Erickson, Gregg  

he sure does like his women, wet!!

Mr Erickson is an awesome guy, but not that great of a teacher. He cares about his students but he's the type that doesn't understand why they don't understand something. He's honestly a genius but can't convey it to the rest of the students. Overall, IS is an average difficulty course so if you just study you can still do well. Definitely pay attention to when he does Access and Excel tutorials because he'll probably only do them once. Great guy, okay teacher.

Fairly easy homework and projects, IMPOSSIBLE EXAMS

This was Gregg's first quarter ever teaching and it showed. He had a seemingly difficult time connecting with students, and he really just needs some time to adjust to this lifestyle of teaching. As for now, he's still a manageable teacher. First half of the class deals with Microsoft Access and the basics of computers and software. Difficult midterm, studied my ass off and got a C on all 3 sections (mult choice, short answer, Access). Second half of the class rocked! We would play with excel each class, and he had these awesome little scenarios set up already for us everyday to work on. Easy homework throughout the year, but the group project ended up being pretty bothersome (its on access and excel and then html). Final was a piece of cake, and he literally passed out cupcakes afterwards too. Overall the guy is adorable, but just apply yourself to the class and give yourself time on the assignments, because you'll run into some bumps along the way

TAKE HIM! When you compare him to all the other 391 teachers he seems to be the best option. His hw is not hard at all if you go to class, pay attention, and follow along when he is teaching a program. Tests ( 1 midterm and a Final) arent that difficult. Just do the study guide he provides and youll be good. He is an awesome guy and it excited about the subject, he also is really nice in office hours as well.

Erickson was a great teacher up until his final. I went into the final with an A, and during the final I knew how to do about 85% of the work, but was not getting the right answers. He only graded the final on whether you got the answer right or wrong, not how much you actually knew like he did on the final. Ended up with a B in the class which seemed a little extreme. Went to go talk to him about it and he wouldn't budge. Great professor, but in my opinion that type of grading for the final based on the material we knew was not fair to students.

Erickson is a great professor. I never thought I would learn so much in an introductory information systems class. He is a genius in a myriad of topics. The projects were challenging and required a lot of work but they we're incredibly rewarding. Go to his office hours; he is incredibly helpful.

Honestly, he goes way to fast and seems arrogant when you try to ask him for help. He seem disinterested in helping students out when they ask questions during class. He talks too much about how IS is a money maker and brags about the things he has done in IS. His projects are exceptionally time consuming and he gives little clarification and he grades incredibly harshly.

He is intelligent and super chill, but his exams do not accurately portray what we did in class nor the homework. It appears as if of the class never finishes the exams on time, so we are left to scramble during the last few minutes because of how difficult they are. In class, he goes real fast on access and excel so it is important to pay attention during every second. Also, the way he organizes PolyLearn is so confusing and unorganized it makes it difficult to find what you need on there. I have no question of his knowledge on the subject, but the class structure and exams is what is the problem here.

It saddens me to write this review but here is the truth: He is an incredibly brilliant, smart, awesome guy but just not a good professor right now. He does not show you how to use Access or Excel in ways that he asks you about on the exams. Guaranteed you will not know how to do some of the things he tests you on because he never showed you how to do them. Yet we are judged on exam scores. Terribly unfair way to test. He is very quiet. You won't be able to hear him unless you sit close. In lectures, he spends lots of time on unimportant things and then waits till the last 30 minutes to work on the assignment. Then he rushes extremely fast thru the important things. We were constantly trying to beat the clock before the next class came in. He makes lots of mistakes and you then have to unlearn what he just showed you because it was wrong. If you do take him, you should go to his office hours as much as you can. Ask in advance what specific functions you'll need for the exam and practice them right there and then with him. There will be a ton of students crammed in there with you but oh well. He has lots of real world experience and has worked extensively in industry. Again, a fantastic guy and likable person aside from the unjust testing method.

Erickson wasn't a bad professor for 391. I was worried going in because of the bad polyratings, but honestly, this class wasn't that hard. The breakup was 25% midterm, 25% final (noncumulative), 20% access project, 10% excel project, 5% web project, and 15% homework + participation/attendance. Exams were really hard and often included things that weren't taught in class or things I felt were beyond the difficulty level of the class, but they are curved pretty substantially, and they aren't worth a huge portion of your grade so if you do poorly on exams you can make it up in other places such as the access project. Don't waste your time doing the reading, just pay attention in class and study the powerpoints he posts on polylearn to prepare you for the tests. Erickson is a really nice guy and is really knowledgeable in the subjects, so ask questions and go to office hours and you'll do fine.

Professor Erickson has skills and intellect that far exceed the demands of the course that at times can act as a hurdle when connecting with the class. The lectures were more tolerable than expected. I found Gregg to be funny as shit, however, it didn't seem as though my classmates were as amused by his humor as I was. He has a very casual approach towards teaching, and he reiterates the fact that success or failure in his class and others will not necessarily translate to future successes and failures in life. He is a very respectful professor, and although I never attended office hours (schedule conflict), my classmates were happy with the help they received when they did. Study for the exams of course. I should have pulled an A with better effort towards the end of the quarter.

