AI Rate Professor

Computer Science

Dave Harden

CS10C · CIS10 · CS11 · CIS10AB · CS10 · CS10B · CIS10A · CIS10B · 76 lifetime ratings

AI rating
48/100
RMP rating
3.4/5
Take again
63.83%
Difficulty
3.3

The decision

if you can teach yourself from the book and ; avoid if you need hand-holding.

Best fit · Self Taught ProSelf-taught heavyLots of homeworkTough style graderTextbook and ZyBooks dependentPolarizing CS instructor
  • Course success depends more on reading, projects, and .
  • Workload is consistently heavy with and assignment details.
  • self-motivated students learn a lot; beginners often feel abandoned.

Key questions

Four answers before you build your schedule.

Is this an easy A?

HardWork

40/100

Many students still earn A or B grades, but , and self-teaching make an A costly in time and precision.

Online reviews stress self-teaching and ZyBooks friction; and .

Is the course easy?

Challenging

32/100

Data structures and consistently above intro comfort for many students.

; online adds more pure self-study pressure.

Is attendance flexible?

Optional

78/100

Most online and optional lectures or recorded content.

Online almost always optional; a minority of .

Is this professor recommended?

Depends

58/100

, but praise for real learning is offset by frequent frustration over teaching and grading.

Recent online sections trend more mixed-to-positive for ; older and .

Course guide

See how this professor fits your week.

Grading

Strict

36/100

, but tough grading on style, comments, and .

Format shift

Strict style and ; some recent online comments note lenient late work.

Workload

Heavy

26/100

Lots of , and reading dominate the course experience across sections.

Format shift

and in person.

Teaching experience

Average

52/100

, yet many call lectures low-effort, outdated, or insufficient for hard topics.

Format shift

In-person optional lectures sometimes praised as slow and caring; online lectures more often called weak.

Assessment method

FocusOnAssignments

25/100

Assignments and ; exams are lighter, open-note, or sometimes absent.

Format shift

Several online CS10C comments report no exams or weekly open-note quizzes; older courses mention midterms and finals.

Luni fit check

Weigh these signals against your actual schedule.

Get help balancing workload, grading, and timing when no option is an obvious fit.

Course format

Compare the in-person and online experience.

Classroom format

In person

21 reviews

High confidence · Best fit for Hardcore Learner

and readings; lectures are mixed, attendance often flexible, and open-note tests appear in several courses.

Main concern

and uneven lecture clarity frustrate students who need clearer instruction.

What students said

“If you want an easy A, . If you want to learn how to program and .”
CIS10B
“ so they're real easy to pass.”
CS11
“he doesn't teach anything, half of his lectures are from like 10 years ago... just destroys their grades.”
CIS10AB

Remote format

Online

29 reviews

High confidence · Best fit for Self Taught Pro

Online sections are largely asynchronous and textbook or ZyBooks driven, with , and mixed help quality.

Main concern

Weak or outdated lectures plus platform friction leave many students .

What students said

“ and never interact with the professor since everything is taught by the online textbook.”
CS10C
“This class is primarily self taught and asynchronous... The no exams.”
CS10C
“If . You have to have SO much time to teach yourself.”
CS10C

Exam style

Know what to expect from exams and major assignments.

and weigh less than the heavy programming assignments.

Open-note quizzesOpen textbook examsAssignment-heavy gradingSome no-exam sections

Assessment risk

StudentFriendly

72/100

Low score means less forgiving assessment conditions.

In person

In-person comments often describe open-textbook or multiple-choice exams that are easier than the programming workload.

Open textbook testsMultiple choice examsStrict homework grading
“ so they're real easy to pass.”
CS11
“ how he wants you to format your program.”
CS11

Online

Online reviews frequently cite no exams or or projects.

No exams in some sectionsWeekly open-note quizzesZyBooks or project heavy
“No exams, but .”
CS10C
“The no exams, which I find tedious for CS classes.”
CS10C
“ and very easy.”
CIS10A

Student evidence

See what students actually said.

Top student voice

“If you want an easy A, . If you want to learn how to program and .”

Voice snapshots generated from 50 reviews (29 online, 21 in , and split recommendations. Credibility rating: High.

📚

52/100

“ and never interact with the professor since everything is taught by the online textbook.”

🏋️

26/100

“Be prepared for lots of reading and to spend a lot of time reviewing the material.”

⚖️

36/100

“Has pointless restrictions and coding guidelines that you lose points 4 not following.”

🔀 Polarized Recommendation

58/100

“ . Now that I'm taking it, I disagree with the negativity.”

Theme 1

👨‍💻 About Teaching Style

  • Doesnt really teach and provides some old lectures for help.
  • Professor Harden is very caring and .
  • teach yourselves! he teaches nothing

Theme 2

📈 About Difficulty and Grades

  • .
  • Very lenient late-work policy and allows for resubmission a lot of the time.
  • He got rid of tests and midterms and seems to prefer just giving you assignments that take a normal human 10-15hours.

Theme 3

🛠️ About Course Tools

  • Harden uses ZyBooks for .
  • To preface this, I never watched a single recorded lecture or looked at the textbook, I just read the material on his website.

Data context

See exactly what the AI read.

Analysis sample

50

Recent reviews read by the AI

76

Lifetime ratings

90/100

Evidence confidence

Fifty reviews across online and in-person formats over many years provide rich, mixed, and and .

Inside 50 stored ratings

Quality ratings

5 out of 524
4 out of 519
3 out of 510
2 out of 511
1 out of 512

Course coverage

CS10C16 reviews
CS1111 reviews
CS108 reviews
CS10B5 reviews
CIS103 reviews
Show 3 more courses
CIS10A3 reviews
CIS10AB2 reviews
CIS10B2 reviews

Reported outcomes

A range results lead the reported letter grades.

44 reported outcomes

A range

28

A+ 3 · A 24 · A- 1

B range

8

B+ 1 · B 6 · B- 1

C range

3

C 2 · C- 1

D range

0

No reported values

F

1

F 1

No letter grade reported

4

Incomplete 1 · Not sure yet 2 · Rather not say 1