SPHL100 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Sylvette La Touche-Howard SPHL100 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 11/20/2024	You have to spend so much money on a useless textbook that is filled with Tedtalks and extremely long passages that aren't very useful. She wrote the textbook herself which makes it even worse. The asynchronous days are filled with long textbook readings and two 40 minute videos which are all not very helpful either. Plus it's so long and when students brought it up, she said read faster </3. For Wednsdays, they don't post the slides and go really fast based on the claim that you should already know this from Monday's work. Then they keep hounding you to take a picture and upload it for a grade. She usually is late or doesn't even show up. The Coffee and chats aren't helpful. I didn't really like the guest speaker classes either. And the assignments on Wednsday take way longer than the assigned time. Fridays are fine, you have a quiz every week, however they never realease quiz answers so you can't even know what you got wrong/right and should study.
Sylvette La Touche-Howard SPHL100 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 10/29/2024	Book cost is high but need is very low. Chapter exams are worth about 2.7% of grade so you don't need to do them and the formatting is even difficult. Recorded lectures don't teach or explain anything. Enrichment Wednesdays have a weird picture policy. Friday discussions are okay. The CEPHs group project would probably be better to be independent as most students have no direction in course.
Shuling Wu SPHL100 Expecting a B Anonymous 09/27/2024	DO NOT TAKE THIS TA. Cares WAY too much in a way that if another TA graded your work you would be doing much better in the class but since it is her she grades so particularly. SO frustrating, made me hate this class but it is required so there is nothing I can do. If you can STAY AWAY from taking this TA pls. This is a 100 level class and she acts like it is the most important thing in the world. If I could rate 0/5 I would.
Sylvette La Touche-Howard SPHL100 Expecting an A Anonymous 07/11/2024	this class sucks, $70 for an online book that she wrote herself full of tedtalks and long passages that NO ONE reads. Only bought it for the chapter quizzes that is only worth 3% of our grade. She never shows up to class her TA runs the course. Uploads a whole bunch of lecture videos ( total 2hrs) in modules that we have to watch in order to get a decent grade. So glad I'm done w this class. It's not a hard class if you just do the work, just the structure is crazy.
Sylvette La Touche-Howard SPHL100 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/17/2024	I truly want to know what this professor is thinking. This class is extremely complicated and has way too much work for a 100-level class. This professor does absolutely nothing (she actually attended lecture maybe three times). She lets all her TAs do her work for her. She also makes you buy a $70.00 book that she wrote. I can't begin to imagine how much she's profiting off of that. Unfortunately, you have to buy the book but there really isn't much useful information in it. A truly horrible part of this class is the class structure where you do a group project all semester long. I can't believe this was a 100-level class. Avoid if possible.
Wesley Anan SPHL100 Expecting an A Terpgrader_ 05/10/2024	Very open and engaging energy! Made me want to come to class to learn and was excited to hear his takes and perspectives since they were so fun! side note: in SPHL100 you can't pick your TA, but if you get Wes, you got lucky!
Sylvette La Touche-Howard SPHL100 Expecting an A Terpgrader_ 05/10/2024	Dr. LH was very chill and she had a very professional energy to her, she did not teach lectures very often as the class was mainly asynchronous, but when we came into class on Wednesdays and she did teach, she was very passionate about the topics and she was easy to approach and ask questions and raise your opinions too! (Also if you are in the GEMS honor college, she was a faculty member for a previous team, so if your research aligns with hers, def consider her as a potential mentor!)
Sylvette La Touche-Howard SPHL100 Anonymous 04/24/2024	This class graded components are weighted soooo heavily that if you mess up just by a little your grade drops by so much. I hate this class.
Sylvette La Touche-Howard SPHL100 Anonymous 04/19/2024	I haven't taken a 100 level class at the university before, but I'm going to go ahead and take everyone's word for it that it was intense and taught like some of my 200-level classes. With all that said, she does a really great job teaching, gave me a thorough introduction to many topics. Just expect this class to take up 3+ hours of your week.
Sylvette La Touche-Howard SPHL100 Anonymous 04/05/2024	The first day of class I was told this was a "world renowned class", but that turned out to be the biggest lie of the century. For a 100 level class, the workload was way too much and not to mentioned buying a $70 textbook La Touche-Howard "made" herself. Turns out the textbook was not useful for any class work, but you are pretty much forced to buy it so you can take quizzes with unlimited attempts (so really quizzes that are a waste of time and space). The structure of this class is quite crazy. You must come to you discussions or you can't do this assignments. I normally understand why professors do this, so there is a good attendance for an actual discussion. But, the discussions is time where you are talked to for 5 minutes and then literally forced to sit there the full 50 minutes whether you want to do your assignment then or not. So it turns out its just another waste of time just like this whole course! Interestingly enough, for a person who goes to class, I have never seen La Touche-Howard actually lecture. She seems like a busy person, so maybe not signing up to teach this class would be best for her.
Sylvette La Touche-Howard SPHL100 Anonymous 01/31/2024	Absurd amount of work for a 100-level class. The first week, we had a quiz on 4 videos in her online textbook, 2 chapters, 3 lecture videos, an in-person lecture, and a reading assigned from a lecture. It's way too much and one of the most disorganized classes I've ever been in.
