Courtney Douglass

This professor has taught: INST152, INST201, INST228, INST352

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Information	Review
Courtney Douglass INST201 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 01/18/2024	Please please PLEASE beware of Dr. Douglass!! I am begging you, the other reviews are 100% true. Dr. Douglass is incredibly disorganized, her quizzes make no sense, and she never responds to her emails. High emphasis on the previous review that the semester long “project” could easily be completed in a day. Honestly the content of this class can be interesting for Info Science but with Dr. Douglass’s poor organization and her leaving mid-semester, the class content felt like a drag and everything was busy work with no assistance from the professor herself. Late grades, but she is lenient with a 50% rule that made up for her tardiness (not sure if this happened in previous semesters) but overall the class with Dr. Douglass was just unnecessary stress and scrambling for what’s an intro course. I registered for INST201 with another professor (because I read the reviews first) and on the first day of classes the professor switched to Dr. Douglass without warning - if this happens to you, please switch out!!
Courtney Douglass INST201 Expecting a B Anonymous 01/09/2024	The professor was gone for most of the semester and had the TA teaching. She is a harsh grader and the quiz questions and assignment instructions were sometimes confusing. The final project is pretty easy but is dragged along the whole semester. Discussion was required but often pointless.
Courtney Douglass INST201 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/29/2023	If I had the ability to give 0 stars, I would. I took her over the Fall semester and she didn't even show up to most of her lectures, she made one of her TA's lecture the class. And when she did come to class she would just ramble on about whatever and leave everyone clueless. She is extremely disorganized and honestly makes me wonder if she even knows what she's teaching. To this day, I couldn't even tell you what I learned in the class. Her assignments and quizzes are unreasonable and her grading makes absolutely no sense. It's as if she rolls a die and just picks and chooses who gets what grade. She never puts in grades so you're left clueless as to where you stand in the class. Even if the quizzes were open note and the answers were literally on the slides, the answer would somehow still be wrong. While there are no midterms or a final, there are a few quizzes throughout the semester and a final deliverable. Like I said, the quizzes are unreasonable and made absolutely no sense. And the final deliverable made me feel like I was in fifth grade again cutting and gluing paper on to a trifold. I can go on and on about how horrible of a professor she is, but I think you got the idea. It is possible to get at least an A- in the class as long as you complete all the assignments and do the extra credit (extra credit is provided at the end of the semester). Overall, don't take her if you have the choice, save yourself some time!!
Courtney Douglass INST152 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/05/2023	Exams make no sense. Harsh grading. Professional Yapper. Don't do it.
Courtney Douglass INST152 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 10/07/2023	The UMD grade spread for INST152 is 80% of people get an A. When you look at Douglass' spread, it is less than 50. That isn't to say you cannot get an A in this course, but it is not an easy one. There are a lot of stupid assignments you are not going to want to do- Multiple a week that take a lot of time to complete. Her lectures are also excruciatingly boring, and the exams are impossible. The average on the last one was a 56%. Look for an easier A if this is a gen-ed, or work hard in this class.
Courtney Douglass INST201 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/21/2023	Her teaching style was actually interesting when we had lectures (she was gone for more than half of the semester). However, the material is quite boring. The TAs are incompetent but hope and pray she doesn't grade any of your stuff because she's not only harsh but also unfair. The class is really structured around a big "semester project" that my 7 yr old cousin can complete in a day hence she drags everything out to make up for the lack of more meaningful assignments. The quizzes are extremely weird. You can Command F the entire quiz based on the slides and end up with a 65. And to top things off, she doesn't adhere to her grading scale and ended up not posting assignments that were on the syllabus. Fellow terp, if you care about your well-being, please seek another class or professor.
