HIST111 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Christopher Halsted HIST111 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/14/2025	Halsted is a fun teacher to have, and is very knowledgeable about what he is teaching. I enjoyed going to lectures and discussions, although I do kind of feel like the course is by its nature disconnected, as he goes through 1000 years of world history.
Christopher Halsted HIST111 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/13/2025	Cons: - Liberal and makes sure you know it, and just assumes everyone else is too (likes to trash talk conservatives, which is pretty rude and assuming of him) - Cusses a lot (VERY unprofessional) - Likes to make fun of religion Pros: - Very easy homework-wise, doesn’t care much about assignment formatting which is nice - Can be pretty funny
Stefano Villani HIST111 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/12/2024	Very knowledgeable and passionate teacher. You get used to his accent after the first couple classes and he posts the slides from class. Listens to critiques very well and incorporates it into his lecture. Overall great professor!
Stefano Villani HIST111 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/11/2024	Took this as an intro course due to a major change and thoroughly enjoyed it. I am not the best student, I will say so my grade might end up being more of a B. My only issue was that all the major assignments are worth 25% of your grade (midterm exam, midterm paper, discussion, and final exam). That being said, grading is fairly lenient and if you utilize the book properly you're going to do well for yourself. He provided a list of quiz questions from a site directly tied to the book and I've been using it to sustain my studies and it's super helpful. It also helps that I had a great TA (shout-out to Mauricio).
Stefano Villani HIST111 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/10/2024	He is a great teacher he understands and displays the topic to a great extent. He posts slides that are extremely helpful, and he explains them in great detail. He might have an accent that I found difficult to understand in the beginning, but as time went on, I understood what he was saying clearly. Whenever I asked him a question through emails, I got instant responses, which I found extremely helpful. If you are interested in Medieval History or looking for a genEd course in history l would recommend you to take his class.
Stefano Villani HIST111 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/08/2024	He's just a chill guy
Stefano Villani HIST111 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/06/2024	Extremely passionate about what he's teaching and talking about. He does have an accent, but his slides are there and the TAs expand upon material in discussion sections so it's not a problem at all. He is super reasonable about things being too hard and listens to student feedback asap. I wouldn't want anyone else to teach me about Medieval History--he has the added bonus of a European viewpoint too, so it definitely adds to the class and his interpretations with the material.
Stefano Villani HIST111 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/05/2024	I took this class for a gen ed, and I was very satisfied with my experience! Prof Villani is so passionate about the content and I loved to hear him talk- I never skipped a class. Each lecture is full of a lot of content, but we are not expected to be able to regurgitate all of it- rather use the main ideas as arguments in our exam essays. In the beginning of the semester, he received feedback that we were assigned too many readings per week, so he immediately cut down on the assigned work. He's really a great professor and it definitely helps if you're interested in Medieval History.
Christopher Halsted HIST111 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/07/2024	Professor Halsted is a very sweet person! He is so passionate about the subject and seems to really care about each of us. However, I found this class to be incredibly boring. I didn't enjoy the material. But that might be because I'm not a history buff, so take that as you will. I ended up skipping most of his lectures, which I feel bad about however they are completely unecessary for the discussions and essays. The discussions are based on reading assignments, and the essays are based on the documents from the reading assignments. As long as you put effort into the essay and discussion this class is a very easy A.
Christopher Halsted HIST111 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/02/2024	I really enjoyed this class and Professor Halsted. It was very easy if you just attended your discussion section and asked questions. If you miss lectures, it's no big deal. The information isn't always the most interesting, but it was an easy A.
Jen Romine HIST111 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/02/2024	Jen is an amazing TA. I would highly recommend taking HIST111 in general but especially with this TA!! They were a fair grader, and there were only 3 essays the whole semester that were straightforward. If you don't understand the assignment they will likely give you an extension (if you need it) or meet with you to discuss. 10/10 recommend!
Christopher Halsted HIST111 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/22/2023	Professor Halsted is a great person and teacher. It comes across that his main focus in the course is honestly to try to engage his students in history, which I admire. His lectures are interesting and he is always willing to answer questions. That being said, my discussion sections lacked that same quality. I felt comparatively less care from my TA, which, combined with slightly tough grading, made my likeability of this class decline. The assignments themselves are not difficult; the only real responsibilities are weekly discussion posts creating questions regarding one or multiple historical readings and 3 essays, which are relatively loose in their topic requirements, enabling you to write about the documents you understand the most. I would recommend this course, however, only to those who already enjoy this subject.
Christopher Halsted HIST111 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/18/2023	Professor Halsted is one of the best teachers you will have at UMD. He genuinely cares about his students and is super flexible about deadlines. The only assignments are one primary source reading once a week+a question about it and 3 essays. Super engaging lecturer, but doesn't take attendance and records all of his classes so you don't have to go if you don't want to. Does a great job explaining concepts. Phenomenal teacher!