Sylvette La Touche-Howard SPHL100 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/14/2024	The class itself is not too difficult… but it does the absolute most and requires way too much work for a 100-level class. It is ridiculous. The class is all over the place. The schedule is rarely ever the same from week to week so always make sure to check announcements about where you are supposed to be- yes the lack of consistency can be tiring but they do try their best to communicate with students a week in advance by sending out a schedule. Usually supposed to be Monday (asynchronous online lectures), Wednesday enrichment (optional), Friday discussions (mandatory). Don’t have much of an opinion on Dr. Howard cause you only see her once a week on Wednesdays for the enrichment activity and she doesn’t grade any of your assignments. But will say she's not a boring lecturer and is pretty engaging during enrichment activities. TA’s grade everything. If you have Taliah you are set as long as you do what you're supposed to do, she’s great!! YOU HAVE TO BUY THE BOOK! They clearly read previous semester reviews where people said ‘oh you don’t need the book’ and said oh ard bet. The book is used for about 2 discussion activities, your weekly cognella quizzes worth 2.5% of your grade are in the book, and the weekly 25% of your grade quizzes include questions from TED Talks in the book, sometimes there are repeats from cognella quizzes, and sometimes there are questions straight from book chapter content... plus the lecture recordings. I wouldn't say to stress about reading the chapters word for word, just do a quick glance, and go to the TeaTime hosted on Zoom before the quiz (sometimes there are repeats on the weekly 25% quizzes). And you might think oh well maybe I can skate by taking an L on the 2.5%. Doesn't sound bad, maybe I’ll just be a good guesser for the big weekly exams and not get or read the book… until you realize that getting a 4.0 in the class requires a 92.5% and not a 90% like most classes. Lastly, the CAP project is frustrating & takes up such an excessive amount of time. If you don’t have a good group that pulls their weight you will be miserable.
Sylvette La Touche-Howard SPHL100 Expecting an A- ftchatch 12/24/2023	lectures are only online which made they difficult to actually do if I wasn't going to be force fed them first through an in person lecture. which then made the lecture style class on Wednesdays difficult to attend if there was no class on Monday. the wednesday classes aren't even lectures though as they are called enrichment activities so you can apply what you were supposed to learn that week to a real word context. the TAs and uTAs were really the people that pulled this class together with their weekly zoom study sessions and the discussions on Friday. I saw this professor face to face maybe a total of 6 times this semester...weird learning structure
Sylvette La Touche-Howard SPHL100 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/21/2023	The class is mostly just busy work but the group project can be a pain if your group members are lazy.
Sylvette La Touche-Howard SPHL100 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/11/2023	She is so sweet and passionate about this course and public health in general. However, there is a lot of busy work for a 100 level class. Every week there were multiple lecture videos to watch on top of textbook articles and videos. The quizzes were a bit challenging even with preparing for them so go to the "Tea Time" which they had very similar questions to the quiz. The format of the class was a bit odd, Mondays were asynchronous and Wednesday was an "Enrichment Activity" which weren't really useful to the quizzes. Some of the discussion were over zoom. The CAP project was overwhelming at times. It's a semester long project that had multiple individual and group assignments to help with the final paper. My ta was very strict on grading and I lost a lot of points without much reasoning. They also didn't explain much of the assignments at all, if anything it was only during the Friday's discussion which wouldn't help as they didn't respond to emails over the weekend and the assignments were always due on Monday. Its not like the assignments are too challenging or unmanageable, it was just that we weren't given much explanation in order to fully understand their expectations.
Sylvette La Touche-Howard SPHL100 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/08/2023	She is a good professor and is very enthusiastic about teaching public health. I do not like how we're forced to buy her textbook which wasn't really necessary to pass the class.
Wes Annan SPHL100 Expecting an A- TerpyWerpy 12/04/2023	If you can, choose him for your SPHL100 section TA!!! He's super nice and friendly and makes the class so much more fun, lively, and big emphasis on understanding. Very helpful, Just a great dude to even just be able to talk to, I'm glad he was my TA.
Sylvette La Touche-Howard SPHL100 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/01/2023	The semester-long group project can be a pain depending on your group members. Not too difficult, just some busy work.
Sylvette La Touche-Howard SPHL100 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/30/2023	She is the nicest professor in the world but structures this class kind of weirdly. All the lectures were recorded and asynchronous, and the actual "lecture" would be an enrichment activity. There would also be weekly textbook quizzes, elms quizzes, and pre-discussion activities. Then, the Friday discussion would be mandatory. There was also a semester-long group project in which instructions could have been given more clearly and the deadlines could have been more spread out. I feel like the structure of the class was messy, but she is really kind.
Sylvette La Touche-Howard SPHL100 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/26/2023	This class was definitely something... The professor herself was rarely present except for in the weekly (not mandatory) lectures. I never had any contact with her but she seemed very ingenuine would not show up to lectures for weeks in a row. The structure of class was horrible. The discussions were mandatory but completely useless. My TA was alright but she was a bit of a strict grader and made things extremely confusing sometimes, however she definitely tried to help as much as she could which did end up benefitting me in the end. The textbook was literally a scam, and you lowkey have no choice but to buy it because of the way the class is structured which was super annoying since it was so expensive and useless... I dreaded the weekly quizzes since they were difficult and hard to prepare for. We also never got any feedback on them except for a score, more than a week later, which was super unhelpful. The class itself was not to difficult but it is structured atrociously and I felt like I could have gotten a lot more out of it if the professor wasn't so lazy in the way she structured the class (so that she would have to do the least amount of interaction with students as possible).
