INST490 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Alla Levin INST490 Expecting an A Graduating_Student 05/30/2025	Typically, I don't write reviews, but after reading some negative comments about Dr. Levin's INST 490 class, which I attended, I felt compelled to share my experience. In my opinion, those criticisms are unfounded. Dr. Levin is an exceptional professor who values hard work and personal responsibility. She is both professional and highly knowledgeable in her field. Throughout the semester, she provided clear guidance, making it easy to follow her instructions, assuming you attended classes and engaged with the course materials. This class was instrumental in preparing me for real-life situations and future employment. It was the most impactful course of my academic career. If you have the opportunity, I HIGHLY recommend enrolling in Dr. Levin’s classes.
TJ Rainsford INST490 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/14/2025	I'm not gonna rip this prof to shreds like the reviewer before mine (even tho they're not wrong..) Just try to take another prof for 490 if you can. Maybe with a lower-level class that has more structure this prof would be better, but with a class like 490 it's better if you can find another prof like Klein or something. If not, just prepare to be present and VOCAL during class and with your team (this entire class is basically a huge group project) btw the way things are graded/structured is extremely vague and usually random. Lame advice but just try to keep it pushing and you'll make it through eventually. I'd kindly suggest Rainsford to think about how he comes across to his students because he clearly has real-world knowledge to share, but his teaching approach could be improved.
Alla Levin INST490 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/12/2025	Coming back again to say that she did not get any better - she's pedantic, nitpicky, and doesn't reply enough to emails to merit either of those. She keeps saying things about bonus points but they aren't actually there, and it feels like she keeps changing the shape of the hole we have to fit into. JUST LET ME GRADUATE MAN
TJ Rainsford INST490 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/08/2025	For someone who supposedly loves efficiency and hates wasting time, Rainsford wastes an incredible amount of time bragging about his experience, how many positions he's held (CTO is a favorite, despite it being at a company with only about 30 employees), how many people he's hired or fired, et cetera. Rainsford has mentioned a few times how we may notice that he "talks like a person with a PhD," and that he is a PhD candidate; he tries his best to compensate for his lack of a PhD. Rainsford has an enormous ego, and seizes every opportunity to talk about his "experience," which usually is not pertinent to the task at hand. If you have a question, there is a high probability that he will flip it so that you feel bad for asking it. He never grades, rarely utilizes ELMS, is late to respond to emails, and acts extremely arrogant. I expected Rainsford to have worked for Goldman Sachs with his attitude, but in actuality has never been employed by a company with more than 200 employees (excluding UMD and Mount St. Mary's). I started off the semester like a few of the reviewers here; I thought Rainsford was knowledgeable (which he partially is), but realized that he's rude, arrogant, inefficient, and a pedant. I rarely leave reviews for professors, but Rainsford killed my enthusiasm for the course (INST490 can be fun, and is rather straightforward) to the point where I dreaded being forced to raise my hand in order to avoid another 10 minute monologue surrounding the laziness of the entire class, or some other insignificant flaw that only a select few students possess. If no one raises their hand to answer a question, the odds of Rainsford launching into a long monologue shoot up to 90%. I encourage you to raise your hand no matter how "stupid" your answer/response feels - you’ll save everyone time by avoiding one of his tangents.
Alla Levin INST490 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/07/2025	The most confusing and terrible course I have ever taken and this is supposed to be a capstone course. The professor was the most rude and hateful prof I have ever had, she would yell and gripe at you for the smallest thing. She created the most stressful terrible environment ever. Not only did she do this she also committed multiple FERPA violations by showing individual student grades and would even see a grade and go "oh yeah this person does not deserve this high of a grade" and lower it in front of our faces. She forces you to remember every single word she says in class and if you do not remember it she will rip into you in front of everyone. She will constantly brag about her achievements or what she does in her personal time to make you feel bad. Just take a different professor....easily was the worst professor/teacher/instructor I have had in my academic experience
Alla Levin INST490 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/06/2025	Confusing class. No organized and does not follow the syllabus. She gaslights students and rips into them. She is relatively lenient with grading as long as you ask or pester her. However she does not help with group issues. Overall this class adds more stress to your life for no reason. You put way more effort into trying to cater to her than you do the actual projects.
Alla Levin INST490 Expecting an A Anonymous 03/05/2025	Very confusing instructions, changes due dates randomly, instructions on the assignment are not actually what she wants. For class presentations, make sure you ask a million questions beforehand or you will get up there and spend half an hour getting yelled at. Consider recording or writing down conversations because she will suddenly decide she didn't actually say that. Can't trust anything, put on your teacher's pet hat. Random bonus points for wearing bizcas, but she doesn't actually take names down... Take another professor for your capstone if you want to actually have a useful experience. She just cares about project management, not the product. We are not business students.
TJ Rainsford INST490 Anonymous 02/27/2025	TJ is the GOAT. He's really knowledgeable about what he does and is always willing to set you up for success in the long run, not just for class.
TJ Rainsford INST490 Expecting an A- Anonymous 01/07/2025	Yaps in Class for no reason and gives assignments he never grades. The class INST490 isn't hard per say, but he has a bad grading system.
