Alan assigns an abhorrent amount of reading each week. The grades break down to 3 essays, 2 midterms and section. 2/3 of the midterm and final are fill in the blank from one of the countless readings and author identification. Many students had no idea what they were getting into here, and only one grade was back before we could change P/NP.

While Alan is a perfectly nice man who clearly clears about what he is teaching, the material in this course is just not engaging. Unending readings about the history of computer technology and little else. There are also weird "ungraded" assignments which you nevertheless need to pass the course. Find a different GE/course.

While Professor Liu seems very interested and informed on the topic he teaches, this class went way over my head. Many people would struggle with this class. The content of the reading is very complex and difficult to understand, especially for someone with no knowledge of computers. And just in general there are too many readings assigned.

Professor Liu's approach to teaching an English media class is utterly disappointing. The excessive amount of reading assigned is completely absurd and it's evident that his intention is to overwhelm students rather than foster meaningful learning. The lack of consideration for students' time and energy is truly disheartening for a lower division.

Alan is a nice guy, but it's one of those scenarios where the teacher is far too into the material to actually teach. He acknowledged people are taking this class as a GE but, he assigns 50+ pages of reading before every lecture which is 3x a week. He has about jack all on his lecture slides and continuously goes off topic. Avoid this man.

He is a good professor, but he zooms through the slideshow and doesn't post it online. Lectures might not be mandatory, but you have to go to even partially understand the course.

Professor Liu was very passionate about this class.. Except the class should be titled something else because it is literally only about computers so if you aren't interested in computers DONT take the class. He also assigned an insane amount of reading homework and two novels required to pass. Mandatory attendance and THREE LONG PAPERS w/ 2 tests

This class is really overwhelming as a GE with massive weekly reading, weekly essay (300-500), three essays (1200-1500), one midterm, and one final. The lecture presentation has a crazy amount of information. And the test was focused on specific details in reading materials or lectures. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS CLASS.

DO NOT TAKE ENGLISH 25! Absolutely insane workload for a GE, so many people are trying to get out of it right now but courses are too impacted. My TA talked about how they needed to curve up the course the previous quarter to avoid mass failures in a LOWER LEVEL ENGLISH GE. 600+ words of writing a week, a full midterm/final, massive papers.

Lots of reading, but the class was fun. Get ready to write papers, but other than that and a midterm and a final, there's nothing else. If you spend time reading the material there's no reason you don't get an A.

Alan is a really sweet old guy who is VERY distinguished within his department as he has contributed lots of work to the internet. This class was taken over quarantine so the workload, while a bit heavy, was manageable. Quite a lot of reading but not really required, just skim them. 3 essays that are 4-5 pages each. Interesting, but boring at times

The professor is definitely passionate about his class and the material. However, the amount of reading per week plus essays are overwhelming just like there is no other homework for students. Taking as a GE is absolutely not recommended.

If you are trying to take it as a GE, PLEASE DONT TAKE THIS CLASS!!!! Insane amount of reading every week, even during this quarantine time. I feel like Liu does not realize how much work students have for other classes. The test was on random details and he never explained the main ideas in class. DO NOT RECOMMEND!!!!!

Professor Liu is easily one of my favorite professors at UCSB, and English 25 is easily one of my favorite classes. His lectures and the general material in the class are fascinating. Professor Liu is extremely knowledgable and cares about his students immensely. There is a good amount of reading in this class, but it is completely manageable.

Prof. Liu tries to cover a lot of stuff within 10 weeks for this intro class. Many assignments and reading but absolutely worthwhile. Would definitely recommend for those who're interested in Digital Humanities. But if you're simply looking for an easy GE class I believe there are better choices out there

Alan is clearly very involved in the work of the digital humanities, not to mention his own work. However, Alan does not communicate the dense subject of digital literary analysis well. He assigns a obscene amount of reading per week and in the later part of the class does not spend time explaining them. Overall too much work for an elective GE.

He's assionate about topic, but class is a little boring. Lots of reading! Stay on top of it and you're fine but if you have a busy quarter don't take it. 3 essays (4 pgs.) and 2 small assignments and 1 midterm and final. Midterm is all on the reading and is mostly fill in the blank & short answer. Easy class if you do the work, just time consuming

Absolutely terrible teacher. This guy has clearly been in academia so long hes forgotten what it is like to be a student. He assigned over 200 pages of reading a night during one week. 3 essays, 2 projects, a midterm, and a final. Clearly Alan Liu doesnt recognize that students have other classes. Material is dense and boring.

Professor Liu cares about the material more than any other professor I've had at UCSB. What he talks about in lecture is exactly what he tests you on. He is a brilliant man and makes you think, rather than just memorize. Highly recommend

This was by far one of the worst classes I've taken at UCSB. The sheer amount of assignments for this class makes it not worth taking for a GE. The material is dry and disjointed, there is very little reading of actual texts, and the amount of assignments is quite literally equal to two of my other classes combined.

Professor Liu does an excellent job of balancing technology and the history of media with literature. With an English background, it was definitely challenging, but Liu offers a plethora of tools and really easy intro to the digital humanities. Reading is heavy but worth it.

This is a computer science class, not an English class. You learn about computer markup language and other things like that. The tests aren't awful but the reading is so much you will fall behind and that makes the tests hard, because if you don't read you won't get anything right

While Alan is a really sweet guy and is really passionate about this field, his class was very unexpected. I enrolled thinking it was going to just be another english class but it felt more like computer science and not related to literature whatsoever. Also assigned too many readings, I gave up on trying to keep up by the third week.

Professor Liu obviously cares, but the class is so boring that nobody else does. He is a decent professor, but a lot of the time I leave lecture feeling like I've taken nothing away