Sylvette La Touche-Howard SPHL100 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/25/2023	Dr. LH is such an enthusiastic and engaged professor and her TAs are nice but incredibly picky graders. This course is extremely stupid although the content is very interesting. The lecture and readings are online and then once a week there are "enrichment activities" that you don't actually have to go to but are beneficial for taking the quiz. Once a week usually on Thursdays there is a quiz online and then Fridays there are mandatory discussions that usually have more readings to do before going. I only took this class because I was required to and it was the most pain in the butt class ever. The quizzes are hard because they are super specific or don't even ask relevant questions about the course content. Don't buy the textbook it's a waste because all the info you need can come from the slides, enrichment activity, and Google. Instead of a final, there is a semester-long group project. The groups are random based on your discussion and how it goes really depends on your group. The mini assignments that go with it suck but are helpful for writing the final ~15-page group paper. There was literally a short paper due the Monday after spring break. The TAs can be harsh graders at times but are also fair. My TA let us out of class in 30 minutes or less each week which was great, but not all TAs are like that. I am so glad I never have to take this class again because it was such a pain in the butt and by no means an easy "A".
Sylvette La Touche-Howard SPHL100 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/25/2023	Dr. LH is a nice prof teaching interesting content, so naturally she structures the course in an incredibly stupid format because apparently we can't have nice things. Actual lecture material is online asynchronous, the in-person lecture sessions are "enrichment activities" and you only go to 1 of the 2 a week (you don't choose, its based on discussion section), and the actual discussions are mandatory attendance. There's a semester long group project ending in a ~15 page group essay that counts as your final paper, so have fun with that and hope you have a good group. Also, there's an ELMS quiz every week on Thursdays, even though there's not supposed to be class on that day. The quiz claims to be based on content from the lecture videos, other random required videos, enrichment activities, and textbook. In practice, it's almost all from lecture videos, maybe a bit from enrichment activities. As all the others have said, don't buy the textbook. It's a scam. The prof and TAs will repeatedly say you need it, but you don't. The weekly quiz questions will sometimes be like "as so and so said in the textbook...", but they're easy to guess and/or google without reading it. The week 2 discussion assignment will have something based on the textbook, but its just to scare you into getting it. Just ask someone else there or google it. Also, it's not a textbook. It's a canvas page hosted by a site other than ELMS, locked behind a $70 paywall for no reason. Don't get it!
Sylvette La Touche-Howard SPHL100 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/29/2022	This is a pretty easy class and she's a nice professor! The textbook is not worth it to be honest. I never used it so don't worry too much about buying it!! As for the class, the quizzes and discussions are quite easy and chill. They ended up dropping only one quiz and two discussion grades, but if you do good on the discussions they can fairly distribute it to your quizzes instead! Btw, the course is graded by the TA so they will depict how your semester goes (my ta was very nice and a fair grader!!). The only con would be the semester long group project. It's not hard but it can be quite annoying. My group had minimal communication but we all still managed to do well on all of our assignments!!!
Sylvette La Touche-Howard SPHL100 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/27/2022	DONT BUY THE TEXTBOOK!!! i didn't even use it pls don't buy. but other than that, the professor and my TA were very sweet! it's a very easy course depending on the people in your group and your TA! eileen was super sweet so if she TAs you'll def be in good hands!!!
Sylvette La Touche-Howard SPHL100 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/24/2022	This class is an easy A honestly. DO NOT BUY HER TEXTBOOK! Waste of $46 or whatever it is, there wasn't a single assignment or reading in there that was needed for the class. Weekly quizzes, two of which are dropped. I just opened the study guide and googled the answers and did above average on them. The semester is one big group project, but as long as you do your parts of the assignment you can tell the TA that your group didn't help (if they didn't) and then they'll give good grades. Lecture isn't required but it is nice to go for some help on the quizzes.
Sylvette La Touche-Howard SPHL100 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/21/2022	Honestly this is easy an easy class and I'm kind of upset I got a B+. I literally guessed on all of the quizzes and got above average, but your semester long cap project is graded by your ta. And I had the worse TA because she was so critical for everything I did. How did she find grammar errors when I plugged it into Grammarly? make it make sense. In short, do not buy that dumb book. Idk why she even advertises it lol. She posts a free snippet of what you're supposed to read from the book onto elms... This class wasn't time consuming, and it depends on your TA on what grade you'll get...
Sylvette La Touche-Howard SPHL100 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/14/2022	I agree with a lot of the reviews already on here. DO NOT buy the textbook. The textbook literally isn’t even writing it’s a bunch of tedtalks and random things Dr. Howard threw together. Your grade definitely depends on the TA but just show up and do the work and you’ll be fine. Her weekly online quizzes can definitely be challenging as they’re worded very weirdly. The final was a group project you work on majority of the semester. Super easy course but Dr. Howard tries to make it more complicated than it needs to sometimes.