Jesse Klein INST490 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/20/2024	Jesse is an amazing professor! She brings a great sense of humor and always has a smile on her face, making every class enjoyable. Her positive energy creates a fun and engaging learning environment, and it's clear that she genuinely cares about her students. I truly wish there were more professors like her who make learning so much fun and interesting!
Andrew Fellows INST490 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/13/2024	Overall an easy A. Holds his students to a high standard. Would recommend.
Andrew Fellows INST490 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/04/2024	Old school professor who wants you to succeed. Would highly recommend.
Richard Panzer INST490 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/14/2024	Richard was a ok professor the only flaws about him is he is very sarcastic and rude. Also as someone else said in this thread he takes very long to respond to emails which is not helpful. He also is very serious and barely jokes but as far as the workload as long as you have a good group you should be on point in this class.
Mary Ann Francis INST490 professorreviewer231 05/08/2024	Sweet person, and provides good feedback. Agree with the lectures being slow, but honestly, it is not that big of a deal breaker since most of the class has to do with your semester-long project.
Richard Panzer INST490 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/14/2024	The course itself is just a group project on steroids for the entire semester. The group members matter more than the professor imo. Rich is a super chill guy and there won't be any sort of problem with that regard. Going into this course you'd be more worried about if your group members are competent or not imo. But yes, take the course with him. I strongly recommend.
Mary Ann Francis INST490 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/02/2024	Very slow lectures, but gave good feedback and time to revise.
William Kules INST490 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/03/2023	My semester with professor Kules was fine. He would waste work time re-iterating topics we've already learned din past courses and doesn't operate elms as efficiently as you'd need. His TA's do most of the work in being helpful resources to our project. He forces us to communicate on slack and would give us examples on elms that he doesn't expect us to follow. A lot of people ignore his bloated lectures to do coursework which results in loads of students missing a sentence of important information that would end up having us turn in assignments incomplete. Either way, apart from these little issues, Kules still provides an environment that allows you to succeed with your group, but he definitely isn't the best professor for it.
Bill Kules INST490 Anonymous 10/19/2022	Starts out as a very chill professor and is easy to talk to, however he has a bad habit of gaslighting the class on assignments. Gives the class templates for everyone to use, then says to not follow the templates and takes points off the class' assignment purely because of that. The TAs he had this semester do it as well so the instructional team gaslights students. The first assignment that was related to the overall major project nobody got a full score on because of his gaslighting with templates.
Katy Lawley INST490 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 06/18/2022	She's an amazing professor. Throughout the semester, she regularly met with our team and provided detailed feedback and recommendations on various aspects of our capstone project, enabling us to successfully hand over our project deliverables to our client. Prof. Lawley was also really accessible outside of class and responded to messages very quickly. Her lectures were really informative, especially those on professional development. She is very knowledgeable on this topic, so I would strongly encourage you to visit her office hours, especially if you need help with resumes or job interviews.
Timothy Rainsford INST490 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/18/2019	Absolutely the best professor I've ever had the pleasure of learning from. He keeps it real and creates a welcoming atmosphere that encourages participation, questions, and anecdotes. He is very laid-back and is willing to discuss any topic with the class, whether that be interview tips, job advice, or insight on the working world and how to effectively manage your income. He is a very experienced individual who has worked several high-ranking positions across various IT fields, so you can trust he knows what he is talking about. His stories about personal experience and life advice is truly inspiring and worth listening to. If you are willing to show that you care about learning, he is more than willing to teach.
Timothy Rainsford INST490 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/18/2019	Absolutely the best professor I've ever had the pleasure of learning from. He keeps it real and creates a welcoming atmosphere that encourages participation, questions, and anecdotes. He is very laid-back and is willing to discuss any topic with the class, whether that be interview tips, job advice, or insight on the working world and how to effectively manage your income. He is a very experienced individual who has worked several high-ranking positions across various IT fields, so you can trust he knows what he is talking about. His stories about personal experience and life advice is truly inspiring and worth listening to. If you are willing to show that you care about learning, he is more than willing to teach.
Timothy Rainsford INST490 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/18/2019	Absolutely the best professor I've ever had the pleasure of learning from. He keeps it real and creates a welcoming atmosphere that encourages participation, questions, and anecdotes. He is very laid-back and is willing to discuss any topic with the class, whether that be interview tips, job advice, or insight on the working world and how to effectively manage your income. He is a very experienced individual who has worked several high-ranking positions across various IT fields, so you can trust he knows what he is talking about. His stories about personal experience and life advice is truly inspiring and worth listening to. If you are willing to show that you care about learning, he is more than willing to teach.

