She's a really energetic professor who truly enjoys teaching what she's teaching. She takes her time to learn student's names and is very concerned with students' feedback on the course. I thought the class was very easy. No midterm, no final. Just 2 writing assignments (2 pages each) every week. You don't even really need to do the reading she assigns. I had a very busy quarter so i made sure i got my participation points early on. I raised my hand several times up until week 3, she marked my name several times and from then on i did not need to do any of the readings because i knew i wasn't going to be called on. The writing is easy if you're a good writer. The class is very interesting, and from the sounds of it, if you have time to do the reading you will enjoy them. You also watch 4 movies. Jacob is a great TA, so try to take him if you can.
Grade earned: A

Excellent professor and class. She is a very interactive and energetic professor who encourages her students to participate in lectures. It was a fairly large class, yet everyone spoke at least twice. The class has no midterm or final and it consists of biweekly writing assignments. Each one is worth 4.5 points and they add up to 90 at the end of the year and the last 10% is participation. The class is split up into 3 sections: advertising, film and museums. Every unit was very interesting and I took a lot out of the class. It was also fairly easy class if you put an hour into your assignments.

I gain significant insights from this class. The way Professor McHugh organized lectures and course material made understanding of these materials really easy for students and things are reveal to us in a manner that does not overwhelm us. I very much agree with the other reviews about the professors. She was very insightful and clearly someone with expertise in the field. She shows that she truly cares about students and helps us engage with the materials. Having the experience of watching movies with peers and being able to discuss it with everyone and hear insights from the professor was truly valuable.

For my quarter,
Attendance:
Students were called on during class for attendance and attendance were taken during discussions. However, my TA was really lenient in terms of attendance.
Assignments:
There were weekly study questions on films we watched each week. We only had to do 5 out of the 10 though, so workload was very manageable. Again, my TA was very lenient about deadlines and we were given grace periods for when we can turn in assignments:
Midterm/Finals:
One essay for midterm and one essay for the final. Final essay can be graded on its own or based on improvement of midterm essay.
Reading:
There are weekly readings to do.

Lectures are posted and everything on canvas was very well organized. When you request something from the professor (for example, when lectures are not posted or certain readings are not published), she fixes it immediately.

Overall, I would highly recommend this course for anyone. Truly.

I absolutely recommend taking this course with Professor McHugh if you have the chance! I took this class as a GE but ending up loving it. The workload was super manageable and TA's were very helpful when it came to walking through what they expected from the assignments and papers. The movies were all super interesting (I genuinely enjoyed every single movie) and the topics we discussed were very engaging. I never felt bored and I actually had a lot of fun in this course when it came to the concepts and applying them to the movies. To be honest, this class was a highlight of my quarter.

There were four different types of assignments. 1. Every other week, there was a set of study questions (short answer questions) about the film you were watching that week. Since it wasn't every week, it was very manageable to do. 2. Take home Midterm essay. We were given a bunch of different prompts and got to choose which one we wanted to write on. 3. Final essay. Once again we had a choice on what prompt to write, and the final essay prompts had more options like "create your own prompt" or "do a creative projective" on top of traditional essay style prompts. 4. Participation, which is just going to discussion section and participating.

Lecture was not "mandatory" and attendance was not taken (attendance only taken at discussion), nor did the professor call on people (for this quarter, at least?). The professor posted the slides, all the readings, and the films (not immediately, if you missed a screening you had to go find it yourself online, but eventually the films were posted in prep for the midterm and final essays).

Once again, highly recommend, amazing course.

I would highly recommend taking this class as a GE if you want to avoid taking exams (there were no midterms and there wasn't a final) and also if you are willing to participate in class. As mentioned before, there are no exams, but participation accounts for 20% of your grade. As a result, if you tend to skip classes, do not take this class. McHugh calls off names from the roster (you will most likely only be called on once) to ask your opinion, often times, about what we are discussing in class or something from the readings (which are incredibly interesting, short, and concise). It is not a big deal, and she is very accepting of what everyone has to say, and will be very kind. There are 3 unites: Film, Museums, and Social Media. The film unit is AWESOME. McHugh really knows what she is talking about, and you get to watch a variety of films. Because of the screening time, there is not a lot of outside work for this unit. You are given 5 exercises, of which you must complete 3 for your grade, each weighted 15%. Each exercise took me about an hour to do, so the class for about 5 weeks shouldn't really take up much of your time at all. For the museum unit you give a group presentation (only one person presents in your group) and you conduct research on a museum that is assigned to you. You are unfortunately required to attend the museum, but other than that, the project shouldn't take up much of your time if you split up the work well. Lastly, for the social media unit you only have to complete a social media diary which is incredibly simple and interesting. You log your social media use for a day and mainly reflect on your social media use, and research an example of something from the readings (an extremely short book by Lanier, which is not interesting but fine). Overall, this class did not demand a lot of time, and the small amount of time that it did demand was interesting. McHugh is an awesome lecturer, and the TAs are really great. My TA was Brenda Wang, and I really strongly recommend having her as your TA because she is extremely relaxed and understanding. Also, if you take this class I'm pretty sure it can be counted as an English class if you are pre-med (and need those English classes).