Christopher Halsted HIST111 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/08/2023	Prof. Halsted is a great guy and clearly very passionate about the course. Lectures are not mandatory, but are fairly engaging and worth attending. The only downside is that your grade heavily relies on the 3 essays, which can be hard if writing isn't for you.
Christopher Halsted HIST111 Expecting a C- Anonymous 12/04/2023	Professor Halsted is amazing! He is very passionate about the topics that he's teaching. He clearly knows his stuff and takes the time to answer questions while speaking. His lectures are interesting and well-paced for the most part, though he does run over time occasionally. However, the class itself is less fantastic. A majority of the grade depends on three essays, and you only get two weeks prior to the essay due date to work on them (due to the professor individually releasing the prompts). The discussions are left to the TAs, which is fine, but there is definitely a decline in teaching quality. The essays are challenging, but the discussion and participation points balance it out.
Christopher Halsted HIST111 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 12/02/2023	This class was quite difficult for me because I do not find the topics interesting. I did my best on the 3 essays (20% each) and the discussion questions (20% total) but I guess they weren't compelling to my TA. I received low B's on my essays and got 1/2 points (50%) for many discussion questions which tanked my grade. However, the professor is clearly passionate about what he teaches and is a nice guy.
Christopher Halsted HIST111 Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/30/2023	Very passionate about what he teaches and makes the lectures engaging most of the time. If you can write essays you will do well in the class.
Christopher Halsted HIST111 Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/30/2023	Halstead is very passionate about what he teaches and keeps most of the lectures engaging. Attendance is not mandatory and all lectures were recorded and posted online. There are three papers each worth 20% which makes up most of your grade. Overall an easy class if you can write essays. The downside is that your grades will vary greatly based on your TA. My TA graded everything very late and was not helpful during the discussion sections.
Christopher Halsted HIST111 Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/09/2023	Loved this class and professor. He's down-to-earth and entertaining. I loved that the class was not just about European Medieval history but touched on other parts of the world too. I think attending his lectures isn't necessary, but he is a good lecturer so it's worth it. Reading the material before discussion should be enough to participate and the papers can be done just by reading the material as well.
Christopher Halsted HIST111 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/06/2023	Amazing professor. He's very engaging and funny, and makes the material easy to understand. I pretty much just took the course without any prior interest just to get a gen ed out of the way, but he was surprisingly interesting. Your grade is based on three essays, each worth 20%. Another 20% is in questions you ask each week about the readings, and then the other 20% is just going to discussion and participating. I'd really recommend this course and professor to anyone looking for an engaging class.
Colleen Ho HIST111 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/14/2022	Professor Ho is clearly incredibly knowledgeable and well-versed in her field. I learned a lot that I didn't know before and I enjoyed the content of the lectures. However, the class was shockingly hard for a 100-level class. The exams wouldn't have been hard in theory, but we received no study guide and were expected to guess what was "important" enough to be put on an exam. The content of the class was very dense and complex, so narrowing it down even just a little bit would've made it much easier. Definitely not an easy gen-ed, but probably a good class for an actual history major.
Colleen Ho HIST111 Anonymous 04/07/2022	Although she is very nice and knowledgeable, the class is unreasonably hard and the work load is very heavy. It is difficult to do work that is up to Professor Ho and the TA's standards. This class is not what you expect, majority of the time we learn about religions and only one day we learned about vikings in a very short lecture. DO NOT take this class if you are bad at history, this class is not worth your time. Also there are readings due every Tuesday and Thursday that have at least 25 pages in them so do not take this class if you have other difficult classes. The exams were also extremely difficult and Professor Ho did not give us a study guide, so I had to go through every single reading and guess which events and people were important and will be on the exam. The TA's also take FOREVER to grade the homework assignments and exams so I didn't even know what my grade was for the entire semester. DO NOT take this class, it is definitely not an easy GenEd.
Colleen Ho HIST111 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/06/2021	Dr. Ho was the reason I decided to double major in history. I took her Medieval history class first semester freshman year and it was probably my favorite class that I have taken so far. I really enjoy her lecturing style. Between her slides and her spoken words, you get all the necessary information that you need for the exams. She made the information very engaging and I am taking another class of hers next semester because of it. The workload is not bad. You just have to do discussion posts and write one paper and the exams are just a couple of IDs with an essay. If you need a GenEd, TAKE THIS COURSE!!
Colleen Ho HIST111 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/12/2020	There's a lot of reading to do and there's a research paper at the end of the semester that I suggest you do well on. But she's very knowledgeable and knows how to keep the class engaged. I don't like history and even I enjoyed this class.
Colleen Ho HIST111 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/30/2020	Prof. Ho is extremely knowledgeable, and presents the class information in a way that is easy to understand and retain. Although she assigns a lot of reading, they truly help to further understanding of subjects. She is very strict in class, but also is super accommidating towards students who need help. Extremely organized course made it easy to learn info and understand my grades.
Colleen Ho HIST111 Expecting an A- Anonymous 03/24/2020	Very knowledgeable and approachable professor. She presents the material in a very fun way. Loved being in her class. She does assign lots of reading to supplement the class which is a shock at the start but becomes easier as the semester progresses.

