Computational Methods for Business Analytics (BT3102), NUS, Aug-Dec 2021

• For reasons stated in Strengths. I have never studied a module under a professor who adjusts his schedule based on mid-term feedback and spends time during lecture to ensure that his students learnt. Kudos to that!
• Best prof I've taken a module under. He goes at a good pace and engages the class as much as possible. Very clear in his concepts and always looks to improve
• Very clear and detailed explanation. Very efficient teaching mathod to enhance my learning.
• I feel that Prof Stanley genuinely cares that his students are learning from him and actively seeks feedback to work on his teaching style such that every student can do their best. He teaches in a way that leaves no student behind and I respect that a lot.
• Best lecturer I have met thus far in terms of teaching.
• Ability to teach students are superb unlike some prof that just asked student to learned it themselves.
• Very effective teaching style
• He does teach the subject well and clear
• Good and clear in explanations, responds to queries quickly
• Prof Stanley is super understanding, explains difficult concepts well and has a wealth of knowledge in the course.
• Patient and enthusiastic in teaching
• Prof Stanley has a very clear and concise way of teaching that is very different from other profs I have experienced, and he makes sure that we understand everything before moving on. He is very focused on making sure that we understand, and always makes us apply our knowledge through practice questions.
• Can feel his passion in the subject matter
• While this module is no doubt intense, I need to give him credit for not only being able to explain concepts well, but also an engaging prof.
• He is very good at explaining concepts during lectures. He takes time to listen to students' queries and address them right away.
• Stanley is responsible and the topics he chose to teach us are quite useful. Very glad to see him and indeed I learnt a lot from him.
• Extremely clear in explaining, spends a lot of time to ensure that students understand, extremely open and adaptable based on feedback (really appreciate this!)
• extremely detailed and cares about his students' learning. Always checks that we understand before moving on
• Prof Stanley is very passionate about what he teaches and while the content is difficult and slightly dreadful to study, his energy is infectious. He is proactive in ensuring everyone is on the same page. He teaches in a way that leaves no student behind and I respect that a lot.
• He teaches effectively and clearly
• Patient and welcoming prof whom we can reach out to and asked for better clarification
• Prof's great ability to explain clearly and repeat whenever someone is in doubt.
• Very good at teaching, made learning enjoyable.
• He can explain the concepts clearly and concisely so it is easy to understand
• Very knowledgeable
• Prof Stanley is an expert in the field and tries to explain things in a way that is easy to understand.
• Ability to teach and make students understand. Willing to take in questions instead of providing the reason of "go read up yourself"
• Professor Stanley is able to explain concepts extremely well and he ensures that his students are clear before moving on. He does also keep himself in check by acting upon the midterm feedback that was given to him.
• Effective teaching style, the nano quiz is a good way to keep me don't delay to catch up lecture afterwards.
• Knowledge.
• He is very knowledgeable in the subject and knows how to explain the subject well. His slides are informative to a certain extent.
• Good and clear in explanations
• Prof Stanley is super understanding and has a wealth of knowledge in the course.
• Breaking down complex ideas into simpler anecdotes and examples.
• Very good at explaining concepts
• Class size is small, so he takes times knowing each and one of us (by name)
• Very little care, empathy or even sympathy shown for students all whilst delivering difficult content and imposing a workload beyond a normal 4MC module. Generally inconsiderate teaching team - has no regard for the students' schedules, organised in-person midterm in week 7 with absolutely no arrangements for those with lessons before and after. He could have blocked off 3 seats outside the exam hall, but I think he just doesn't care. All this subtle lack of concern leads to unmotivated students giving up. And when these students go on to be group members of a team project, it becomes everyone's problem. As an educator, there has to be a basic amount of encouragement.
• Lecture/tutorials wise: Change tutorial timing to not be directly after lectures, or do not need to host 2nd tutorial (TA just replaying video) because i think the 2nd tutorial is quite pointless. Project wise: I really think that the way that the project was weighed penalises groups heavily for not completing certain tasks (e.g. if we are unable to code out FB algorithm, we automatically get zero for part ii of the project). I really feel that it is unfair and instead there should be allowances for e.g. if unable to code out FB algorithm fully, we can alternatively use a package for part 2, but our marks will be penalized (e.g. 50% of the marks for part ii).
• The project is too time-consuming and not related strongly to this course. If you want us to do the HMM project, please spend at least 3 more lectures on HMM and provide more assistance for us to do the project. Many of my teammates do not know how to start at all. Project is the only point I hate this module.
• Don't say TA is asking questions about the Project on Piazza. the answers are generally useless.
• Workload is a bit too high because as students, we have so many other modules and commitments. If the goal is to ensure students learnt, other forms of assignments can still achieve the purpose instead of high-frequency quizzes and homework.