Alla Levin
INST490

Expecting an A
Graduating_Student
05/30/2025

Typically, I don't write reviews, but after reading some negative comments about Dr. Levin's INST 490 class, which I attended, I felt compelled to share my experience. In my opinion, those criticisms are unfounded. Dr. Levin is an exceptional professor who values hard work and personal responsibility. She is both professional and highly knowledgeable in her field. Throughout the semester, she provided clear guidance, making it easy to follow her instructions, assuming you attended classes and engaged with the course materials. This class was instrumental in preparing me for real-life situations and future employment. It was the most impactful course of my academic career. If you have the opportunity, I HIGHLY recommend enrolling in Dr. Levin’s classes.

TJ Rainsford
INST490

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/14/2025

I'm not gonna rip this prof to shreds like the reviewer before mine (even tho they're not wrong..) Just try to take another prof for 490 if you can. Maybe with a lower-level class that has more structure this prof would be better, but with a class like 490 it's better if you can find another prof like Klein or something. If not, just prepare to be present and VOCAL during class and with your team (this entire class is basically a huge group project) btw the way things are graded/structured is extremely vague and usually random. Lame advice but just try to keep it pushing and you'll make it through eventually. I'd kindly suggest Rainsford to think about how he comes across to his students because he clearly has real-world knowledge to share, but his teaching approach could be improved.

Alla Levin
INST490

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/12/2025

Coming back again to say that she did not get any better - she's pedantic, nitpicky, and doesn't reply enough to emails to merit either of those. She keeps saying things about bonus points but they aren't actually there, and it feels like she keeps changing the shape of the hole we have to fit into. JUST LET ME GRADUATE MAN

