Kevin R. Parker, Ph.D.

 

Anonymous Evaluation Comments:

Sample comments from the following two course evaluation questions: Q1. What did you particularly like best about the instructor? Q2. What did you particularly like best about the course? Spring 2008 CIS 299 (CIS 120) Thank you for all that you've done for me this semester between help on the programs and everything else.  I really appreciate all the time you put in for each of us as individuals.  It means a lot! He's always accessible via email at just about any (literally) time of the day and [you] get a response back in 5 minutes.Q1 He is very knowledgeable about the subject and gives a good lecture.Q1 He is a friendly, enthusiastic and well prepared for the class.  I appreciate him sitting in front of the computer and sending replies to our emails to solve our problems as late as 2 am.Q1 Friendly, eager to help out with any questions, gives good examples.  Takes time for students.   Hilarious!!!  My favorite professor I've ever had.Q1 It is something I've never done before, so this is a completely new experience.  I have learned so much with the way it has been presented and feel more prepared for CIS 220.Q2 EverythingQ1 and Q2 Very good notes.  Funny and helpful.Q1 Willing to work with students.Q1 His enthusiasm for teaching the material.Q1 CIS 220 Humorous, friendly.Q1 His teaching is very effective.  Examples given are very basic and easy to understand.  Other CIS instructors I have had talk in a very advanced manner, which is hard to follow.Q1 He is a funny guy.  He is willing to admit when he is not sure of something and finds out for you.Q1 I have been programming in various languages for many years. I was self-taught and good at getting the job done.  Dr. Parker's teaching style helped me to learn how to program with code maintenance and good coding paradigms in mind.  Excellent instructor!!!Q1 CIS 320 Very knowledgeable in what he teaches.Q1 Very enthusiastic about class.  Knowledgeable about subject matter.Q1 I liked working on one major project throughout the semester.  It allowed us to experience working on a large project.Q2  His ability to involve all of his students.  He makes you feel like you are a part of the class.Q1 Was always available for questions and always did his best to answer questions fully.Q1 Dr. Parker is able to explain the concepts well and the examples he used were great.Q1 The homework programs were fun and matched the concepts being taught well.Q2  Explained the material well and helped students.  Was always available for questions.Q1 He answers email questions SUPER quickly and responds to them thoroughly.  Lecture notes cover everything necessary.Q1 I liked how the assignments were connected together.Q2 Fall 2007 CIS 220 He is funny and tries to be helpful.  He shows great demonstrations and examples of code that we are learning.Q1 I like the projects that were assigned.Q2 He is excited about teaching.  He is very encouraging and helpful. His teasing keeps class light and fun, which a class should partially be.Q1 He was organized in his class presentations and made class fun through his sense of humor.Q1 Very friendly and prompt with helping students.Q1 He is funny, doesn't let students get bored.Q1 Knows the material well, made it understandable, was easy to contact if I had questions.Q1 Always willing to help via email, meetings, always asking what he can do to improve.Q1 Great humor, lots of experience.Q1 Programs were really helpful to grasp the material.Q2 His willingness to help.  His excitement for [the] subject matter helped me to really like it.Q1 The challenge of it.  I had never done any programming before and this class helped me to really like it.Q2 He REALLY knows his stuff.  He is very prepared for class and he is helpful to students.  I really liked his sense of humor and how he conducted the classes.Q1 I liked that the assignments were challenging but doable.Q2 I liked having the notes available online in an easy-to-find setup.Q1 You have to figure stuff out rather than simple memorization.Q2 Very positive attitude, very enthusiastic.  Seems well versed in subject matter.Q1 CIS 320 Very friendly, flexible.Q1 Excited and enthusiastic, very knowledgeable.Q1 He listened to out suggestions and changed the way he taught to ensure that we understood what he was teaching.Q1 CSI 591 Encouraged participation.Q1 He knows what he is teaching.Q1 He has a good sense of humor.Q1 Covers a wide range of topics.Q2 He is a funny guy and makes us enjoy class even more.Q1 Spring 2006 CIS 220 Willing to help, easy to get a hold of, always available.Q1 Enthusiasm toward the subject matter, he is always available if you need help. Q1 He is cool, funny, and very understanding and likeable.Q1 The manner in which the material was covered.Q2 His sense of humor, good use of analogies, always quick to respond to emails, very helpful.Q1 Learned a lot.Q2 Friendly and knowledgeable.  I really liked the online notes; they are thorough and accurate.Q1 The way he jokes around while he teaches.Q1 Helped to explain theories that I didn't understand that well.Q1 CIS 407 His teaching style.Q1 The notes are clear and easy to understand.Q2 He was extremely entertaining.Q1 He was VERY willing to help his students.  He answers emails even late at night, when students' frustration can be very high.  