It was my second time having Professor Houston after taking COMM88 two years ago. Her teaching style made the class more memorable, making the course materials easy to understand. For those who write negative reviews on her, ignore them; maybe you guys are putting 0% effort into your work, or you don't care about the classes she teaches.

Good professor, just a lot of busy work throughout the week. Every week we had two discussion posts, one midterm, a paper mid quarter and a huge paper as the final. Really interesting class, just be prepared for a ton of readings and discussions.

Super nice. Seems like she cares. Slides are just a repeat of the readings, you don't learning anything in class, but you she has iclicker attendance so you must be there. Assigns an unreal amount of busy work. Like unreal amount. Would strongly avoid taking this class. Wish I didn't

Incompetent!!!

Ignore the other reviews! She's an incredible professor who really does care. She's not the kind to have awkward pauses waiting for students to answer; she's lively and always brings a cheerful mood into the class. She's very easy to talk to, and for an introvert, I really appreciate her approachability. Got rid of the final exam!

Houston is very nice outside of the classroom but her teaching skills are lacking. Test questions are difficult and often are not related to concepts gone over in class. Required readings are dense and her lecture slides just restate what is in the reading with little clarification. She is very disorganized so rely on the TA for everything

(COMM 88) Used an old professor's slides and didn't know the material so she couldn't answer student questions--relied on TAs a lot. Would waste half the class on dumb activities that she didn't think through. Midterm and final questions didn't match what we learned in lecture. Lots of inconsistencies in assignment instructions vs what she told us.

COMM 88: Renee was very kind & put genuine effort. However, we were not well prepared for exams and Qs were challenging. Her 1st quarter teaching this class & instructions for the big paper contradicted the instructions given by my TA which was confusing and required a lot of office hour participation to understand what I should actually do.

Had her for Comm88. She seems nice, but is honestly is a terrible professor. She could never give students straight answers and barely anything in lecture ends up on the final. No tests or quizzes, entire grade relies on the midterm, final, and paper. Get a bad grade on any, and you are screwed. Stay far away if you can. My TA was nice though.

I had her for Comm8, went to every class, and felt like I learned nothing. She uses an old prof's slides that she doesn't seem to understand herself and can't answer basic questions about the lectures. Her midterm was not based on lecture material at all and felt like a random mess of questions. I had a great TA which helped but otherwise bad class

Prof Houston is great. She's a really nice person with a decently interesting class. Weekly assignments are a piece of cake and the midterm/final is online. 10/10 would take again

in her comm88 class and all I can say is do not take her for ANY comm prereq. she reused another professor's materials without going over it fully and doesn't know what she even assigns in our major paper's guidelines. somehow never on the same page as the TAs regarding material and content, whole class was so messy. midterm was terrible too.

Just finished taking her COMM160WB class and overall I thought she was a decent professor. There were weekly assignments, a midterm and a cumulative final, but the biggest portion was the group project and presentation. Definitely not the easiest upper division comm class to take, but also really manageable. No mand. lectures but I would recommend.

currently in her Comm 88 class. her midterm was online but nothing like the study guide she posted or lecture material. said class average of 82 "too high" so she doubled the amount of questions for the final w the same amount of time. rambles in class and treats students like 1st graders. would never take her again and DO NOT RECOMMEND!

Dr. Houston is probably my favorite professor at UCSB. If you can take her class do it! Well organized and easy to follow, expectations are clear and I'd take it again any day.

Professor Houston is new to UCSB and easily one of my favorite professors thus far. She is extremely caring, easily approachable, and genuinely cares for her students. Her grading criteria is very clear, she is extremely organized and really has the best interest of the class at heart. Readings assigned and weekly assignments, 2 tests, great class.

Professor Houston is one of the best Comm Professors at UCSB. Take the class seriously and be thorough with homework and you will get an A, it's really not that hard.

she literally said last lecture that “women don't typically watch sports.” women do watch and participate in sports. she also doesn't care if you are you are going through things medically so if you are going through anything you have to get tas to advocate for you. don't take her class lol

if you do the reading you'll understand the material very well. She knows this class is pre major and wants you to succeed. mid term, final, research paper (any topic), section+lecture attendence, homeowrk(easy), and sona go towards grade. shes very accessable and kind. If you go to lecture you'll do good, if you do readings you'll do way better.

Houston is a very chill professor and her class is pretty easy. We had a take home midterm, 1 essay and a big group presentation and group paper. There is iclickers. She is a nice, understanding professor, however I catch her being passive here and there.

How anyone can seriously rate Prof Houston at a 1 or 2 is beyond me. Took her for 168 and now 160OD, she's very sweet and cares a lot about her students. She makes lots of accommodations like offering extra credit or changing test dates. As long as you try you'll literally be fine. Yall just lazy or sum…

she chill highkey and the TAs are good. lectures kinda simplistic and boring, takes 20 mins to cover 5 mins worth of content. but it aint bad

Terrible professor, amazing TAs. Lectures are boring and useless since she just rambles and posts slides anyway. Do NOT email her—she won't help. The TAs are incredible and the only reason I understood anything. The group project is easy, so as long as your group isn't useless, you'll be fine. Take this class for the TAs, not for her.

I took Comm 88 with Houston and I didn't like her then, but taking this class and interacting with her more. Hanged my opinions. In a smaller setting, she seems to be much more attentive and engaging with her students, taking time to talk to them after class and getting to know them. I would definitely take another class with her in a small setting