Harvard CS 181 Spring 2021

Machine Learning

Update: I received a Certificate of Distinction from Harvard’s Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning in recognition of my “excellence in teaching”.

End of Semester Feedback

Click for Raw Data. Summary:

• Evaluate your Section Leader overall (1 to 5, 5 high):
  • 21 students (91%): 5
  • 1 student (4%): 4
  • 1 student (4%): 2

Comments:

• Very well–spoken and clear. He was clearly very interested in the theoretical underpinnings and the math behind what we were learning which was really cool to hear.
• Rylan’s a fantastic teacher! He really cares about making sure students understand the material and engage with it.
• I really like Schaeffer because he is very accessible, open to discussions, and thoroughly willing to help out those confused about different components of lectures and assignments.
• I mainly attended Rylan’s OH and review sessions. Rylan really made sure to involve everybody in the breakout room in his teaching and always would stop and check and address clarifying questions. He was incredibly patient and generous with his time.
• Rylan did a great job at breaking down concepts.
• was very helpful in office hours and section. Has the patience of a saint
• Rylan is awesome, extremely knowledgable about all things machine learning. If you ever have a question, he knows the answer and can walk you through an in–depth example and explain each step in an easily digestable way
• Amazing TF and always super knowledgeable and helpful.
• Rylan is a very good teacher. He’s the kind of person I wish I had as a personal tutor, but I think his style is less effective in group settings. Brevity is not his strong suit, and he tends to get frustrated when students don’t participate, which sometimes made sections awkward.
• Rylan is great at making difficult concepts accessible. His OHs were amazing for debugging code.
• Rylan, thank you so much for your thorough explanations and clear knowledge of the course material. You were an amazing TF!
• Good guy, loves the material, but answers a simple question with a 1–hour speech. Speed up dude
• Amazing section leader!!! He is very knowledgable and explains things so in depth, so thoroughly, and so well – highly recommend. Super nice guy too :)
• Fantastic, super helpful in a very tough course
• Rylan is a true teacher – he genuinely cares about students’ understanding. His method of explaining course material is extensive. I never had a question unanswered.
• Rylan is an amazing TF! You can tell he is super passionate about the material and always willing to help explain things. When I look at the pset and get confused on what the problem is even asking me to do, going to Rylan’s OH helps me find a place to start!

Mid-semester Feedback (Mandatory)

• Rylan’s fantastic!
• [TA 1], Rylan, and [TA2 ] are wonderful and provide great advice for the problems! Rylan is especially clear in his explanations. I wish [TA 3] and [TA 4] were a bit more clear with their explanations.
• Rylan is an excellent TF. I really appreciate how he takes the time to slow down and break things down.
• [TA 5] is great. Rylan needs to move 3x as fast (he doesn’t get through almost all of the material). He also answered questions really long-windedly.
• Rylan needs to speed up! He has so many digressions.
• I feel included and encouraged to participate in the vast majority of office hours (95%), but I have a vivid memory of one office hours before the midterm (I believe it was Rylan’s) where some students were more assertive and constantly kept asking questions, and I didn’t feel like there was space for me to ask a question I had about one of the midterm practice problems. I acknowledge that I should have raised my digital hand or did something to get Rylan’s attention, and for prior questions Rylan did go around and name everyone who wasn’t speaking to see if they had questions, but I still struggled to make space for myself. I’m not sure if Rylan could have done very much in that situation given the students were very quick to ask more questions, but that was a less-than-ideal office hours experience of mine that I thought I’d share.
• Nothing. Absolutely want to emphasize Rylan is doing a terrific job for us.
• I really appreciate Rylan’s teaching. Nothing else to say, just passionate, engaging, and clear. Perfect.
• I attended Rylan’s office hours once (although this was early in the semester so of course things might have improved since then). However, I found myself more confused than before I came. I think it would be great if Rylan spent more time checking in with students when explaining or, instead of jumping straight into a conceptual overview of the entire topic, it might be useful to ask the student questions to see what they understand and what their difficulties/misunderstandings are.
• Rylan is a very clear explainer and I’ve learned a lot from hearing him discuss concepts from first principles, but he sometimes elaborates too much on the details, and I find that this can distract from the core concepts at hand. I’d recommend trying to focus on getting across one main concept at a time.
• Rylan works through the problems with us, if anything the method is more important than the answer a it can be generalized and applied to more questions!
• Rylan’s walkthroughs are super helpful! I think group discussions are a more effective use of office hours time instead of only having one on one questions. I think it would be great if one TF would answer one-on-one questions while the second TF does group discussions.
• Rylan is amazing!