Also, his classes are fun, while still challenging.Q1 The fact that I finally understand what ERDs are....Previous classes had confused me a great deal on that topic.Q2 Good relationship with students.Q1 Very interesting and will be useful to me.Q2 CIS 430 Upbeat, fun, interactive learning environment.Q1 He made the course entertaining. He was always helpful.Q1 Flexible, joking around, helpful to students and always available.Q1 I learned a lot – probably the funnest [sic] upper division class I've had.Q2 The organization of the course; it really leveraged the knowledge of everyone in the course.Q2 Fall 05 CIS 220 He is probably the best instructor I’ve had at ISU. Dr. Parker is an awesome teacher. This is a hard class, but he is positive and helps students succeed. He makes a boring subject more interesting. Truly seems to care about the success of his students; always keeps his knowledge current; answers all questions promptly and with diligence. He is probably going to be one of the most memorable instructors I will have had. He expects high quality work, but it is worth the effort. He cares about the success of the students – it really shows. He made the class interesting and the material easier to understand. Very informative, has fun with the class, interesting teaching style. The instructor made sure we knew the information we learned in this class well and always answered questions we had real fast. I think this course really helped my critical thinking by challenging us with problems for us to solve that we figure out ourselves rather than looking it up in a text book and following the same routine every time. The notes were detailed and informative. Class lectures were helpful; we learned something from the class. Was always approachable for questions. Dr. Parker is great. Always very available outside the class to help. The course is very challenging, but the reward is greater because of it. Have Dr. Parker teach the class. His organization and effort – probably more time spent improving lectures than any other professor. The website for this class is very useful. CIS 491 The ability to communicate the material to his students; his attitude towards teaching. Created a relaxed atmosphere. He is awesome. He’s friendly, funny, and makes class a fun experience. Spring 05 CIS 430 Great personality, good knowledge of material, very available to work with. Give Doc Parker a raise! He deserves it! He’s great at helping with questions, very friendly, makes it easy to come to him with problems, helps make things easier to understand. His willingness to go the extra mile for all of his students. He also tries very hard to respond to all emails, even late at night! CIS 480 Parker was an excellent instructor. He helped me get over my fears of CIS. Made class fun. Friendly, explained concepts well, concerned about the welfare of the students. He keeps class interesting. His enthusiasm, knowledge, and ability to connect with all students. He was by far the best instructor I have had in my CIS courses. He makes very complicated stuff easy to understand – great teaching skills which many of the other CIS professors lack. Very organized; easy to learn due to structure. Excited about course material, gets students involved and excited as well. Teaches very well. He is always making sure he is available, by email or in person to help students. Also, he teaches in a manner that makes class time enjoyable and concepts easy to understand. He presented the material in an interesting and entertaining way. This helped me to remember the mundane. Ability to make class interesting when dealing with information that could be deemed as boring. Created a relaxed atmosphere. Upbeat, loves the topic. His enthusiasm was great. Easy to speak with. Keep this teacher!!! Great sense of humor and very knowledgeable about the subject. He made class interesting and a fun learning environment. His willing ness to help students; his preparedness for class sessions; his ability to communicate and explain the material adequately. Fall 04 CIS 430 He is funny and always able to make students focus. He makes things interesting and has a good sense of humor. His willingness to work with students. He was very well organized and gave us plenty of time to research and do our projects. He is the best teacher in the CIS department!! Classes are structured to be informative and interesting. I wish all classes were designed like this. Student-centered teaching and learning Class was fun and he encouraged interaction in the class with his personality and by his willingness to listen to our comments. He made the class interesting. Easy to talk to. Works with you – very personable. He knew how to make the class interesting and fun. CIS 480 His desire to teach and ability to connect with students. Parker has been one of my best professors ever. He made class interesting and he was willing to recap stud without getting mad. He tried to teach in a manner that all could understand. Great attitude and commitment to students. Was very energetic. Seemed to care about the students. Cares about the students. He’s friendly, he knows the material well, he’s very available outside class for help. Good humor and clear explanations. Relates well to students. Ended class when we got glassy eyed without cutting content. Excellent notes that we could download. Very effective and excellent teacher. His enthusiasm made a rather bland topic fun and made you want to come to class. I felt he cared about each student and how