Sylvette La Touche-Howard SPHL100 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/07/2022	No final for the class, easy quizzes as long as you watch the short videos or do the short readings. Discussion is once a week and lectures are useless.
Tracy Zeeger SPHL100 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/07/2022	Dr.Zeeger is an amazing professor. This class was very easy and organized. You would watch all the lectures on your own, then come to class for a discussion, and have a weekly quiz while you're at it. There's also a semester long "CAP Project" with a group you're assigned to for a whole semester, but it's not overwhelming as it's broken up into many parts. Great professor, and person :)
Sylvette La Touche-Howard SPHL100 Expecting an A Anonymous 08/05/2022	Dr. Howard is nice but your closest point of contact is your TA. Your success, unfortunately, depends on the TA. The format of the class was slightly strange. Dr. Howard and the TAs expect you to complete most of the assignments over the weekend, which is def inconvenient for most college students. We watched roughly 1-2 hours worth of videos and completed readings on Saturday and Sunday. On the bright side, we only had to attend one lecture (either Monday or Wednesday) and a discussion section on Friday. Both the lecture and discussion section were boring because we weren't learning anything new. Luckily, there were no exams in the class; only weekly 10-question quizzes. While the assignments can be hefty at times, they are manageable. You'll have a semester-long group project, so pick your group wisely.
Sylvette La Touche-Howard SPHL100 Expecting an A Anonymous 08/05/2022	Such an odd format for a class. Started the semester thinking it would be MW lectures and F discussion but turned out to be that MW are an optional enrichment activity and F is mandatory discussion. Lectures were recorded from COVID times and you had to watch that on your own time and take quiz on Thursday. Assignments are confusing and really complex for an into level course. It is not a difficult course to pass and you wont be too stressed from this class but it is just an odd intro course.
Sylvette La Touche-Howard SPHL100 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/21/2022	Dr. Sylvette La Touche- Howard is a good lecturer. Your class will be run mostly by your TA though. Depending on your TA, this class can be difficult because they can grade pretty harshly. You don't have to show up to enrichment activities, but you do need to show up for discussion (which is pretty useless). The majority of the class is made up of weekly quizzes, discussion activities, and a project (CAP). You don't need to really study for this class, but you do need to spend some time doing assignments. To be honest you don't need the textbook she asks you to buy, Its mostly supplementary information. Overall this class is pretty straightforward and an easy A if you read the slides and watch the video lectures.
Sylvette La Touche-Howard SPHL100 Anonymous 04/18/2022	Prof L-H is fine but its all run by TA's which are to serious and grade everything harshly. The rubrics are crazy and you are just glad if you get a B on an assignment. they do not take attendence M/W but they do on F discussion. I was flying home on friday and asked if I had to zoom in and the TA made me stay on until my flight literally took off. This just shows the level of craziness that this class is. I would not take this if you have holidays or wanting to go away on fridays. All of these other reviews are all true. There is a ridiculous amount of pre lecture work and then class M/W is a joke but you should attend bc there is a weekly quiz and they pull questions from both pre lecture material and class. Other odd thing is only have to attend M or W each week but not both because it is the same powerpoint. The powerpoint just goes over what you watched in pre lecture videos and readings.
Sylvette La Touche-Howard SPHL100 Anonymous 03/28/2022	The professor herself is really sweet, but you rarely deal with her. Everything is run by the TAs who take this class wayyyyyy too seriously. It's not run like a 100 level class at all. The topics are interesting but tbh the TAs ruined the experience for me.
Tracy Zeeger SPHL100 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/11/2021	Professor Zeeger is extremely caring about her students. The class operates in a flipped classroom, so we watch lectures online and then come to class for discussion. There's about a quiz every week which is based on lectures, plus a final group project spread out across the semester. The workload isn't too extreme and a good grade is attainable.
Sylvette La Touche-Howard SPHL100 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/10/2021	The beginning of the year was a bit disorganized, but overall not a very difficult class. There is a big group project at the end, so hope you get a decent group assigned. Lectures are interesting and she is very understanding/kind.
Sylvette La Touche-Howard SPHL100 Anonymous 11/08/2021	Quite disorganized and doesn't really know what's going on. Let's the TA's teach nearly everything and is also nit-picky with assignments.
Sylvette La Touche-Howard SPHL100 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 06/28/2021	Fun to understand different rates in preventative medicine. Cool videos on malpractice including Jay Cutler and Lead Abatement Research in DC in lower SEC. Cool to learn about food injustice and other health disparities.
Sylvette La Touche-Howard SPHL100 Expecting an A Anonymous 08/09/2020	She's super kind! Her lectures are kinda long but interesting. The course work seemed like a lot for a 100- level required course. The tests were challenging because it covered 7 long units.
Sylvette La Touche-Howard SPHL100 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 06/22/2020	Dr Howard is not a great professor, but she's not awful. The reason why this class is getting a 1/5 from me is the grading and difficulty. This is the hardest 100 level course that UMD offers. Exceedingly few people get an A in this class. You can work everyday, study, and do A level work, and still wind up with a B- in this course. Do not take this class, grading is unfair, and this scares many students away from Public Health.

