INST327 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Pamela Duffy INST327 Expecting an A Anonymous 07/07/2025	DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS!! As others have said assignment instructions were confusing and inconsistent. They would change on a whim with little to no prior notice and send half the class into a frenzy on disallowed terms (which were literally taught in the textbook). And, as everyone else has also mentioned she took the time to report half the class for cheating which severely impacted my mental health last semester. Imagine worry about your academics and then all of a sudden being accused of cheating (which i didn’t do and was eventually cleared of) which puts you into a 2 month long limbo period. That was easily the most stressful point in my life and I’m sure other students who also did nothing felt the same.
Vedat Diker INST327 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 06/05/2025	He only lectured a couple times but I thought he was a pretty average lecturer but I did interact with him a bit and I can say that he is a super nice guy and was understanding of the entire groupme/ai cheating thing, at least in my case.
Pamela Duffy INST327 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/23/2025	PLEASE AVOID TAKING HER AT ALL COSTS!!! The class could have been more productive and fun if it hadn't been for the sudden investigation that put most students into a frantic state. I still don't understand why we can't ask questions or get help from elsewhere. Not only would this make the class hard, but it also restricts us from learning more about SQL. Luckily, I was not accused of the scandal, but I did see a couple of my friends crashing and crying their eyes out because of the incident, which I feel pity for them considering how intelligent and open-minded they are compared to me. How can I forget about the last-minute announcement of a change, when most of us have turned in the assignment. The restriction was established due to her paranoia about students using AI. Luckily, I made friends with the people in my discussion group, and my discussion TA was helpful and would try to assist at all costs. If the TA had a profile, I would give him a 5-star rating. As for Professor Duffy, if you're taking her next semester or any semester, good luck because you need it! P.S.: She also teaches a 400-level class. Do as you wish with this information.
Pamela Duffy INST327 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/21/2025	Absolutely terrible experience. Hannah, the TA, was consistently rude and dismissive—interrupting students mid-sentence and making it feel like asking questions was a burden. She clearly shouldn’t be in a teaching role. As for Professor Duffy, she seemed completely checked out. Grading took forever, and she even told us not to reach out to her directly—everything had to go through Hannah first, which only made things worse. The whole setup felt disorganized and honestly disrespectful to students. It seemed like they were more interested in power-tripping than actually helping us learn.
Pamela Duffy INST327 Anonymous 05/20/2025	If i could give her 0 stars, I would. She is by far the worst Professor I have had these past 3 years. The reviews on here are the complete opposite of what she is truly like as a Professor. She reported over 50 students to the code of conduct for a group me that was created by HER TA. She has an awful attitude and an extreme condescending tone when you try to talk to her about anything. I have sent her several ELMS messages (her main form of communication) and she has responded to 0. She will change up the instructions for assignments and add/remove disallowed keywords AFTER the due date of the assignment has passed just because AI uses those keywords EVEN THO, they are taught in the textbook. Everything in the class is very strict and honestly even her class TA's have an attitude, especially Hanna. She claims that this class is "co-taught" by her and Professor Diker, however, he was only there for a few lecture lessons and it seems like she was the big boss in charge of everything. Avoid her at all costs for your own sanity. She is in no way fit for teaching.
Pamela Duffy INST327 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/19/2025	What a terrible professor. Grading sucks, takes too long to respond to emails, brick jokes, I could go on. I wish I didn't take a chance on her from these reviews. Diker is a better teacher than her, but we didn't see him as much as we saw her. Misplaced priorites with her whole investigation bs she put half the class through. And to the TA Angela, you equally suck because of the audacity to say half the class was cheating when we literally had gotten a warning/reminder so for you to still insist people were cheating, you genuinely suck. Anyways, I wish professor Diker taught the class more than her, he was better at explaining even if he went over class time by a few minutes.
