I took this class first quarter freshman year alongside Psych 10 . It was a great intro to college type class -- basic knowledge and basic textbook use.

Please note that I had this Professor during the TA strike, which slightly changed the course of the class past the midterm. I might have had an easier experience than other reviews.

Professor Desi is a great lecturer, and she is really great at getting the class engaged and interested in the content. The lectures were also recorded. Her course content was definitely manageable and interesting. Midterm was remote, open-note, and multiple choice. Some students had complaints about their midterm grades, but she ended up curving them up. Asides from the midterm, grading was based on an easy, short paper, discussion participation, and a final. She held and recorded review sessions for both the midterm and final.

As other comments have said, the biggest con is that she was often either late to class or canceled last minute. Other than that, the professor was empathetic and charismatic, along with her overall easy but fun content.

Professor Desi is one of the professors that really want all her students to do well. She is thorough and helpful during her lectures, and made sure the workload was highly manageable. For homework, there was only a weekly discussion post, and one paper that was very easy and interesting to write about. I would take this class again in a heartbeat, and those who want to clear a social analysis GE should highly consider it.

I really enjoyed Professor Desi this quarter. Her lectures were engaging, and she seemed like a genuine person who cared about her content and the class. The lectures always went over the readings, and included questions that she would ask the class, which helped clarify topics. The discussions were extremely easy - mainly focused on clarifying readings and participating in group discussions. You have to participate at least once in every discussion to get full credit, but you are given many opportunities to do so. The homework was textbook readings and articles (that were important to the midterms and finals), and a discussion post at the end of every week. It is a lot of reading, but the workload is manageable. Even if you just skim the textbook, the content is covered in lecture and discussion. But I would definitely recommend doing all of the readings if you want to get a good grade on the tests. The midterm was easy, and for us it was online and at home. There were some confusing questions, but Professor Desi was very accommodating, and removed/gave full credit for unfair questions. The final was at home and all multiple choice, but usually has short answers too. She also offers some extra credit which was easy to do (taking a survey, an extra discussion post). I will say, my class was during the TA strike which made the class easier due to the uncertainty of the time. In addition, I agree with other comments that Professor Desi can be unreliable. Sometimes lectures were cancelled right before they were supposed to be held. And due to the strike, I did not get the full discussion section experience. But overall, I would definitely take this class, whether you are doing it for a GE or major requirement. If you are okay with reading and participating in sections, you should have no problem.

TL;DR: The easiest class I've taken, would take again for a grade booster/GE credit if online. However, personally not very enjoyable.

Note that I think a lot of the ease comes from the fact that it's online, so we can search her slides, which was most of the exam materials.

Professor Desi is a great lecturer and creates visually appealing slides. She's lenient with extra credit (+10% if you do everything). The midterm was hard because questions were abstract and tested your application rather than just understanding of concepts. Because of TAs' complaints (thank you!), the final was really easy, and pretty much everything was straight forward definition, and we had twice the time allotted. Although the midterm was hard, everything other than the final can easily receive full points (eg. 2 essays that are leniently graded, participation, weekly discussion post), which pulls the midterm up. I would NOT be too concerned with the hard midterm if considering this class.

However, like many have said, Professor Desi does not hold her promises. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen her keep one, like the two essay prompts she said she'd share by xx day, and when she can finalize her midterm/final to share with us the type of questions to expect. Oh, and the lectures she cancels last minute every other time. I stopped waking up for them after Week 2 because she'd cancel them anyway.

Professor Desi is SO unpredictable to the point that I just stopped waking up in the morning to attend her morning lectures because most of the time she will cancel the lecture last minute. Overall the class is fairly easy and I would definitely call it an easy GE as she gave us almost 10 percent extra credits. You only need to complete two essays that are only two pages each with double spacing which is so easy. The TA also grades so nicely that I genuinely feel like as long as you write something, you’d get a 15/15. Professor Desi made the midterm very hard considering she really didn’t teach us much but for the finals she gave us more time and revision guidance.