• Lecture sessions can be stressful (when cold calling) for learners that have shorter attention span and prefer to internalise material by watching the lecture recording afterwards.
• Some questions are more directed to prof instead of TA so perhaps prof could take the question instead of delegating back to TA.
• The project work is way to much, have not done anything of this level so far in university.
• The project is too heavy and I don't know how I can contribute to the project without even a thorough understanding on HMM
• Have more breaks during lessons as the content can get confusing and overwhelming. Back to back lessons were very heavy
• Can reduce the number of nano quiz, as it can be pressurizing sometimes
• can try to speed up a bit while explaining relatively easy concepts, such as reduced the time spent on enumeration or writing the full expressions ect
• spend more time on concepts that are hard to understand
• give an overview of the topic, and motivation behind that, such as why people have developed that algo etc
• Professor Stanley can be rather intimidating at times but I think this situation was made better this semester as compared to the others.
• Give more hint for group project and make it slightly easier as it is difficult to directly apply the theory in lecture to the case scenario.
• Too much assumptions towards students on their knowledge and capabilities. Too heavy workload and expecting things done fast. Not enough breaks as well.
• I think communication can be improved, especially what will be tested on midterms, since it caught me off guard that we had to memorize the detailed equation and not the final results.
• The workload is still quite heavy
• NIL
• Main comments are pertaining to the project. There is a VERY big jump from lecture materials to the project with very little guidance given for the project (as we're expected to come up with the answers OURSELVES). While I understand the importance of being self-sufficient, it would be good if we could receive a bit more assistance for the project rather than just vague generic advice in the event we may have specific difficulties. If possible, reduce the weightage of the project, since all the parts of the project are interlinked students experience a snowballing penalty when they are unable to answer the front parts of the project
• He taught well.
• Prof Stanley is super understanding, explains difficult concepts well and has a wealth of knowledge in the course.
• His teaching methodology is something I really appreciate and have learnt a lot from.
• Best lecturer I have met thus far in terms of teaching.
• Teaching skills are superb and provided us with the right amount of challenges to improve our learning
• As stated in feedback for Lecture.
• Effective teaching style
• passionate, responsible
• Good Communicator and good in the subject
• Prof Stanley is super understanding, explains difficult concepts well and has a wealth of knowledge in the course.
• Explained the concepts clearly
• Very good at teaching, made learning enjoyable.
• Patient and welcoming prof whom we can reach out to and asked for better clarification
• Friendly and willing to slow down and explain patiently.
• A very clear cut prof that knows what he is teaching and is able to teach from a students' POV. Love it!
• His teaching style is highly effective.
• As stated in feedback for Lecture
• Project! More help!
• Better communication, especially in the depths of the topics tested, such as how much we need to learn.
• Reduce the work load
• Reduce the workload of the project
• The project work is way to much, have not done anything of this level so far in university.
• Some questions are more directed to prof instead of TA so perhaps prof could take the question instead of delegating back to TA.
• Sometimes go very fast especially the last 2 lectures, too short breaks.
• Slightly reduce math content of the module or use simpler example to explain the mathematic equation. Give longer break between end of lecture and start of tutorial as 3hours class reduce effectiveness.
• As stated in feedback for Lecture.
• Maybe can have a short session on teaching coding as homework require coding but it is challenging to convert what we have learned in class into algorithms without the guidance.
• His lessons have been really engaging and informative, but I hope that he would mention "This question is very easy" less so that students are not so afraid of answering his questions when asked upon.
• Since Prof Stanley has taken this module several times, he knows which parts are more manageable and which parts are more complex/generally harder for students to comprehend. Right now his pace appears to be quite constant, meaning that he spends equal time on both more manageable and more challenging parts. Perhaps he can manage time a bit better by allocating more time to cover the traditionally harder parts.
• I think it is by far the most useful BT module I have taken that focuses on the theoretical concepts. However, when it comes to the coding aspect of Viterbi, Forward-backward, Variable Elimination Algorithm implementation, I think that is really a bit too much for my intellectual capacity. I have to access to a lot of external sources such as https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxg0CGqViygOb9Eyc8IXM27doxjp2SK0H (NUS CS5340: Uncertainty Modelling in AI), https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDZUttQj8ytfASQIcvsLYgg/videos (Berkeley CS188: Artificial Intelligence) for reinforcement and understanding as there are a lot of overlaps in content being taught. Although the theoretical concepts thus far I am still comfortable, the coding aspect is beyond what I am capable at the moment. Some homework questions are a little too difficult and often consume too much time. Given that this is a 13 week course, the workload and demand is definitely far beyond what is the average of a 4MC module. The Nano-quizzes are fairly manageable in terms of difficulty. A rough difficulty of nano-quiz standard for finals and mid-terms should be good enough to generate an accurate distribution of student's aptitude. In times of Covid, it is really difficult to delegate the work for the coding aspect of the project work.
