INST104 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Francesca Polito INST104 Expecting an A Anonymous 03/25/2025	This class was a big time sink. Just because the class is online doesn't mean the it wasn't time consuming. I am taking the class this semester and I guess a lot of people said the class was too easy and from what I have heard in accordance to the semester before, it went from one discussion post a week and this semester there were 3 a week and regular assignments on top of that. The content itself was not hard but if you want another easy class, just take ENES140 or ENES210, which took way less work.
Anat Szendro Sevilla INST104 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 03/24/2025	HOLY BUSYWORK. This class isn't difficult, but man is it tedious. These sorting hat worksheets repeat the same five questions over and over and over again. Despite what you might have read about this course on Reddit, attendance for Anat's section is mandatory. Do NOT show up late to class or you will be punished by not being allowed onto the Zoom call. Doesn't sound so bad until you realize you have to be on the Zoom call to complete many assignments.
Anat Szendro Sevilla INST104 Expecting an A- Anonymous 03/12/2025	Very disorganized and confusing professor. Her instructions never make sense and only confuses students more when they ask questions.
Elia Shahbazi INST104 Expecting a W Anonymous 01/07/2025	Mandatory attendance on a three-hour class that primarily consists of the professor's stream of consciousness, and you lose points for not having other people in your group show up. The content is moderately interesting, and it's obvious that he has a lot of very interesting ideas and stories to tell, but wow if the class is not a test in your own patience.
Marilyn Iriarte Santacruz INST104 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/17/2024	I loved taking 104 with her! Clearly cares about the subject she is teaching. Gives sooo many extra credit opportunities and many students including myself ended with grades >100. If the class is taught in person, you will have to actually go to class because of the in-class activities that count for participation (in my Monday-Wednesday class, they were almost always on Wednesday). She summarizes all of the readings on her slides so you don't have to actually do them for the activities. She also rarely ever kept us for more than 40 minutes (in our 1 hr 15 min lecture) which was nice.
Marilyn Iriarte Santacruz INST104 Anonymous 12/17/2024	Makes her class very easy and forgiving. Class has occasional in-class activities. Lectures are often pretty slow, and homework can be a bit tedious, but the class is very fair and manageable, and Marilyn is a good professor if available.
Marilyn Iriarte Santacruz INST104 Anonymous 12/13/2024	Professor Marilyn Iriate Santacruz is a really nice person; however, the course had a bit of busy work (about 2-3 assignments due every week). There were 3 projects throughout the course include a video about good design, poster, and group project video. I went to her office hours to get feedback about my poster project, and she was very helpful! I got a 100% on the poster project. Cons: -You need to attend class on Wednesdays because there are group and participation activities. -The lectures were boring and nobody really paid attention. -Some of the Professor's instructions were unclear and confusing.
Marilyn Iriarte Santacruz INST104 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/12/2024	Very nice professor. You can tell that she is enthusiastic about her work and teaching others. The coursework is pretty bland, but easy to complete quickly.
Francesca Polito INST104 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/04/2024	Not much to say other than easy A and very kind professor. Took the zoom version of this class but it ended up being completely async. Course was interesting if you wanted to interact with the material, but you could get away without reading or watching a single thing. The work was easier than middle school content, no more than a simple discussion post a week. Probably the best gen ed class out there.
Francesca Polito INST104 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 11/28/2024	Class is asynchronous after the first meeting. Super easy class. Some weeks, she is very understanding of our workloads and doesn't give us an assignment. I'd say this is easier than ENES140/210 if you take this with Francesca or Katie Shilton.
Francesca Polito INST104 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 10/30/2024	Kind, very reasonable & lenient, so understanding. I’d highly recommend taking this course! The professor is incredibly helpful & doesn’t count attendance as a grade. Most grades come from discussion responses. I loved this course (for context, I took it online. Not sure what it’s like in person).
Marilyn Iriarte Santacruz INST104 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 10/23/2024	Though the course work is manageable, professor Marilyn Iriarte is probably my least favorite professor I have had at UMD so far. If you have the chance, take the online version of this class. I made the mistake of taking the in-person version of this class and have regretted it all semester.
Katie Shilton INST104 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/02/2024	This class was entirely online and the zooms were optional. I didn't go to class once and it didn't matter at all. Everything is posted at the beginning of the year so you can go at your own pace basically. I would recommend taking this easy A. Only annoying thing is the final project is a group project with 4 people I have never met and never respond when I message them.
Marilyn Iriarte Santacruz INST104 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/06/2023	She is so nice and wants you to succeed
Katie Shilton INST104 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/04/2023	take this for gpa boost and credit !!!!online class 3 credit meet once a week(have recoding upload), but i have never went to zoom or watch the recordings, I got A+. workload is easy, she's so nice, no penalty on late work at all.
Katie Shilton INST104 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/30/2023	TAKE THIS CLASS!!!!! I took it online and probably spent about 10 minutes a week on it. Such an easy A and I'm so glad I took it. All of the assignments are easy, Professor Shilton is the nicest person in the world and the assignments were actually enjoyable and fun. There is a group project for the final but it's easy. You have to create a google slides presentation then record yourself reading the slide. It honestly took my group probably an hour total to do the entire thing. Best class in the world.
Katie Shilton INST104 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/13/2023	A great professor who cares more about passing on knowledge than assigning you a grade. You learn a lot more in classes like these.
Katie Shilton INST104 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/07/2023	PLEASE TAKE THIS COURSE! It might be daunting to see a three-hour class session window, but these class sessions are completely optional, and I didn't even need to attend one to get an A in this class. Professor Shilton is super helpful if you have any questions, and the assignments throughout the semester are just 2-3 small canvas assignments a week. In addition, there are three projects, all of which are super easy too. These assignments are almost always graded extremely fairly(usually full credit). Overall, I highly recommend this class to anyone needing these gen-ed credits or requiring a very easy A.

