Jack Beukema

I like Jack but I really have difficulty with his teaching style. I can't understand what it is he is trying to get across in his lectures. The way he uses language is incredibly convoluted and completely lacking in any clarity. I also have difficulty with the constant change: assignments are revised after being assigned, deadlines are moved and changed, different classes get different directions. Hoo boy it is really hard to understand what is expected of you. And what is with this work load?! Jack's assignments take as much as four times the time to complete as any other class. That is way excessive. Frankly, I think that Jack needs a holiday. He seems to think that he is responsible for the entire program and I appreciate his level of commitment but I think if he could relax a little and give us a little credit he would be a happier and more effective instructor.

Jack seems to excel at making a bad course worse. With all the confusion and disorder in the classroom, one gets the impression that this is Jack's first day as a teacher... he has been here for over a decade teaching the same dull material.

Most of our classes were spent figuring out who was going to be at the next seminar, and he kept juggling students around so nobody knew where they were meant to be.

The workload for this course completely overwhelmed the students to the detriment of all other classes. The assignments are not very clear or helpful, and a waste of paper. Several trees should be planted by the graduating class to repay his debt to the earth.

Our textbooks were very expensive and utterly useless. Jack's handouts are poorly photocopied and hard to read. Often they are made up of several overlapping handouts cleverly arranged so that lines, characters, and diagrams are obscured.

The final was a nightmare. It was open book and open note, but it was REQUIRED that you bring these in order to answer the questions. At least 1/3 of the test referenced problems contained in the notes or in the textbook. If you brought those notes, you were fine, if not, you're SOL.

Jacks classes are all very tough, disjointed and seemingly unorganized lectures are combined with very little help provided for projects. Direct questions seem to provide roundabout answers that never really address the question. A very frustrating way to learn. Being that he teaches manditory courses it is difficult to drop this course. To pass, hand in all of the assignments (huge course load), making at least an attempt. He is consistent with his assignment marks, a low mark is difficult to get unless you are way off track. If a test or final is open book, BRING ALL OF YOUR BOOKS/NOTES. Open book means "must have all books and notes to pass test". Some questions on our final related directly to handouts we were given. If you didn't have the handout, you couldn't answer the questions!!!!

Unfortunately Jack is unaware of how to convey anything--let alone useful information--to his students. He chooses terrible textbooks which meander and have many of the spelling errors Jack himself claims he would fail his students for. He does try now and again--I'll give him that--unfortunately he doesn't have the grasp on the material he likes to think he does. One class he spent the entire time trying to get an induction proof right--kept erasing the entire board and starting over. We learned nothing. Thankfully I dropped his course before it was too late--but I almost missed the deadline. What clinched it for me was how he seems to enjoy making a spectacle of his students. I was late one day by about five minutes and tried to hand my assignment in to the pile on his desk--he blatantly refused, loudly calling me out, and then ridiculed me in front of the class because I was about to leave for home in frustration.

He is completely unwilling to make any exceptions for his students. Technically, we are the ones who pay his salary. But there Beukema was with an exchange student almost in tears because he needed to be accepted into Beukema's class to continue his studies. Sadly he didn't have direct transfer credit for the prerequisites (but wanted to demonstrate he could do it), and Beukema sent him off without even an apology. Rather, he ranted on about "standards" and other obtuse, silly things to the rest of us and actually seemed SMUG about what he had done! The student was in tears and apparently was set back by almost a year as a result!

In his first class, he ranted about how Comp Sci students are horrible spellers and if we ever made the simple mistake of using "it's" rather than "its" his hand would "jerk uncontrollably" and "mark a big zero on the page."

I ask you--are we in an English class? No? Then CAN your stupid holier-than-thou behaviour.

Not only all this, but the material itself is something he's trying to adapt to older, more established concepts. In my class with him, he was actually trying to precisely quantify the run-time of C++ code fragments! Now I can understand execution times for assembly.. I agree with looking at execution times for C. But C++? With incomplete (at the time) standard C++ library functions, run-time-type checking and all that other fun stuff that actually depends on esoteric things like how long the variable or class name is (something he completely skipped in his analyses) how can this sort of algorithm analysis be useful? Especially if he is including other tiny esoteric details like the number of clock cycles required for a post-decrement operation?!

The textbook he chose for us was terrible. It had no coherency, was a first edition of an untested text, and assumed (and presumed) far too much of first-year students.

Jack has a long way to go before he can even begin to be an effective teacher. Avoid him if at all possible.

Jack Bukema is a bright fellow who has the potential to teach you a lot. His ability to convey information is the primary problem. Compared to many other CompSci professors at Camosun he just does not measure up. He does not relate particularly well to his students, and is classes tend to disolve quickly into an US vs. him mentality. I would avoid him if possible. If not be prepared to use as many social engineering skills as you do technical skills to get the information you need to succeed in this course. Jack tends to evoke very strong negative feelings in his students so don't be surprised to see many "angry" reviews.

Very breif, and strict on exams, Homework is extensive and overwhelming, unclear on topics and no help is offered.