Christopher Halsted
HIST111

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/14/2025

Halsted is a fun teacher to have, and is very knowledgeable about what he is teaching. I enjoyed going to lectures and discussions, although I do kind of feel like the course is by its nature disconnected, as he goes through 1000 years of world history.

Christopher Halsted
HIST111

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/13/2025

Cons: - Liberal and makes sure you know it, and just assumes everyone else is too (likes to trash talk conservatives, which is pretty rude and assuming of him) - Cusses a lot (VERY unprofessional) - Likes to make fun of religion Pros: - Very easy homework-wise, doesn’t care much about assignment formatting which is nice - Can be pretty funny

Stefano Villani
HIST111

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/12/2024

Very knowledgeable and passionate teacher. You get used to his accent after the first couple classes and he posts the slides from class. Listens to critiques very well and incorporates it into his lecture. Overall great professor!

Stefano Villani
HIST111

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/11/2024

Took this as an intro course due to a major change and thoroughly enjoyed it. I am not the best student, I will say so my grade might end up being more of a B. My only issue was that all the major assignments are worth 25% of your grade (midterm exam, midterm paper, discussion, and final exam). That being said, grading is fairly lenient and if you utilize the book properly you're going to do well for yourself. He provided a list of quiz questions from a site directly tied to the book and I've been using it to sustain my studies and it's super helpful. It also helps that I had a great TA (shout-out to Mauricio).

Stefano Villani
HIST111

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/10/2024

He is a great teacher he understands and displays the topic to a great extent. He posts slides that are extremely helpful, and he explains them in great detail. He might have an accent that I found difficult to understand in the beginning, but as time went on, I understood what he was saying clearly. Whenever I asked him a question through emails, I got instant responses, which I found extremely helpful. If you are interested in Medieval History or looking for a genEd course in history l would recommend you to take his class.

Stefano Villani
HIST111

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/08/2024

He's just a chill guy

Stefano Villani
HIST111

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/06/2024

Extremely passionate about what he's teaching and talking about. He does have an accent, but his slides are there and the TAs expand upon material in discussion sections so it's not a problem at all. He is super reasonable about things being too hard and listens to student feedback asap. I wouldn't want anyone else to teach me about Medieval History--he has the added bonus of a European viewpoint too, so it definitely adds to the class and his interpretations with the material.

