ARHU230 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Daniel Richter ARHU230 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 02/02/2026	Don't take this course over the Winter. Your entire grade is based off of 4 assignments. There are no clear instructions and the prompts are extremely confusing and vague. Even if you ask him to clarify, he doesn't help or even respond most of the time. He takes off points for random things that weren't part of the instructions so there's no way to have known. I'm a pretty good student- this was my first ever B. I'm disappointed in how unorganized this class was.
Jessica Mathiason ARHU230 Anonymous 12/24/2025	Fine as a professor but she absolutely uses AI to grade and give feedback on every assignment.
Jessica Mathiason ARHU230 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/21/2025	Dr. Mathiason is generally nice and very passionate and knowledgeable about the material she teaches. The expectations for all the assignments are clear (there are very few assignments to begin with) and it's an easy class overall. I found many of the discussions interesting and as long as you submit your work with some effort you should get an A! The only problems were that 1) the participation grades seemed super biased-- I was someone who spoke frequently every single class, yet she gave me a participation score that was in the bottom 25% of the class, which definitely did not feel right at all. She also turned off the ability for us to see the grade distribution boxplots on ELMS immediately after I emailed her about my score. It also seemed like she knew most people's names but never learned mine, and played to some favorites in the class. 2) Some of Dr. Mathiason's arguments/beliefs seemed anti-science and some of the examples were very dated. It also sometimes felt like discussions forced everyone to be super careful and politically correct about each topic. People would start saying one thing then back-track and change their mind immediately if they received any pushback from her or the class. I agreed with almost all of the overarching ideas but there were specific details that I wish we could contest without judgment. Overall I would not hesitate to take this class with her though, I think it's a good introduction to the HHM minor and she's put in a lot of work to designing and building the course.
Daniel Richter ARHU230 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/20/2025	I am also taking ARHU 230 this summer and have no idea what the previous student is complaining about. All of the discussion responses have been open for at least 48-72 hours and we can pick which ten responses we do. I received an extension on one of them when I simply asked. The content has been really interesting so far and my understanding is that Dr. Richter grades the responses very easily.
Daniel Richter ARHU230 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/17/2025	his prompts are extremely vague then he docks poitns because you did not mention things that are not in the class that he never mentioned before, he needs to tell us what his expectations are so we can respond accordingly. this is entirely his problem, not the students.
Daniel Richter ARHU230 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 06/17/2025	Taking ARHU230 with this professor. One complaint is that he will post an assignment 4 hours before its due and not email or say anything about it then dock points from everyone for not checking their elms page at 8 pm on a sunday in the summer. He needs to seriously improve on his communication and following the syllabus. I would not be as annoyed by this if it were during the semester but I am on vacation taking this course and I am committed to answering all the prompts, however I am not able to check my email at 2 AM est to see that he posted another 3 paragraph writing assignment that is due in 4 hours.
Daniel Richter ARHU230 Expecting an A Anonymous 07/29/2024	Strongly recommend Professor Richter for ARHU 230. He was very flexible and prompt with email. He designed interesting assignments and gave good feedback.
Daniel Richter ARHU230 Expecting an A Anonymous 07/11/2024	Took him online. Did not respond to any of my emails/canvas messages and graded strictly. He left assignment prompts extremely vague and then docked points for missing information. No class structure and an overall unprofessional and unprepared teacher.
Robert Lucci ARHU230 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/18/2024	Professor Lucci was amazing in ARHU230. Despite being a virtual class, he made it very engaging and accommodating to his students. The class requires a lot of reading and writing but it is manageable. Also, he is a strict grader but gives opportunities for revisions to earn a higher grade. There is no final exam in this course, but you have a final 'response' composed of about 8-10 questions, and it's given to show whether you've paid attention throughout the course. Overall, you learn a lot in this class and I am glad I had Prof Lucci, he's great!
Michelle Moncrieffe ARHU230 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/17/2023	love her, very passionate about the class. -1 star tho cuz sometimes the class felt like there was no structure and i found myself doing things that wasn't even related to the subject which was annoying. i didn't like the class but she's great.
Jessica Mathiason ARHU230 Anonymous 06/14/2023	The class is split into 3 parts: traditional medical cultures and history, bioethics, and contemporary cultures and frameworks. Readings are dense but you should read them because she asks questions about them during class. Projects are fairly straightforward and flexible, should be easy to get a good grade if you write well. Honestly the defining course of the health, humanities, and medicine minor, highly recommend Prof Mathiason for this!
Robert Lucci ARHU230 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/19/2023	Professor Lucci is one of the best professors I've ever had at UMD. He genuinely cares about his students and wants them to succeed. He's also clearly passionate and knowledgeable about the topics in class. The readings are interesting and so are the class discussions. I took the class over winter so it was a very condensed and quick but he was still very reasonable about the assignments we were given and he even gave extensions when you asked for them. If you have the opportunity to have him as a professor DEFINITELY take it.
Robert Lucci ARHU230 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/23/2022	Professor Lucci is incredibly kind, understanding, and passionate about what he teaches. He cares about student feedback and wants to make sure you get the most out of his class. This class handles tons of highly sensitive subjects which he handles with grade. He is truly the best!
Robert Lucci ARHU230 Anonymous 01/19/2022	Love this man. Great online instructor. Very engaging, discussions are a big part of your grade (in class and on ELMS). Clas was very interesting highly recommend if you want to take a winter or summer class. The workload is very reasonable.

