Attendance was mandatory. There were no opportunities to participate so lectures were dull. Grading criteria was unclear. The course was very scattershot, and there was no overarching theme to it, which made it hard to stay engaged. However I passed easily despite never having taken an art history class before.

Gives very unclear instructions. Makes hypothetical questions that are unclear. Never sure what to take notes on in class. moves through slides very quick.

Impossible to understand. Super boring lectures. The tests had nothing to do with what was on the review slides. Avoid this class at all costs.

gets mad at you for being on your phone in lecture even though most people take this class for a GE. TAs are unnecessarily hard graders and dont explain why they give you the grade you got. class covers too much material in just 10 weeks and you have to memorize useless info for the tests which youll probably forget within a day.

This professor was rather disappointing. The most difficult part of taking this course was keeping my eyes open during lecture. It is clear that the professor has a true passion for African and Indigenous art - that is about all that is clear in this class. The TA's are no better; apple doesn't fall far from the tree eh?

Class was super interesting!! Only had a few assignments and a midterm + final which were the same structure on different artworks. You do have to memorize info on a set of selected artworks but making a simple google doc with the required info and reviewing it is enough to pass. Loved him!

Very much a class designed solely for art history students with a professor who is a giant in this particular field. I'll never take another art history class again, but overall the course was interesting enough. The memorization was terrible.

2 small projects/papers and 2 exams. Exams require you to memorize some artwork, and analyze them. The projects/papers were both really easy. The lectures are mostly boring, but occasionally interesting. I took the class P/NP, but I should have taken it for a grade, because I got an A- without much effort and missing 5 classes.

Very hard to understand during lectures, and is very difficult to know what you actually need to learn. Unclear about what tests will be like and gave images for identification that he never discussed.

I really liked Prof Ogbechie's class! He was very passionate about the course material and I learned a lot.

Lectures are extremely unorganized and he missed several classes in the quarter. It was very unclear what we would be tested on which made it difficult to study.

Great professor and lecturer. I thought his class was interesting, informative, and the content was relevant and important. Unfortunately, I had a few very uncomfortable (mandatory) office hours sessions with him, and I felt he crossed the mandatory teacher-student boundary in multiple ways. Totally unfortunate, I loved the class up until then.

Attendance is 10% of the grade. Lecture is pretty boring, I feel like he has a lot of important things to say but he doesn't organize it well and it's hard to follow. Readings aren't tested on. Final was a 6 page paper on stuff we didn't really talk about I have no idea how I wrote that thing and passed the class

Going to his class is mandatory, which was difficult given how boring the content was. The midterm and "spot tests" were fairly easy, but the final essay prompt was extemely vague and hard to do, considering it has to be six pages long. Would not recommend.

Lecture slides go from being just a single picture to having whole paragraphs. Makes you go to the useless lectures by taking random attendance. The course itself BARELY goes into depth because it attempts to cover 3(!) distinct cultures' art in 10 weeks. Final paper was the most vague and frustrating paper promt I have ever seen. Sometimes funny.

I would not recommend this class. His lectures are monotonous and tedious, and he almost never interacts with the class. As such, the lectures were not engaging at all. The mid-term didn't have enough questions to be fair; i.e., there was a 30 point mid-term on hundreds of pages, so not knowing one thing is enough to skewer you. Definitely avoid.

Your grade is based on the midterm and final both which are 7+ page essays. If you mess up its hard getting back up! take at your own risk

arthist 185AA. An incredibly easy class, talked mostly about african art about african women. it was very inspiring and i loved the topic. we ONLY had to do 2 page essays (journal and analysis)every week, that is all, no final or midterm! he is a very nice and understanding professor, definitely take this class! only used one book, short readings.

I don't know why people are saying his class is hard. The midterm was easy as long as you did as he asked you studying wise. I was somewhat worried about my grade since the final was a paper, but he ended up giving me an A. Not the absolute BEST professor ever, but certainly not bad!!

Ogbechie can be confusing with what he wants from you, but his material is excellent and in other class will you learn more about pre-modern africa. I wanted to go to every class, because the art was incredible and the communities it came from I had never heard of before this class. I'm not an Art History major (1st class) and I loved this class.

I took this class Winter 2011 and his thick accent made lecture hard to follow. I'm also not surprised to read of him changing his mind on midterm/final formats in his other classes - he pulled a fast one on us for the midterm and people were not happy. Subject material was interesting, though. Rely on your TA to learn and pass this class.

Refrain from taking his classes at all cost. His tenure shows the decline of ucsb as a great institution. He changes his mind about midterms and final structures without notifying the students, and chuckles about it when the students are upset. Subject material is incredibly boring and not worth the time and headaches to figure out.

Before attending this class I read all the comments on here. I was worried, because people did not like this professor. His class is not easy, but he is truly a good teacher. He knows the information that he teaches, he is insightful,and is passionate about the subject. Take it if you prefer a good teacher over an easy class. I recommend him.

He is hard to understand and his notes make no sense. He got mad when someone asked about the midterm. The midterm had images on it that he didn't ever give us. Terrible, ew, don't take... EVER.