Sylvette La Touche-Howard
SPHL100

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
11/20/2024

You have to spend so much money on a useless textbook that is filled with Tedtalks and extremely long passages that aren't very useful. She wrote the textbook herself which makes it even worse. The asynchronous days are filled with long textbook readings and two 40 minute videos which are all not very helpful either. Plus it's so long and when students brought it up, she said read faster </3. For Wednsdays, they don't post the slides and go really fast based on the claim that you should already know this from Monday's work. Then they keep hounding you to take a picture and upload it for a grade. She usually is late or doesn't even show up. The Coffee and chats aren't helpful. I didn't really like the guest speaker classes either. And the assignments on Wednsday take way longer than the assigned time. Fridays are fine, you have a quiz every week, however they never realease quiz answers so you can't even know what you got wrong/right and should study.

Sylvette La Touche-Howard
SPHL100

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
10/29/2024

Book cost is high but need is very low. Chapter exams are worth about 2.7% of grade so you don't need to do them and the formatting is even difficult. Recorded lectures don't teach or explain anything. Enrichment Wednesdays have a weird picture policy. Friday discussions are okay. The CEPHs group project would probably be better to be independent as most students have no direction in course.

Shuling Wu
SPHL100

Expecting a B
Anonymous
09/27/2024

DO NOT TAKE THIS TA. Cares WAY too much in a way that if another TA graded your work you would be doing much better in the class but since it is her she grades so particularly. SO frustrating, made me hate this class but it is required so there is nothing I can do. If you can STAY AWAY from taking this TA pls. This is a 100 level class and she acts like it is the most important thing in the world. If I could rate 0/5 I would.

Sylvette La Touche-Howard
SPHL100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
07/11/2024

this class sucks, $70 for an online book that she wrote herself full of tedtalks and long passages that NO ONE reads. Only bought it for the chapter quizzes that is only worth 3% of our grade. She never shows up to class her TA runs the course. Uploads a whole bunch of lecture videos ( total 2hrs) in modules that we have to watch in order to get a decent grade. So glad I'm done w this class. It's not a hard class if you just do the work, just the structure is crazy.

Sylvette La Touche-Howard
SPHL100

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/17/2024

I truly want to know what this professor is thinking. This class is extremely complicated and has way too much work for a 100-level class. This professor does absolutely nothing (she actually attended lecture maybe three times). She lets all her TAs do her work for her. She also makes you buy a $70.00 book that she wrote. I can't begin to imagine how much she's profiting off of that. Unfortunately, you have to buy the book but there really isn't much useful information in it. A truly horrible part of this class is the class structure where you do a group project all semester long. I can't believe this was a 100-level class. Avoid if possible.

Wesley Anan
SPHL100

Expecting an A
Terpgrader_
05/10/2024

Very open and engaging energy! Made me want to come to class to learn and was excited to hear his takes and perspectives since they were so fun! side note: in SPHL100 you can't pick your TA, but if you get Wes, you got lucky!

Sylvette La Touche-Howard
SPHL100

Expecting an A
Terpgrader_
05/10/2024

Dr. LH was very chill and she had a very professional energy to her, she did not teach lectures very often as the class was mainly asynchronous, but when we came into class on Wednesdays and she did teach, she was very passionate about the topics and she was easy to approach and ask questions and raise your opinions too! (Also if you are in the GEMS honor college, she was a faculty member for a previous team, so if your research aligns with hers, def consider her as a potential mentor!)

Sylvette La Touche-Howard
SPHL100

Anonymous
04/24/2024

This class graded components are weighted soooo heavily that if you mess up just by a little your grade drops by so much. I hate this class.

Sylvette La Touche-Howard
SPHL100

Anonymous
04/19/2024

I haven't taken a 100 level class at the university before, but I'm going to go ahead and take everyone's word for it that it was intense and taught like some of my 200-level classes. With all that said, she does a really great job teaching, gave me a thorough introduction to many topics. Just expect this class to take up 3+ hours of your week.

Sylvette La Touche-Howard
SPHL100

Anonymous
04/05/2024

The first day of class I was told this was a "world renowned class", but that turned out to be the biggest lie of the century. For a 100 level class, the workload was way too much and not to mentioned buying a $70 textbook La Touche-Howard "made" herself. Turns out the textbook was not useful for any class work, but you are pretty much forced to buy it so you can take quizzes with unlimited attempts (so really quizzes that are a waste of time and space). The structure of this class is quite crazy. You must come to you discussions or you can't do this assignments. I normally understand why professors do this, so there is a good attendance for an actual discussion. But, the discussions is time where you are talked to for 5 minutes and then literally forced to sit there the full 50 minutes whether you want to do your assignment then or not. So it turns out its just another waste of time just like this whole course! Interestingly enough, for a person who goes to class, I have never seen La Touche-Howard actually lecture. She seems like a busy person, so maybe not signing up to teach this class would be best for her.

Sylvette La Touche-Howard
SPHL100

Anonymous
01/31/2024

Absurd amount of work for a 100-level class. The first week, we had a quiz on 4 videos in her online textbook, 2 chapters, 3 lecture videos, an in-person lecture, and a reading assigned from a lecture. It's way too much and one of the most disorganized classes I've ever been in.