they did in class. Dr. Parker is an excellent instructor. He always made class enjoyable. He presented information in a way that made it easy to understand. He is very enthusiastic about teaching. Out-stinkin-standing! Dr. Parker knows the subject well. He is a talented professor who made discussions interesting. He is very helpful in answering questions. He is also enthusiastic about learning, which made the class more enjoyable. Introduced levity while teaching. It helps keep you interested. He makes boring material interesting. Love his illustrations. His sense of humor and his knowledge and control over the course. He made the course seem real with great analogies. He was very energetic. He was very organized. You knew exactly what he expected of you. Very approachable and willing to help. Great sense of humor and he uses it to help us understand the material. His ability to make computers and DBMS seem fun, even though they are boring. Spring 04 CIS 440 Good notes He is a very entertaining teacher. CIS 480 Willingness to help students and answer email. I appreciate his sense of humor, his willingness to be resourceful, and his desire for students to stretch and learn. Good teacher – knows a lot about real world application. He had a good sense of humor and adjusted his lectures according to class signals. Knew his stuff He knows his stuff and is very excited about teaching. Great attitude. Laughs with us and is organized and teaches well. Does a great job teaching difficult information. Great attitude. Made it fun to learn. He was very thorough with his presentations. You are fun Made class interesting and fun His personality – he’s very flexible and willing to help. Also the notes he has are helpful. Willingness to help. Openness. He has lots of energy, very helpful. Good sense of humor; willing to help Very willing to help us if we had problems. He was very clear with the lectures and explained all of the concepts concisely. He has a good teaching style and makes the class interesting. He is also very willing to help students outside of class when they have questions. Fall 03 CIS 320 Very knowledgeable and willing to go out of his way to help. Dr. Parker answers emails quicker than a jackrabbit can run. Dr. Parker's notes are the best I have ever seen. I liked how the instructor put a lot of time into trying to find out how to make the information as clear as possible, and how to help us understand fully what we need to know. Lecture and notes were laid out and presented clearly. His class notes were very thorough and he has a very good attitude.  He was always enthusiastic about the class. The class assignments were practical and had real-world application. His high mount of involvement and participation.  He put a lot of work into the course, and it showed.  I've never had a teacher I could email and get a response back within minutes, even if it was 1 or 2 in the morning. He had very extensive notes available for us on the Internet. Easy to contact outside of class via email; willingness to meet with students outside of class time. CIS 480 He was upbeat and witty; knowledgeable. Very thorough in explaining topics. Explains very well. He has a very effective teaching style and does not give lectures in a monotone voice. He goes the extra mile outside and inside of class. Very amicable and approachable. Well prepared, knew what he was talking about.  Willing to help students which is rare at this university. Good notes.  Not only a professor but a friend also.  Cares about being a teacher. Very willing to help, even at odd times of the day. Professor's notes were extremely helpful. He is well organized and has good people skills. Teaching style, openness to the class and the willingness to answer questions. Flexible; understood the student's perspective. His concern for students. He is always ready and willing to help.  you can tell he enjoys his work, and he portrays that to the students. Dr. Parker took the time to make sure everyone understood the material and the requirements for the assignments.  Help was always available either through the professor or additional materials he made available. Eager to help; willing to help; provided students with needed resources. He is willing to work with each student as long as is needed to get the concepts across. Dynamic personality and knows his material. Dr. Parker is very approachable.  He cares a lot about what/how the students learn. He is very helpful and knowledgeable. Parker does an excellent job of teaching.  We need more teachers like him.... He was well prepared and spent a lot of time helping students and preparing helpful information on the web. A very good professor. Clear and precise; well-prepared; available after class for consultation. Good teaching practices; takes an interest in students; friendly, approachable, and available. He is really concerned about his students and wants us to learn.  [The class] has good notes.  Dr. Parker is a hard worker and does stuff to help us out – notes.  I think Doc P is the man!! Dr. Parker is a personable instructor.  He is willing to stand to students and help them.  I think that students feel comfortable asking him for help in understanding course material and project problems.  Parker is a great instructor. Friendly, helpful, dedicated, nice.  The notes are great. The instructor was very dedicated to our learning process.  