Courtney Douglass INST201 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/17/2023	1. The class is extremely dysfunctional and assignments on the syllabus were either never created and loaded to canvas weeks late 2. Each Quiz was incredibly difficult and made for you to receive the lowest grade possible as she asked questions you couldn’t possibly prepare for or guess were relevant to the section. 3. Save yourself, do not take this class. The class content is enjoyable, but there’s no reason why I shouldn’t have an A.
Courtney Douglass INST201 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/16/2023	Just because someone has a Ph.D. does not mean they are a good teacher. Courtney was the worst professor I have had at UMD - little communication with students, harsh grading, warped and confusing quiz questions, unorganized, and switched between in-person and online lectures without sending announcements. The list of issues with her class is lengthy and she is not a real professor. I hope the INST college can look for some better professors because this is not worth anyone's tuition.
Courtney Douglass INST201 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 05/06/2023	Run! Don't do it! Everyone here pretty much gave a good summary of what she's like and how she organizes her class. So, word of advice, if you can, take this class with literally anyone else. This class is not hard but she makes it unnecessarily stressful. Getting a good grade on any assignment, except for discussions, is like a game of luck, regardless of how much you study.
Courtney Douglass INST201 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/02/2023	This class was incredibly unorganized and nobody responded to emails. Assignments and class format were confusing and unclear. She was nice enough I guess but she grades harshly and doesn't put grades in until very late. I'm honestly not even sure what my grade is going to be and we're two weeks away from finals week. This class may be the one the drop me GPA which absolutely blows my mind. The content isn't even interesting and it's overall just a tough class to get through. There's one big group project that she makes out to be much bigger than it actually is. The project is very annoying and is just not worth your time.
Courtney Douglass INST201 Expecting a B- Anonymous 04/20/2023	This professor is one the worst that I have ever encountered. The class is really disorganized with little to no communication from her or the TA's. She grades stuff really late so you don't know your actual grade until near the end of the semester. Her quizzes are meant for you to fail as they are more of a "gotcha" questions and don't really reflect the lecture nor the content.
Courtney Douglass INST201 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 04/13/2023	She is a terrible professor. Harsh grading and stupid quiz questions that don't make sense or reflect lectures.
Courtney Douglass INST201 Expecting a B Anonymous 03/09/2023	She is extremely unreliable with her rubric and grading and does not provide the opportunities for easy point earning she claims she gives. The actual content is easy to understand and the concepts can be grasped but for some reasons she makes it so difficult to do well. The tests are not over course material, and I have heard of so many people going through every single document available and still not finding concepts she mentioned. I do not understand what makes grades for this class so unattainable, as it sounds like an approachable class, but trust me. If you tend to get decent grades, this class will still pose you a challenge.
Courtney Douglass INST201 Expecting a B- Anonymous 03/06/2023	Omg PLEASE DO NOT TAKE HER. I’m sorry but the worst professor I’ve ever had in my entire life. She’s making this class so much more difficult that it should be, her grading is super harsh. Taking points off for the smallest reason. PLEASE PLEASE if you want a good gpa DO NOT take her!!!!
Courtney Douglass INST201 Anonymous 03/05/2023	Currently taking this class and she is terrible. The content is not hard or difficult but her wording on the quizzes makes them tricky and most of the time you will end with a poor score. She is also a very harsh grader and is also very strict about class. She doesn't answer emails and asks to be understanding for her needs but then goes to complain about us. I would avoid taking her at all and the only reason why I chose this class was because she was the only professor available.
Courtney Douglass INST201 Anonymous 03/03/2023	Worst professor you can ever have. Don't take her.
Courtney Douglass INST201 Expecting a B- Anonymous 02/20/2023	She refused to round from 79.7 to an 80 so I ended with a C+. She wasn't a bad professor just demanded people's attention throughout the class and yelled if someone was having a convo during the lecture. Attendance in lectures became mandatory because people weren't showing up. She also used the words "black folk" a lot during our lectures on certain topics.
