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Rating

Total average

57.1/100
Helpfulness ( 58.9 )
Clarity ( 59.3 )
Easiness ( 58.6 )
Approachability ( 51.6 )
Organisation ( 60.7 )
Availability ( 53.6 )

Reviews (10)

Despicable Bee
   
Dr Joel Fenwick 100.0

Joel Fenwick is the greatest lecturer UQ has ever known.

A statue of this gift to mankind should be erected in his honor, along side a new building dubbed 'Fenwick building 2310'

For all the midwits that don't get it, he is INTENTIONALLY not spoon feeding you in order to help you develop your programming, and more importantly, the way you THINK.

I hear people complain all the time that he's a bad lecturer because "he's mean and doesn't go out of his way to help me pass".

Yeah, welcome to the real world. Every semester he says the same thing

"Your code has to WORK, doesn't matter how much effort you put in, if it doesn't work, you fail"

this hammers in the idea that YOU need to practice good programming skills in order to not dig yourself into a hole.

On those lonely nights when your code is failing to work and you don't know why, thank god you are going through this in a uni environment and not in real life.

Embrace failure, suck up to the tutors, study your ass off and start thinking like a programmer.

Joel Fenwick gets abuse from hundreds of drop kick students every year, who refuse to change the way they think because that'd be too much of an ask for them. Yet he still musters the strength to keep on going.
It's so easy to be compassionate and just tell students what to do in order to pass, but Joel takes the hard road.

He doesn't get any additional pay for doing this, he does this because he wants to train GOOD programmers.
The stupid people are just so self interested to see that.

Joel if you ever read this. Thank you for your service.

God speed you magnificent bastard.
Which course did you take? (e.g. MGTS1301)

CSSE2310

Positives
  • Creates lasting experiences
  • Develops real world programming skills
  • Tough as diamond resolve
Negatives No negative points
Posted on March 9, 2021 8:25 pm
Zhien Zhang
   
Dr Joel Fenwick 98.3

I did CSSE2310 in sem 1, 2020 when the pedantic started to change how courses are delivered. During the first few weeks I was on external mode, and CSSE2310 was the only course that offered no extra help to stuents like me. I was a bit unsatisfied about it at first, but later I found I was already given enough resource to study. Everything is organized and nicely presented.

I admit that the workload for the assesment in CSSE2310 is heavy, and debugging your program is like a nightmare. But I think it is worthwhile to devote your time and patience to this course for what you will gain from it. I agree with what Joel has said once in the lecture that "no one knows your program better than yourself" and very often you are the only person who is likely to find the problem in your program. Sometimes it takes a long time for the tutors to look at your code before they are able to tell which part might be wrong, and it might be faster to do it yourself. I don't think Joel have done anything on purpose to make more students fail the course, it's probably just a different teaching style and I don't think they should be blamed for being different.

The high quality of the course delivered by Joel is one of the major reason why I said there is nothing to blame on them. I am not a genius who can finish the assignment within a week and looks like I have put no effort in it. I was frustrated by the segfault that pops out from time to time too. There is no difficulty in getting help or understanding the course content. Joel and his teaching team have been really responsible, and did not give low quality teaching with an excuse for the pandemic. Although I don't know how he looks like and have never been to his lecture in person, I would still say he is one of the best lecturers in the school of ITEE.
Which course did you take? (e.g. MGTS1301)

CSSE2310

Positives
  • he's teaching is perfect
Negatives No negative points
Posted on September 28, 2020 11:30 am
Anonymous
   
Dr Joel Fenwick 65.0

Made me the programmer I am.