Sylvette La Touche-Howard
SPHL100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/14/2024

The class itself is not too difficult… but it does the absolute most and requires way too much work for a 100-level class. It is ridiculous. The class is all over the place. The schedule is rarely ever the same from week to week so always make sure to check announcements about where you are supposed to be- yes the lack of consistency can be tiring but they do try their best to communicate with students a week in advance by sending out a schedule. Usually supposed to be Monday (asynchronous online lectures), Wednesday enrichment (optional), Friday discussions (mandatory). Don’t have much of an opinion on Dr. Howard cause you only see her once a week on Wednesdays for the enrichment activity and she doesn’t grade any of your assignments. But will say she's not a boring lecturer and is pretty engaging during enrichment activities. TA’s grade everything. If you have Taliah you are set as long as you do what you're supposed to do, she’s great!! YOU HAVE TO BUY THE BOOK! They clearly read previous semester reviews where people said ‘oh you don’t need the book’ and said oh ard bet. The book is used for about 2 discussion activities, your weekly cognella quizzes worth 2.5% of your grade are in the book, and the weekly 25% of your grade quizzes include questions from TED Talks in the book, sometimes there are repeats from cognella quizzes, and sometimes there are questions straight from book chapter content... plus the lecture recordings. I wouldn't say to stress about reading the chapters word for word, just do a quick glance, and go to the TeaTime hosted on Zoom before the quiz (sometimes there are repeats on the weekly 25% quizzes). And you might think oh well maybe I can skate by taking an L on the 2.5%. Doesn't sound bad, maybe I’ll just be a good guesser for the big weekly exams and not get or read the book… until you realize that getting a 4.0 in the class requires a 92.5% and not a 90% like most classes. Lastly, the CAP project is frustrating & takes up such an excessive amount of time. If you don’t have a good group that pulls their weight you will be miserable.

Sylvette La Touche-Howard
SPHL100

Expecting an A-
ftchatch
12/24/2023

lectures are only online which made they difficult to actually do if I wasn't going to be force fed them first through an in person lecture. which then made the lecture style class on Wednesdays difficult to attend if there was no class on Monday. the wednesday classes aren't even lectures though as they are called enrichment activities so you can apply what you were supposed to learn that week to a real word context. the TAs and uTAs were really the people that pulled this class together with their weekly zoom study sessions and the discussions on Friday. I saw this professor face to face maybe a total of 6 times this semester...weird learning structure

Sylvette La Touche-Howard
SPHL100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/21/2023

The class is mostly just busy work but the group project can be a pain if your group members are lazy.

Sylvette La Touche-Howard
SPHL100

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/11/2023

She is so sweet and passionate about this course and public health in general. However, there is a lot of busy work for a 100 level class. Every week there were multiple lecture videos to watch on top of textbook articles and videos. The quizzes were a bit challenging even with preparing for them so go to the "Tea Time" which they had very similar questions to the quiz. The format of the class was a bit odd, Mondays were asynchronous and Wednesday was an "Enrichment Activity" which weren't really useful to the quizzes. Some of the discussion were over zoom. The CAP project was overwhelming at times. It's a semester long project that had multiple individual and group assignments to help with the final paper. My ta was very strict on grading and I lost a lot of points without much reasoning. They also didn't explain much of the assignments at all, if anything it was only during the Friday's discussion which wouldn't help as they didn't respond to emails over the weekend and the assignments were always due on Monday. Its not like the assignments are too challenging or unmanageable, it was just that we weren't given much explanation in order to fully understand their expectations.

Sylvette La Touche-Howard
SPHL100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/08/2023

She is a good professor and is very enthusiastic about teaching public health. I do not like how we're forced to buy her textbook which wasn't really necessary to pass the class.

Wes Annan
SPHL100

Expecting an A-
TerpyWerpy
12/04/2023

If you can, choose him for your SPHL100 section TA!!! He's super nice and friendly and makes the class so much more fun, lively, and big emphasis on understanding. Very helpful, Just a great dude to even just be able to talk to, I'm glad he was my TA.

Sylvette La Touche-Howard
SPHL100

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/01/2023

The semester-long group project can be a pain depending on your group members. Not too difficult, just some busy work.

Sylvette La Touche-Howard
SPHL100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/30/2023

She is the nicest professor in the world but structures this class kind of weirdly. All the lectures were recorded and asynchronous, and the actual "lecture" would be an enrichment activity. There would also be weekly textbook quizzes, elms quizzes, and pre-discussion activities. Then, the Friday discussion would be mandatory. There was also a semester-long group project in which instructions could have been given more clearly and the deadlines could have been more spread out. I feel like the structure of the class was messy, but she is really kind.

Sylvette La Touche-Howard
SPHL100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/26/2023

This class was definitely something... The professor herself was rarely present except for in the weekly (not mandatory) lectures. I never had any contact with her but she seemed very ingenuine would not show up to lectures for weeks in a row. The structure of class was horrible. The discussions were mandatory but completely useless. My TA was alright but she was a bit of a strict grader and made things extremely confusing sometimes, however she definitely tried to help as much as she could which did end up benefitting me in the end. The textbook was literally a scam, and you lowkey have no choice but to buy it because of the way the class is structured which was super annoying since it was so expensive and useless... I dreaded the weekly quizzes since they were difficult and hard to prepare for. We also never got any feedback on them except for a score, more than a week later, which was super unhelpful. The class itself was not to difficult but it is structured atrociously and I felt like I could have gotten a lot more out of it if the professor wasn't so lazy in the way she structured the class (so that she would have to do the least amount of interaction with students as possible).

