KNES320 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Jeffrey Beans KNES320 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/10/2024	Professor Beans is not as bad as these reviews make him out to be, I promise. Notice how many of the people giving him 1 star are still consistently expecting an A or A-. Professor Beans' KNES320 course requires effort and intention, but it will not be a miserable experience unless you make it harder on yourself. I would recommend not taking this course while juggling other heavy classes like Organic Chemistry, Biochem, or Genetics, but even if you are stacking those classes you should be fine. KNES320 is a relatively fair workload, the lab is well-run and makes sense, and you have a week to complete the lab reports. The lecture assignments consist mostly of group projects so if you have a good group these are a breeze and very easy points, especially since each group project follows the same pattern. This is the bulk of the work for the lecture. The lecture quizzes... yes, they are hard. You should not take the once-a-week lecture as a verbatim copy/paste of what is going to be on the quiz because Professor Beans tries to create quizzes that encourage "critical thinking" using the lecture as a basis. I found the recorded lectures, when he posted them, to be much more helpful for reviewing for quizzes. If you are smart about setting up your cheat sheet it won't be bad. GO TO OFFICE HOURS!!! At the end of the day, Professor Beans is a good person. He made it clear at the beginning of class that he sees and reads these reviews and while he told us we could believe what we wanted to believe, he was not there to fail us all or make us miserable, he is there to teach us so we can learn. Professor Beans genuinely wants you to succeed and if you show that you are putting in effort he will give points back or listen to feedback. This is a man who is genuinely trying, his teaching is a bit unorthodox but he is not a bad person. In some ways this course was a breath of fresh air after a multitude of PHSC courses where I felt like I was just memorizing PowerPoints. He is more approachable than he seems. Show curiosity, interest and effort and this course will not be bad at all.
Jeffrey Beans KNES320 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/04/2024	If I could give 0 stars to this man I would. This is one of the most useless and stupid class I have ever taken at SPH. His lectures are long and confusing with no main purpose. Takes points off of assignments for no reason LIKE WHY ARE YOU TAKING POINTS OFF ON A TEAM CONTRACT??? His quizzes are the worst, like no one knows what he is talking about. The weirdly word his questions, it's like a riddle and you have to figure it out. He deff have favorites in class and shows it too much. Beans is also not understanding, like KNES320 is not my main priority when my parents are getting a divorce. Anyways, he's the only one that teaches this class so good luck future public health students.
Jeffrey Beans KNES320 Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/12/2024	Professor Beans is awful. His class has quizzes that everyone does terribly on and he doesn't even let you see what you got wrong without coming to him outside of class. His lectures are pointless and sometimes he doesn't even have any slides and just talks about random stuff. Overall, this is one of the worst professors at the University of Maryland.
Jeffrey Beans KNES320 Expecting an A Anonymous 10/27/2024	This teacher is absolutely terrible. His lectures are all over the place, and then he gives quizzes with extremely specific questions for which you essentially have to memorize every detail of the lecture slides and other content. I think that he is possibly the worst teacher at the University of Maryland after this awful experience taking his course.
Jeffrey Beans KNES320 Expecting an A Anonymous 10/03/2024	Oh my god Professor Beans is awful! His quizzes are so weirdly difficult and most people fail them. The structure of the class is so messy and you won’t end up learning anything
Jeffrey Beans KNES320 Expecting an A Anonymous 10/02/2024	"Professor" Beans is by far the worst part of the Public Health program at the University of Maryland. His teaching style is terrible with ridiculous quizzes that the class consistently bombs. Lectures are aimless and super disorganized.
Jeffrey Beans KNES320 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/19/2024	I really like Prof Beans as an individual with goals and values… but as a professor…… no. I feel like I knew 100% of the information he taught during lecture, but would get consistent 50% on the quizzes (and so would the rest of the class). The lab was great and well organized, and the lab assignments were fair. The assessments were also fair. The workload was doable but those quizzes had me studying hours on end. Quizzes were very unrewarding!
Jeffrey Beans KNES320 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/09/2024	Overall, this class and Mr.Beans are not as bad as previous reviews say. It is clear that he has taken the time to utilize feedback from previous courses and works to make the class the best experience possible. I will say his teaching style is different in comparison to other public health professors. The lecture only meets once a week, and there's only additional online lecture material occasionally. Additionally, his in-class quizzes were difficult and it felt like they didn't match what he taught in the lecture, but you are allowed to use a cheat sheet. You have to take this class anyway, so I think finding ways to make the best of it would be the best option.
Jeffrey Beans KNES320 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/08/2024	Overall this class was a mess. Most of his slides are just pictures and lectures are off-topic, even though he says he treats this class like a graduate class. Gives out quizzes that are VERY hard even though you have a cheat sheet, the class average was a D or F for the quizzes (no curve). Most of the questions from the quizzes are not even on the slides or something we discussed in class. Modules are disorganized and hard to follow. Don't expect to know your lecture grade until the end of the class as he grades everything last minute and lecture assignments do not come with a rubric to follow. Only got an A because lab and other assignments brought my grade up. ps. he will not round up from an 89.99.
