This is a fat course for only 4 units. I’m a humanities major, & I took this as a GE because I was interested in the brain. I don’t regret taking it, as the information was pretty interesting overall, but being asynchronous was a major blow. The lectures were ridiculously dense, dry, and just blew through information. Like, it took me about 4 hours to thoroughly understand a 30 min video. If you don’t know how to time manage an asynch course, I wouldn’t take this class. Anyway, the 4 tests (no midterm or final, just evenly spaced module tests) were not very difficult if you study enough. In fact, they were pretty easy. It’s just that you don’t know exactly what will be on it since the tests are only 20 questions on massive amounts of information, so you have to study all of it to be adequately prepared. Crash Course and Khan Academy help a lot with the material though, so it’s not impossible to do well in this class. Wouldn’t recommend for a GE you just want to get out of the way, but would recommend if you’re considering neuro or cog sci.

*Note: I took this class online during COVID

TLDR: I would recommend this class, at least in its online format, as an easy GE with low workload.

The course is structured into 4 modules, each with an exam at the end. Your grade is based entirely on these exams, as there is no homework or traditional final (the exam for the last module is during finals week, but is not cumulative).

At the beginning of each module, a few videos were posted that contained all the information for the module. You watch these videos and at your own pace instead of going to scheduled lectures, which I appreciated. These videos were super dense since they totaled only about 1.5 hours per module. Don't let the length of videos fool you; it's still a good idea to start working through the content early since taking notes on such dense information is time consuming. I wouldn't say the videos were particularly interesting, even if the material had the potential to be.

I didn't have much interaction with Professor Babiec due to the online format. He seemed helpful the couple times I went to office hours, but there wasn't much communication outside of that. I didn't find the lack of communication a problem, but I felt slightly disconnected from the course.

Again, there was no homework. There was some recommended reading associated with each module, but I never did it and fared well on the exams anyway, so I would advise against buying the textbook.

Exams were timed multiple choice, although you had a 24 hr period to start them. They were easy enough if you took detailed notes on the videos.

I took this class online, but I’m pretty sure it’s similarly structured to in-person classes. The class is divided into four units. He posts prerecorded videos on CCLE (it’s 4-5 videos per unit) at the beginning of the unit, and you have two or three weeks to watch them before the test. The videos, although short, can be very dense. It sometimes took me over an hour and a half to get through a thirty minute video. The material itself is interesting though and the units and material are organized in a logical manner.

Personally, I never met the professor since the only time you actually get to see him is in his OH and I never went to them. I heard that he was chill, good at explaining, and understanding though.

Your grade is made up of four tests at the end of each of the units. Each test only covers the material for that unit, so there are no cumulative questions. In order of difficulty, I’d say the third test was the hardest of the four, so watch out for that one. Each test is twenty questions and you have thirty minutes to complete them. He gives you a day to take the test, but once you start it, you only have thirty minutes. He also gave extra credit for answering a survey from the department before and after the course.

Overall, though, I feel like this course was dense but interesting and the grading wasn’t too bad. I would definitely take it again!

*** COVID-19 Review ***
Babiec does host a lot of office hours and can be very helpful when you reach out to him. However, do NOT buy the book for this class. It is over $100 and he blatantly says later on that exams do not reference the book, but rather will reference the module videos he supplies.
The content itself was very interesting, but Babiec is very monotonous in delivery and also has moments where he makes it incredibly difficult to understand what he's referring to (big words, although it is manageable when you take a second to understand it).
Exams kinda blindsided me if I'm being honest, I took this class as a GE for an easy A and it was far from it. There are 4 exams 25% each and they definitely get extremely hard and you need to be careful when reading answer choices.

If you're great at memorizing minutiae, this is the class for you. This professor's lectures are very long and boring, and you're better off skipping lecture and just memorizing all his slides a couple days before the exam. He also assigns 6 useless coloring homework assignments (yes, you will need colored pencils for this class) that didn't contribute to my understanding of the material at all. He has four non-cumulative exams that consist of multiple choice, very short answer, and short answer. If you take this class, be warned to memorize EVERYTHING on the slides. On an exam, this professor asked for things like who said that quote on one of the slides and the diameter of a synaptic vesicle. Overall, not the worst GE out there.

I was hesitant to take this class, but it turned out to be a pretty easy A. I definitely recommend taking this class as the professor is fair and tries his best to be funny at times too. The class is straightforward and only has four multiple choice tests that cover material straight from the lecture slides.

This was an engaging class and it opened my eyes to Neuroscience. The class consists of slides that the professor reads through and explains. There are 4 exams that are taken directly from the slides. As long as you study everything on the slides (not just the content, but also the pictures and figures), the class should be fine. Professor Babiec is really nice and helpful when you attend office hours.

I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into with this class; turns out it was pretty simple in terms of class structure. There's no class materials or required extra readings. Babiec's lectures get monotonous if you aren't interested in the material, but he's generally a personable and upbeat guy. All 4 of the exams are equally weighted and multiple choice. All of the information comes directly from lecture and the lecture slides, which are available on CCLE. His lectures are also recorded, but I would recommend attending lecture since the entirety of the exams are based on this info. Overall, doable class if you know how to study and manage your time.