The class has only two grades: an in-class essay-based midterm and a LONG final paper. Fit perfectly for people like me that like to write papers rather than to take exams. Plus she is one of the most caring comm professor I've ever met. Her slides are super clear and she always asks if or not she needs to clarify anything. She is super nice when you come to ask questions. Giving her personal background and experience, I often feel so moved in her class as I know she is teaching with her full energy. She weighs her life on the class, and I can feel it. Thank you.

I have NO idea what is happening in this class... EVER. The topics are all over the place and you will sit behind your laptop baffled on what is going on in class. Fairly easy A, but just really confusing at times.

For the sake of fairness and so that those who might join have a chance to get a fairer view of the class, I have posted official evaluations of the class discussed by the students above.

- A very welcoming person when it comes to answering questions and had a ton of enthusiasm for this
course which made the lectures more exciting. I have taken a course of hers two years ago and I can
say that it has improved immensely in terms of her organization and clarity of assignments and test
preparation as well as lectures.
- Arbabzadah is a very interesting and charismatic instructor. I like her class a lot, but I do feel as though
sometimes the readings can be difficult without her explanations and that even then it could be slightly
more organized. Other than that, her class structure is great and I love that she keeps all materials
accessible for us to use and study from. That was very helpful, especially for exams. She is very
engaging and seems to genuinely care about what she teaches and how she teaches it. I find her to be
a very fair teacher who also pays attention to student concern and inquiry.
Can often be a little difficult to follow during lecture. Very kind and approachable. I just wish the slides
had a bit more of the important information for tests and prompts were slightly more clear.
Caring professor who wants students to succeed. Presentations are clear but not enough student
engagement in the discussion (could get boring at times just listening to professor lecture).
Extremely helpful outside of the classroom, which was greatly appreciated. Great lecturer as well.
Really enjoyed this professor!
- Great teacher. Enthusiastic and educated
- Her lectures were very interesting and engaging. The topics discussed in class are very relevant today
and I honestly didn't know what to expect going into the class. Professor Arbabzadah is an amazing
lecturer and is very organized.
I appreciated the workload of this class, but at times lecture was confusing. I think to some extent I had
trouble with the professor having her own soapbox ideas that she is very passionate and
knowledgeable about, but are hard to convey because she is talking about them from a place of she
cares about it rather than a I hope you care about it and learn it sort of perspective. The other thing was
that she constantly acknowledges the texts she gives are dense and confusing, but doesn't do more
than bold some things in it for us. Most of the time I didn't read the readings because it was too
complicated and sometimes it felt like not worth my time. Can I get away with reading only the bold? I
don't know. What I did appreciate was that she used the questions in the lecture to let us self check
whether we were learning. Overall the class was not too hard and the material was valuable.
I think sometimes the concepts would get too vague, even though the professor spent some time
N. ARBABZADAH, 19F: COMM 106 LEC 1: REPORTING AMERICA
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explaining them, I don't think I would be able to apply the material to numerous topics, only the ones
she presented. I think using distinct definitions would be more helpful, and then breaking down each
example to get a thorough understanding of how to apply what we are learning.
I thought lectures were well organized, and I loved the "can I" questions that were throughout the
lectures; it made going back and studying really straightforward. I had a hard time understanding how
some of the readings were integrated into what we were learning from lecture, but overall I thought the
class was interesting and organized, and I liked how the midterm and final paper were set up.
I took this class expecting a course on foreign journalism and reporting about America, but what I
received was some sort of pseudo-philosophy, pseudo-sociology course with no clear direction. I feel
that the class that Professor Arbabzadah taught was wildly different from what the course description
would have one believe and it should be described differently in the course catalog to more accurately
reflect the material of the course. There was a shockingly little discussion about foreign journalism.
Many of the lectures felt like extended ramblings with little direction. Professor Arbabzadah seems like a
nice and intelligent woman, but the disconnect between the course material and what UCLA would have
you believe this course is about is like nothing I have experienced at this school in my 2+ years.
Knowledgeable and caring
Loved Nushin's class as always. She is a breath of fresh air to have as a professor: she is so happy,
interested in teaching us and is passionate about what she teaches. Wish I could take her summer
course
Nushin is a very nice woman and really cares about students' learning. However, I think lectures were
hard to follow along with. She often rambles on about one slide for minutes on end, and I cannot follow
where she is going. The test yourself questions were very helpful, and those cleared up a few
confusions. Overall, I understood the material but it often feels repetitive lecture to lecture. The paper
also does not need to be as long as it is, as that seems superfluous.
Nushin is enthusiastic about her topic. She organizes her class well and gives students a chance to
reflect on course material. She also has students apply concepts to articles, which provides depth to the
lectures covered. I enjoyed this class because I felt that Nushin cared about communicating clearly with
students and listened to feedback. She also maintained high standards for our writing and work without
being unreasonable.
One of my favorite professors I've had hear
One strength is her approachability for students. I would feel very welcomed to speak to her outside of
class for additional help. One weakness is the lack of structure in her lecture slides.
Overall, I took this class to satisfy my GE requirements, but I was so glad to have been taught by this
