I teach philosophy at Cal Poly, including Ethics, Science & Technology; Philosophy of Law; Political Philosophy; Philosophical Research & Writing; and advanced seminars, often in AI ethics. The figures below summarize students' anonymous responses to Cal Poly's official question: “Overall, this instructor was educationally effective.” Course effectiveness uses the corresponding question: “Overall, this course was educationally effective.” (Cal Poly's policies appear to prohibit me from sharing student comments.)
Recent view
These figures cover the most recent three academic years since Fall 2023 through Spring 2026 for in-person and hybrid course sections. I no longer teach in the asynchronous format.*
286 evaluation responses · 18 course sections
92.3% of instructor-effectiveness ratings were 4 or 5 out of 5.
Across the same sections, course effectiveness averaged 4.44 / 5, with a 5 / 5 median.
These course summary breakdowns are provided primarily to help inform prospective students. Each course mean is weighted by the number of individual student responses, rather than by averaging course-section means equally.
Course effectiveness: 4.70 / 5 mean · 5 / 5 median · 95.7% rated 4 or 5
Distribution of instructor-effectiveness ratings
| Rating | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Responses | 2191.3% | 28.7% | 00% | 00% | 00% |
Course effectiveness: 4.36 / 5 mean · 5 / 5 median · 85.1% rated 4 or 5
Distribution of instructor-effectiveness ratings
| Rating | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Responses | 11762.2% | 5529.3% | 73.7% | 73.7% | 21.1% |
Course effectiveness: 4.67 / 5 mean · 5 / 5 median · 100% rated 4 or 5
Distribution of instructor-effectiveness ratings
| Rating | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Responses | 866.7% | 433.3% | 00% | 00% | 00% |
Course effectiveness: 4.50 / 5 mean · 5 / 5 median · 96.2% rated 4 or 5
Distribution of instructor-effectiveness ratings
| Rating | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Responses | 3465.4% | 1325.0% | 35.8% | 23.8% | 00% |
Course effectiveness: 4.73 / 5 mean · 5 / 5 median · 90.9% rated 4 or 5
Distribution of instructor-effectiveness ratings
| Rating | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Responses | 981.8% | 19.1% | 19.1% | 00% | 00% |
Recent seminars have often focused on AI ethics. Seminar enrollments are small, so the response count is included with the summary.
* After some experimenting in PHIL 323, I decided in Winter 2024 to stop teaching asynchronous courses because I found that the format compromises student engagement and the student–teacher relationship. I now also believe that ubiquitous AI makes it impossible to fully guard students against the moral hazard AI presents to academic integrity in asynchronous courses. Asynchronous evaluations were slightly though not dramatically lower (4.15/5 mean, 4/5 median, 81.5% rated 4 or 5, with only 30% response rate) and are included in the "all evaluations, overall (six years)" figures.
These figures combine all available course evaluations since I started at Cal Poly in Fall 2020 through Spring 2026.
587 evaluation responses · 42 course sections · 53.6% aggregate response rate
90.8% of instructor-effectiveness ratings were 4 or 5 out of 5.
Across the same evaluations, course effectiveness averaged 4.37 / 5, with a 5 / 5 median; 87.7% of course-effectiveness ratings were 4 or 5 out of 5.