Francesca Polito
INST104

Expecting an A
Anonymous
03/25/2025

This class was a big time sink. Just because the class is online doesn't mean the it wasn't time consuming. I am taking the class this semester and I guess a lot of people said the class was too easy and from what I have heard in accordance to the semester before, it went from one discussion post a week and this semester there were 3 a week and regular assignments on top of that. The content itself was not hard but if you want another easy class, just take ENES140 or ENES210, which took way less work.

Anat Szendro Sevilla
INST104

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
03/24/2025

HOLY BUSYWORK. This class isn't difficult, but man is it tedious. These sorting hat worksheets repeat the same five questions over and over and over again. Despite what you might have read about this course on Reddit, attendance for Anat's section is mandatory. Do NOT show up late to class or you will be punished by not being allowed onto the Zoom call. Doesn't sound so bad until you realize you have to be on the Zoom call to complete many assignments.

Anat Szendro Sevilla
INST104

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
03/12/2025

Very disorganized and confusing professor. Her instructions never make sense and only confuses students more when they ask questions.

Elia Shahbazi
INST104

Expecting a W
Anonymous
01/07/2025

Mandatory attendance on a three-hour class that primarily consists of the professor's stream of consciousness, and you lose points for not having other people in your group show up. The content is moderately interesting, and it's obvious that he has a lot of very interesting ideas and stories to tell, but wow if the class is not a test in your own patience.

Marilyn Iriarte Santacruz
INST104

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/17/2024

I loved taking 104 with her! Clearly cares about the subject she is teaching. Gives sooo many extra credit opportunities and many students including myself ended with grades >100. If the class is taught in person, you will have to actually go to class because of the in-class activities that count for participation (in my Monday-Wednesday class, they were almost always on Wednesday). She summarizes all of the readings on her slides so you don't have to actually do them for the activities. She also rarely ever kept us for more than 40 minutes (in our 1 hr 15 min lecture) which was nice.

