I can't resist but reply to a whiny email like this, thus defending the prof. Of course it's an annonymous email as well lahz... dun wanna get condemned by the entire class.
Here's the email and the prof's reply. Following it is my reply! No words of fury, but mere justification.

>Date: Thu, 7 Dec 2006 20:00:35 -0600 (CST)
>From:
>To:
>
>Dear Prof. Hiskens,
>
>I have to say, I am absolutely shocked at
>how horrible and inconsiderate a professor
>you've been this semester. I had heard good
>things about you from my peers, which is one
>of the reasons I signed up for this class.
>What they neglected to mention, however, was
>your refusal to set a clear grading standard
>and your inability to stick to a regular
>(and reasonable) homework schedule.
>
>I still can't believe that you absolutely
>refuse to give us any indication whatsoever
>as to what the grading curve on the midterm
>was. How hard can it be to calculate the
>class average? To give such a hard exam and
>have the only thing you say afterwards
>be "the class did worse than I expected" is
>absurd. We certainly don't expect you to
>have a complete grading scale set in stone,
>but is it really that unreasonable to ask
>what the class average is and what grade
>you're thinking of assigning it?
>
>And speaking of unreasonable, that's exactly
>what the homework assignments have been in
>this class. I realize the TA writes the
>homework, but you must have some control
>over them, and especially in scheduling
>them. Unless I'm mistaken, the syllabus
>stated we were to have bi-weekly homework
>assignments with a design project assigned
>halfway through the semester. Well, the
>design project was assigned much later than
>halfway through the semester (giving us much
>less time to work on it than we originally
>thought we would have) and now that we're
>expected to put a lot of hours into that,
>you assign two final homeworks during the
>last two weeks of class? Did it ever occur
>to you that perhaps this is not the only
>class all of us are taking and perhaps we
>have several other final projects and exams
>to be concerned with?
>
>I have to say, I (and several others as
>well) am severely disappointed in how this
>class has turned out.
>
>Thank you.

Dear All,

I received the attached (anonymous) email this evening, and feel a
response is warranted. There seem to be three issues of concern:

1. I did not announce a class average following the midterm exam. My
philosophy for ECE427 is quite different to earlier level courses,
such as ECE230. In earlier years, students tend to be quite unsure of
their capabilities, and need the security of knowing where their
grades lie relative to their peers. In 400-level courses, students
are one semester or less from the real world. The real world is not
about relative performance. You are judged on getting things right,
not on how you've done relative to others. The mid-term was about
whether you knew the material, not whether you knew more or less than
the others in the class.

2. The seven homeworks have not been evenly spaced throughout the
semester. Firstly, I don't think seven homeworks is excessive. Okay,
they haven't been evenly spaced. But it's hard to assign a homework
on material before it's covered in class. Neither HW#6 on protection
nor HW#7 on economic dispatch could have been assigned earlier. It
seems a common assumption that only those topics covered by homeworks
are important, and will appear on the final exam. Both protection and
economic dispatch are important. In recognition of the workload at
the end of the semester, I made HW#7 dead easy. I saw it as a way of
gaining familiarity with the material, getting easy points, and not
taking a lot of time. I shall, however, now cancel HW#7. It no longer
counts. You don't have to do it. But expect to see similar material
on the final exam.

3. I agree the project was assigned later in the semester than hoped.
But the time allowed was still greater than three weeks. It doesn't
have to be left to the last week. And it's not a difficult project.
If you are finding it difficult, then you are going about it the wrong way.

I'm sorry the course has been such a disaster. I haven't had much fun
either. It's hard to link with students when they don't come to
lectures. It's hard to know what concepts are not well understood
when no-one asks questions (during class or at office hours.) Maybe
we all need more sleep.

Regards,
Ian

Hi,

I actually wanted to reply to the entire class, but didn't feel like using my own email address. You may forward it to the entire class if you wish. It's also fine if you don't. :)

While some people felt that it's bad, I think it's quite reasonable. Yes, the hw problems are hard sometimes, but it turned out to be quite okay if we religiously go to Discussion or seek Jonathan's help. I think he's especially helpful in addressing the hw problems that we have. In fact, he's one of those few who'd take great pains to write especially long emails just so that we'd understand the problem better. I even felt quite bad asking him so many questions, thru emails especially. I hope he's commended for his efforts (and his cookies...). :)

And I find that I learn a lot from those hw problems after that. I mean, it's not excessively long, or if it's long, it's not hard, it's simple but tedious. For example, for the newton-Raphson problem. It's really long, but if you look closely, you realize that it's intention is to guide you slowly through the steps, which you'd otherwise have to do anyway if the TA just state the problem statement and ask you to solve it. I thought that was pretty neat, as I'd probably be at a loss if the TA just throws the problem statement at me to solve.

But I have to agree that the book is sometimes pretty useless in answering the hw problems. The lecture notes? Sometimes too, but I wouldn't realize what questions to ask at that time before seeing the hw problems. I mean, everything looks okay and seems logical at that time to me, of course, until I see the hw problems. But that's when the Prof/TA's office hours come in. And it was lucky that the grading seems pretty relaxed. I think it encourages us to attempt the hw problems, instead of harshly marking us down for every mistake.

And I thought the frequency of the hw is pretty good actually. I mean other classes assign long and hard hw sets every week, and everyone still has to do it. But cancelling hw 7 was a good relief to me actually. I have to admit that.

As for the grading, I believe even without revealing the class average, everyone could have roughly guessed it. I mean, it's always around that certain range in every ECE class, so how different can it be? And does it mean that if one knows that one is above average, one can afford to slack? One should just strive harder for the next exam. If one could work hard and get a 90 for the next exam, how bad a grade would one get?

Indeed, I agree that the project was assigned late. But personally, that didn't really matter me much, since I could have done it earlier, but I procrastinated anyway. So even if it's given earlier, I'd probably still wait till it's closer to the deadline and after the TA has talked about it, then start working on it. Besides we still have a weekend between now and the due date to do it.

All in all, I think even though it's a pretty demanding class (How easy should we expect from a 400 level class anyway?), I think it's still manageable. I mean, if one can't manage it, probably the others are facing the same problem as well, and the class is curved anyhow. Besides the good part is at least at the end of the day we walk away with something useful (I hope).