This prof. is very intelligent and well-versed in her policy areas, but is not a very good lecturer/prof. for undergraduates. I think this was her second time teaching an undergraduate class, and she just recycles assignments from her past classes rather than try to create new material to properly teach this class. She assigns readings but I didn't do any of them but still was able to do all my assignments. Her lecture slides seem to be organized, but she often goes off on tangents and the TAs end up explaining everything all over again during discussions. After the first few classes, I just ended up going to lecture just to sign-in for attendance points and then would just leave halfway through the class because it would be a waste of my time. I hope she does not teach this class again since it was supposed to be an introduction class but I ended up learning nothing. I heard somewhere she was good as a graduate level lecturer, but from my experience definitely not for undergrad.

I am going to be so honest right now: I totally B.S.'d this class and got an A with Covington. I minimally paid attention to discussions and lectures and just submitted the assignments. While I do have a high standard of work, as long as you follow the rubrics for the assignments you will get a good grade. I wrote a jaw-droppingly long final policy paper because there was no word limit, so I ensured I would earn a good score. Her lectures were devastatingly boring, but she as a person was such a slay -- queen. Would not recommend this class for anyone not in the Pub Aff major.

Professor Covington is very knowledgeable on the topic. I personally found the topics pretty interesting. The class was a hybrid class, meaning that we went to lecture one time a week and then had to watch video lectures (usually around half an hour) throughout the week. The weekly readings for the class took a while to complete. There were weekly assignments and responses that you needed to complete and post online. The midterm and final were also online, and were a mix of free response and multiple choice. There were several writing assignments that also accounted for a lot of your grade including a public policy paper, an op ed, and a cost-benefit analysis (CBA). The CBA was graded pretty harshly, but the op ed and public policy paper were graded more generously.

This class is easy but tiring. Kovington takes no breaks for 2 hours and 50 minutes. Usually the class is broken into a 2 hour lecture with 50 minutes for class work. I would be okay with that if the lectures were at all interesting or exciting; however, they were usually devoid of substance and really boring. People frequently did homework on their laptops during class or went on a shopping spree. The projects are simple but sometimes hard to understand at first. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this class at all unless you'll looking for an A in a public affairs class. You probably won't get much out of it.

It is a hybrid class, so I felt a bit more challenged to keep up with the material. You have consistently check on ccle to be updated. The CBA is graded harshly, my TA was extremely helpful. The tests were easy and open book.

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Pros:
uhhh, pass

Cons:
1) Not organized
2) Basically unaccesable, doesn't answer emails
3) Has answers on her test that are literally incorrect and won't respond to fix them
4) Essentially no reason to go to lecture outside of signing the sign in sheet for credit
5) Assigns a 12 page paper at the end of the quarter with literally no guidance on what the f**k you are supposed to do
6) Makes the class exactly the same as her 113 class. Like come on, why are an intro and an upper division class exactly the same.

Professor Covington was okay at lecturing but not great at most other things. It didn't help her that her classes were almost 3 hours long and she is not an engaging lecturer. Her assignments lacked detail and structure that they desperately needed. Even she didn't seem to know what she wanted when you asked her about them. Two of them required knowledge of Excel which she did not teach, neither did she seem to know how to use. Not a great class, not an awful class.

This professor assigns an unnecessary number of readings every week, assigns extremely unclear homework and classwork, and the tests are unnecessarily difficult. They were multiple times where her answers to the test questions were incorrect and she would not restore points. Her lectures are also incredibly boring and lackluster, and she has called out students in front of the whole class for arriving late or leaving early. Do not take this class unless it's necessary for your major/minor

This class was dead easy but honestly so disorganized it was funny. Just take another Public Affairs class. The assignments are extremely vague, readings are pointless, everything's pulled straight from the textbook, it's 3 hours when the class could easily be an hour long, and Prof. Covington maybe goes through one slide every 30 minutes. It's actually impossible to pay attention; I couldn't even imagine doing this in person. I learned nothing. If you want an easy A sure just take it but it's actually so mind-numbingly frustrating to sit through this class for 3 hours every week.

Please keep in mind I took this course during the COVID-19 pandemic and everything was online. Professor Covington is a very smart person that knows her stuff well, however I did not find her to be a very good teacher. She is unorganized and it is hard to understand what she exactly wants from her students when all of her TA's are telling their discussion sections different things because they don't even know what Covington wants. She would call out people during lecture and it did not feel like a very welcoming environment to learn in. There were pre-recorded lectures posted as well as live lectures. Lectures were more on the boring side, and there was a fairly hefty amount of reading assigned every week. You could probably still pass without reading and just watching lectures, but I highly recommend doing the readings if you want an A, as they help a lot during tests. Grade is based off of an op-ed, CBA, policy memorandum, a midterm and a final, as well as two classwork assignments. Grading was harsh in the beginning of the quarter, but seemed to get easier further in. This course is definitely do-able and manageable, however unless you absolutely need to take it and only Covington is teaching, I do not recommend you take it with this professor. I did not have a good time and I do not feel like I learned very much. I am trying to avoid this professor at all costs in the future.