interesting lectures, not too much homework
I took this class during Summer of 2021 during Covid so the class was asynchronous. This class has probably 20+ hours of lectures that you have to watch and understand to take the quizzes. The lectures had good content but had poor audio quality. There were 2 papers that need to be very well organized. The course was interesting but time consuming.
Professor Barbieri's lectures are pre-recorded and very long with poor audio quality. The Gauchospace page is very well-organized and accessible. The exploration assignments were also very interesting and interactive. Quizzes were based on lectures, but some questions were worded confusingly. Grading relied solely on the TA.
Great class, I'm surprised by the amount of bad reviews here. The material is super interesting and easily digestible. Section/lecture go over a huge majority of the readings so you only need to read like 20%, if that. His quizzes are easy given GauchoCast lectures are captioned�� Essay prompts are engaging and the essays are graded fairly.
The lectures were really thorough and extra material was actually helpful and not overkill in terms of reading etc. There were weekly quizzes that weren't very hard which gave a lot of opportunities to get points and help support your grade for the midterm/final. The lectures weren't too long, so it wasn't boring.
Not sure why this class is only worth 4 units, its a ton of work. Grade really depends on how you do on the essays. There are weekly lecture quizzes. Lectures were disappointing because they were classroom recordings from 2 years ago with audio that was all over the place. If youre not a history major probably not the best GE choice.
Took online. TA graded way too hard and nitpicked essays and assignments that had no clear grading rubric and took off points for things that were never talked about. Lectures are time-consuming and I spent entire weekends doing them + taking the quizzes. Gave a full week's worth of work over Thanksgiving during a pandemic. Not worth it for a GE
As his syllabus says, about 13 hours a week will be spent on this class. There were very long lectures to watch, many pdf readings, and an average of 4/5 quizzes a week. This class is not worth all of the effort for a GE. He focuses so much on China. His lectures are from 2017 and it seems like his TAs are the only ones doing any work to teach us.
Professor Barbieri used pre-recorded lectures, and he did a decent job explaining historical topics. The midterm and finals papers were pretty straightforward and easy to answer. There is a heavy weekly workload that he mentions at the beginning of the class so be prepared for that. I would only take this class if you really needed the credit.
The class is relatively straightforward. He lays out things you need to do very clearly. I had a really helpful and understanding TA, you get very little contact with the professor, he uses old prerecorded lectures. Only thing is that there is a lot of homework, even during term paper weeks and holiday breaks. Not awful but I would not recommend.
Took in Summer B 2020 so online and async. Most of the grade came from quizzes about each lecture and primary source reading so attending lecture and taking notes is important. Final was to choose 2/3 prompts for 4-5 pg paper. Loved my TA very helpful in understanding themes in Chinese History. Little contact with prof but good organization.
took this class online+async. barbieri's lectures are great and super interesting. the work load is kinda heavy, but if chinese civilization interests u it shouldn't be too bad. the best parts by far are the exploration+investigation activities that are pretty hands-on with online models; barbieri really knows how to make this class captivating