I took two MATLAB courses while I was in college. Same program taught by two very different professors. Both of them changed my life in their own way.
When I first started college, I was exploring the idea of majoring in computer science and I took a course on how to use MATLAB for technical problem solving. I was really enthusiastic about the course. Unfortunately, it did not turn out as I expected. The professor spent most of his time telling us his expectations instead of explaining the course materials, and he thought anyone who asked him to explain the concepts again was because the student was not paying attention/skipped out/came late. At the end, I thought that computer science was simply too much for my brain.
A couple of years later, I was required to take another MATLAB course for my engineering degree. It was also on problem solving but with an emphasis on modeling. I dreaded it due to my previous experience. To my surprises, the professor was extremely engaging, he spent time to structurally explain the difficult concepts, and he expand the course materials when it was necessary but never went off topics. By the end of the first week, I didn’t find MATLAB difficult any more and I started to really appreciate MATLAB’s complexity. Ever since then I started to enjoy coding.
Every time I look back, it always amazes me how different those two courses were taught. The first one was taught by a professor who thought students were irresponsible and unwilling to learn. The second professor thought students were always enthusiastic about learning and everyone could learn the materials with guidance. The first one made me give up on pursuing computer science major and the second one rekindled me and programing. I’m reminded by this experience whenever I was frustrated with students that it’s always much more effective to engage students and explain things over again when it’s needed.