Honestly this class in general just sucks, not the lectures but the material is unbelievably frustrating. Projects and tests were very hard. I asked my uncle who is an it person for boeing to do my access project and he couldn't figure out how to do one of the parts. Tests are hard. Homeworks are not super easy and graded on accuracy. I pulled out a B somehow but I could have easily gotten a C and I put in a lot of effort. Not sure if its the teacher or the class.

At first, you might think that Erickson is a typical computer science geek, but go into office hours and you'll find that Erickson is actually a cool, awesome guy. He built his own website, enjoys going backpacking, is interested in photography, and bikes from Morro Bay to class and back everyday! In the class, there were 4 HW assignments, 1 group project, 1 midterm and 1 final. All of them weren't bad if you went to class. He cares more about what students learn, rather than the grades they receive. He even said to me, "I wish I could give all students As, but the department wouldn't like that." He is one of the most genuine, giving teachers I have ever had at Cal Poly. Take him, learn a ton, and get to know him - he's a character.

Finally decide to come here and rate Prof. Erickson. First of all, Erickson is a great guy and very intelligent, but new to teaching, so he is still a little bit rusty at it. However, if you are there to learn, he is definitely a great guy to take classes from. The project for his class is a great learning experience because he let you do whatever you want. At the end, the project was actually rather fun to work on. For his midterm and final, I would say they were little bit hard but very manageable. Everyone on the tests were taught in class so if you pay attention in class, you will do just fine. Overall, I would say he is one of the best professor I have had at Poly.

Although Gregg is a cool guy, he is a horrible professor. He is incredibly smart but has absolutely no communication skills to convey his knowledge to his students. Most of us in the java class have never coded a day in our lives and he outright gave us projects that were extremely complex and tough when we didn't even know the basics. He grossly overestimates his students. He spends about 10 mins "lecturing" but it is just him mumbling to himself and walking himself through a concept, then give the class the rest of the time to figure out an incredibly tough assignment that no one can do. He then continues to waste everyones time by walking around and answering individual questions instead of leading the class in a walkthrough tutorial of the assignment. He instead waits until there are 5 minutes left in the period and rushes through the solution, which everyone ends up copying from him just for the sake of turning in. Impossible to learn because his class time management skills are lacking. Because he is so smart , basically a genius, all of our questions sound stupid to him and he cannot empathize when we don't understand something. I wish he would teach better and spend more time on the learning than watch us struggle for the greater part of class.

Responding to the comment above for the Java class, I would said it is a bit harsh to evaluate him that way. This is the first class in IS that teaching Java which requires him to spend much more time in preparing for materials as well figuring out what to teach in during the lectures. He has 4 classes this quarter at well which make it even more time consuming. I wouldn't say his classes are amazing, but personally I felt like it is the best way for me to learn. He goes over the slides with the detail how the code should be display, how to apply the new function into the code. It actually went too slow for me at first and I felt like I didn't learn enough. But since week 3, the problems becoming more difficult but definitely not impossible to figure out. If you are already lost, definitely recommend go to office hour or stay after class to ask questions. He has been extremely helpful, he had been explaining several time about the loops and bugging to me and be very patient when I didn't understand. Gregg might complain a bit but definitely take the advice even from students and do his best to help us understand. I mean, if you are dedicate to learn, he definitely will help, otherwise it is meaningless.

This is possibly the worst professor I've ever had at Poly.

Ericsson honestly is a great guy, so if you go to his office hours you will be totally fine for this class. You have to practice and learn SQL on your own time, just class work won't cut it. Practice the in class material + hw, go to his office hours to review. He cancelled class a few times, so our schedule was out of order. The first midterm was really easy, just like all the class work - class average was an 86%. The second midterm was really hard and he had to curve it, but he made the final really fair and he replaced your lowest midterm score with your final score. Class project wasn't bad, it was frustrating at times, but don't put it off to the last minute. He grades the final project realllyyyy easily! Overall easy B, have to put it in the effort for an A.

I came on here because Erickson has too low of a polyrating for how good he is. Erickson provides real life data that will help you understand the material clearly and will always help you understand the material if you go to office hours. Sometimes things can be unclear but if you ask him questions and stay engaged you will do fine. His class is very hands on so be prepared to work on practice problems constantly and do the work that needs to be done to prepare for midterms. First midterm is a breeze but simple errors will make you lose lots of points. Overall, if you practice a lot and stay engaged then you will be prepared for exams and do fine. Also, he is a hilarious professor.

In a few years, I imagine Erickson will be getting amazing polyratings. He's a really good guy, cares about his students, and is of course intelligent. As has been mentioned, he's still learning how to teach and understand his students better. There are times where he moves a bit too quickly, and this Android class was the first time it was even a part of the IS concentration (and is a better elective than 499 from what I've heard). I remember for the final project when I was in his office hours he even asked me to show him how I did something, which shows he has humility and likes to learn alongside his students, which is awesome. Take him, talk to him, and learn with him. Just don't expect to only learn everything through going to class; you should be Googling, using stackoverflow, and watching tutorial videos if you want to get really good at Java/Android.