Sylvette La Touche-Howard
SPHL100

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/25/2023

Dr. LH is such an enthusiastic and engaged professor and her TAs are nice but incredibly picky graders. This course is extremely stupid although the content is very interesting. The lecture and readings are online and then once a week there are "enrichment activities" that you don't actually have to go to but are beneficial for taking the quiz. Once a week usually on Thursdays there is a quiz online and then Fridays there are mandatory discussions that usually have more readings to do before going. I only took this class because I was required to and it was the most pain in the butt class ever. The quizzes are hard because they are super specific or don't even ask relevant questions about the course content. Don't buy the textbook it's a waste because all the info you need can come from the slides, enrichment activity, and Google. Instead of a final, there is a semester-long group project. The groups are random based on your discussion and how it goes really depends on your group. The mini assignments that go with it suck but are helpful for writing the final ~15-page group paper. There was literally a short paper due the Monday after spring break. The TAs can be harsh graders at times but are also fair. My TA let us out of class in 30 minutes or less each week which was great, but not all TAs are like that. I am so glad I never have to take this class again because it was such a pain in the butt and by no means an easy "A".

Sylvette La Touche-Howard
SPHL100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/25/2023

Dr. LH is a nice prof teaching interesting content, so naturally she structures the course in an incredibly stupid format because apparently we can't have nice things. Actual lecture material is online asynchronous, the in-person lecture sessions are "enrichment activities" and you only go to 1 of the 2 a week (you don't choose, its based on discussion section), and the actual discussions are mandatory attendance. There's a semester long group project ending in a ~15 page group essay that counts as your final paper, so have fun with that and hope you have a good group. Also, there's an ELMS quiz every week on Thursdays, even though there's not supposed to be class on that day. The quiz claims to be based on content from the lecture videos, other random required videos, enrichment activities, and textbook. In practice, it's almost all from lecture videos, maybe a bit from enrichment activities. As all the others have said, don't buy the textbook. It's a scam. The prof and TAs will repeatedly say you need it, but you don't. The weekly quiz questions will sometimes be like "as so and so said in the textbook...", but they're easy to guess and/or google without reading it. The week 2 discussion assignment will have something based on the textbook, but its just to scare you into getting it. Just ask someone else there or google it. Also, it's not a textbook. It's a canvas page hosted by a site other than ELMS, locked behind a $70 paywall for no reason. Don't get it!

Sylvette La Touche-Howard
SPHL100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/29/2022

This is a pretty easy class and she's a nice professor! The textbook is not worth it to be honest. I never used it so don't worry too much about buying it!! As for the class, the quizzes and discussions are quite easy and chill. They ended up dropping only one quiz and two discussion grades, but if you do good on the discussions they can fairly distribute it to your quizzes instead! Btw, the course is graded by the TA so they will depict how your semester goes (my ta was very nice and a fair grader!!). The only con would be the semester long group project. It's not hard but it can be quite annoying. My group had minimal communication but we all still managed to do well on all of our assignments!!!

Sylvette La Touche-Howard
SPHL100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/27/2022

DONT BUY THE TEXTBOOK!!! i didn't even use it pls don't buy. but other than that, the professor and my TA were very sweet! it's a very easy course depending on the people in your group and your TA! eileen was super sweet so if she TAs you'll def be in good hands!!!

Sylvette La Touche-Howard
SPHL100

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/24/2022

This class is an easy A honestly. DO NOT BUY HER TEXTBOOK! Waste of $46 or whatever it is, there wasn't a single assignment or reading in there that was needed for the class. Weekly quizzes, two of which are dropped. I just opened the study guide and googled the answers and did above average on them. The semester is one big group project, but as long as you do your parts of the assignment you can tell the TA that your group didn't help (if they didn't) and then they'll give good grades. Lecture isn't required but it is nice to go for some help on the quizzes.

Sylvette La Touche-Howard
SPHL100

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/21/2022

Honestly this is easy an easy class and I'm kind of upset I got a B+. I literally guessed on all of the quizzes and got above average, but your semester long cap project is graded by your ta. And I had the worse TA because she was so critical for everything I did. How did she find grammar errors when I plugged it into Grammarly? make it make sense. In short, do not buy that dumb book. Idk why she even advertises it lol. She posts a free snippet of what you're supposed to read from the book onto elms... This class wasn't time consuming, and it depends on your TA on what grade you'll get...

Sylvette La Touche-Howard
SPHL100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/14/2022

I agree with a lot of the reviews already on here. DO NOT buy the textbook. The textbook literally isn’t even writing it’s a bunch of tedtalks and random things Dr. Howard threw together. Your grade definitely depends on the TA but just show up and do the work and you’ll be fine. Her weekly online quizzes can definitely be challenging as they’re worded very weirdly. The final was a group project you work on majority of the semester. Super easy course but Dr. Howard tries to make it more complicated than it needs to sometimes.