Daniel Richter
ARHU230

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
02/02/2026

Don't take this course over the Winter. Your entire grade is based off of 4 assignments. There are no clear instructions and the prompts are extremely confusing and vague. Even if you ask him to clarify, he doesn't help or even respond most of the time. He takes off points for random things that weren't part of the instructions so there's no way to have known. I'm a pretty good student- this was my first ever B. I'm disappointed in how unorganized this class was.

Jessica Mathiason
ARHU230

Anonymous
12/24/2025

Fine as a professor but she absolutely uses AI to grade and give feedback on every assignment.

Jessica Mathiason
ARHU230

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/21/2025

Dr. Mathiason is generally nice and very passionate and knowledgeable about the material she teaches. The expectations for all the assignments are clear (there are very few assignments to begin with) and it's an easy class overall. I found many of the discussions interesting and as long as you submit your work with some effort you should get an A! The only problems were that 1) the participation grades seemed super biased-- I was someone who spoke frequently every single class, yet she gave me a participation score that was in the bottom 25% of the class, which definitely did not feel right at all. She also turned off the ability for us to see the grade distribution boxplots on ELMS immediately after I emailed her about my score. It also seemed like she knew most people's names but never learned mine, and played to some favorites in the class. 2) Some of Dr. Mathiason's arguments/beliefs seemed anti-science and some of the examples were very dated. It also sometimes felt like discussions forced everyone to be super careful and politically correct about each topic. People would start saying one thing then back-track and change their mind immediately if they received any pushback from her or the class. I agreed with almost all of the overarching ideas but there were specific details that I wish we could contest without judgment. Overall I would not hesitate to take this class with her though, I think it's a good introduction to the HHM minor and she's put in a lot of work to designing and building the course.

Daniel Richter
ARHU230

Expecting an A
Anonymous
06/20/2025

I am also taking ARHU 230 this summer and have no idea what the previous student is complaining about. All of the discussion responses have been open for at least 48-72 hours and we can pick which ten responses we do. I received an extension on one of them when I simply asked. The content has been really interesting so far and my understanding is that Dr. Richter grades the responses very easily.

Daniel Richter
ARHU230

Expecting an A
Anonymous
06/17/2025

his prompts are extremely vague then he docks poitns because you did not mention things that are not in the class that he never mentioned before, he needs to tell us what his expectations are so we can respond accordingly. this is entirely his problem, not the students.

Daniel Richter
ARHU230

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
06/17/2025

Taking ARHU230 with this professor. One complaint is that he will post an assignment 4 hours before its due and not email or say anything about it then dock points from everyone for not checking their elms page at 8 pm on a sunday in the summer. He needs to seriously improve on his communication and following the syllabus. I would not be as annoyed by this if it were during the semester but I am on vacation taking this course and I am committed to answering all the prompts, however I am not able to check my email at 2 AM est to see that he posted another 3 paragraph writing assignment that is due in 4 hours.

Daniel Richter
ARHU230

Expecting an A
Anonymous
07/29/2024

Strongly recommend Professor Richter for ARHU 230. He was very flexible and prompt with email. He designed interesting assignments and gave good feedback.

Daniel Richter
ARHU230

Expecting an A
Anonymous
07/11/2024

Took him online. Did not respond to any of my emails/canvas messages and graded strictly. He left assignment prompts extremely vague and then docked points for missing information. No class structure and an overall unprofessional and unprepared teacher.

Robert Lucci
ARHU230

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/18/2024

Professor Lucci was amazing in ARHU230. Despite being a virtual class, he made it very engaging and accommodating to his students. The class requires a lot of reading and writing but it is manageable. Also, he is a strict grader but gives opportunities for revisions to earn a higher grade. There is no final exam in this course, but you have a final 'response' composed of about 8-10 questions, and it's given to show whether you've paid attention throughout the course. Overall, you learn a lot in this class and I am glad I had Prof Lucci, he's great!

Michelle Moncrieffe
ARHU230

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/17/2023

love her, very passionate about the class. -1 star tho cuz sometimes the class felt like there was no structure and i found myself doing things that wasn't even related to the subject which was annoying. i didn't like the class but she's great.

Jessica Mathiason
ARHU230

Anonymous
06/14/2023

The class is split into 3 parts: traditional medical cultures and history, bioethics, and contemporary cultures and frameworks. Readings are dense but you should read them because she asks questions about them during class. Projects are fairly straightforward and flexible, should be easy to get a good grade if you write well. Honestly the defining course of the health, humanities, and medicine minor, highly recommend Prof Mathiason for this!

Robert Lucci
ARHU230

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
01/19/2023

Professor Lucci is one of the best professors I've ever had at UMD. He genuinely cares about his students and wants them to succeed. He's also clearly passionate and knowledgeable about the topics in class. The readings are interesting and so are the class discussions. I took the class over winter so it was a very condensed and quick but he was still very reasonable about the assignments we were given and he even gave extensions when you asked for them. If you have the opportunity to have him as a professor DEFINITELY take it.

Robert Lucci
ARHU230

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/23/2022

Professor Lucci is incredibly kind, understanding, and passionate about what he teaches. He cares about student feedback and wants to make sure you get the most out of his class. This class handles tons of highly sensitive subjects which he handles with grade. He is truly the best!

Robert Lucci
ARHU230

Anonymous
01/19/2022

Love this man. Great online instructor. Very engaging, discussions are a big part of your grade (in class and on ELMS). Clas was very interesting highly recommend if you want to take a winter or summer class. The workload is very reasonable.

Reviews for ARHU230