ENCE662 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Gregory Baecher ENCE662 Anonymous 05/10/2024	I had Professor Baecher this semester for ENCE662 and overall I think the class was structured well. I took the online version of the class, which I think helped with understanding the material better. The course material was split up into 10 modules (1 module per week), with each module having 5 lecture videos to watch for the week before an in-class discussion over zoom. These videos were recorded by Professor John Johnson and were pretty informative as a whole, although there was a significant focus on Agile project management, which Prof. Baecher didn't seem to emphasize as much in the zoom meetings. There were also weekly Canvas quizzes that were mostly straightforward review questions and some homework assignments that weren't too bad. I think this class provided a solid foundation for understanding project management and was a nice introductory course. The professor himself is a nice guy and was very accommodating. He is willing to provide extensions and/or change out some things operate logistically if you give him a valid reason. He does like to have people participate in the in-class discussions, so if you do show up to lectures (which for the online version were held at 7:00AM - 8:00AM each week and were not mandatory to attend), be prepared to talk about your thoughts on that week's module content. Additionally, he responds pretty quickly to emails and is easy to talk to. In terms of grading, the Professor doesn't curve individual assignment/exam grades. Instead, grading is based on class rank (not raw point score), with the scores on individual assignments being normalized by the standard deviation of each assignment (z-score) to correct for test variability. The midterm and final exams are actually kind of hard because of the amount of content that you need to study about and for the fact that wrong answers counted against your score on questions. All in all, I would recommend taking Prof. Baecher (or Prof. Johnson) for this course.
John Cable ENCE662 Anonymous 12/27/2010	ENCE 662 is probably the most miserable class among the group of PM related courses taught at the University of Maryland in College Park. This course is so badly organized and conducted that it hardly deserves to be a part of any serious graduate curriculum. Mr. Cable, who lectures ENCE 662, made this program senselessly difficult by piling up enormous amount of useless data upon students, forcing them to invest ridiculous amounts of time to keep up with the course schedule. To an average student, "The Introduction to Project Management" will take 2.5-3 times more effort to pass than any other graduate level course. Mr. Cable's lectures are boring and overloaded with unnecessary information. His approach to teaching is broad and shallow without explaining things. The material that he is using for his lectures, as well as his recommended readings, are very often of questionable scientific value. He barely answers students' questions, and he is sometimes rude. Contrary to his lectures, his exams are very difficult and the questions often require in-depth knowledge. The tests are done on-line, and each of them is 100 questions on average. It takes much more time than the three hours given to complete them. Some of the questions contain errors and many of them are copied from PMP exam preparation books. Mr. Cable's teaching assistants are quite useless as they are unable or unwilling to answer anything beyond the most basic questions. They do not seem to be knowledgeable about the subject they are teaching. Mr. Cable's resume does not indicate any significant project management experience, which practically makes him incompetent to teach this class. According to his professional biography, he holds a degree in architecture and had been involved in the remodeling business in the past. Additionally, there is no indication that Mr. Cable possesses a graduate degree. In one of his works published in 2004 he brings out his PhD candidacy, but further information in this regard stays unknown. It remains unclear if his level of educational achievement is sufficient to qualify him for teaching a graduate-level course.
John Cable ENCE662 Anonymous 12/20/2010	ENCE 662 is a bad joke at your expense. Avoid at all costs. Cable and his TA are useless morons.
John Cable ENCE662 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/15/2008	He is a pretty good professor. The majority of his examples come from his time doing civil engineering and construction though they are applicable to many situations. I took the online class and the TA was not very helpful and often times talked down to the class and was disrespectful. The professor's online exams were full of typos and poorly worded questions that left one spending more time determining if the professor had just made a mistake or was trying to trick you.

Gregory Baecher
ENCE662

Anonymous
05/10/2024

I had Professor Baecher this semester for ENCE662 and overall I think the class was structured well. I took the online version of the class, which I think helped with understanding the material better. The course material was split up into 10 modules (1 module per week), with each module having 5 lecture videos to watch for the week before an in-class discussion over zoom. These videos were recorded by Professor John Johnson and were pretty informative as a whole, although there was a significant focus on Agile project management, which Prof. Baecher didn't seem to emphasize as much in the zoom meetings. There were also weekly Canvas quizzes that were mostly straightforward review questions and some homework assignments that weren't too bad. I think this class provided a solid foundation for understanding project management and was a nice introductory course. The professor himself is a nice guy and was very accommodating. He is willing to provide extensions and/or change out some things operate logistically if you give him a valid reason. He does like to have people participate in the in-class discussions, so if you do show up to lectures (which for the online version were held at 7:00AM - 8:00AM each week and were not mandatory to attend), be prepared to talk about your thoughts on that week's module content. Additionally, he responds pretty quickly to emails and is easy to talk to. In terms of grading, the Professor doesn't curve individual assignment/exam grades. Instead, grading is based on class rank (not raw point score), with the scores on individual assignments being normalized by the standard deviation of each assignment (z-score) to correct for test variability. The midterm and final exams are actually kind of hard because of the amount of content that you need to study about and for the fact that wrong answers counted against your score on questions. All in all, I would recommend taking Prof. Baecher (or Prof. Johnson) for this course.

John Cable
ENCE662

Anonymous
12/27/2010

ENCE 662 is probably the most miserable class among the group of PM related courses taught at the University of Maryland in College Park. This course is so badly organized and conducted that it hardly deserves to be a part of any serious graduate curriculum. Mr. Cable, who lectures ENCE 662, made this program senselessly difficult by piling up enormous amount of useless data upon students, forcing them to invest ridiculous amounts of time to keep up with the course schedule. To an average student, "The Introduction to Project Management" will take 2.5-3 times more effort to pass than any other graduate level course. Mr. Cable's lectures are boring and overloaded with unnecessary information. His approach to teaching is broad and shallow without explaining things. The material that he is using for his lectures, as well as his recommended readings, are very often of questionable scientific value. He barely answers students' questions, and he is sometimes rude. Contrary to his lectures, his exams are very difficult and the questions often require in-depth knowledge. The tests are done on-line, and each of them is 100 questions on average. It takes much more time than the three hours given to complete them. Some of the questions contain errors and many of them are copied from PMP exam preparation books. Mr. Cable's teaching assistants are quite useless as they are unable or unwilling to answer anything beyond the most basic questions. They do not seem to be knowledgeable about the subject they are teaching. Mr. Cable's resume does not indicate any significant project management experience, which practically makes him incompetent to teach this class. According to his professional biography, he holds a degree in architecture and had been involved in the remodeling business in the past. Additionally, there is no indication that Mr. Cable possesses a graduate degree. In one of his works published in 2004 he brings out his PhD candidacy, but further information in this regard stays unknown. It remains unclear if his level of educational achievement is sufficient to qualify him for teaching a graduate-level course.

John Cable
ENCE662

Anonymous
12/20/2010

ENCE 662 is a bad joke at your expense. Avoid at all costs. Cable and his TA are useless morons.

John Cable
ENCE662

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/15/2008

He is a pretty good professor. The majority of his examples come from his time doing civil engineering and construction though they are applicable to many situations. I took the online class and the TA was not very helpful and often times talked down to the class and was disrespectful. The professor's online exams were full of typos and poorly worded questions that left one spending more time determining if the professor had just made a mistake or was trying to trick you.

Reviews for ENCE662