Pamela Duffy INST327 Expecting a C- Anonymous 05/16/2025	Words cannot describe the annoyance and anger I feel towards her. From her dismissive attitude when it came to answering students questions to her reporting nearly half the cohort simply for being in a GroupMe, Professor Duffy does not live up to the reviews on here. Her teaching is bland, she simply reads off of the slides, and she makes no effort to get her students involved. Her extra video quizzes mimic what she teaches in class, so there's no point in showing up to her lectures. She puts in more effort in reporting students for useless things than into ensuring that her students are engaged and understand how to use SQL. I also never forget how she sent everyone into a frenzy because she decided to add a disallowed term last minute without notifying anyone, then hiding her hands when called out on it. I hope that I never have to cross paths with her again. It's unfortunate that she's practically the only professor that teaches this course, I can't even say not to take her.
Pamela Duffy INST327 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/13/2025	I feel upset because Professor Duffy is overall a kind person and not a horrible teacher. However, that being said, it felt like she was really unresponsive to elms messages (her preferred communication) and had poor communication with not only her students but her TAs as well. I was thankful to have a wonderful discussion TA to help me during this class. As someone said too, there was a big academic dishonesty case in the class, and I was a part of it simply for being in the group chat. I do not blame her for what had happened, but I do feel a little bitter over the fact I begged for help and had such bad communication to resolve the matter. Other than that, I did enjoy the textbook and think it is an easy read for the class. PLEASE pick people who have good work ethics for the group project, I am very thankful I had such kind and hardworking teammates, it makes the class way more enjoyable.
Pamela Duffy INST327 Expecting an A poliswaggy 05/13/2025	There’s one required discussion, optional lectures (in my opinion), and a semester-long project. Most of the work is asynchronous, so it’s pretty manageable. I actually liked the assignments, they’re straightforward and teach you exactly what you need to know. You don’t interact with the professors much (there are two), but Professor Duffy stands out as super understanding and clear about expectations. She’s chill, and overall I enjoyed the class.
Pamela Duffy INST327 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/09/2025	Horrendous teacher, don't get how she is 4.3 stars. I took her because I got a recommendation from a friend, as well as the good PlanetTerp reviews. She creates a GroupMe for the class, then accuses half the class for cheating because we asked questions in it? I stopped going to lecture but she tries to make jokes mid lecture and all of them are bricks. Although she knows the material and can somewhat teach, she's just miserable to have, just find a better professor (not hard). She needs to wrap it up at this point
Pamela Duffy INST327 Expecting a B- Anonymous 05/02/2025	I'm not entirely sure as to why Professor Duffy has good reviews. She is such a boring professor. All she does is reads off slides, and speaks in such a monotone manner. Her lectures are not interesting and simply mimic what is spoken in the video quizzes. I preferred Professor Diker over her, but unfortunately, she teaches most of the course. She put more effort into reporting half the class for being in a GroupMe than to ensuring her lessons are engaging. If you are able to, do not take Professor Duffy for this class. She's not worth the mental and academic stress.
Pamela Duffy INST327 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/01/2025	Professor Duffy does a great job making the material easy to understand. The assignments are very educational and really reinforce what you learn. This class focuses heavily on SQL and isn’t too difficult if you stay on top of things. To succeed, make sure to watch the lecture videos, complete the quizzes before class, and follow along with the in-class code examples and skeleton files provided. Don’t hesitate to ask for help in ELMS or Piazza. Both the TA's and professors are very supportive. Additionally, shoutout to TA Angela! She is amazing and very knowledgeable, and explains concepts clearly. Each discussion is mandatory, and we start with 15 minutes to try the lab exercises on our own. After that, the TA walks through them step by step, which is super helpful. Additionally, there is a semester-long database design project. Make sure to pick a good group within your class section early on, or you’ll be placed randomly. Some parts of the project require meeting up and working on the same device, so it’s important to have a cooperative group. The project can get challenging if group members don’t pull their weight.
Iskander Lou INST327 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/25/2024	Took it over the summer and could of never passed this class without his very helpful videos. He also grades on time which is very nice as a student.The class like every summer classes moved like a fever dream, but his organized class structures made a clear pathway. Overall take him
