Lectures were incredibly boring and texts were difficult to read. Weekly documentaries were interesting, though, and professor was nice. He just plays recorded lectures during lecture and posts them so you can always watch them again. Midterm was okay and he gave a really generous curve.

I wouldn't recommend taking Hiltner. He expects us to sit and watch his boring youtube lectures as his ta takes attendance through iClicker. Although I took this class as P/NP, he claims he "curved" our grade to the best of his ability when HE was the one who didn't want to continue on due to the strike. Our whole grade was based on one midterm...

Regardless of the grade I got (which still I haven't got back bc strike) I wouldnt recommend Hiltner at all. Reading heavy, attendance mandatory, watch movie every week; he just plays a YouTube vid of himself every lecture & expects u to show up for iclicker attendance. Midterm was so hard for no reason... it's a 700+ person GE class man

The class I took with Ken completely changed my life and also the way I look at literature (I'm an English major). The lectures were engaging and thought provoking and I was never bored. There were a lot of readings, but they were mostly fun, especially the first few. The tests were pretty hard but if you did the readings you are probably OK.

Very chill professor that puts a lot of thought in what he's talking about. The downside was the pre-recorded lectures, it made the class very boring and not interactive. I enjoyed watching the documentaries and the content I learned last quarter. I don't know if I would take a class again with Ken unless he changes the way he runs lectures.

The readings are extremely important. The TA strike impacted our quarter quite a bit and our final grades are being determined only by the midterm, attendance, and our weekly youtube comments. Attendance is overly prioritized. He takes it through iclicker and if you miss more than 1/5 i clicker questions then you miss attendance credit for that day

This was one of the worst classes I've ever taken. The midterm was extremely specific and had questions that almost no one would know, and that were very different than the example questions he gave. No one got a good grade on the midterm, everyone's scores were so bad he had to curve it by 6 points and that still isn't enough.

A really good professor. Attendance is mandatory but the class is very insightful. I really enjoyed the class and as long as you study lecture material and keep up with the readings you will do fine

it's easy to fall into sleep during his lectures. But it is quite remarkable that he keeps refresh my global view and teach me philosophies and global crisis and thinking.

He just shows recorded lectures from COVID but forces you to go to lecture because of iclicker. Extremely dry and boring class and insanely hard tests. Terrible GE. Do yourself a favor and don't even think about taking a class with this narcissistic professor

MY FAV PROF SO FAR! His exams are m.c. and are pretty straight foward if you actually do the readings and pay attention to his lectures; this isn't hard to do bc they are so interesting. It's easy to get an A. Aside from his amazing lectures, he is genuinely so cool. He has a new and facinating take on everything regarding the environment.

The class allows crashers, so there are over 100 extra people in the room, but you're not allowed to sit on the floor even though attendance is mandatory and lectures are just videos that he prerecorded so attendance seems useless, especially in an overcrowded class.

All of his lectures are YouTube videos of him, we were required to sit & watch them and use Iclicker every 20 minutes. I think he recorded these videos during covid and decided to not lecture anymore and just play his YouTube videos for lecture. Lectures are super convoluted, he has very monotonous tone. I'm super ADD so I found it hard to focus.

Everyone's saying lectures were mandatory but by the end of the quarter I was so sick of his long, robotic, boring lectures that I stopped going and just used the lecture PDFs for the final and was fine. Also didn't do the readings. Ken's clearly passionate and it ended up being an easy A but it was not a fun road getting there.

Attendance taken on iclicker app throughout class. Weekly write-ups of readings and documentaries, very easy. 1 midterm and 1 final both multiple choice. He did not lecture in this class, guest speakers only. Pay close attention and take notes because what speakers mention & important facts from readings and movies will be on tests.

I agree with others that having different guest lecturers every class got boring after awhile, but don't listen to those who said the class was difficult. I honestly barely paid attention and got an A-. The mandatory attendance is annoying and the material is okay, but this is a really good class to balance out some of your more difficult courses.

The concept of the class was very cool-- guest speakers, films, and readings. However you are expected to read 150 pages a week for a GE because "this is an english class" but then complete two bubble test exams for you grade. The questions were insanely specific and difficult. I did all the readings and barely passed the course.

The amount of work to put into this class just being a GE made me upset. He expected you to read BOOKS in one week, attend lectures as it was MANDATORY, and watch films every week. Midterm 1 was extremely difficult, but since the average was low, midterm 2 was easier. Lectures were guest speakers, kind of boring, concept was good.

This is the 2nd of Ken's English courses I've taken and I've really enjoyed both. He structured the class very creatively and tried to convey many different perspectives on the climate crisis. You can tell he genuinely just wants you to learn and he does a good job ensuring that especially considering the large class size (like 800 people)

Ken is a good professor, but the structure of the class was not great. Every lecture period he had a new speaker speak to the class, which would be very interesting except for the fact that they all did basically the same thing so there was a lot of repetition and it was hard to keep the speakers straight. There is also a lot of homework.

This was a guest-speaker based course, so we didn't hear too much from Ken, but when we did he was very sweet. There is a lot of reading, but not more than I would expect for a literature GE, between 50-150 pages per week plus a film. Class could get repetitive, and could sometimes be overwhelming with the amount to climate change information

Don't get me wrong, this class is A LOT of work but the Professor is one of the nicest Professors at UCSB. He has speakers at each lecture so it's not just him reading off of the same PowerPoint slides which gets monotonous in other classes. The grading for this class is fairly simple (2 exams, 20 YouTube comments & iClicker points)!

Ken is one of my favorites professors so far at UCSB. You can tell he genuinely cares about the topics he discuss in class and the speakers he brought it were inspirational. Its easy to get an A if you do the readings and films, 35 question multiple choice midterm and final. Overall amazing class and I plan on taking more of his classes.

Class is decently interesting, but I didn't gain any new info because it was basic climate crisis. Weekly readings are kind of long but are relevant to the exams because he will ask about any random detail which is annoying. Documentaries are good and you don't need to write any papers.