Courtney Douglass INST201 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/27/2023	The other comments sum her up very well: - begs for pity but is the least understanding towards students - doesnt answer emails - her TAs dont do anything - will make you consider switching majors
Courtney Douglass INST352 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/21/2022	I would give her zero stars if possible. She is unnecessarily rude and a harsh grader if you point out her mistake and tell her to regrade. Listen, if you have to take this class to graduate on time and your only option is to take Courtney Douglass, GRADUATE LATE! She is the worst professor I have ever had. I would never recommend anyone taking her class.
Courtney Douglass INST201 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/06/2022	Please avoid taking this professor at all costs. I've never had a professor that is so unprofessional, rude, and just overall terrible at teaching ever. I would call myself a pretty good student and I attended all her painfully confusing and long lectures, go to office hours, and make sure to be on top of every assignment for this course. Dr. Douglass is incredibly unorganized and she constantly rambles about everything but what we're supposed to learn. If you ever need any clarification on anything for the class do not expect to get any CLEAR answers from her. She constantly talks in circles without ever getting to an actual point. She NEVER lets you forget that she has ADHD and its hard for her...statistically probably more than 1/4 of her students struggle with the same thing and I'm sure none would behave as awfully as her. Save yourself the confusion, headaches, and stress and just avoid taking her if you can. (The course itself is so easy, she just overcomplicates everything and her teaching style is just talking about things that don't relate to the material whatsoever).
Courtney Douglass INST352 Expecting a W Anonymous 10/17/2022	By far the most condescending teacher I've met, she constantly begs for sympathy and guilt trips students, makes constant excuses to avoid accountability, harsh grader who seems to always have a reason to knock off points but never seems to remember the reason when asking for elaboration on points lost. This teacher will make you question if she loves or hates her job because she almost never up to date content and tends to recycle old material over and over again.
Courtney Douglass INST201 Anonymous 05/15/2022	taken her class during Spring 2022, the worst Gen Ed class ever. The assignments are confusing, quizzes don't make sense even after studying her lectures. Also, the lectures are recycled. Useless discussions are graded harshly, and she grades them very late. The due date for assignments is moved without notice, so good luck rescheduling your assignments. She also always asks for sympathy for the super late grading in announcements, which doesn't seem really fair to me as she's paid by the university to give out grades at specific times. TLDR: Just avoid taking her class. It's just not worth it.
Courtney Douglass INST201 Anonymous 05/10/2022	Do not take INST 201 with this professor, especially if it's asynchronous. She records her lectures but about 1/3 to 1/2 of her lectures are reused from her summer classes, which made due dates confusing. And even though she records the lectures, they're usually much longer than they need to be because she pauses... several times... for minutes at a time... during the lecture. Also speaking of due dates, she moves them around with no warning. Discussion boards are a pain.
Courtney Douglass Anonymous 03/11/2022	She posted old lecture recordings, assignments were really confusing, and due dates would often be moved or changed without notice. Her old lecture recordings stated things were due that are actually not.
Courtney Douglass INST352 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/13/2022	Pros: Easy A, extra credit opportunities, low commitment, most assignments can be completed using common sense, Prof Douglass is very empathetic and caring. Cons: She puts very little effort into the course, each week's work isn't usually posted until Wednesday, due dates change weekly, very slow and harsh grader, assignment instructions are not clear, class consists mostly of pointless discussions, lectures are very slow readings of slides with plenty of distractions, she often begs for attention and sympathy in lecture videos and emails which gets quite annoying. It seems like she puts more time into writing emails asking for sympathy than she does writing discussion prompts. The textbook is really bad and it seems like a lot of this course's content was made up on the spot because of how irrelevant it often is.
Courtney Douglass INST201 Anonymous 06/16/2021	I am currently taking her online class. She is very harsh in grading.
Courtney Douglass INST152 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/28/2019	The grades in this class rely on participation and group work. Courtney is a fair and reasonable instructor, so as long as you show up to class and put in the work, this class is an easy A.