Vedat Diker INST327 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/03/2024	This course is co-taught by Diker and Duffy. I had Diker for the once a week in-person lectures. His lectures were a bit dry but very helpful. He tried to be as simple as possible in his explanations to help his students understand. There was a zoom option for lectures. The mandatory Friday discussion sections were for labs. The labs were easy as the TA would go through them step-by-step. Assignments for this class weren't too difficult and there were plenty of office hours opportunities to ask questions about them. Bi-weekly discussion boards weren't difficult, but a bit tedious. Grading is fair for the most part. The final group project was quite annoying. It is dragged out pretty much the entire semester with several checkpoints and written reports. The final project experience heavily depends on how productive your teammates are. Overall, Diker is a solid professor and this is an interesting class!
Iskander Lou INST327 Anonymous 08/23/2024	Easy class, just make sure your group for the semester long project doesn't procrastinate and you'll be good
Srikanth Parvathala INST327 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/10/2024	Srikanth was a very good TA for INST327. He was always willing to help students and explain concepts that were difficult to understand. He responded to emails pretty quickly and was overall just a very nice person. I recommend his discussion section for INST327, this semester it was Fridays 3-4pm.
Devanshi Shah INST327 Expecting an A+ PassionateStudent 02/06/2024	I enjoyed the content of the class but you can get that with Professor Duffy. Please do so if you can. I have gone to Prof Duffy in-person class just to understand the material better. I passed the class with an A+ because of Duffy. Mrs. Shah's structure is HORRENDOUS. She doesn't do anything about the students who expect you to do all the work. She sends out emails addressing complaints and says that she will reach out to them but NOTHING CHANGES and they can slack off and still pass. We have mandatory meetings with the TAs and this is where you have a check-in on the status of your project. Her TAs do all the work for her and she reads Duffy's slides word for word. The two good reviews are because they didn't have to deal with bad teammates on top of the unnecessary confusion and stress. You will mostly be teaching yourself or seeking for guidance the whole semester.
Pamela Duffy INST327 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/29/2023	Professor Duffy is a pleasant lecturer. The class as a whole was a headache. The semester-long group project was very unpleasant.
Iskander Lou INST327 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/24/2023	Overall, this was a fair class. Be prepared to teach yourself mySQL to complete the assignments since you won't learn much from lectures. Labs are free points if you attend the discussion. Make sure to start the assignments (especially the parts of the semester-long group project early) so that you can ask for help.
Pamela Duffy INST327 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/20/2023	The course was co-taught between Duffy and Diker. Duffy did the recorded lectures for our section and Diker did the in-person lectures. Personally I found this course to be quite hard and apparently this is an unpopular opinion but I thought 326 was better than 327. The lecture vids were really hard for me to watch, I would often get bored and couldn't follow along with what was happening. The lecture vids and understanding the material are the hardest part of the course but the in-person labs and discussion board posts are basically easy grade boosters to help balance out the difficulty.
Iskander Lou INST327 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/14/2023	He's chill, but his lectures are boring. However, he provides a lot of online resources and videos, so you can still ace this class by learning material that way. TAs were helpful, especially for the semester-long group final project.
Devanshi Shah INST327 Expecting a B- Anonymous 10/24/2023	If you guys ever plan on taking INST327 this semester, I’m begging you for the love of God, DO NOT take this professor if you want your grades to not drop. The professor literally copies Prof. Duffy’s videos and reads off the screen word for word. She never actually meaningfully engages with the content And the TAs are something else. They don’t respond to emails and hardly help others because they are busy with their own midterms…funny because when I asked for an extension because of an upcoming midterm, a TA said that it wasn’t a good excuse. So you can choose not to respond because of your midterms but our work isn’t an excuse for extensions? Talk about double standards And they don’t know how to organize a class. The syllabus says one date for an assignment, the ELMS page says another. HOW DO YOU NOT UPDATE A SYLLABUS?! They mess up due dates for assignments, causing undue stress for myself and other students. The labs, quizzes, and discussions are easy As. But the homework assignments are extremely difficult. They are already complex and then the professor and TAs ignore or hardly respond to questions for help on the assignments. Then they have the nerve to grade assignments harshly. They took off 15 points just for using an exact WHERE condition just because it wasn’t an allowed structure? Why take off points for an effective code. And these assignments are 25% of your grade. Besides, they poorly teach and don’t guide students well and then have the nerve to grade harshly when they get something wrong. All in all, poor teaching, lack of guidance, disorganization, and difficult assignments from hell are messing up the class. Don’t take this professor! If she’s the only one available for INST327 this semester, then please take it another semester.