TJ Rainsford
INST490

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/08/2025

For someone who supposedly loves efficiency and hates wasting time, Rainsford wastes an incredible amount of time bragging about his experience, how many positions he's held (CTO is a favorite, despite it being at a company with only about 30 employees), how many people he's hired or fired, et cetera. Rainsford has mentioned a few times how we may notice that he "talks like a person with a PhD," and that he is a PhD candidate; he tries his best to compensate for his lack of a PhD. Rainsford has an enormous ego, and seizes every opportunity to talk about his "experience," which usually is not pertinent to the task at hand. If you have a question, there is a high probability that he will flip it so that you feel bad for asking it. He never grades, rarely utilizes ELMS, is late to respond to emails, and acts extremely arrogant. I expected Rainsford to have worked for Goldman Sachs with his attitude, but in actuality has never been employed by a company with more than 200 employees (excluding UMD and Mount St. Mary's). I started off the semester like a few of the reviewers here; I thought Rainsford was knowledgeable (which he partially is), but realized that he's rude, arrogant, inefficient, and a pedant. I rarely leave reviews for professors, but Rainsford killed my enthusiasm for the course (INST490 can be fun, and is rather straightforward) to the point where I dreaded being forced to raise my hand in order to avoid another 10 minute monologue surrounding the laziness of the entire class, or some other insignificant flaw that only a select few students possess. If no one raises their hand to answer a question, the odds of Rainsford launching into a long monologue shoot up to 90%. I encourage you to raise your hand no matter how "stupid" your answer/response feels - you’ll save everyone time by avoiding one of his tangents.

Alla Levin
INST490

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/07/2025

The most confusing and terrible course I have ever taken and this is supposed to be a capstone course. The professor was the most rude and hateful prof I have ever had, she would yell and gripe at you for the smallest thing. She created the most stressful terrible environment ever. Not only did she do this she also committed multiple FERPA violations by showing individual student grades and would even see a grade and go "oh yeah this person does not deserve this high of a grade" and lower it in front of our faces. She forces you to remember every single word she says in class and if you do not remember it she will rip into you in front of everyone. She will constantly brag about her achievements or what she does in her personal time to make you feel bad. Just take a different professor....easily was the worst professor/teacher/instructor I have had in my academic experience

Alla Levin
INST490

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/06/2025

Confusing class. No organized and does not follow the syllabus. She gaslights students and rips into them. She is relatively lenient with grading as long as you ask or pester her. However she does not help with group issues. Overall this class adds more stress to your life for no reason. You put way more effort into trying to cater to her than you do the actual projects.

Alla Levin
INST490

Expecting an A
Anonymous
03/05/2025

Very confusing instructions, changes due dates randomly, instructions on the assignment are not actually what she wants. For class presentations, make sure you ask a million questions beforehand or you will get up there and spend half an hour getting yelled at. Consider recording or writing down conversations because she will suddenly decide she didn't actually say that. Can't trust anything, put on your teacher's pet hat. Random bonus points for wearing bizcas, but she doesn't actually take names down... Take another professor for your capstone if you want to actually have a useful experience. She just cares about project management, not the product. We are not business students.

TJ Rainsford
INST490

Anonymous
02/27/2025

TJ is the GOAT. He's really knowledgeable about what he does and is always willing to set you up for success in the long run, not just for class.

TJ Rainsford
INST490

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
01/07/2025

Yaps in Class for no reason and gives assignments he never grades. The class INST490 isn't hard per say, but he has a bad grading system.

Jesse Klein
INST490

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/20/2024

Jesse is an amazing professor! She brings a great sense of humor and always has a smile on her face, making every class enjoyable. Her positive energy creates a fun and engaging learning environment, and it's clear that she genuinely cares about her students. I truly wish there were more professors like her who make learning so much fun and interesting!

Andrew Fellows
INST490

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/13/2024

Overall an easy A. Holds his students to a high standard. Would recommend.

Andrew Fellows
INST490

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/04/2024

Old school professor who wants you to succeed. Would highly recommend.

Richard Panzer
INST490

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/14/2024

Richard was a ok professor the only flaws about him is he is very sarcastic and rude. Also as someone else said in this thread he takes very long to respond to emails which is not helpful. He also is very serious and barely jokes but as far as the workload as long as you have a good group you should be on point in this class.

