Table of Responses for Evaluation Question "Overall, I would rate this teacher as good." (Note some records have been lost in various desk moves.)

Course	Strongly Agree (4)	Agree (3)	Neutral (2)	Disagree (1)	Strongly Disagree (0)	Equiv "GPA"
Math340 Sp '09	4	8	4	1	0	2.88
Math340 Su '08	15	23	4	2	1	3.09
Math261 Sp '08	5	13	3	0	0	3.10
Math160 Fa '08	8	7	0	2	0	3.24
Math340 Su '07	11	20	0	2	1	3.12
Math160 Sp '07	2	1	1	0	0	3.25
Math133 Fa '05	12	8	8	1	0	3.07
Overall	62	85	22	8	2	3.10

Student Quotes from Student Course Surveys.  All quotes appear unmodified except to eliminate personal information and obscure profanity.

Math340: Differential Eqautions Sp '09:

"Course should pass the avg student w/ an avg grade.  I am a poor test taker, the test grades carry to much weight for a bad cross sector of my knowledge of the subject.  The class is to hard to pass."

"Travis was an exceptional teacher.
    -very clear, put a lot of effort into showing intermediate steps / lots of examples.
    -always willing to help outside of class and outside of office hours
    -explained all math details -> & showed how to apply to real situations"

"Sometimes Travis did not seem as prepared as he could have been.  Textbook was not helpful in learning.  Clarify steps when going through the process of doing the various problems. (Everything from ODEs to Heaviside)"

"Mr Travis is a helpful teacher especially during office hours to help us in our homework.  However in class I always have a problem understanding his concepts probably because the way he explains is unclear but he is always open to questions.  His homework every week really helps in understanding the chapter but doesn't help much in exams.  There was not really new technique involved but overall rating for Mr. Travis is good."

"For an "intro" or not-math-major version of Diff-Eq I am still perplexed as to the curriculum/order of subjects.  At no other college I have attended or other schools teach with such a heavy focus on Lin Algebra.  Would be much better if taught in order of book. L X-forms should not be an asterisk on the end of the course when many of the 349 students are engineer or other major."

"The teacher was very disorganized in how he handled his notes.  Some things that were on the test he did not cover in lectures. He made his own homework and thought of it as more to get us thinking than prepare us for the test.  Statistically we had the lowest class average on tests and this seemed to reflect on the teacher."

"The design + compilation of the tests were not consistent with the material presented in class."

"More time for review and make sure the text book isn't crap"

Math340: Differential Eqautions Su '08:

"Who the **** made diffeq at seven ******* thirty in the ******* morning?"

"Professor Olson was great!  The time of the class was terrible though."

"good summer course"

"I took this class last semester and was completely lost.  Thank you so much for being able to actually teach this subject instead of reading us examples from the book."

"Too early for Diff. eq."

"If #4 had a strongly, strongly, strongly agree bubble I would have filled that one." Note: #4 is "The course was intellectually challenging"

"My only complaint would be the lack of being taught Matlab but being expected to know how to use it for homework."

"Horrible textbook!  Please reconsider textbook choice for future classes."

"Text was sub-par, more comprehensive options available."

"Does not seem to know very much about subject, Frequently esses up examples, and frequently gives wrong information.  I learned almost everything from the book, class only confused me, never helped.  Very odd choice of test problems.  Not traditional subjects for all questions."

"Homework assignments were a waste of time half of them were graphing functions which didn't seem very useful.  he hardly ever gave examples in class."

"Outside of class did not seem to want to spend time helping instead gave very little explanation."

"Minor improvements in preparation & organization would make Mr. Olson a very good teacher."

"The only reason I put disagree on question 6 was because I have seen most of this stuff before and I did not find class that important." Note: #6 is "Class sessions increased my understanding of the subject"

"1) class is ok..., needs to be more interesting some time.
  2) More office hours could be better."

"Instructor started the course very organized and prepared, but towards the end (last 2-3 weeks) seemed to not be as prepared and thus seemed less knowledgeable about the material.  At times seemed very rushed in presenting information thus making things a bit confusing when attempting homework."

"-Having posted grades before the last week of class would have been helpful
 -in-class examples that are clearly shown (legible), pre-thought out, and solvable would be benificial
 - Having either lower expectations of computer numerical solver-using skills or more helpfully explained methods of using numerical solvers in a basic sense would be good.
 -relevant, up-to-date homework assignments would be nice to have.
 -more competence"

"Teaching? would be nice"

Math261: Calculus for Physical Sciences III Sp '08:

"Travis is a great teacher, and he is extremely helpful and I learned from him.  Had he not been teaching under [Coordinator], he would have done better for me. There was a large gap between classroom instruction and exam content.  I don't blame Travis.  The way [Coordinator] organized the class, wrote exams, and presented curves discouraged several students."

"More examples during class before we did the himework would have been helpful."

"To help students do better next time you teach this class make sure that it is clear that pictures are absolutely necessary."

"It would be helpful for better reviewing for tests"

"-Only thing: don't go off on tangents that won't be on tests/quizzes.  Also, more exams, 4 instead of 3."

"Did well by me ~ wish you could have written exams"

"I liked calculus when formulas and ideas were derived.  Now they are being thrown at me.  The book isn't wonderful but Travis is always willing to help."

