ECE-560
COMPUTER & INFO SECURITY
Offered Fall 2026
Term
Overview
Feedback is mostly positive. The strongest signal is that students generally rate the course well. Best for students who are genuinely interested in the topic and willing to engage with the course on its own terms.
DepartmentELEC&CMP
Terms offeredFall
Typical enrollment49–58
Semesters of data3
7.8
Hrs / week
82
Responses
162
Enrollment
51%
Response Rate
Evaluation Scores
Overall quality
Teaching, content, and experience combined.
4.7
Intellectually stimulating
Challenges students to think deeply.
4.6
Instructor effectiveness
Explains concepts and facilitates learning.
4.7
Difficulty
Higher means harder.
3.6
Feedback Analysis
Feedback Analysishigh
Analysis based on student evaluations
Based on 142 comments across 3 sections
Feedback is mostly positive. The strongest signal is that students generally rate the course well. Best for students who are genuinely interested in the topic and willing to engage with the course on its own terms.
Student Reports
How hard is the A?
A is doable but not automatic
The signal here is more do-the-work-and-you-should-be-fine than easy-A chatter. Students do not describe the A as automatic, but the evidence also does not paint grading as punishing.
Homework Load
Heavy homework load
Homework load is one of the clearest friction points. Students repeatedly describe assignments, readings, or problem sets as time-consuming.
Lecture Load
Lighter lecture burden
Student comments describe this as more discussion-, seminar-, or workshop-driven than lecture-dependent. The lecture burden itself does not sound like the main source of friction.
Strengths
• Instructor ratings are strong even when the comments do not cluster around one obvious positive theme.
Tradeoffs
• There is no single dominant complaint theme, but the feedback is not uniformly glowing either.
Best fit for
Best for students who are genuinely interested in the topic and willing to engage with the course on its own terms.
Watch out for
• A large share of the evidence comes from one instructor's version of the course, so this may not generalize cleanly.
Student Responses
1. The basic networking knowledge needed for computer security 2. Fundamentals of cryptography 3. Basics of offensive security
Fall 2023 · Bletsch, Tyler
Understanding mindset of attacker and defender in security, network security practices, understanding/identifying vulnerabilities
Fall 2023 · Bletsch, Tyler
Exciting course with a lot of knowledge gained. I would recommend this course to anyone pursuing security
Fall 2023 · Bletsch, Tyler
Computer security. Computer network. buffer overflow.
Fall 2023 · Bletsch, Tyler
Bash script. Varity of vulnerabilities. Firewall.
Fall 2023 · Bletsch, Tyler
Rating History
Rating history
Error bars show \u00B11 std dev
| Term | Instructor | Overall | Difficulty | Hrs/wk | Enrolled |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 2025 | Bletsch, Tyler 4.8Rate My ProfessorsQuality4.8Difficulty2.9Would retake95%Based on 44 ratingsClick to view on RMP → | — | — | 7.9 | 49 |
| Fall 2024 | Bletsch, Tyler 4.8Rate My ProfessorsQuality4.8Difficulty2.9Would retake95%Based on 44 ratingsClick to view on RMP → | 4.7 | 3.7 | 7.1 | 58 |
| Fall 2023 | Bletsch, Tyler 4.8Rate My ProfessorsQuality4.8Difficulty2.9Would retake95%Based on 44 ratingsClick to view on RMP → | 4.7 | 3.5 | 8.3 | 55 |
Instructor
Bletsch, TylerELEC&CMP
Also teaches
ECE-350L DIGITAL SYSTEMS4.5ECE-458 ENG SOFTWARE MAINTAINABILITY4.8ECE-495 SPECIAL TOPICS4.6ECE-566 ENTERPRISE STORAGE ARCH4.7