Professor Mathias did a really incredible job with this class. It is so interesting, so unbelievably well-organized, and so fun. I have always been interested in music, but I came in knowing dang near nothing. I had no idea what to expect, and I was especially worried concerning the switch to online classes right before spring quarter. However, Professor Mathias handled this transition better than any other professor I have. She did a fantastic job and it was seamlessly done.

The lectures were asynchronous to accommodate all students. The discussions were done in person, and the TAs were both great. The only thing we had to do other than the lectures were weekly fieldwork journals (listen to great music of your choice for about 20 minutes and submit notes) and a book report, which was split into multiple different parts to lower the workload and keep students from procrastinating too much.

Professor Mathias cares deeply about student learning, and she was extremely accommodating. When it appeared the pandemic was going to make things difficult, she made it so that late completions of lectures would not be penalized, one missed discussion would not be penalized, one missed fieldwork journal would not be penalized, and late submission of one part of the book review would not be penalized. Then, when more issues erupted towards the end of the quarter, she made the book report "no-harm" so that those who were impacted would not be overly stressed.

All in all: an amazing class with super interesting content, very little work, and an extremely fair professor. I highly recommend it.