"I think it would help if you explained the material in more depth for some of the subjects."

"Starting lecture at 8 instead of 8:10 would be great"

"Travis was excellent.  Occasionally got off topic but relaxed nature made class interesting."

"Best TA I have ever had."

"Some stuff was a little confusing but good job overall"

"The course was very difficult.  I felt often times the physical description of the topics weren't explained well."

"Homework problems that were wrong did not have the problems worked out correctly.  Difficulty of the exams was far greater than that of the quizzes and homeworks.  Olson did a great job."

"I felt he did a great job keeping me interested during lectures.  He was willing to help students outside of class and even outside of his office hours."

Math160: Calculus for Physical Sciences I  Fa '07:

"-The teacher could have made an attempt to allow all the students to actually see what was being written on the board.
 -The teacher could have prepared the students more for the labs and quizzes.
 -the teacher should have made sure the students understood the notes he was giving."

"I thought the instructor was very knowledegable about the subject and enthusiastic, although I found it very difficult to learn the material from class and lectures.  Tutoring was more of a help than class.  It seemed difficult to teach the material rather than just present it.  I do feel he put in considerable effort into teaching the class and helping."

"I liked the enthusiasm in the classroom about the subject.  Sometimes it was hard to see the board & you wrote pretty fast though."

"I liked how enthusiastic he was about the class and how he acted toward us as a friend."

"Spend time using numbers when explaining instead of variables, and explain your algebra steps a little more."

"Travis is a great guy.  Some of the meterial was presented in theorems rather than actual numbers but I believe that is how the course was set up for him."

"Overall, good instructor, entertaining, willing to help students, didn't go too fast or too slow."

"Olson was extremely enthusiastic, always made class fun, and took the time to help me before class with homework whenever I needed help."

"If the instructor was boring (he wasn't though) then I would not have done as well or been as motivated."

"Lecturer in class, Olson was enthusiastic
about the class, overall good class"

"Mr. Oleson was extremely funny while teaching and still managed to teach at the same time.  I feel he was the best based on my review session attendance."

"Great class, great T.A., will probably still come for help next semester if I do not have him as my instructor."

Math340: Differential Eqautions Su '07:

"Teaching is fine, but the book is horrible.  The calc book is like a holy grail, but the diffeq book? Almost better as firewood."

"First time in 300 math...first time teacher.  maybe more experienced teacher"

"Always try to show as many steps as possible when working through problems on the board (Yes, even the simple/obvious steps)"

"Maybe a couple of more homework problem would've helped.  as well as more examples in class.  but great job travis."

"It would have been nice if homework was clearly assigned before hane and not at the last minute."

"This subject should not be taughe at 7:30am. Seriously."

"Travis knew material well and conveyed that knowledge effectively.  The way in which H.W. was assigned worked well."

"I couldn't read the board sometimes because of the layout of the classroom, the admin.  needs to work on that.  We didn't get homework back on time. By the time we took the second test we got all of our homework back for our first test."

"I think one page to reference on tests would be better; as one still must learn it to use it.  Homework levels were good although some of the MATLAB stuff was tedious."

"It was helpful to have both statements and definitions and examples in the notes"

"This teacher deserves some cookies."

"-The review sheets were very helpful"

"Maybe explaining/go through examples better"

"Travis, you're a great teacher.  Good luck w/ Grad school."

"Would be great to keep up with grade updates.  Thanks for being a great teacher."

"Everything was pretty good!  I can't really complain about much, but one thing that was frustrating (although I don't really know how it would be fixed) was the point system of the tests.  Being out of 50 points and 5 problems, messing up just one problem had a dramatic impact on the grade, which was unfortunate if something stupid like running out of time or making some simple mistake happened.  Because HW was pretty time consuming, I wish that it was worth a higher percentage of the final grade.  Other than that, great class and great teaching! Thank you!"

"When posting notes online, make sure the file is in a format compatable with all computers like .DOC."

"We were supposed to get to chapter 10 and didn't.  There should have been more homework, and the grader should have been more punctual.  Tests should have been longer.  Also, I would have liked to have seen more exampes in the textbook.  Due dates for HW should not change once they are assigned."

"Interactive, good class.  H.W. grading could've been organized better & in time."

"More time explaining Matlab.  Have classes in computer lab to explain how to use Matlab."

"Who ever thought of putting a math class at 7:30am should be slapped for that decision."

Math160: Calculus for Physical Sciences I  Sp '07:

"One sample exam would've helped to see the format so you at least know a little of what to expect."

"The tests and concept quizzes were ridiculous."

"Text was strong on theory and weak on actual examples of doing exercises.  Quizzes and tests seemed to test knowledge towards the highest level studies of each concept rather than a general understanding of the concept."

Math133: Financial Mathematics Fa '05:

"Funny Guy!"

"Travis is the coolest. ever."

"He kept things fun while still getting material across well."

"I strongly suggest that the professor encourages students to do the homework & to come to class with questions."

"I think that the course would be a great one to teach to college students.  However, the teacher wouldn't come to class prepared and only knew from what he read in the book."

"Hey Trav, How's Christmas? Hope thigs is good."