He made himself available for questions. He tries to make all information interesting and he makes himself available as much as possible. He made the course enjoyable and made the course subjects easier to learn. Dr. Parker did a good job making his students feel that he was interested in their well being.  I appreciated his prompt email responses. Email comments I just wanted to sincerely thank you for all your help with our project (especially tonight when we were keeping you from your dinner). As much as that project really SUCKED (and it really did suck at times) I really did learn a whole lot. Our group was grrrreat, I made three really good friends out of the whole thing (it's amazing how well you can bond over DFD's & HTML at 2am in the morning). It's weird to think that I didn't even know Katie and Becky before this semester, and now I don't think I'll be able to take another MIS class without them. Anyway – I just wanted to really thank you and let you know that I have enjoyed your class this semester (and I am not trying to suck up either). I really mean it. Thanks Again! Cortnaye Hammond Thanks a lot for being a dedicated teacher and a great guy. I'm sure all the skills I have learned in the MIS curriculum will help me in my job at AT&T Solutions out east. Thanks again! Dan Matzat I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to talk and help me through this project. I have had my share of professors that just didn't care and never wanted to help out. Cesar Keller In my opinion you are one of the few teachers that care about his students. I appreciate everything that you have done. I want you to understand that this is the opinion of a majority of us. Thank you Chetan Gandhy It has genuinely been a pleasure being taught by you. The most I have taken away from the MIS program has been from your classes. Your classes were harder than hell but I ended up learning a lot from them. You are truly an asset to the MIS program at SLU. This e-mail is in a way thanking you for all the hard work you put in teaching these classes and giving you a pat on your back. Keep on teaching. Jamal Jumani I just wanted to drop you a quick email to let you know that everything you taught us in SAD is right on. Not that I ever doubted you...just that the real world is hard to imagine after 16 years of constant schooling. I just got back from training with Arthur Andersen and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I already knew, even as a snot-nosed rookie. John Williams III Hi, I wanted to thank you for having the impact you did on my future. Your classes were the deciding factor if I was going to be an MIS major or not. I liked C, but never thought I would be able to major in the whole MIS thing cuz I did not understand very much. I also remember buying the books for your classes and thinking it was probably the biggest waste of money since I would drop the classes and have to figure out a new major (talk about self-confidence). But, anyways, I know sometimes all the teacher hears is the crabbing about the quizzes, programs, homework, and tests they give (sounds familiar), but I just wanted to tell you that I appreciated everything you have done for me in the past. Priscilla Lim Well, it is all over. I finally graduated. I just wanted to say thanks for being a wonderful teacher. I enjoyed being in your classes and all. You and your classes are what made me decide that I wanted to major in MIS. Thanks for everything and keep up the good work. Priscilla Lim I wanted to tell you that everything that you said was true about using the stuff we learned in the MIS classes at SLU. I have already, in the first two weeks, encountered data flow diagrams, task flow diagrams, flowcharts, normalization, and just about everything else that you clowns in the DEPARTMENT taught me. Basically I just wanted to be added to the list of people to tell you that you were right. Drew Davis I just recently took a job as a software engineer doing database work. I work on an ORACLE based product doing customer customizations and use much of the education I obtained in your database class. I truly enjoyed your class, as well as your teaching style. It had a great influence over me, and has helped me to obtain and enjoy the position I have now. I guess what I'm trying to say is thanks. You've given me much and I appreciate that. Norbert Kuchenmeister You told us that you appreciated the hard work that our class did this semester. I would like to express to you my appreciation for the dedication that you put into the MIS program. Thinking of the evaluation you told us that one of your past students wrote for you, I would like to say that if you are indicative of the rest of the professors in the MIS department, then I am damn proud of graduating from it! Tim Koehler I also wanted to thank you. Not to be sappy, but you really are a great teacher. You get the students excited about what they are learning and how they are learning it. And you teach them stuff that actually applies to the business world. Cindy Bastean, formerly with Ernst & Young I just wanted to tell you that you are the MIS department at SLU and that you are a great professor (doctor). I've learned a lot from you and Java has sparked a programming interest in me. Thank you Dr. Parker for your time and commitment. Brad Argetsinger ...know that you are one of the only teachers that I feel I can have fun with, meaning you understand our generation. Chris Smith