Jeffrey Beans KNES320 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/04/2024	Wouldn’t recommend him for knes320. The course is extremely disorganized and the TA i had was extremely tough on grading. One of the worst classes ive taken over my four years here at umd.
Jeffrey Beans KNES320 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 04/29/2024	Mr. Beans leaves very unclear instructions for his assignments. I understand wanting to have your students ask you questions & meet with you, however he makes it very difficult to get a good grade unless you meet with him 1 on 1. He is inflexible with these meetings as well: I had a friend who he never even responded to about meeting 1 on 1. Grading structure is unforgiving. He is very unorganized, and does not make assignments open until soon before deadlines. He goes through difficult concepts extremely quickly, and his quizzes are a joke. I had every single note from lectures and pre-lecture videos on my cheat sheet and still got a 60 on the quizzes almost every time. Not only this, but he takes forever to grade so you have no clue your standing in the class. Good luck everyone.
Jeffrey Beans KNES320 Anonymous 04/11/2024	Maybe it's not him but the class itself. Mr.Beans is a great guy but the assignments and the level of hardness are unnecessary. Get ready to read in this class and it is probably not in your best interest to take other science classes with this class. It is a workload and it can get very frustrating. Do not wait last minute to watch the terrible hourss long lectures it will bite you in the end. The quizzes are awful so just be prepared.
Jeffrey Beans KNES320 Expecting an A- brightowl 12/12/2023	Was genuinely surprised when I heard how many people hate this professor. His class is easy even if you don't test well. The quizzes are honestly the worst part of the class and they were all pretty hard. But to be fair, there was only four of them and they were all open note. Plus, the other assignments are simpler and count for more points so even though I failed most of the quizzes I still finished with an A (ps: he gives you some points back if you come in to understand what you got wrong). He also is really understanding, you just have to take the time to talk to him. He was still willing to accommodate to me when he never had to. Since you have to take him, the best advice I could give is just to talk to him whenever you can and show up to class enough that he knows who you are.
Jeffrey Beans KNES320 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/23/2023	He was nice in the beginning but he turned out to be super passive-aggressive to people during class. I know he looks at these reviews because he started off the first class by saying "I know you heard a lot of bad things about me...." so and so forth. He takes FOREVER to grade assignments and you won't know your final grade until the very end. He does not round an 89.99% to an A which is emphasized in his syllabus. He also sets the class up in a certain way in which you have to watch a VERY long video every week to take an in-class quiz that is about 10-15 questions (on top of also going to lecture twice a week). His slides have little to no words on them so you have to watch the long videos to do well on the quizzes. Throughout the semester attendance in his class substantially decreased due to the fact that he is not a good lecturer and focuses on the wrong concepts when teaching. He is the only professor teaching this course so you have no choice but to take him. Good luck!!
Jeffrey Beans KNES320 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/05/2023	I got an A in this class but it was one of my least favorite classes I have ever taken. The class is soooo disorganized. No one ever knows what's going on... including the UTAs. During group projects, he doesn't like getting involved even when a group member is not doing their part. He gets annoyed when students ask questions and the in-person lectures are not helpful at all. There were multiple typos on the quizzes on ELMS and it was never addressed until a student brought it up as they were taking it.
Jeffrey Beans KNES320 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/08/2022	I took this course because it is required for my major and there is no other professor this semester. If there is another professor available or you do not need this course, do not take the course with this professor. This professor is not only unorganized and aggressive, but he has a false sense of self. He is never prepared and lecture is just a rant about exercising. He has other jobs and being a professor is his last priority. The quizzes are difficult because they do not relate to the long online lectures. If you try to leave class for any reason, he will chase after you. Big waste of time, pick another class.
Jeffrey Beans KNES320 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/02/2022	This is hands-down, one of the two worst professors I've had in my four years here. He cat-fished us at the beginning of the semester acting like he cares about us and is on top of everything, but in reality, he treats this class like a glorified PE side hustle. Extremely unclear recorded lectures and off-topic in-class sessions. Straight chaos.
Jeffrey Beans KNES320 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/20/2022	this class was so unorganized and his expectations were extremely unclear. he takes forever to grade things and my group had essentially no feedback/guidance for the final project that was weighted pretty heavily. while he does respond quickly to emails, he pretty much does not do his job. still missing grades for 3 heavily weighted assignments even though grades were already due. this guy is so mid
Jeffrey Beans KNES320 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/19/2022	If this class is not required for your major, do not take it. The entire course was extremely unorganized and grading took forever, and was harsh for no reason. For a class required for seniors, you would think it would be taught just a little bit better.
Jeffrey Beans KNES320 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/10/2022	Very unorganized class and poor communication with UTAs and professors. Online exams that are taken in person are confusing and lectures that are posted online are very disorganized.

