who will get to know you.

This class wasn't very hard. The final sounded hard at first because 2/3 of it would be off of student presentations, some of which weren't very good. But all of the assignments were reasonable, and none of the tests were very difficult. An enjoyable class.