Miroslaw Skibniewski

This professor has taught: ARCH688C, EDSP652, ENCE320, ENCE325, ENCE420, ENCE421, ENCE622, ENCE625, ENCE626, ENCE688E

Sort By:

Information	Review
Miroslaw Skibniewski ENCE421 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/17/2024	Lectures are too long for the format he presents. 2.5 hours of him reading off slides from powerpoint is not engaging. The exams are not bad just based on examples from the slides and what he lectures about. The term paper is worthless without much guidance in terms of grading. It is a shame since some of the topics he lectures on are quite interesting but just hours of slides drains your interest.
Miroslaw Skibniewski ENCE421 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 04/02/2024	By far the worst professor at UMD. Professor Skibniewski is a dull lecturer and has no desire to work with his students one-on-one. Sitting through his 2.5 hour lectures reading straight from a Powerpoint is horrible enough, but his exams and assignments are even worse. The exams have no rubric and are short answer responses which he has no structure in grading, and will completely fail you on the exam without giving any justification for how you got the questions wrong, even if you approach him in office hours about it. He has a courthouse assignment you have to complete out of the classroom where he requires you to travel to a courthouse and write a paper on a case, and if you have no on campus transportation well that sucks because he will not help you. Professor Skibniewski only appreciates the graduate students he teaches, and spends 90% of his time flaunting his research and papers. Avoid taking his classes at all cost, and if you are a PM minor take ENCE426 instead.
Miroslaw Skibniewski ENCE320 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/20/2022	ENCE320 taught by Skibniewski was a joke. First off, there was no real syllabus - nothing on how the class would be graded, what his expectations were, the course policies etc. Second off, everything in the class was based off the textbook, which was a mandatory $50. He held lectures from 5-7:30 that were essentially him just reading off of the slides provided by the textbook publisher. Because the slides/lecture contained absolutely nothing that wasn't provided in the textbook, it was pretty much pointless to go. There were weekly reading assignments and homeworks that were also only based off the textbook, and many of the homeworks contained errors. There were two exams, a final and a midterm, that were both multiple choice only and that, again, contained errors. He didn't actually attend to help with exams himself, and never specified the format of these exams, leaving everyone in the class confused and unprepared. Studying for the final (cumulative) was especially hard given that feedback and correct answers for the midterm were not released, making it impossible to know what you did well on and what you needed to study more. In addition, because the exams were open-book multiple choice questions that were, again, based off only off the textbook, the exams tested how good you were at memorizing the book and looking up answers over anything else. Finally, a term paper was assigned that had no clear grading rubric other than "write about a specific project". This paper was worth a 25% of our grade. The class taught me absolutely nothing and the lack of effort put in by Skibniewski was appalling.
Miroslaw Skibniewski ENCE320 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/09/2022	I'm generally the kind of student that thinks the professor is great when everyone else in the class hates them, but this is the first and only pretty bad one I've had. It's just the general lack of effort and clear communication on his part. Some things: - The whole course is a textbook on project management. The lectures are 2.5 hours (he occasionally lets out early, but far from always) of just reading the slides. Guy has some decent anecdotes, but there's no content beyond what you'll just get from reading the textbook. It's not surprising that class attendance dwindled to about 10 people. - The homeworks are all auto-generated textbook assignments, which quite commonly contain errors. He doesn't grade anything. The homework schedule got out of alignment with the chapter readings because he didn't factor in spring break. It took him several weeks of students nagging him to fix that. - 25% of the grade is a paper on an example of project management. There's no clear rubric or grading criteria nor any examples given of what he's looking for. - There were a bunch of chapters in the book that had homework assignments due which we didn't get to. He wasn't very clear on which were still due or not which led me to get a zero on some assignments that I didn't realize were still due. - There were questions on the final from parts of the textbook that we hadn't been assigned. - He rarely responds to emails, instead handing every inquiry off to his grad student assistant. - The final was supposedly closed book, but again the grad student was invigilating the exam and spent the whole thing on her phone at the front of the class, so I saw a bunch of people just looking up all the answers. In general, he just gives the impression that teaching effectively or putting together a well-functioning course is not a very high priority to him. The guy is clearly highly regarded in the world of construction management, but if he's such a big deal and teaching undergrads is such an annoying distraction to him, why is he still a professor? Wouldn't recommend very much.
Miroslaw Skibniewski ENCE421 Expecting an A Anonymous 09/03/2015	Not as bad as the others said. 421 is an interesting class. Skibniewski talks a lot about his funny experiences during his career. There is also a wonderful field trip in 420. Basically really nice!
Miroslaw Skibniewski ENCE420 Anonymous 02/23/2013	This is NOT a class you will want to take as an elective. Especially if Skibniewski is teaching it. He has a great passion for the construction industry; however, he does not teach you anything. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND not taking any course with him as he reads over power points, the homework assignments are hard and does't teach you what he expects to be completed on the homework. The book is not much help either. The class is also extremely boring. STAY AWAY FROM 420!
Miroslaw Skibniewski ENCE420 Expecting a C Terps#2012 01/14/2013	2.5 hours of him reading off the powerpoints, none of which is related to the homework. Homeworks and tests are hard. No cheat sheet and he expects you to know memorize the book. If i had the chance, I would not take this class again. Class average ended up being a C. He did nothing to curve it. Since this class was an elective, it was a little irritating that he was being such a harsh grader. TAKE ANY OTHER PROJECT MANAGEMENT CLASS OTHER THAN THIS.