teacher. She is so passionate and energetic when teaching the material to her students. She keeps the
class engaged throughout each lecture and really wants her students to succeed. I can't say anything
bad about this teacher and definitely would recommend to a peer.
Professor A is such an amazing person and she is very entertaining but she loses focus from time to
time and it is very hard to follow her lectures.
Professor ARBABZADAH is one of the best professors that I have taken. She shows that she cares
about the students learning the material and her class is unlike any other because she presents ideas
that are not as popular and has us question our views especially because she offers an outsider
perspective on America which is relevant to the course.
The most important aspect I have learned is how privileged I am to live in a country that allows the
freedom of speech and has diverse thought.
Thank you professor for passing along your knowledge to us and teaching us about the human step
which is not only relevant to your class, education, but in life. Our purpose on this earth is to pass along
our knowledge to improve our posterity.
Best class I have taken at UCLA. I look forward to taking another class with professor ARBABZADAH.
N. ARBABZADAH, 19F: COMM 106 LEC 1: REPORTING AMERICA
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Professor Arbabzadah is an absolutely phenomenal professor. She has many strengths and among
them is ensuring her students are learning and that we understand the content being discusses. She is
brilliant in the examples she provides. She listens to her students and addresses their needs. She is so
well informed in this field and the topic. Weakness aren’t necessarily with the professor, but it’s not
always easy to understand abstract ideas, phrasing can be a little bit confusing. But again, not
necessarily on her part.
Professor Arbabzadah is very passionate about what she teaches but usually lectures at an extremely
fast speed and it is difficult to keep up with the lecture and PowerPoints. In addition and because of this,
most of what she says is not included in the slides and cannot be reviewed after class.
Professor Arbabzadah was excellent and made the class worth attending! Very funny and interesting
topic!
Professor Arbabzadah was very passionate and knowledge about the course subject matter. It was
also very clear that she cared very much both for her students and their understanding of the material.
Professor Nushin Arbabzadah is a truly amazing professor and is part of the reason that Reporting
America was one of my favorite classes of the quarter. She is very engaging and is extremely
knowledgeable regarding the subject matter. While many professors fall victim to the curse of
knowledge and end up having bland lectures, Arbabzadah always kept class engaging and facilitated
both excellent lectures and class discussion. She was very open minded and would engage in dialogue
with students... almost encouraging them to disagree with her and make good points! Professor
Arbabzadah also inspired me with her unique backstory that spanned migrating from Afghanistan to
Europe and eventually settling in the United States. I look forward to maintaining a great relationship
with her and will be taking her class next quarter.
-Saeed Ahmad
4th Year Pre-Law Student
Professor was AMAZING. She is very engaging and is super approachable if there were every any
questions that needed to be answered. She really let students speak their minds during class and she
seemed to be very interested in what she was teaching. I loved that she offered to give us more
examples as she explained new ideas. She really looks out for her students and it a great professor!
She is very engaging in the classroom. I also appreciated that she took the time to email me individually
and ask if there is anything she can do to improve my learning experience. I have never had a professor
do that and I truly admired that.
Strengths- has powerpoint slides and gives them to students ahead of time
Weaknesses- talks fast, uses large terms, covers too much in one class
Strengths: engaging the class, strong knowledge about course material
Weaknesses: Some of the prompts on the midterm and final were confusing. Sometimes the quotes she
would put on the exams would be placed with not much context.
Such a pleasant woman who is so knowledgable about the subject. You can tell that she loves what she
does and that made me want to pay attention and learn and understand the material.
The powerpoints were honestly super hard to understand, and the presentations were a little bit
convoluted. Besides that, Nushin was super kind and lovely.
The professor was incredibly well equipped with knowledge and mastery of the material. The only
problem is the lectures, at times, seemed to go on tangents. All in all, professor Arbabzadah is a
wonderful professor and a well-respected woman. I would definitely take another course with her.
This class was a mess. I love the professor. she is super nice and sweet and bubbly. You can tell she
cares, but her lectures seemed wayyyyy to convoluted sometimes. I would get lost no matter how much
I tried to pay attention. I left very confused. I appreciated her effort though. Maybe it was just me, but itThis is the second course that I have taken with Professor Arbabzadah and she is a delight to learn
from. She is very engaging during lectures which is something I really enjoy because she is so
enthusiastic about her course topics. I believe her grading is fair because I have compared my work to
another student's work and I could clearly see why I received an A- and the other student received an
A+. She is always organized with her lectures/presentations and does a thorough job of explaining
details, so there are no surprises when it is time to write papers. She has an active style, meaning that
she involves the students in Q&A during lectures which really helps to clarify points and close any gaps
between concepts. Overall, I have really enjoyed Professor Arbabzadah's courses and I will highly
recommend her to other students. She's a real superstar in my book and in my top 5 UCLA professors.
This professor is extremely vibrant and engaging. She really cares about her students and is totally
enthusiastic about the subject matter, making the course an excellent part of the communication
department.
she is passionate and she encourages questions.
sometimes i find her accent hard to understand. which makes it difficult at times to hear every word.
i like her! i like how she laughs at her jokes! i love we cheer at the beginning of class
very organized lecture presentations however sometimes gets carried away when speaking and could ramble on.