Stefano Villani
HIST111

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/05/2024

I took this class for a gen ed, and I was very satisfied with my experience! Prof Villani is so passionate about the content and I loved to hear him talk- I never skipped a class. Each lecture is full of a lot of content, but we are not expected to be able to regurgitate all of it- rather use the main ideas as arguments in our exam essays. In the beginning of the semester, he received feedback that we were assigned too many readings per week, so he immediately cut down on the assigned work. He's really a great professor and it definitely helps if you're interested in Medieval History.

Christopher Halsted
HIST111

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/07/2024

Professor Halsted is a very sweet person! He is so passionate about the subject and seems to really care about each of us. However, I found this class to be incredibly boring. I didn't enjoy the material. But that might be because I'm not a history buff, so take that as you will. I ended up skipping most of his lectures, which I feel bad about however they are completely unecessary for the discussions and essays. The discussions are based on reading assignments, and the essays are based on the documents from the reading assignments. As long as you put effort into the essay and discussion this class is a very easy A.

Christopher Halsted
HIST111

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/02/2024

I really enjoyed this class and Professor Halsted. It was very easy if you just attended your discussion section and asked questions. If you miss lectures, it's no big deal. The information isn't always the most interesting, but it was an easy A.

Jen Romine
HIST111

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/02/2024

Jen is an amazing TA. I would highly recommend taking HIST111 in general but especially with this TA!! They were a fair grader, and there were only 3 essays the whole semester that were straightforward. If you don't understand the assignment they will likely give you an extension (if you need it) or meet with you to discuss. 10/10 recommend!

Christopher Halsted
HIST111

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/22/2023

Professor Halsted is a great person and teacher. It comes across that his main focus in the course is honestly to try to engage his students in history, which I admire. His lectures are interesting and he is always willing to answer questions. That being said, my discussion sections lacked that same quality. I felt comparatively less care from my TA, which, combined with slightly tough grading, made my likeability of this class decline. The assignments themselves are not difficult; the only real responsibilities are weekly discussion posts creating questions regarding one or multiple historical readings and 3 essays, which are relatively loose in their topic requirements, enabling you to write about the documents you understand the most. I would recommend this course, however, only to those who already enjoy this subject.

Christopher Halsted
HIST111

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/18/2023

Professor Halsted is one of the best teachers you will have at UMD. He genuinely cares about his students and is super flexible about deadlines. The only assignments are one primary source reading once a week+a question about it and 3 essays. Super engaging lecturer, but doesn't take attendance and records all of his classes so you don't have to go if you don't want to. Does a great job explaining concepts. Phenomenal teacher!

Christopher Halsted
HIST111

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/08/2023

Prof. Halsted is a great guy and clearly very passionate about the course. Lectures are not mandatory, but are fairly engaging and worth attending. The only downside is that your grade heavily relies on the 3 essays, which can be hard if writing isn't for you.

Christopher Halsted
HIST111

Expecting a C-
Anonymous
12/04/2023

Professor Halsted is amazing! He is very passionate about the topics that he's teaching. He clearly knows his stuff and takes the time to answer questions while speaking. His lectures are interesting and well-paced for the most part, though he does run over time occasionally. However, the class itself is less fantastic. A majority of the grade depends on three essays, and you only get two weeks prior to the essay due date to work on them (due to the professor individually releasing the prompts). The discussions are left to the TAs, which is fine, but there is definitely a decline in teaching quality. The essays are challenging, but the discussion and participation points balance it out.

Christopher Halsted
HIST111

Expecting a C+
Anonymous
12/02/2023

This class was quite difficult for me because I do not find the topics interesting. I did my best on the 3 essays (20% each) and the discussion questions (20% total) but I guess they weren't compelling to my TA. I received low B's on my essays and got 1/2 points (50%) for many discussion questions which tanked my grade. However, the professor is clearly passionate about what he teaches and is a nice guy.

