Michael Ekstrand

Teaching

This page documents my current and past educational activities.

For graduate advising, see my students page.

I have written several blog posts about teaching philosophy and my course designs.

Current Teaching (Winter 2025)

  • DSCI 641 (Recommender Systems for Data Science) [syllabus]
  • INFO 873 (Equity in Computing) [syllabus]

Online Education

I co-created the Recommender Systems specialization on Coursera with Prof. Joseph A. Konstan.

This is the third generation of our MOOC. We used the first iteration as a vehicle for research on the effectiveness of large-scale online courses for teaching topics such as this.

Additionally, the lectures, readings, and assignments for the Introduction to Data Science course I created at Boise State are available as an open resource.

Course Development

  • CS 533 Introduction to Data Science
  • CS 538 Recommender Systems (adapted from the MOOC and the class I taught at Texas State)
  • First pass at rebuilding CS 410/510 (Databases) at Boise State, with Francesca Spezzano
  • Coursera course
  • Rebuilt CS 3320 (Internet Software Development) at Texas State
  • CS 4397Q (Introduction to Recommender Systems) / 5369Q (Recommender Systems) at Texas State, derived from the MOOC

Past Teaching

Drexel University

Fall 2024
INFO 659 (Introduction to Data Analytics)
Spring 2024
INFO 659 (Intro to Data Analytics)
Winter 2024
DSCI 641 (Recommender Systems)
Fall 2023
INFO 659 (Intro to Data Analytics)

Boise State University

Spring 2023
CS 538 Recommender Systems
Fall 2022
CS 533 Introduction to Data Science
Spring 2022
CS 230 Ethical Issues in Computing
Fall 2021
CS 533 Introduction to Data Science
Spring 2021
CS 538 Recommender Systems
Fall 2020
CS 533 Introduction to Data Science
Spring 2020
CS 410 Databases
CS 697 Equity and Discrimination in Computing Systems
Fall 2019
CS 533 Introduction to Data Science
Spring 2019
CS 538 Recommender Systems
Fall 2018
CS 410/510 Databases
Summer 2018
CS 310 HU Intro to Databases
Spring 2018
CS 410 / 510 Databases
Fall 2017
CS 533 Introduction to Data Science
Spring 2017
CS 597 Recommender Systems
Fall 2016
CS 410 / 510 Databases

Texas State University

Spring 2016
CS 4379Q (Introduction to Recommender Systems) / CS 5369Q (Recommender Systems) (syllabus, research project)
CS 3320 (Internet Software Development) (syllabus)
Fall 2015
CS 4332 (Introduction to Database Systems)
Spring 2015
CS 4350 (Unix Systems Programming)
CS 4379Q (Introduction to Recommender Systems) / CS 5369Q (Recommender Systems)
Fall 2014
CS 4332 (Introduction to Databases)

University of Minnesota

I taught or TA’d several classes at the University of Minnesota while completing my Ph.D:

Fall 2013
Introduction to Recommender Systems on Coursera and UMN CSCI 5980-1, co-taught with Joseph A. Konstan.
Summer 2012
instructor, CSCI 1902 (Structure of Computer Programming II).
Spring 2011
teaching assistant, CSCI 5125 (Collaborative and Social Computing).
Fall 2007–Summer 2018
teaching assistant, CSCI 1902