• He is very knowledgeable and attends to questions really quickly.
• I hope prof can write down each step of the solution when explaining the practice questions in class. It is hard for me to follow if the prof only explains it by mouth, especially in the graph parts (BN independence). Hope we can have a fixed office hour each week, so we can ask questions more easily and may have a discussion in depth. In the piazza, it is quite time-consuming to input the math stuff and some things are hard to explain only by words, so the f2f Q&A chance will be great if applicable.
• Thank you Prof for your clear explanations during lectures! Providing more visualizations and examples would be better for certain complex concepts.
• Prof Stanley explains complex concepts very well and he is able to answer our questions clearly. Additionally, he goes out of the way to help students (such as helping my friend and I book a venue to take our midterm exams in)
• More breaks as sometimes the content is very heavy and hard to grapse
• Sometimes goes too fast especially for the HMM in Lecture 6, would appreciate if could have slowed down or broke down into simpler parts to understand as often found myself finding it hard to process and catch up before moving on to next step/algorithm. Perhaps refresher could be provided for this. Breaks too short/little
• Best professor I have had so far for modules, very interactive and willing to explain the hard concepts, both in lecture and on Piazza
• Sometimes he needs to go over slower in complicated subjects and complicated formulas. Additionally, it is hard to copy the equations, especially during HMM into our blank notes. If there was slides with the answers after the lecture posted, especially for complicated equations it would be better.
• I think you put in a lot of effort to make sure that people understand and I really really appreciate it! Being randomly called on in class can be quite intimidating especially if you can’t even process the concept in time.
• Prof is great and explains very patiently but content is difficult :<
• I think the course is really interesting and I foresee it’s usefulness in my future area of interest. Kudos to the teaching team because the effort invested to teach is really commendable and is much appreciated. One thing that I think many of us are struggling with is, of course, the intensity of submissions. I think it has been creating quite a bit of unnecessary stress on my end at the expense of my learning. After all, there are other mods with other submissions deadline of their own. For instance, i had 2 submissions and 1 quiz from this mod, on top of 4/5 other submissions/exams/quizzes. As much as one can argue that there are opportunities to "throw away" some quizzes, having one quiz/assignment every week is unmanageable. I would like to suggest to reduce the number of assignments or spread out the submission deadlines at the very least. To be honest, I think that the weekly quiz is extremely beneficial. However, I think the 10 mins time limit can be reconsidered. The first few weeks were comfortable. However, recently, it is increasingly difficult to open the PDF, read the question, process, write and complete the question within the time. A little more time for longer questions and questions that require more computation will be really helpful! Thank you!
• Go through past homework and quizzes
• NA
• The workload is a little too much
• Dear Prof Kok, Since Week 1, I have been putting lots of effort into BT3102. This course content is really difficult for me, and very often after lectures and tutorials, I would need to re-watch the recording again to consolidate my understanding. For a 1.5hrs lecture, I watched it using 1.25x/1.5x, but I would still need around 3+ hours to finish watching and write down the notes on iPad. For all important slides, my notes are full of pages and I found that it is really tedious for me to write down everything that you have verbally mentioned in class. Sometimes, I feel so pressured just because I am worried that I have missed your important/intuitive explanations of the concepts which can improve my understandings. Hence, I would hope that in the future PowerPoint slides, if possible, include more intuitive explanations. For instance, for Mathematical notation, it may be possible to include an explanation of a particular expression, instead of just giving out the Maths notation. Another example would be that adding the calculation of a certain answer, e.g. for the question asking how many parameters are needed for the joint distribution, maybe instead of just including the answer in the slides, the calculation that derives the answer can also be included so the formula/calculation can be clearer to us. Besides, sometimes the audio quality is not good, so I often hear some noise from your microphone, making it more difficult to understand the content. Would it be possible to ensure the audio quality is clear? However, I still think your explanation is very clear! It's just that you can help us more by including more content/intuitive explanations into the aiding slides (it's ok to keep some content blank before/during the lesson but give it out by writing it clearly in the slides after the lesson). Thank you for your time reading this feedback!
• While the course content is quite challenging, I've been able to learn a lot!
• -
• The mathematics here should be more rigorous. Some parts are too concise, such as the probit function things like that. The maths notations used in this course are a little unusual, especially the MLE part. The topics BN and HMM are indeed very cool. I do hope Stanley can involve more practice in class instead of always heading for the new content. I really hope to see the solutions of some practice questions be written down line by line on the iPad by the lecturer instead of explaining it by mouth. The homework may be a little too much and intensive. Less workload please. We also have other hard and time-consuming modules.
• I have reflected the course content under Prof Stanley's comments. My apologies.
• Excellent content, I love that Prof really takes his time with opening the floor for individual questions and answers all of them. This environment to let students ask questions is really important to how good the course is so far.