Devanshi Shah INST327 Anonymous 10/06/2023	Absolutely HORRIBLE Professor. This professor seems to be a grad student that doesn't have much experience in teaching. Which would be fine if she actually put in the effort to make the class enjoyable. She just reads off of Pamela Duffy's script, uses her slides + video quizzes etc. The class is not about learning as none of the TAs care about your grade and neither does the professor. They do everything incorrectly from assigning due dates, quiz questions and labs. They offer no assistance in assignment questions and most of the time don't even know themselves what the assignment is about. Just take the class with Pamela Duffy you'll be 100% better off.
Iskander Lou INST327 Anonymous 09/24/2023	PLEASE DO NOT TAKE THIS PROFESSOR. HE DOES NOT TEACH. HE BARELY KNOWS WHAT IS GOING ON. PLEASE SAVE YOURSELF THE PAIN.
Pamela Duffy INST327 Expecting an A Anonymous 09/05/2023	Professor Duffy is so sweet and she makes her class as simple as possible. She provides tons of resources and you can tell she wants her students to do well. She is also very understanding if you are having any issues. I took this class online over the summer and it was very manageable.
Iskander Lou INST327 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/24/2023	This class was one of the most painful classes that I have taken. Iskandor's lectures are more focused on trying to be your friend since he's a grad student than actually teaching. Most of the lecture is disorganized which makes the assignments more difficult to navigate. Most of the learning I did was with the AMPs and the TAs than his lectures. I would say to skip lectures but next semester, they will require attendance which is very frustrating since it's normally a waste of time. Also, there are so many group projects and they are incredibly painful since peer reviews have never deducted significantly to change behaviors, only if they do NO work, not significantly less. Overall, a painful requirement, but again I got an A so it's not that bad.
Pamela Duffy INST327 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/23/2023	She is a very knowledgeable and considerate professor. I agree with others responses that we have a lot of busy work. However, its there to compensate for the harder assignments/project work. As long as you have a capable group, you'll be fine with the semester long project. The TA's are available and reliable.
Pamela Duffy INST327 Expecting an A Naruto 05/16/2023	Good teachers and gives extension. I don't like the sjw articles we have to read.
Iskander Lou INST327 Expecting an A Naruto 05/16/2023	Good teachers, watch the videos and actually try and learn sql. Constantly gives extensions on assignments. I would recommend for your group project to pick people good at sql,. Try and master normalization, erd diagrams, and data importing. Starts the big assignments early and go to office hours for help.
Vedat Diker INST327 Expecting a B Anonymous 04/02/2023	Dr. Diker was a great professor. He was more than willing to help his students and was always available when needed. He is also a fair grader.
Pamela Duffy INST327 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 09/09/2022	She is the most caring professor I have ever met. Although I admit that her lectures could be somewhat useless because of the large number of knowledge you can get only from the elms pages, the more you interact with her, the more love you will have for her. Most assignments are easy, even if you meet any problem you can quickly solve it during office hours. The only hard part of this course is that sometimes you have to deal with shitty teammates.
Pamela Duffy INST327 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/24/2021	i literally love her she is so caring and takes her time to help you understand. Definitely take a class you need with her if possible.
Pamela Duffy INST327 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 10/11/2021	Class was easy if programming comes easily to you. The group project was irritating at times, but that was because of flaky group members. Otherwise good course, easy online quizzes, and no exams.
Pamela Duffy INST327 Anonymous 11/21/2020	Great professor
Pamela Duffy INST327 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/23/2019	Excellent professor! Highly recommend!
Pamela Duffy INST327 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/21/2019	Duffy is a good teacher who cares about her students, and gives very fair (and open book) assessments and assignments. Databases can be a pretty dry subject but Duffy does her best to make the course interesting, and it is one of the most useful courses in the major.
Pamela Duffy INST327 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/18/2019	She's great. Very helpful. Makes sure you understand the material instead of just knowing what to do. Very lab centered class
Vedat Diker INST327 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/17/2018	Isn't a great lecturer but is very helpful to students. Also a pretty lenient grader.