Jeffrey Beans
KNES320

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/10/2024

Professor Beans is not as bad as these reviews make him out to be, I promise. Notice how many of the people giving him 1 star are still consistently expecting an A or A-. Professor Beans' KNES320 course requires effort and intention, but it will not be a miserable experience unless you make it harder on yourself. I would recommend not taking this course while juggling other heavy classes like Organic Chemistry, Biochem, or Genetics, but even if you are stacking those classes you should be fine. KNES320 is a relatively fair workload, the lab is well-run and makes sense, and you have a week to complete the lab reports. The lecture assignments consist mostly of group projects so if you have a good group these are a breeze and very easy points, especially since each group project follows the same pattern. This is the bulk of the work for the lecture. The lecture quizzes... yes, they are hard. You should not take the once-a-week lecture as a verbatim copy/paste of what is going to be on the quiz because Professor Beans tries to create quizzes that encourage "critical thinking" using the lecture as a basis. I found the recorded lectures, when he posted them, to be much more helpful for reviewing for quizzes. If you are smart about setting up your cheat sheet it won't be bad. GO TO OFFICE HOURS!!! At the end of the day, Professor Beans is a good person. He made it clear at the beginning of class that he sees and reads these reviews and while he told us we could believe what we wanted to believe, he was not there to fail us all or make us miserable, he is there to teach us so we can learn. Professor Beans genuinely wants you to succeed and if you show that you are putting in effort he will give points back or listen to feedback. This is a man who is genuinely trying, his teaching is a bit unorthodox but he is not a bad person. In some ways this course was a breath of fresh air after a multitude of PHSC courses where I felt like I was just memorizing PowerPoints. He is more approachable than he seems. Show curiosity, interest and effort and this course will not be bad at all.