Christopher Halsted
HIST111

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
11/30/2023

Very passionate about what he teaches and makes the lectures engaging most of the time. If you can write essays you will do well in the class.

Christopher Halsted
HIST111

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
11/30/2023

Halstead is very passionate about what he teaches and keeps most of the lectures engaging. Attendance is not mandatory and all lectures were recorded and posted online. There are three papers each worth 20% which makes up most of your grade. Overall an easy class if you can write essays. The downside is that your grades will vary greatly based on your TA. My TA graded everything very late and was not helpful during the discussion sections.

Christopher Halsted
HIST111

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
11/09/2023

Loved this class and professor. He's down-to-earth and entertaining. I loved that the class was not just about European Medieval history but touched on other parts of the world too. I think attending his lectures isn't necessary, but he is a good lecturer so it's worth it. Reading the material before discussion should be enough to participate and the papers can be done just by reading the material as well.

Christopher Halsted
HIST111

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/06/2023

Amazing professor. He's very engaging and funny, and makes the material easy to understand. I pretty much just took the course without any prior interest just to get a gen ed out of the way, but he was surprisingly interesting. Your grade is based on three essays, each worth 20%. Another 20% is in questions you ask each week about the readings, and then the other 20% is just going to discussion and participating. I'd really recommend this course and professor to anyone looking for an engaging class.

Colleen Ho
HIST111

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/14/2022

Professor Ho is clearly incredibly knowledgeable and well-versed in her field. I learned a lot that I didn't know before and I enjoyed the content of the lectures. However, the class was shockingly hard for a 100-level class. The exams wouldn't have been hard in theory, but we received no study guide and were expected to guess what was "important" enough to be put on an exam. The content of the class was very dense and complex, so narrowing it down even just a little bit would've made it much easier. Definitely not an easy gen-ed, but probably a good class for an actual history major.

Colleen Ho
HIST111

Anonymous
04/07/2022

Although she is very nice and knowledgeable, the class is unreasonably hard and the work load is very heavy. It is difficult to do work that is up to Professor Ho and the TA's standards. This class is not what you expect, majority of the time we learn about religions and only one day we learned about vikings in a very short lecture. DO NOT take this class if you are bad at history, this class is not worth your time. Also there are readings due every Tuesday and Thursday that have at least 25 pages in them so do not take this class if you have other difficult classes. The exams were also extremely difficult and Professor Ho did not give us a study guide, so I had to go through every single reading and guess which events and people were important and will be on the exam. The TA's also take FOREVER to grade the homework assignments and exams so I didn't even know what my grade was for the entire semester. DO NOT take this class, it is definitely not an easy GenEd.

Colleen Ho
HIST111

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/06/2021

Dr. Ho was the reason I decided to double major in history. I took her Medieval history class first semester freshman year and it was probably my favorite class that I have taken so far. I really enjoy her lecturing style. Between her slides and her spoken words, you get all the necessary information that you need for the exams. She made the information very engaging and I am taking another class of hers next semester because of it. The workload is not bad. You just have to do discussion posts and write one paper and the exams are just a couple of IDs with an essay. If you need a GenEd, TAKE THIS COURSE!!

Colleen Ho
HIST111

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/12/2020

There's a lot of reading to do and there's a research paper at the end of the semester that I suggest you do well on. But she's very knowledgeable and knows how to keep the class engaged. I don't like history and even I enjoyed this class.

Colleen Ho
HIST111

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/30/2020

Prof. Ho is extremely knowledgeable, and presents the class information in a way that is easy to understand and retain. Although she assigns a lot of reading, they truly help to further understanding of subjects. She is very strict in class, but also is super accommidating towards students who need help. Extremely organized course made it easy to learn info and understand my grades.

Colleen Ho
HIST111

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
03/24/2020

Very knowledgeable and approachable professor. She presents the material in a very fun way. Loved being in her class. She does assign lots of reading to supplement the class which is a shock at the start but becomes easier as the semester progresses.

Reviews for HIST111