Pamela Duffy
INST327

Expecting an A
Anonymous
07/07/2025

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS!! As others have said assignment instructions were confusing and inconsistent. They would change on a whim with little to no prior notice and send half the class into a frenzy on disallowed terms (which were literally taught in the textbook). And, as everyone else has also mentioned she took the time to report half the class for cheating which severely impacted my mental health last semester. Imagine worry about your academics and then all of a sudden being accused of cheating (which i didn’t do and was eventually cleared of) which puts you into a 2 month long limbo period. That was easily the most stressful point in my life and I’m sure other students who also did nothing felt the same.

Vedat Diker
INST327

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
06/05/2025

He only lectured a couple times but I thought he was a pretty average lecturer but I did interact with him a bit and I can say that he is a super nice guy and was understanding of the entire groupme/ai cheating thing, at least in my case.

Pamela Duffy
INST327

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/23/2025

PLEASE AVOID TAKING HER AT ALL COSTS!!! The class could have been more productive and fun if it hadn't been for the sudden investigation that put most students into a frantic state. I still don't understand why we can't ask questions or get help from elsewhere. Not only would this make the class hard, but it also restricts us from learning more about SQL. Luckily, I was not accused of the scandal, but I did see a couple of my friends crashing and crying their eyes out because of the incident, which I feel pity for them considering how intelligent and open-minded they are compared to me. How can I forget about the last-minute announcement of a change, when most of us have turned in the assignment. The restriction was established due to her paranoia about students using AI. Luckily, I made friends with the people in my discussion group, and my discussion TA was helpful and would try to assist at all costs. If the TA had a profile, I would give him a 5-star rating. As for Professor Duffy, if you're taking her next semester or any semester, good luck because you need it! P.S.: She also teaches a 400-level class. Do as you wish with this information.

Pamela Duffy
INST327

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/21/2025

Absolutely terrible experience. Hannah, the TA, was consistently rude and dismissive—interrupting students mid-sentence and making it feel like asking questions was a burden. She clearly shouldn’t be in a teaching role. As for Professor Duffy, she seemed completely checked out. Grading took forever, and she even told us not to reach out to her directly—everything had to go through Hannah first, which only made things worse. The whole setup felt disorganized and honestly disrespectful to students. It seemed like they were more interested in power-tripping than actually helping us learn.

Pamela Duffy
INST327

Anonymous
05/20/2025

If i could give her 0 stars, I would. She is by far the worst Professor I have had these past 3 years. The reviews on here are the complete opposite of what she is truly like as a Professor. She reported over 50 students to the code of conduct for a group me that was created by HER TA. She has an awful attitude and an extreme condescending tone when you try to talk to her about anything. I have sent her several ELMS messages (her main form of communication) and she has responded to 0. She will change up the instructions for assignments and add/remove disallowed keywords AFTER the due date of the assignment has passed just because AI uses those keywords EVEN THO, they are taught in the textbook. Everything in the class is very strict and honestly even her class TA's have an attitude, especially Hanna. She claims that this class is "co-taught" by her and Professor Diker, however, he was only there for a few lecture lessons and it seems like she was the big boss in charge of everything. Avoid her at all costs for your own sanity. She is in no way fit for teaching.

Pamela Duffy
INST327

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/19/2025

What a terrible professor. Grading sucks, takes too long to respond to emails, brick jokes, I could go on. I wish I didn't take a chance on her from these reviews. Diker is a better teacher than her, but we didn't see him as much as we saw her. Misplaced priorites with her whole investigation bs she put half the class through. And to the TA Angela, you equally suck because of the audacity to say half the class was cheating when we literally had gotten a warning/reminder so for you to still insist people were cheating, you genuinely suck. Anyways, I wish professor Diker taught the class more than her, he was better at explaining even if he went over class time by a few minutes.