Jeffrey Beans
KNES320

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/04/2024

If I could give 0 stars to this man I would. This is one of the most useless and stupid class I have ever taken at SPH. His lectures are long and confusing with no main purpose. Takes points off of assignments for no reason LIKE WHY ARE YOU TAKING POINTS OFF ON A TEAM CONTRACT??? His quizzes are the worst, like no one knows what he is talking about. The weirdly word his questions, it's like a riddle and you have to figure it out. He deff have favorites in class and shows it too much. Beans is also not understanding, like KNES320 is not my main priority when my parents are getting a divorce. Anyways, he's the only one that teaches this class so good luck future public health students.

Jeffrey Beans
KNES320

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
11/12/2024

Professor Beans is awful. His class has quizzes that everyone does terribly on and he doesn't even let you see what you got wrong without coming to him outside of class. His lectures are pointless and sometimes he doesn't even have any slides and just talks about random stuff. Overall, this is one of the worst professors at the University of Maryland.

Jeffrey Beans
KNES320

Expecting an A
Anonymous
10/27/2024

This teacher is absolutely terrible. His lectures are all over the place, and then he gives quizzes with extremely specific questions for which you essentially have to memorize every detail of the lecture slides and other content. I think that he is possibly the worst teacher at the University of Maryland after this awful experience taking his course.

Jeffrey Beans
KNES320

Expecting an A
Anonymous
10/03/2024

Oh my god Professor Beans is awful! His quizzes are so weirdly difficult and most people fail them. The structure of the class is so messy and you won’t end up learning anything

Jeffrey Beans
KNES320

Expecting an A
Anonymous
10/02/2024

"Professor" Beans is by far the worst part of the Public Health program at the University of Maryland. His teaching style is terrible with ridiculous quizzes that the class consistently bombs. Lectures are aimless and super disorganized.

Jeffrey Beans
KNES320

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/19/2024

I really like Prof Beans as an individual with goals and values… but as a professor…… no. I feel like I knew 100% of the information he taught during lecture, but would get consistent 50% on the quizzes (and so would the rest of the class). The lab was great and well organized, and the lab assignments were fair. The assessments were also fair. The workload was doable but those quizzes had me studying hours on end. Quizzes were very unrewarding!

Jeffrey Beans
KNES320

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
05/09/2024

Overall, this class and Mr.Beans are not as bad as previous reviews say. It is clear that he has taken the time to utilize feedback from previous courses and works to make the class the best experience possible. I will say his teaching style is different in comparison to other public health professors. The lecture only meets once a week, and there's only additional online lecture material occasionally. Additionally, his in-class quizzes were difficult and it felt like they didn't match what he taught in the lecture, but you are allowed to use a cheat sheet. You have to take this class anyway, so I think finding ways to make the best of it would be the best option.

Jeffrey Beans
KNES320

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/08/2024

Overall this class was a mess. Most of his slides are just pictures and lectures are off-topic, even though he says he treats this class like a graduate class. Gives out quizzes that are VERY hard even though you have a cheat sheet, the class average was a D or F for the quizzes (no curve). Most of the questions from the quizzes are not even on the slides or something we discussed in class. Modules are disorganized and hard to follow. Don't expect to know your lecture grade until the end of the class as he grades everything last minute and lecture assignments do not come with a rubric to follow. Only got an A because lab and other assignments brought my grade up. ps. he will not round up from an 89.99.

Jeffrey Beans
KNES320

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/04/2024

Wouldn’t recommend him for knes320. The course is extremely disorganized and the TA i had was extremely tough on grading. One of the worst classes ive taken over my four years here at umd.

Jeffrey Beans
KNES320

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
04/29/2024

Mr. Beans leaves very unclear instructions for his assignments. I understand wanting to have your students ask you questions & meet with you, however he makes it very difficult to get a good grade unless you meet with him 1 on 1. He is inflexible with these meetings as well: I had a friend who he never even responded to about meeting 1 on 1. Grading structure is unforgiving. He is very unorganized, and does not make assignments open until soon before deadlines. He goes through difficult concepts extremely quickly, and his quizzes are a joke. I had every single note from lectures and pre-lecture videos on my cheat sheet and still got a 60 on the quizzes almost every time. Not only this, but he takes forever to grade so you have no clue your standing in the class. Good luck everyone.

