Reviews for PSYC289E

Information Review
Scott Roberts
PSYC289E

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
04/13/2015
I took this winter semester and it was the best descision I could have made. Dr. Roberts was engaging, funny, and incredibly knowledgable. He made 3 hours a day every day fun, or as fun they can be in a windowless room of BPS. The group project was a little stressful to do in a week, but he was very reasonable about expectations. His best quality: making everyone feel comfortable participating. He can turn the most idiotic question into a memorable answer without making the asker feel good about participating.
Scott Roberts
PSYC289E

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/05/2015
Dr. Roberts definitely cared a lot about his students. He was very responsive to emails. If a student showed some reason why an answer on a worksheet or an exam was wrong or could have been a different option, we would always reward correction points. He was extremely fair. There were ample extra credit opportunities. The material was extremely interesting. Be prepared to do a lot of work though. The worksheets every week always took many hours if you did them thoroughly. Doing them thoroughly is important to doing well on the exams. All of the exams are cumulative. It is a blended learning, so a scientific analysis is due every other week, but those are not bad. Just be prepared for doing more work than normal for a 200 level class. Overall a great class and great professor.
Scott Roberts
PSYC289E

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
01/06/2014
Fantastic teacher. He cares deeply about how his students are doing in his class which shows in his quality of lectures and assessments. He is also very responsive to emails (he sent out a class email one time at 1:30 am, hard working man!). The class does take a decent amount of time and effort but it is very well worth it. The material you will learn is incredibly interesting and highly applicable to your world today. You will find yourself talking about what you learned to family and friends long after the course is finished. Take it!!!
Scott Roberts
PSYC289E

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/21/2013
This class is probably my favorite class I've taken in college. I would categorize it as slightly more work than your average 200, but easy. The material is just fascinating, and Dr. Roberts does a great job going through it at a good pace and focusing on more interesting details. The case studies were especially entertaining. Dr. Roberts seems like he really cares about the students, but he also doesn't take BS or using cell phones in class. He WILL call you out, so some students found him intimidating--though I, personally, did not. He did everything in his power to make grading favor the students and would always resolve conflicts in our favor. There was tons of extra credit available. Study the CLOs posted at the beginning of the class, and tests are a breeze. The SA's were graded a bit harshly and I would focus my energy on making those perfect if I had another chance. Also, the group project was a bit of work, but Dr. Roberts helped everyone with that as much as he could as well. One of the comments below said worksheets were "very hard" and I think that is absolutely untrue if you have any remedial knowledge of psychology. I never got lower than an A on them. Also, as far as class structure goes, the Blended Learning style is both a blessing and a curse as it does lend toward more work, but it also gives you some Thursdays off. Roberts does use clicker questions for participation, graded on correctness, but lectures are not a chore to attend because they're so interesting.
Scott Roberts
PSYC289E

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/19/2013
Class was not as tough as he makes it seem day 1. Weekly homework assignments take 1-2 hours. Bi-weekly 1 page papers. Group project. Exams were really a cinch. He tells you exactly what will be on it so you just have to learn it. As for the teacher, he is probably the best communicator of the material I have ever had at Maryland. Really knows his stuff and knows the best ways to teach (considering he is a psychology doctorate). 5 stars are for Dr. Roberts. Class was pretty cool too.
Scott Roberts
PSYC289E

ravenfan1995
11/19/2013
RIDICULOUS GRADING. OUTRAGEOUS.
Scott Roberts
PSYC289E

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/03/2013
The Psychology Of Evil, I-Series course, is a class that all psychology majors should take. The material is SO INTERESTING. I loved going to class. You learn about why evil acts occur, what makes a person evil, the evolution of evil, psychopathy, the evil of inaction, and more. That beign said, this class is no joke. It was pretty hard. Personally I think that it was too difficult for a 200 level course and should be switched to a 300. However Roberts did make up for the difficulty in the end by offering a lot of extra credit opportunities. The class has a lot of different grades. Every class there are clicker questions, "learning checks." There are also points for attendance and Worksheets for homework. Worksheets WERE VERY HARD and took hours to complete. They are very very helpful to learning the material, though. There are also 3 group projects. These projects suck and didn't really help us learn anything. One of them was a group essay which was very hard to coordinate. There are also exams. Exams are difficult but extremely fair. They are made up of Multiple Choice and Short Answer questions, all of which accurately cover the course. Blended Assignments are another big part of the class - these are written essays (short) that are in place of class. There are two groups in the class, A and B, which alternate attending class on Thursdays. So everyone goes to class on Tuesdays, but on some Thursdays group A will go to lecture and group B will stay home and complete a Blended Assignment. Etc. Roberts has videos of the class posted on ELMS which are helpful as well. NO computers or cell phones allowed in class whatsoever. Class is very interactive and engaging so this shouldn't be an issue. He is also very fair when it comes to disputes about the worksheet questions. Lots of extra credit offered! :-) GREAT class. I don't think I've ever retained so much information from a class. It really makes you look at things differently. Definitely reccommend that you take it. Suggestion to Roberts would be the changing of the group projects.
Scott Roberts
PSYC289E

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/18/2012
Dr. Roberts is a pretty phenomenal teacher. He has a good grasp on concepts and uses interesting examples to stick things in your head. The course is Blended Learning Style (don't meet every other Thursday and instead have pretty simply one page essay to write) and there is a weekly online homework. The online homework takes a couple hours and was confusing or wrong a bunch of times but Dr. Roberts gave points back to make up for it. Try to get a good group on the last big project. This class takes a bit of effort but you don't really notice since the material is really interesting. He has a no-electronics policy in his classroom and he'll call you out if you're texting.
Scott Roberts
PSYC289E

Expecting an A
vwu234
11/30/2012
This class is very fun. He is very fun and will make jokes with you! PSYC289E required a lot of work but the class is fun and you learn about a lot of interesting topics. He's very engaging and you just have a great time really, minus the work I would recommend taking him and the Psychology of Evil :)