The class was interesting and the lectures were engaging but the work load was very dense. One of the most work heavy course in SOC we had three exams, three papers, and weekly forum posts. There is no breaks with this class there is always a lot of work coming up.

I really enjoyed this class and felt like it improved my understanding of global politics. The surveys were fun to take each week, there were only 2 online exams and 2 reflection papers which was great. The workload was easy and the only downside was the attendance and weekly discussion posts.

Professor Nielsen did a great job teaching this course. It was dense, with a lot of information, but he presented it well on lecture slides and readings. Tests were online and there were a few papers, but they were manageable. The only downside was attendance and the weekly discussion posts.

assigns a group project over thanksgiving! 2 exams 2 essays 1 group project weekly discussion posts due on Sundays Lot of information each day , very interesting but he is a little boring. he is funny though at times.slides are easy to take notes off of so going to class is not very neccsary.

Good class overall. Lectures had interesting content which was presented well. Professor used an online discussion forum which we had to subscribe to that was kind of expensive and got to be very tedious throughout the quarter. Course content felt easy enough to process, but the exams were kind of tough at times. Other assignments were easy enough.

Professor Nielsen is such a nice guy and a great lecturer. If you follow the essay rubrics exactly you will get very good grades. He is very funny and will make you LOVE class

Professor Nielson is a pretty personable guy. Participation does matter, he took it through in class surveys through this website called PackBack. The essays were graded pretty easily but the exams would have some unfamiliar material. First two exam were not cumulative, final is cumulative. Good guy overall though.

Didn't like that we had to pay ~40$ just for a forum post site. BUT besides that he's a good prof. Funny guy. Understanding & accessible, listened to students and made exams online, not the easiest A I've gotten, but he is not a tough grader on the writing portions. Couple MC midterms, weekly posts, and a final + research paper & "group" project

Manageable workload- 2 essays (one is reflective), 3 mc tests, a group presentation, and weekly discussion posts. They aren't graded harshly if you follow directions. He also gives lots of interesting/funny anecdotes and TONS of book recommendations in class. He does cancel lectures every now and then, but overall I did learn a lot.

He cancel classes for sure, and I think you don't have to go to the class to write the paper. I think he is very nice, knowledgable and easy grader. He care less about citations and styles which makes it easier to write papers. I think he replies email fairly quick. Overall it is easy and fun.

Professor Nielsen never answers emails, cancels in-person classes and doesn't post online lectures. I've never had a teacher with such bad teaching skills. You can only do well if you have a good TA. Criteria is always so unclear on every single assignment, so it made class hard. I would not recommend taking any class with him at all.

Kind of insane how disorganized this class was this quarter. Not once, but twice he failed to post the exam for us to take on schedule. He did not respond for at least 3 days when students emailed him to ask what was going on. This included the final btw. He seems like a very wholesome person but this class was frustrating. Pretty easy though!

I have never had such an unorganized professor. It seemed every week at least one class was canceled, insanely slow on grading (3 weeks before end of quarter and nothing was graded), exams not getting posted online the day they are scheduled, boring lectures. The class is easy, I mean we barely had class and I still did well but I learned nothing.

His class syllabus was incomplete and lacked vital information. He missed more classes than the students and didn't even bother doing a make up. He also jumped through lectures, and didn't upload slides. REALLY SLOPPY. Attendance fell to less than 30% and he should have taken it as an indicator to do something, but didn't.

I took this at Sonoma State, class was, classical social theories. Nielsen did a great job at making a boring topic interesting. He gave great insight during his power point lectures and is very easy to talk to. I highly going to his office hours if you are struggling because he is willing to explain it to you until you understand, also he is funny

His powerpoints are very scattered and he flies through them, so don't even try to copy them down. He seems like a nice guy but his class was repetitive and a little dull. He provides a lot of extra credit opportunity. Overall, I would say he is just an average professor.

Honestly, one of the worst teachers I've had at this university. So jumpy and random in lecture, can't hear him, powerpoints are horrible, sends out 54854393 emails every day. So bad he makes interesting subject matter boring as hell. Has no idea what hes doing. Avoid this class!!!

He's definitely nice and helpful. A bit conceited. Not sure if he's gonna b teaching this class after this quarter. Lectures r interesting, lots of reading, but a very informative and fascinating class. I recommend it regardless of ur major.

Great TA, follows the guidelines for the class and stays on task. Easy grader and very helpful. Tells you what you need to know, and to the point! Highly recommend as a TA for ES1.