Liang Yu

Man! Prof Yu could have been an excellent instructor if only we could understand her clearly. No shit! I think she's extremely capable. You'll learn a lot from her if you sit on the front rows, but from the back of the room she is on MUTE and that was my biggest problem with her. She tends to speak very low and her heavy accent does not help either--though the latter I'm not so concerned because her articulate grammar offset her foreign tone.

Another thing that bothered me a bit about her, however, is the speed--or lack thereof--in which she returns exams and quizzes. She takes too damn long in marking the quizzes which make it nearly impossible to use them as review tools for future exams and quizzes.

Personality-wise, she is a great person. She's very soft-spoken and a real down-to-Earth person. She likes to help students outside class time which is great. In a way, she compensates for her lack of clarity in class by offering herself extensively out of class. The problem, however, is I don't think she can accomodate every student who seeks help outside class time.

The class in itself is not that bad. It's challenging, but nothing any motivated students cannot handle. There are 3 exams, 2 quizzes that are nearly as extensive as the exams and a group project. All are in M/C and objective questions format. Some include drawing and labeling diagrams. Not bad!

Too bad about the negatives coz I really like her. I would certainly recommend her classes to anyone, except for the hearing-challenged students.

Grading for this course comes from two 5% quizzes, three 5% homework assignments, 5% class participation, a 25% midterm, a 25% final, and a 20% group project. This is an ambitious course that covers a lot of material; there is a lot of reading and a lot of terminology to learn.

Although Dr. Yu appears quite young, she has a lot of real world experience, and her competence in her subject is clear and obvious. Her anecdotes about developing a library system in China are interesting.

Admittedly, her lecturing style is pretty dry, but I think that's cultural more than anything. In China, university professors aren't supposed to be entertaining; they're supposed to provide information that the students must "at due times repeat." (Confucius, Analects 1:1) That she gives 5% for classroom participation tells me that she's trying to break out of the paradigm and develop a more interactive style of teaching. And although she does have a heavy accent, she is as eloquent and well spoken as any well-educated native speaker of English.

She's an approachable teacher and very helpful during her office hour. On the other hand, she does take three to four weeks to return graded quizzes and assignments.

The project is a lot of work, and she won't let you blow smoke and wave your hands. After your presentation, she'll ask pointed, challenging questions about your systems design.

Her class ain't that bad. You just learn how to draw diagrams, charts and memorize a few concepts and terms. There are two quizes, a midterm and a final. They're all based on the book and powerpoint slides and all have multiple choice, fill in, and a case study problem, really straight forward. There's also a group project and three homework assignments. The only thing I must fuss about is that she never returns your exams and homework on time. She is a really lethargic grader. But nevertheless, she is a nice, plain decent professor.

Prof. Yu is Not a bad teacher, but at present, she's a terrible lecturer. She'll put you to sleep during her lectures so make sure to buy a cup of black coffee before you enter her class. Class materials are not too hard and seem to be relevant. Project is structured well and relevant to real world situation.

She also takes weeks in returning exams and quizzes so it's hard to determine where you stand in terms of performance. I think she'll be a good teacher in a few years, but not right now. Take this class only if you need an additional elective, but I'm a little hesitant to recommend her class if you plan on becoming a system analyst.

Liang Yu is a terrible lecturer. It's hard to take in what she says when you can't understand her sometimes because she has a chinese accent and she speaks very softly. She seems very knowledgeable in the subject matter, however.

Her tests consists of 1/3 multiple choice, 1/3 short answer, and 1/3 hands on exercises.

Yu is a nice teacher, but she doesn't has the skill to teach, especially the lecture. She always just reading the powerpoint slids, so you don't really need to go to class. She doesn't take attendent as well. If you really want to learn, you have to read the textbook by yourself because she really can't help you. Unfortunately, SFSU has no excellent ISYS teachers, so you better read the book yourself. On the other hand, she gives 3 homework thoughtout the whole semester, but those are not very difficult. You still need to spend time on it. She has 2 Quizzes, which only worth 5% each, so you don't need to take it very seriously. The quiz is not easy though. For the exam, it is very similar to the quiz, MC, short-question, but exam is about 25%. Don't spoil it. Good luck folks. One for thing, there is a group project as well.

This was the most incompetent instructor I have seen yet. The BICS department is really scraping the bottom of the barrel with this new hire.

What is the point in coming to class just to watch a PhD mindlessly read the PowerPoint slides that came with the book? - yes, she was too lazy to even develop her own lecture material! This is inexcusable! This college is paying a premium for BICS instructors and we have a right to expect more than to see an instructor show up and fake it. We have better things to do with our tuition dollars than simply feed the faculty - we actually have the temerity to expect an education!

I had to give her a B for the project rating because she obviously borrowed the whole format from another instructor and that instructor put some thought into it.

She personnifies all those jokes about public school teachers who are unable to function without the answer guide. She was unable to lecture when the slide projector didn't work and she did not demonstrate she had any knowledge of her own on the subject matter. Did anyone check to see if she had actually taken a Systems Analysis course herself?

Her tests were badly written and hinted that she did not have well-formed conceptualizations of the topic.

The last straw was the final exam. Just when we thought we had seen the full extent of her incompetence, she shows up 1/2 hour late the day of the final, tells us that she had "lost" the file on disk (Don't MIS people know about backing up important data?) and forced us to start one hour late while she had the poor office secretaries run off a partial exam.

Usually new instructors "try harder" this one acts as though she has already been guaranteed tenure. Instructors of this caliber eliminate all arguments against online courses.

P.S. You don't have to sit there and take this crap. UC Berkeley and Davis have many Information Technology classes available for academic credit and also stand-alone certificate programs. Some are even offered online. The instructor biographies indicated the faculty have "real world" experience, many have PhDs. You can ask your advisor to sign you off for transfer credit. http://universityextension.ucdavis.edu/ http://www.unex.berkeley.edu/

Her exames, I agreed, are difficult. But let's face it, the outside world is much more difficult. I like her project because you can really apply the topics she teaches in class. She is a really nice lady, but her speaking style needs to be improved. Be nice to her as she will be nice to you, too.

Okay, this is her first class at SFSU so I will go easy on her unlike all the other crappy BICS teachers at this school (exception: VERMA).

She has a kind young and kind personality. I think that she really knows her subject matter. However, unfortuntely, she has that nagging all-to-familiar Chinese accent so you have to really concentrate on what she says in order to understand her.

You have to do a group project which is basically designing a information system from the ground up. It is not really difficult, don't worry.

Her homework is soo easy don't worry about it.

However, expect her exams to be five or more multiple choice, two or three short answers, and two or three essay questions. This is not all a multiple choice test like in many classes so you will need to understand how to apply the theory.

Overall, she is a good take. She is definitely above average in comparison to most teachers at SFSU and definitely a whole lot better than most BICS teachers.

However, I hope that young freshness doesn't wear off of her after she has been at SFSU for a few years.

Good luck!