Mary Ann Francis
INST490

professorreviewer231
05/08/2024

Sweet person, and provides good feedback. Agree with the lectures being slow, but honestly, it is not that big of a deal breaker since most of the class has to do with your semester-long project.

Richard Panzer
INST490

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/14/2024

The course itself is just a group project on steroids for the entire semester. The group members matter more than the professor imo. Rich is a super chill guy and there won't be any sort of problem with that regard. Going into this course you'd be more worried about if your group members are competent or not imo. But yes, take the course with him. I strongly recommend.

Mary Ann Francis
INST490

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
01/02/2024

Very slow lectures, but gave good feedback and time to revise.

William Kules
INST490

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
01/03/2023

My semester with professor Kules was fine. He would waste work time re-iterating topics we've already learned din past courses and doesn't operate elms as efficiently as you'd need. His TA's do most of the work in being helpful resources to our project. He forces us to communicate on slack and would give us examples on elms that he doesn't expect us to follow. A lot of people ignore his bloated lectures to do coursework which results in loads of students missing a sentence of important information that would end up having us turn in assignments incomplete. Either way, apart from these little issues, Kules still provides an environment that allows you to succeed with your group, but he definitely isn't the best professor for it.

Bill Kules
INST490

Anonymous
10/19/2022

Starts out as a very chill professor and is easy to talk to, however he has a bad habit of gaslighting the class on assignments. Gives the class templates for everyone to use, then says to not follow the templates and takes points off the class' assignment purely because of that. The TAs he had this semester do it as well so the instructional team gaslights students. The first assignment that was related to the overall major project nobody got a full score on because of his gaslighting with templates.

Katy Lawley
INST490

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
06/18/2022

She's an amazing professor. Throughout the semester, she regularly met with our team and provided detailed feedback and recommendations on various aspects of our capstone project, enabling us to successfully hand over our project deliverables to our client. Prof. Lawley was also really accessible outside of class and responded to messages very quickly. Her lectures were really informative, especially those on professional development. She is very knowledgeable on this topic, so I would strongly encourage you to visit her office hours, especially if you need help with resumes or job interviews.

Timothy Rainsford
INST490

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/18/2019

Absolutely the best professor I've ever had the pleasure of learning from. He keeps it real and creates a welcoming atmosphere that encourages participation, questions, and anecdotes. He is very laid-back and is willing to discuss any topic with the class, whether that be interview tips, job advice, or insight on the working world and how to effectively manage your income. He is a very experienced individual who has worked several high-ranking positions across various IT fields, so you can trust he knows what he is talking about. His stories about personal experience and life advice is truly inspiring and worth listening to. If you are willing to show that you care about learning, he is more than willing to teach.

Timothy Rainsford
INST490

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/18/2019

Absolutely the best professor I've ever had the pleasure of learning from. He keeps it real and creates a welcoming atmosphere that encourages participation, questions, and anecdotes. He is very laid-back and is willing to discuss any topic with the class, whether that be interview tips, job advice, or insight on the working world and how to effectively manage your income. He is a very experienced individual who has worked several high-ranking positions across various IT fields, so you can trust he knows what he is talking about. His stories about personal experience and life advice is truly inspiring and worth listening to. If you are willing to show that you care about learning, he is more than willing to teach.

Timothy Rainsford
INST490

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/18/2019

Absolutely the best professor I've ever had the pleasure of learning from. He keeps it real and creates a welcoming atmosphere that encourages participation, questions, and anecdotes. He is very laid-back and is willing to discuss any topic with the class, whether that be interview tips, job advice, or insight on the working world and how to effectively manage your income. He is a very experienced individual who has worked several high-ranking positions across various IT fields, so you can trust he knows what he is talking about. His stories about personal experience and life advice is truly inspiring and worth listening to. If you are willing to show that you care about learning, he is more than willing to teach.

Reviews for INST490