Pamela Duffy
INST327

Expecting a C-
Anonymous
05/16/2025

Words cannot describe the annoyance and anger I feel towards her. From her dismissive attitude when it came to answering students questions to her reporting nearly half the cohort simply for being in a GroupMe, Professor Duffy does not live up to the reviews on here. Her teaching is bland, she simply reads off of the slides, and she makes no effort to get her students involved. Her extra video quizzes mimic what she teaches in class, so there's no point in showing up to her lectures. She puts in more effort in reporting students for useless things than into ensuring that her students are engaged and understand how to use SQL. I also never forget how she sent everyone into a frenzy because she decided to add a disallowed term last minute without notifying anyone, then hiding her hands when called out on it. I hope that I never have to cross paths with her again. It's unfortunate that she's practically the only professor that teaches this course, I can't even say not to take her.

Pamela Duffy
INST327

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/13/2025

I feel upset because Professor Duffy is overall a kind person and not a horrible teacher. However, that being said, it felt like she was really unresponsive to elms messages (her preferred communication) and had poor communication with not only her students but her TAs as well. I was thankful to have a wonderful discussion TA to help me during this class. As someone said too, there was a big academic dishonesty case in the class, and I was a part of it simply for being in the group chat. I do not blame her for what had happened, but I do feel a little bitter over the fact I begged for help and had such bad communication to resolve the matter. Other than that, I did enjoy the textbook and think it is an easy read for the class. PLEASE pick people who have good work ethics for the group project, I am very thankful I had such kind and hardworking teammates, it makes the class way more enjoyable.

Pamela Duffy
INST327

Expecting an A
poliswaggy
05/13/2025

There’s one required discussion, optional lectures (in my opinion), and a semester-long project. Most of the work is asynchronous, so it’s pretty manageable. I actually liked the assignments, they’re straightforward and teach you exactly what you need to know. You don’t interact with the professors much (there are two), but Professor Duffy stands out as super understanding and clear about expectations. She’s chill, and overall I enjoyed the class.

Pamela Duffy
INST327

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/09/2025

Horrendous teacher, don't get how she is 4.3 stars. I took her because I got a recommendation from a friend, as well as the good PlanetTerp reviews. She creates a GroupMe for the class, then accuses half the class for cheating because we asked questions in it? I stopped going to lecture but she tries to make jokes mid lecture and all of them are bricks. Although she knows the material and can somewhat teach, she's just miserable to have, just find a better professor (not hard). She needs to wrap it up at this point

Pamela Duffy
INST327

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
05/02/2025

I'm not entirely sure as to why Professor Duffy has good reviews. She is such a boring professor. All she does is reads off slides, and speaks in such a monotone manner. Her lectures are not interesting and simply mimic what is spoken in the video quizzes. I preferred Professor Diker over her, but unfortunately, she teaches most of the course. She put more effort into reporting half the class for being in a GroupMe than to ensuring her lessons are engaging. If you are able to, do not take Professor Duffy for this class. She's not worth the mental and academic stress.

Pamela Duffy
INST327

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/01/2025

Professor Duffy does a great job making the material easy to understand. The assignments are very educational and really reinforce what you learn. This class focuses heavily on SQL and isn’t too difficult if you stay on top of things. To succeed, make sure to watch the lecture videos, complete the quizzes before class, and follow along with the in-class code examples and skeleton files provided. Don’t hesitate to ask for help in ELMS or Piazza. Both the TA's and professors are very supportive. Additionally, shoutout to TA Angela! She is amazing and very knowledgeable, and explains concepts clearly. Each discussion is mandatory, and we start with 15 minutes to try the lab exercises on our own. After that, the TA walks through them step by step, which is super helpful. Additionally, there is a semester-long database design project. Make sure to pick a good group within your class section early on, or you’ll be placed randomly. Some parts of the project require meeting up and working on the same device, so it’s important to have a cooperative group. The project can get challenging if group members don’t pull their weight.

Iskander Lou
INST327

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/25/2024

Took it over the summer and could of never passed this class without his very helpful videos. He also grades on time which is very nice as a student.The class like every summer classes moved like a fever dream, but his organized class structures made a clear pathway. Overall take him

Vedat Diker
INST327

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/03/2024

This course is co-taught by Diker and Duffy. I had Diker for the once a week in-person lectures. His lectures were a bit dry but very helpful. He tried to be as simple as possible in his explanations to help his students understand. There was a zoom option for lectures. The mandatory Friday discussion sections were for labs. The labs were easy as the TA would go through them step-by-step. Assignments for this class weren't too difficult and there were plenty of office hours opportunities to ask questions about them. Bi-weekly discussion boards weren't difficult, but a bit tedious. Grading is fair for the most part. The final group project was quite annoying. It is dragged out pretty much the entire semester with several checkpoints and written reports. The final project experience heavily depends on how productive your teammates are. Overall, Diker is a solid professor and this is an interesting class!