Sylvette La Touche-Howard
SPHL100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/07/2022

No final for the class, easy quizzes as long as you watch the short videos or do the short readings. Discussion is once a week and lectures are useless.

Tracy Zeeger
SPHL100

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/07/2022

Dr.Zeeger is an amazing professor. This class was very easy and organized. You would watch all the lectures on your own, then come to class for a discussion, and have a weekly quiz while you're at it. There's also a semester long "CAP Project" with a group you're assigned to for a whole semester, but it's not overwhelming as it's broken up into many parts. Great professor, and person :)

Sylvette La Touche-Howard
SPHL100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
08/05/2022

Dr. Howard is nice but your closest point of contact is your TA. Your success, unfortunately, depends on the TA. The format of the class was slightly strange. Dr. Howard and the TAs expect you to complete most of the assignments over the weekend, which is def inconvenient for most college students. We watched roughly 1-2 hours worth of videos and completed readings on Saturday and Sunday. On the bright side, we only had to attend one lecture (either Monday or Wednesday) and a discussion section on Friday. Both the lecture and discussion section were boring because we weren't learning anything new. Luckily, there were no exams in the class; only weekly 10-question quizzes. While the assignments can be hefty at times, they are manageable. You'll have a semester-long group project, so pick your group wisely.

Sylvette La Touche-Howard
SPHL100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
08/05/2022

Such an odd format for a class. Started the semester thinking it would be MW lectures and F discussion but turned out to be that MW are an optional enrichment activity and F is mandatory discussion. Lectures were recorded from COVID times and you had to watch that on your own time and take quiz on Thursday. Assignments are confusing and really complex for an into level course. It is not a difficult course to pass and you wont be too stressed from this class but it is just an odd intro course.

Sylvette La Touche-Howard
SPHL100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/21/2022

Dr. Sylvette La Touche- Howard is a good lecturer. Your class will be run mostly by your TA though. Depending on your TA, this class can be difficult because they can grade pretty harshly. You don't have to show up to enrichment activities, but you do need to show up for discussion (which is pretty useless). The majority of the class is made up of weekly quizzes, discussion activities, and a project (CAP). You don't need to really study for this class, but you do need to spend some time doing assignments. To be honest you don't need the textbook she asks you to buy, Its mostly supplementary information. Overall this class is pretty straightforward and an easy A if you read the slides and watch the video lectures.

Sylvette La Touche-Howard
SPHL100

Anonymous
04/18/2022

Prof L-H is fine but its all run by TA's which are to serious and grade everything harshly. The rubrics are crazy and you are just glad if you get a B on an assignment. they do not take attendence M/W but they do on F discussion. I was flying home on friday and asked if I had to zoom in and the TA made me stay on until my flight literally took off. This just shows the level of craziness that this class is. I would not take this if you have holidays or wanting to go away on fridays. All of these other reviews are all true. There is a ridiculous amount of pre lecture work and then class M/W is a joke but you should attend bc there is a weekly quiz and they pull questions from both pre lecture material and class. Other odd thing is only have to attend M or W each week but not both because it is the same powerpoint. The powerpoint just goes over what you watched in pre lecture videos and readings.

Sylvette La Touche-Howard
SPHL100

Anonymous
03/28/2022

The professor herself is really sweet, but you rarely deal with her. Everything is run by the TAs who take this class wayyyyyy too seriously. It's not run like a 100 level class at all. The topics are interesting but tbh the TAs ruined the experience for me.

Tracy Zeeger
SPHL100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/11/2021

Professor Zeeger is extremely caring about her students. The class operates in a flipped classroom, so we watch lectures online and then come to class for discussion. There's about a quiz every week which is based on lectures, plus a final group project spread out across the semester. The workload isn't too extreme and a good grade is attainable.

Sylvette La Touche-Howard
SPHL100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/10/2021

The beginning of the year was a bit disorganized, but overall not a very difficult class. There is a big group project at the end, so hope you get a decent group assigned. Lectures are interesting and she is very understanding/kind.

Sylvette La Touche-Howard
SPHL100

Anonymous
11/08/2021

Quite disorganized and doesn't really know what's going on. Let's the TA's teach nearly everything and is also nit-picky with assignments.

Sylvette La Touche-Howard
SPHL100

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
06/28/2021

Fun to understand different rates in preventative medicine. Cool videos on malpractice including Jay Cutler and Lead Abatement Research in DC in lower SEC. Cool to learn about food injustice and other health disparities.

Sylvette La Touche-Howard
SPHL100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
08/09/2020

She's super kind! Her lectures are kinda long but interesting. The course work seemed like a lot for a 100- level required course. The tests were challenging because it covered 7 long units.

Sylvette La Touche-Howard
SPHL100

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
06/22/2020

Dr Howard is not a great professor, but she's not awful. The reason why this class is getting a 1/5 from me is the grading and difficulty. This is the hardest 100 level course that UMD offers. Exceedingly few people get an A in this class. You can work everyday, study, and do A level work, and still wind up with a B- in this course. Do not take this class, grading is unfair, and this scares many students away from Public Health.

Reviews for SPHL100