Jeffrey Beans
KNES320

Anonymous
04/11/2024

Maybe it's not him but the class itself. Mr.Beans is a great guy but the assignments and the level of hardness are unnecessary. Get ready to read in this class and it is probably not in your best interest to take other science classes with this class. It is a workload and it can get very frustrating. Do not wait last minute to watch the terrible hourss long lectures it will bite you in the end. The quizzes are awful so just be prepared.

Jeffrey Beans
KNES320

Expecting an A-
brightowl
12/12/2023

Was genuinely surprised when I heard how many people hate this professor. His class is easy even if you don't test well. The quizzes are honestly the worst part of the class and they were all pretty hard. But to be fair, there was only four of them and they were all open note. Plus, the other assignments are simpler and count for more points so even though I failed most of the quizzes I still finished with an A (ps: he gives you some points back if you come in to understand what you got wrong). He also is really understanding, you just have to take the time to talk to him. He was still willing to accommodate to me when he never had to. Since you have to take him, the best advice I could give is just to talk to him whenever you can and show up to class enough that he knows who you are.

Jeffrey Beans
KNES320

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/23/2023

He was nice in the beginning but he turned out to be super passive-aggressive to people during class. I know he looks at these reviews because he started off the first class by saying "I know you heard a lot of bad things about me...." so and so forth. He takes FOREVER to grade assignments and you won't know your final grade until the very end. He does not round an 89.99% to an A which is emphasized in his syllabus. He also sets the class up in a certain way in which you have to watch a VERY long video every week to take an in-class quiz that is about 10-15 questions (on top of also going to lecture twice a week). His slides have little to no words on them so you have to watch the long videos to do well on the quizzes. Throughout the semester attendance in his class substantially decreased due to the fact that he is not a good lecturer and focuses on the wrong concepts when teaching. He is the only professor teaching this course so you have no choice but to take him. Good luck!!

Jeffrey Beans
KNES320

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/05/2023

I got an A in this class but it was one of my least favorite classes I have ever taken. The class is soooo disorganized. No one ever knows what's going on... including the UTAs. During group projects, he doesn't like getting involved even when a group member is not doing their part. He gets annoyed when students ask questions and the in-person lectures are not helpful at all. There were multiple typos on the quizzes on ELMS and it was never addressed until a student brought it up as they were taking it.

Jeffrey Beans
KNES320

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/08/2022

I took this course because it is required for my major and there is no other professor this semester. If there is another professor available or you do not need this course, do not take the course with this professor. This professor is not only unorganized and aggressive, but he has a false sense of self. He is never prepared and lecture is just a rant about exercising. He has other jobs and being a professor is his last priority. The quizzes are difficult because they do not relate to the long online lectures. If you try to leave class for any reason, he will chase after you. Big waste of time, pick another class.

Jeffrey Beans
KNES320

Expecting an A
Anonymous
06/02/2022

This is hands-down, one of the two worst professors I've had in my four years here. He cat-fished us at the beginning of the semester acting like he cares about us and is on top of everything, but in reality, he treats this class like a glorified PE side hustle. Extremely unclear recorded lectures and off-topic in-class sessions. Straight chaos.

Jeffrey Beans
KNES320

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/20/2022

this class was so unorganized and his expectations were extremely unclear. he takes forever to grade things and my group had essentially no feedback/guidance for the final project that was weighted pretty heavily. while he does respond quickly to emails, he pretty much does not do his job. still missing grades for 3 heavily weighted assignments even though grades were already due. this guy is so mid

Jeffrey Beans
KNES320

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
05/19/2022

If this class is not required for your major, do not take it. The entire course was extremely unorganized and grading took forever, and was harsh for no reason. For a class required for seniors, you would think it would be taught just a little bit better.

Jeffrey Beans
KNES320

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/10/2022

Very unorganized class and poor communication with UTAs and professors. Online exams that are taken in person are confusing and lectures that are posted online are very disorganized.

Reviews for KNES320