Iskander Lou
INST327

Anonymous
08/23/2024

Easy class, just make sure your group for the semester long project doesn't procrastinate and you'll be good

Srikanth Parvathala
INST327

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/10/2024

Srikanth was a very good TA for INST327. He was always willing to help students and explain concepts that were difficult to understand. He responded to emails pretty quickly and was overall just a very nice person. I recommend his discussion section for INST327, this semester it was Fridays 3-4pm.

Devanshi Shah
INST327

Expecting an A+
PassionateStudent
02/06/2024

I enjoyed the content of the class but you can get that with Professor Duffy. Please do so if you can. I have gone to Prof Duffy in-person class just to understand the material better. I passed the class with an A+ because of Duffy. Mrs. Shah's structure is HORRENDOUS. She doesn't do anything about the students who expect you to do all the work. She sends out emails addressing complaints and says that she will reach out to them but NOTHING CHANGES and they can slack off and still pass. We have mandatory meetings with the TAs and this is where you have a check-in on the status of your project. Her TAs do all the work for her and she reads Duffy's slides word for word. The two good reviews are because they didn't have to deal with bad teammates on top of the unnecessary confusion and stress. You will mostly be teaching yourself or seeking for guidance the whole semester.

Pamela Duffy
INST327

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/29/2023

Professor Duffy is a pleasant lecturer. The class as a whole was a headache. The semester-long group project was very unpleasant.

Iskander Lou
INST327

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/24/2023

Overall, this was a fair class. Be prepared to teach yourself mySQL to complete the assignments since you won't learn much from lectures. Labs are free points if you attend the discussion. Make sure to start the assignments (especially the parts of the semester-long group project early) so that you can ask for help.

Pamela Duffy
INST327

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/20/2023

The course was co-taught between Duffy and Diker. Duffy did the recorded lectures for our section and Diker did the in-person lectures. Personally I found this course to be quite hard and apparently this is an unpopular opinion but I thought 326 was better than 327. The lecture vids were really hard for me to watch, I would often get bored and couldn't follow along with what was happening. The lecture vids and understanding the material are the hardest part of the course but the in-person labs and discussion board posts are basically easy grade boosters to help balance out the difficulty.

Iskander Lou
INST327

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/14/2023

He's chill, but his lectures are boring. However, he provides a lot of online resources and videos, so you can still ace this class by learning material that way. TAs were helpful, especially for the semester-long group final project.

Devanshi Shah
INST327

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
10/24/2023

If you guys ever plan on taking INST327 this semester, I’m begging you for the love of God, DO NOT take this professor if you want your grades to not drop. The professor literally copies Prof. Duffy’s videos and reads off the screen word for word. She never actually meaningfully engages with the content And the TAs are something else. They don’t respond to emails and hardly help others because they are busy with their own midterms…funny because when I asked for an extension because of an upcoming midterm, a TA said that it wasn’t a good excuse. So you can choose not to respond because of your midterms but our work isn’t an excuse for extensions? Talk about double standards And they don’t know how to organize a class. The syllabus says one date for an assignment, the ELMS page says another. HOW DO YOU NOT UPDATE A SYLLABUS?! They mess up due dates for assignments, causing undue stress for myself and other students. The labs, quizzes, and discussions are easy As. But the homework assignments are extremely difficult. They are already complex and then the professor and TAs ignore or hardly respond to questions for help on the assignments. Then they have the nerve to grade assignments harshly. They took off 15 points just for using an exact WHERE condition just because it wasn’t an allowed structure? Why take off points for an effective code. And these assignments are 25% of your grade. Besides, they poorly teach and don’t guide students well and then have the nerve to grade harshly when they get something wrong. All in all, poor teaching, lack of guidance, disorganization, and difficult assignments from hell are messing up the class. Don’t take this professor! If she’s the only one available for INST327 this semester, then please take it another semester.

