This class is a complete waste of our time.

The professors aren't the problem, they are actually ok or decent and seem nice. Thank goodness I took this class online because taking this class in-person in the summer would be awful. Also for some reason the discussions are mandatory and its like a second class where you "learn" how to write essays (not technical, essays you'd write in an high school English class) and discuss random ethics concepts. Depending on your TA, you either will leave really early or use the entire session wasting your time. Same goes for grading, hope you get an easy grader.

The exams are basically test how well you can memorize the material or use CTRL-F if its online. Don't waste your time studying for these exams if its online or try to find someone who has a copy from before.

I highly recommend you take this class with friends, it'll make it more tolerable and you guys can work on essay-reviews and other "things" together. This is an easy class and should be an easy A for everyone, but every assignment takes a lot of time to finish. Expect your time to be wasted in this class and just do the bare minimum.

Just take it and get over with it. It's not hard just a lot of stupid work. Professor's chill and just come to class to sign in and leave. Grading will be different with every TA though so get one who looks like they don't care and you will breeze by.

How to get an A in this class.

1. Follow the essay prompt and rubric closely. Yes, the essays are a pain due to their sheer length, but if you follow directions and take advice from your TA, you should be able to pull off an A.

2. Download the online textbook as a pdf. Control-F your exams if your they are still online. God bless COVID for the online exams.

3. Attend discussions (and maybe put in a little effort into participating, depending on your TA)

Lectures are honestly the same thing as the textbook. I was able to pull off an A without going. Good luck :)

Good god. Taking this class was painful. I can not believe the logic behind WHY this class is a requirement for engineering majors. This review is more about the class itself, rather than the professor(s) who teach it.

I’m gonna be straight up: this class is a pile of steaming bullshit. They stress how important it is to attend lectures. I did not go to a single lecture. I ended up with an A-. Which I’m super happy about.

The material of this class involves reading USELESS theories such as Kant’s theories of ethical analysis and ethical laws. Has absolutely no application to engineering, and this class has no business being in an engineering curriculum.

The saving grace is that you’ll get a very good grade in this class, and graduate. But holy shit, they make you take a 3 HOUR discussion with a TA, who wouldn’t let us leave until the 3 hours had expired, even though the discussion was finished 45 minutes early. It was horrible, drawn out, unnecessary and too much hand-holding. I felt like I was in grade school again.

I’d tell you to avoid this class, but you can’t. It’s awful. It’s busy work. DO NOT go to lecture. DO NOT put in any more effort than you have to. It’s pure useless information. Take the class and get your A.

This is a warning to my future peers that plan to take this class. Unless you are genuinely interested in topics about ethics and such, this class will be easier to bear through. If you are not, then this class will be the biggest waste of time you will ever take as a college student. Lectures are a waste of time, but you will lose points for not attending. Same for discussions (laughably mandatory), you skip 2 discussions without a valid excuse, you will fail the class. 2 individual essays that'll take hours to finish and a massive group essay report with 5-7 other students. Midterm and final are based on the lecture and textbook.

The professors are really nice and have lots of experience in the working field. However, for successful and experienced engineers are really wasted in this class. And during lectures, they don't seem to enjoy this course as well.

Warning about TA's: Make sure you have a relaxed TA because if you have a TA that follows discussion procedures religiously, you will suffer and waste even more time doing pointless exercises or overly exaggerated "discussions". If you think you have a strict TA, switch discussions ASAP. Also, the more chill your TA is, the easier they'll grade your work and you'll be able to get the A easily.

In general, this class is a complete waste of time and feels like 2 classes just cluttered into a single class. The writing you "learn" is pretty much the same as what you learn in your general English class and this ethics non-sense is just filler to force students to take exams. The biggest tragedy and wastefulness of this course is you have to take this for a letter grade and one of the few other writing classes you can take. I highly highly recommend that you take this class with your friends and if you can, take it during the summer so you can spend more time on actual classes during the quarter sessions. If you decide to take this class, expect to waste your time and question the necessity for this course.

I don't know why they put this heavy-load class as a required to already difficult engineering majors. You can't actually learn shit from this class. a 7-8 pages paper every three weeks. Totally waste of time, take it for your last quarter in UCLA.

The class is alright. It's a lot of writing but definitely easier than your standard CS class. Prof. Weltman posts slides online so lecture isn't that important but there's a sign up sheet every day. Some people just come late and sign up during the break.

Tests are pretty simple MC about textbook readings (about a chapter per week) and lectures. The final isn't cumulative and is the same length as the midterm. You get a cheat sheet as well.

The writing assignments are the most annoying part. Really try to start early since it'll save you trouble later on, especially when you have to work on the group essay. The two individual essays aren't too bad if you pick one that's easy to research. The group essay is really annoying. Get as early of a start on researching, outlining and writing drafts as you can because it's annoying trying to rally a group in week 9 or 10 when a lot of other stuff is going on.

The class isn't hard, just an annoying amount of work.

I took this course in Summer 2020, while it was online due to Covid.

Many old reviews complain about the group project, but they cancelled it since the quarter was online, so I'd definitely recommend taking the class while it's still online.

The class has 2 essays, a midterm, and a final. It is run like two separate courses, and there is no overlap between lecture and the discussion sections.

Lectures are pretty boring, but cover interesting material. Participation doesn't matter, but it's helpful to read through the slides before exams.

The exams are completely multiple choice, open book, open note. They were pretty easy and didn't need much studying.

The essays tie in with the material covered in discussion, and participating in them is mandatory. How you fare on the essays is completely dependent on your TA. My TA (David M.) was super clear, communicative, and gave us clear rubrics and requirements. I did hear some TAs were vague, so you want to make sure that your TA is competent.

There was also an extra credit opportunity at the end of the course - a 4 minute recorded presentation on one of the essays worth up to 5% of the final grade. It was graded pass/ fail and took me over the line.

All in all this was a good course to knock out in summer, and I definitely recommend taking it while there is no group project.

Weltman is pretty boring, but the content is actually kind of interesting to listen to. I never paid attention in class, still got an A+. Just write down all the textbook definitions on your cheat sheet and you're fine. The essays and group project are annoying, but there's easy grading. This is a "do the bare minimum" type of class and you'll still get an A. Decent amount of work some weeks, but it's really just take it to get it done and over with.

I thought I was just going to do light amount of work, but I was wrong. This class literally made me work the most. More than CS M51A. It was because of all the lengthy essay, giant group project, and really really dumb exams. About Weltman, he teached really dull. His voice made actually a lot of people sleep through his class. Even if you snored really loudly at the back of the class, Weltman would not be able to hear. This class sucks, just another excess amount of writing class.