This class was run with a 35% midterm and 65% final, which means you could (and a lot of people did) disengage from class pretty much. There's nothing to do except go to lecture, and try to understand what Prof. Arbabzadah's personal soapbox is, based on her life experience living in the Middle East and Europe. There are readings, but I never did them (just tried to integrate a couple randomly into the final paper); she says "yeah I know they're dense" and says but read it anyway, no I can't lol what does this meannn
Personally I had a hard time understanding what the ideas being presented really meant and synthesizing everything, which meant I just did my best to spit her lectures back out at her in the midterm and final (which are pretty straightforward but depend on your understanding). But it seemed like some kids in the front of the class who always asked questions understood what was going on, I just didn't.

Her lectures are pretty boring and confusing because she uses a lot of big words and assumes that you are familiar with the topic presented. Her slides are posted online so thats a huge help when studying for the midterm. The midterm was like 10 questions and you pick 3 or 4 to write short essays on in class. The final was a take home essay worth more than half the final grade, highly suggest you work with others to create ideas. She's a bit unclear of what she wants and apparently office hours do not help but its good if she can put your name to your face. Try to get on her good side, not a must, but its a plus.

Arbabzadah is a great professor. She really cares about us learning and her lectures are very organized. She shared some stories about her childhood growing up in Afghanistan during the war, and it was really powerful in the context of our class about terrorism. Overall, I learned a lot and I'm so glad that I took this class.

The class has 2 midterms for 25% each and a final for 50%. The lectures are a little boring at times and might seem long because she tends to go overboard. They can be hard to follow, but if you get the main points, you should be fine. The midterms had 3 questions and you had to write a paragraph for each. The final paper was 10-12 pages double spaced, but it takes time. She posts a lot of readings that aren’t super necessary but help with writing the midterm and final. Overall she is a nice professor and the class is fairly easy with some effort.

This class was very interesting -- alot of readings and material covered in lecture. The midterm had short answer questions and was in class - very easy if you studied! The final was take home with short answer questions in an essay format. There were 5 final questions with subsections and each question had to be 3 pages per answer. It took a lot of time writing, but overall easy.

I highly recommend this class. First, Professor Arbabzadah is very knowledgeable about the subject and is very patient and thorough. All of her slides are well developed and she offers "test yourself" questions that clue you in on what will be tested on the exam and help you think back to understand the material.

Your grade is based solely on two midterms and a final take home paper. I would say they were all reasonable, based off both readings and presentations. They were multi-part short answer based on a scenario of sorts.

There were a lot of readings but you can get by by reading selectively and having a general grasp on the big ideas.

Her grading is overall pretty reasonable as long as you are specific in your responses and cite enough evidence.

I have no idea how well the difficulty of this class will translate to in-person, but online it was a cakewalk. Super straightforward class structure. Just attended lecture and understood the material and it was fine