Which course did you take? (e.g. MGTS1301)

CSSE2310

Positives No positive points
Negatives No negative points
Posted on April 1, 2020 3:20 pm
Nicholas
   
Dr Joel Fenwick 100.0

Hands down one of the best lecturers at UQ, would highly recommend CSSE2310 to all CS/IT/SWE students. Joel can be intimidating, but he's always happy to help you understand the material. That said, he won't hold your hand, so you'll really have to learn. Genuinely nice guy under the sometimes prickly exterior.
Which course did you take? (e.g. MGTS1301)

CSSE2310

Positives
  • Genuinely interested in student learning
  • Seeks feedback and actions it
  • Well thought out and interesting assignments
Negatives
  • Can be intimidating
Posted on January 29, 2019 8:38 am
Anonymous
   
Dr Joel Fenwick 8.0

Worst lecturer in UQ, he does not want to provide any past year examination answers in order to fail more students for his own enjoyment. He trying to teach some irrelevant knowledge during his lecture which is totally out of points to the assignments. I really want to know the pass rate of this course since I am really struggling in CSSE2310.
Which course did you take? (e.g. MGTS1301)

CSSE2310

Positives
  • not at all
Negatives
  • Poor teaching skills
  • Terrible and hard assignments given
  • poor management of this course
Posted on November 14, 2018 11:34 am
Anonymous
   
Dr Joel Fenwick 4.7

Very bad experience with his teaching methods and assessments. The assessments were ridiculously hard to do and as a result, a significant number of people failed the assignments. As a software engineering student, I'd love to enjoy this course but unfortunately impossible with Dr Fenwick.

Which course did you take? (e.g. MGTS1301)

CSSE2002

Positives No positive points
Negatives No negative points
Posted on July 30, 2018 1:31 pm
Anonymous
   
Dr Joel Fenwick 23.7

The lecture content is barely relevant to anything you do in the assignments, pracs or tutorials for the majority of the course. Unless you have a lot of background knowledge in the area or already done a fair bit of Java or object oriented coding in general most of what is covered in lectures and tutorials will go straight over your head and he will not do much to help you out.

Which course did you take? (e.g. MGTS1301)

CSSE2002

Positives
  • Is clearly very knowledgeable in his field.
Negatives
  • Never replies to emails
Posted on April 24, 2018 10:15 am
Ross
   
Dr Joel Fenwick 9.2

Joel Fenwick is possibly the worst lecturer that i have ever had. He belittles his students and makes his course 10 times harder than it needs to be for his own enjoyment. Worst course at UQ.
Which course did you take? (e.g. MGTS1301)

CSSE2310

Positives
  • None
Negatives No negative points
Posted on March 30, 2016 1:03 pm
Anonymous
   
Dr Joel Fenwick 62.3

Joel Fenwick is a really decent lecturer, humorous exaggerations can be annoying, but are also memorable and keep things in your head. He's clearly enthusaistic about what he does, and considering the material he's teaching, it's achieving something when I never fell asleep in any of his classes. He also goes to great lengths in his own time, and is the only lecturer I've ever seen to attend tutorials, so despite everything I'm about to say, he's definitely above the average UQ lecturer that I've had.

/However/.

Choosing not to record lectures is such a bad move. You might say it forces people to come and learn during semester instead of cramming and that this is better for students' learning. But Joel Fenwick is not in charge of students' time, and is not the judge of whether or not we should be in class, he does not know our circumstances and does not deserve to make that choice for us. I believe that he believes that it's the right thing to do, but it's such a bad call, and it comes off as egotistical and inconsiderate.

He also chooses to indulge in a small amount of shaming to people who aren't as up with it in nerd/IT/computer culture, and just knowing things in general. People come here to learn things they don't know, don't make fun of them for not knowing things that they're currently trying to learn. Joel himself isn't the most guilty of it, but he's been in rooms where his tutors/underlyings have done this and done nothing to prevent it. Giving attitude to kids who are looking for help does nobody any favors.

Which course did you take? (e.g. MGTS1301)

csse2310

Positives
  • interesting lecturing style
  • enthusiasm appreciated
Negatives
  • No recorded lectures
  • Sometimes unapproachable
Posted on October 7, 2015 7:20 am
Anonymous
   
Dr Joel Fenwick 100.0

Joel Fenwick runs one of the best courses I have done at UQ. He has an amazing wit and makes every lecture humourous to a point where the operating systems and programming he lectures about are not only interesting but enjoyable.
Which course did you take? (e.g. MGTS1301)

CSSE2310

Positives
  • Impromptu Humour
  • Physical Analogies
  • Minimum Handholding = Maximum Learning
Negatives No negative points
Posted on September 19, 2014 2:32 pm

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