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.

I think the Dr. Vaughn often tried her hardest to be a good professor, but she was often all over the place and her lectures could be hard to follow. I felt that they weren't coherent, and the exams were only doable because she would hint at what would be on them.

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!

The class itself is a lot easier compared to the other clusters because we have less reading. Her lectures go all over the place and don't follow a set outline, so it's very hard to take notes. Vaugh's lecture slides are very disorganized and don't summarize the important information. She also isn't the most helpful because her slides often have important questions for us to consider. She often asks for volunteers to share their answers, but the lecture hall is big, so it's often hard to hear the answer and she doesn't tend to repeat them. She never really shares her own perspective or answers to the questions she poses. Despite that, I still really enjoyed this class since I took this cluster for the topic rather than for the extra GEs. Many people make the mistake of taking clusters just for the extra GEs but end up hating clusters. They're a lot of work, so only take it if you're genuinely interested in the topic or willing to put in the work for it.

I really enjoyed her material and lectures, very informative and engaging. quizzes are best of 2, and there are 2 papers throughout each quarter!

While Dr. Vaughn is only one part of the M72 cluster, I dreaded her lectures the most. Her content seemed disorganized and hard to follow, and don't even get me started on her slides. They were a jumble of text, pictures, and concepts. Each slide seemed to be about a completely different topic than the previous one. She also assigned way too many readings that seemed to not help at all in lecture, on the essays, or quizzes. Her quiz questions were never hard, as long as you paid attention, but if she was the only professor, this cluster would be unbearable. She doesn't introduce any interesting or revolutionary ideas, just rehashes past societal concepts that make you think "duh". I love this cluster, but Vaughn is my least favorite professor out of the team.

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.