Devanshi Shah
INST327

Anonymous
10/06/2023

Absolutely HORRIBLE Professor. This professor seems to be a grad student that doesn't have much experience in teaching. Which would be fine if she actually put in the effort to make the class enjoyable. She just reads off of Pamela Duffy's script, uses her slides + video quizzes etc. The class is not about learning as none of the TAs care about your grade and neither does the professor. They do everything incorrectly from assigning due dates, quiz questions and labs. They offer no assistance in assignment questions and most of the time don't even know themselves what the assignment is about. Just take the class with Pamela Duffy you'll be 100% better off.

Iskander Lou
INST327

Anonymous
09/24/2023

PLEASE DO NOT TAKE THIS PROFESSOR. HE DOES NOT TEACH. HE BARELY KNOWS WHAT IS GOING ON. PLEASE SAVE YOURSELF THE PAIN.

Pamela Duffy
INST327

Expecting an A
Anonymous
09/05/2023

Professor Duffy is so sweet and she makes her class as simple as possible. She provides tons of resources and you can tell she wants her students to do well. She is also very understanding if you are having any issues. I took this class online over the summer and it was very manageable.

Iskander Lou
INST327

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/24/2023

This class was one of the most painful classes that I have taken. Iskandor's lectures are more focused on trying to be your friend since he's a grad student than actually teaching. Most of the lecture is disorganized which makes the assignments more difficult to navigate. Most of the learning I did was with the AMPs and the TAs than his lectures. I would say to skip lectures but next semester, they will require attendance which is very frustrating since it's normally a waste of time. Also, there are so many group projects and they are incredibly painful since peer reviews have never deducted significantly to change behaviors, only if they do NO work, not significantly less. Overall, a painful requirement, but again I got an A so it's not that bad.

Pamela Duffy
INST327

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/23/2023

She is a very knowledgeable and considerate professor. I agree with others responses that we have a lot of busy work. However, its there to compensate for the harder assignments/project work. As long as you have a capable group, you'll be fine with the semester long project. The TA's are available and reliable.

Pamela Duffy
INST327

Expecting an A
Naruto
05/16/2023

Good teachers and gives extension. I don't like the sjw articles we have to read.

Iskander Lou
INST327

Expecting an A
Naruto
05/16/2023

Good teachers, watch the videos and actually try and learn sql. Constantly gives extensions on assignments. I would recommend for your group project to pick people good at sql,. Try and master normalization, erd diagrams, and data importing. Starts the big assignments early and go to office hours for help.

Vedat Diker
INST327

Expecting a B
Anonymous
04/02/2023

Dr. Diker was a great professor. He was more than willing to help his students and was always available when needed. He is also a fair grader.

Pamela Duffy
INST327

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
09/09/2022

She is the most caring professor I have ever met. Although I admit that her lectures could be somewhat useless because of the large number of knowledge you can get only from the elms pages, the more you interact with her, the more love you will have for her. Most assignments are easy, even if you meet any problem you can quickly solve it during office hours. The only hard part of this course is that sometimes you have to deal with shitty teammates.

Pamela Duffy
INST327

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/24/2021

i literally love her she is so caring and takes her time to help you understand. Definitely take a class you need with her if possible.

Pamela Duffy
INST327

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
10/11/2021

Class was easy if programming comes easily to you. The group project was irritating at times, but that was because of flaky group members. Otherwise good course, easy online quizzes, and no exams.

Pamela Duffy
INST327

Anonymous
11/21/2020

Great professor

Pamela Duffy
INST327

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/23/2019

Excellent professor! Highly recommend!

Pamela Duffy
INST327

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/21/2019

Duffy is a good teacher who cares about her students, and gives very fair (and open book) assessments and assignments. Databases can be a pretty dry subject but Duffy does her best to make the course interesting, and it is one of the most useful courses in the major.

Pamela Duffy
INST327

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/18/2019

She's great. Very helpful. Makes sure you understand the material instead of just knowing what to do. Very lab centered class

Vedat Diker
INST327

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/17/2018

Isn't a great lecturer but is very helpful to students. Also a pretty lenient grader.

Reviews for INST327