Marilyn Iriarte Santacruz
INST104

Anonymous
12/17/2024

Makes her class very easy and forgiving. Class has occasional in-class activities. Lectures are often pretty slow, and homework can be a bit tedious, but the class is very fair and manageable, and Marilyn is a good professor if available.

Marilyn Iriarte Santacruz
INST104

Anonymous
12/13/2024

Professor Marilyn Iriate Santacruz is a really nice person; however, the course had a bit of busy work (about 2-3 assignments due every week). There were 3 projects throughout the course include a video about good design, poster, and group project video. I went to her office hours to get feedback about my poster project, and she was very helpful! I got a 100% on the poster project. Cons: -You need to attend class on Wednesdays because there are group and participation activities. -The lectures were boring and nobody really paid attention. -Some of the Professor's instructions were unclear and confusing.

Marilyn Iriarte Santacruz
INST104

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/12/2024

Very nice professor. You can tell that she is enthusiastic about her work and teaching others. The coursework is pretty bland, but easy to complete quickly.

Francesca Polito
INST104

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/04/2024

Not much to say other than easy A and very kind professor. Took the zoom version of this class but it ended up being completely async. Course was interesting if you wanted to interact with the material, but you could get away without reading or watching a single thing. The work was easier than middle school content, no more than a simple discussion post a week. Probably the best gen ed class out there.

Francesca Polito
INST104

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
11/28/2024

Class is asynchronous after the first meeting. Super easy class. Some weeks, she is very understanding of our workloads and doesn't give us an assignment. I'd say this is easier than ENES140/210 if you take this with Francesca or Katie Shilton.

Francesca Polito
INST104

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
10/30/2024

Kind, very reasonable & lenient, so understanding. I’d highly recommend taking this course! The professor is incredibly helpful & doesn’t count attendance as a grade. Most grades come from discussion responses. I loved this course (for context, I took it online. Not sure what it’s like in person).

Marilyn Iriarte Santacruz
INST104

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
10/23/2024

Though the course work is manageable, professor Marilyn Iriarte is probably my least favorite professor I have had at UMD so far. If you have the chance, take the online version of this class. I made the mistake of taking the in-person version of this class and have regretted it all semester.

Katie Shilton
INST104

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/02/2024

This class was entirely online and the zooms were optional. I didn't go to class once and it didn't matter at all. Everything is posted at the beginning of the year so you can go at your own pace basically. I would recommend taking this easy A. Only annoying thing is the final project is a group project with 4 people I have never met and never respond when I message them.

Marilyn Iriarte Santacruz
INST104

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/06/2023

She is so nice and wants you to succeed

Katie Shilton
INST104

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/04/2023

take this for gpa boost and credit !!!!online class 3 credit meet once a week(have recoding upload), but i have never went to zoom or watch the recordings, I got A+. workload is easy, she's so nice, no penalty on late work at all.

Katie Shilton
INST104

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/30/2023

TAKE THIS CLASS!!!!! I took it online and probably spent about 10 minutes a week on it. Such an easy A and I'm so glad I took it. All of the assignments are easy, Professor Shilton is the nicest person in the world and the assignments were actually enjoyable and fun. There is a group project for the final but it's easy. You have to create a google slides presentation then record yourself reading the slide. It honestly took my group probably an hour total to do the entire thing. Best class in the world.

Katie Shilton
INST104

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/13/2023

A great professor who cares more about passing on knowledge than assigning you a grade. You learn a lot more in classes like these.

Katie Shilton
INST104

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/07/2023

PLEASE TAKE THIS COURSE! It might be daunting to see a three-hour class session window, but these class sessions are completely optional, and I didn't even need to attend one to get an A in this class. Professor Shilton is super helpful if you have any questions, and the assignments throughout the semester are just 2-3 small canvas assignments a week. In addition, there are three projects, all of which are super easy too. These assignments are almost always graded extremely fairly(usually full credit). Overall, I highly recommend this class to anyone needing these gen-ed credits or requiring a very easy A.

Reviews for INST104