This cluster has three professors Michelle Rensel, Rachel Vaughn, and Aaron Panofsky. Vaughn's lectures are entirely too difficult to understand based on the structure of the slides and how little information she clearly states; most of her lectures are references to research and no clear bullet points. Rensel and Panofsky are easier to understand. There are about 6-8 readings a week and not short readings either, it's too time consuming for someone with more than one class. In the first quarter there's also something called the "GMO Game", and this is really why I don't recommend the class. This "game" is overly complicated and not explained thoroughly. You and members of your discussion have to plan out meeting days and a whole bunch of extra stuff. In my personal experience this class takes a toll on your mental a little bit especially as a freshman. If you don't need a cluster don't take one just to GE classes that can help satisfy major requirements, and if you do want to take a cluster READ THE SYLLABUS!

I usually went into Professor Vaughn's lectures excited to learn, and left more confused than before. Her lectures and slides are very loosely organized, and don't provide a lot of concrete information. Fortunately her portions of the exams were more straightforward. She tends to assign longer readings that are generally relevant to the class material, but do take some time to finish.

This is a very interesting class, but the lectures are often hard to understand since slides are paragraphs long. There was also no formal introduction or explanation of any assignment in this class, there was just a document that described all of the assignments so this was also somewhat hard to grapple with. The content of the class is so interesting, and the set up of the class is also nice. There is normal iclicker, and often times there are only three questions. You need to get above an 80 percent answering streak to get the participation point for the day, which is frustrating because if your wifi gets messed up or something and you miss a clicker question than you also miss your participation point for the day despite being there the whole class and answering the other two questions. I would understand if it were in person for this to be strictly, but since we are online on zoom, seems like wifi problems might be common and the professor should be a little more accomodating. If I could afford better wifi, i think I would be more successful in the class.

brah i'm gonna be real.... i never know wtf prof Vaughn is saying during lecture. the final lowkey beat my ass but extra credit saved me. anyways!!!!! unfortunately i feel like Vaughn is super conceptual and abstract, and her lectures aren't super organized...

Professor Vaughn did much better in the Winter than she did in the Fall. Her slides are much more detailed and her teaching style isn't as lofty as the previous quarter. Overall, her content isn't the most interesting, however, if you pay attention in class there is no reason you shouldn't get an A on her portion of the test.

I really feel like Professor Vaughn is very passionate about the topics she teaches, but like the reviews she has for the other clusters, her lectures could be very hard to follow. There was often a lot of just text on the slide or huge pictures with not enough context given. Taking notes was nearly impossible, but it was fine because at least her quiz questions weren't that difficult.

Professor Vaughn is the toughest out of the cluster professors. Her readings are long and her lectures slides don't actually have all the information needed, so it is very important to pay attention in class. I wouldn't let her deter you from taking this class as she only teaches about 25% of the class, so it is not like you are stuck with her for an entire quarter. She is all over the board in her lectures, but if you pay attention, her portions of the tests are not very difficult. The bottom line is if you're willing to put in the work and actually try, for this professor, then you should have no problem acing her portion of the tests.

First of all take this cluster!!! Super interesting, very manageable workload, much easier A than most of the clusters, and gets you a ton of GE credits
As far as Professor Vaughn: Super nice and knowledgable person, not the greatest teacher. Most of the reason I didn't like her lectures was because of the organization, not the content itself or her speaking. Her lectures jump around a ton from topic to topic which can make it hard to string together information into cohesive notes, and she always makes more slides than she can present so she ends up rushing at the end. Her slides are also the least helpful to look at to study because they include a ton of rhetorical/broad questions rather than actual information. I did think she presented a lot of interesting topics and her perspective was a valuable addition to the course, the information just could have been conveyed in a more clear way.
The class started providing audio recordings for lectures and they post the slides, so I just skipped Vaughn's lectures and listened to them on fast speed and followed along with the slides whenever was more convenient. Definitely recommend this