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Alexis Lothian
LGBT200 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/01/2025 |
Loved this class so much I was inspired to minor in LGBTQ studies. All assignments in the class themselves were super fun and creative, and it wasn’t too hard to ask questions if clarification was needed. The weekly readings were daunting sometimes (depending on how fast/well you read be prepared to spend an hour or more before each class doing them) but they were worth at least skimming and helped a lot with the projects. The professor herself was really nice; attendance was not taken but lectures gave me ideas as to what to write about in assignments. Discussions were also fun and interactive. Grading is on a contract-based system rather than a percentage evaluation- there’s different specific things you need to do if you want to hit a certain letter grade, and for the most part they’re set in stone but you do have the option to negotiate. For example, typically to get an A you need to go “above and beyond” on two projects, or alternatively you can only get one and then do an extra credit assignment. Projects are graded as incomplete, complete, or above and beyond, and there were three in the semester, not counting the final group project; everything else is just complete or incomplete. I’ve never experienced this grading system before but it was cool and it makes sense once you’ve been in the class for a bit. I see other people on here complaining about how hard it was to achieve the A criteria; I got above and beyond on the first two projects so my recommendation is to be as specific as possible with everything you say and definitely don't be afraid to go over the provided page/word count requirements. Go to office hours too, I got a lot of my research for one of the projects off a website I was shown by the professor. Overall excellent experience, would take again, went to Dr. Lothian’s office hours twice and she was great to talk to :) |
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Alexis Lothian
LGBT200 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/11/2024 |
If you're looking for a gen-ed...this is not the one to take. Take your cursor and drag it back to the gen-ed list on Testudo because you're bound to find something else that's better than this. The class started off alright albeit we were thrown into a whirlwind of confusion when we were told that we have to "contract" for our grades, which seemed fine at first but has made no sense even as we near the end of the semester. The amount of "effort" we put into the class means jack because at the end of the day the TAs are still grading what you do subjectively. On that note you kind of have to choose your TA wisely because ours was inconsistent and messed up our grades time and time again. The daily reflections were also kind of a waste especially since lots of them got misplaced and then it took forever for anything to actually get graded. I cannot emphasize how much this class also triggered heightened emotions surrounding political topics, like "safe space" my ass because this is the only class where I'd felt uncomfortable by things people were saying. Even if you don't believe in everything that's being said it's not a class where you can just say what you believe and not escape judgement from others. As I like to put it this was the most liberal class I'd ever taken in my life. There's an extraneous amount of effort that you have to put into the projects in order to JUST get a satisfactory grade and even then, there were a couple times where I had to REDO them because I didn't meet the "requirements." Now if you thought that this class wasn't already quirky enough, there's a thing called "above and beyond" where I can't even explain it because it's a subjective grade that you get based on what you've done on a project. I could go on and on about the grievances that this class gave me and the more I realize it most of the topics are imbedded and stuck in the past. Like I learned new things, but a majority of the content has to do with the past and not much about the progression of our present, or at least in the sense that topics you'd think you talk about aren't actually ever addressed. Oh, we've finally gotten to my favorite part in "offering insight" of this class. Let's talk about the "readings" aka the longest passages of a free, (most likely pirated) text that even makes me envious of the ways that these sources were put together. They're "required" to be able to participate in every class and honestly, they were because the daily reflections were based on the readings, but it is absolutely absurd to expect your students to read a 15+ page text and do that three times every other night. Like common now be for real. And when that was brought up as a suggestion to change, the professor just ignored it and said that it was still an essential part of the course to have these resources...Now you might be thinking, oh but you're getting an A, yeah damn right I am because I had to work my butt off in this class. I'm also a STEM major and thought that this class might be beneficial in being able to interact with others but honestly it kind of made me realize just how stupid people can be. And going back to the fact that I'm a STEM major, please someone tell me why this class made me cry more than classes like genetics or orgo...just saying. So, I hope that helps put things into perspective, good luck yall! |
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Alexis Lothian
LGBT200 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/09/2024 |
DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS!! unless..you want to literally beg on your knees for an A and still not get it even when you have done your work, and done it well. This professor is extremely hypocritical and lays out the class as an environment that is understanding, but when you raise any concerns she disregards it and stubbornly sticks to her ways. It is an “effort” based class, and “you decide your grade” but then you put in 110% effort back just to be told by your TA you are nowhere near on track for an A because you haven't been “above and beyond”. Additionally, the class will randomly discuss very sensitive topics with no warning, and if you express that you are upset or uncomfortable, the professor will again disregard and ignore you, despite being a “safe space” and “understanding”. If you want to bust your ass for what should be an easy gen ed, just to not get an A, good fucking luck! You will be miserable and probably hate yourself every-time you wake up knowing your day involves this class. |
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Alexis Lothian
LGBT200 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/07/2024 |
Summary: take it if you need gen ed credits and are willing to put in the time. But, if you don't have a lot of time to spare, take another class for gen ed requirements. Detailed: The course's design is very flawed. First, students have to go "above and beyond" to get an A. So instead of doing a great job on an assignment, fulfilling all of its criteria and getting the A you deserve like you normally would, you would have to do EXTRA work to get an A. You really have to go the extra mile. On top of that, the amount of reading every week is insane. It's about 80+ pages every week but I'm sure not everyone does all of the readings anyway. The lectures are not educational at all. Yes, the professor provokes conversation in the lecture which is great because students get to learn different perspectives and meanings in the course. However, the professor has slides that just word dumps on the students. The slides are unclear, have no definitions, and no timeline, to explain the events that we are studying. The professor also just drones on during lectures which gets boring after a while and makes it hard to learn. For this course, you have to do 4 projects (some are pretty confusing to do), a concept presentation about 1 week's reading, and discussion boards weekly if there are no projects due. Overall, this course does a bit too much for a 200-level course that most people take only to fulfill General Education credits. Also, the grading is dependent on the TA. If your TA is chill, then doing the assignments isn't much of a pain. But I had a TA who took everything seriously so I had to go the extra mile for the assignments. |
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Alexis Lothian
HDCC106 Expecting an A- Anonymous 10/08/2024 |
Is a very demanding professor and requires a lot of high level academic readings that were very confusing and wordy. I understand we are honors, but she gave 50 page readings over than span of two days. Can be a harsh grader and picky at times, but you must participate in discussion to get a good grade. |
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Alexis Lothian
HDCC208Q Expecting an A Anonymous 08/08/2024 |
Alexis is one of the best professors I've had. She is so insanely supportive and helpful. You can tell she is very dedicated to her work. Readings can be a lot but you don't have to fully read them. |
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Alexis Lothian
CMSC115 Expecting an A Anonymous 08/05/2024 |
This class is a free A but she is a very aggravating professor. In my view, she comes off as being quite smug and condescending. Lots of snide complaints regarding how people weren't reading the snoozefest 50-page pdfs she assigned twice a week (what a surprise, it's not like this is a 1xx gened). She also randomly started accusing the class of using ChatGPT to write discussion post responses about halfway through the semester, and her solution was to make them even more tedious and uninteresting to do. It feels like she knows very little about programming, AI, etc. and probably shouldn't be teaching a course with the word "computing" in its title. |
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Alexis Lothian
CMSC115 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/19/2024 |
This class is CMSC/WGSS so the time was split between CS and WGSS. During Alexis’s lectures, the topics were very interesting but I feel like the lectures could have been more engaging, like letting students have an interactive experience or something. She is always happy to answer questions and is reliable for and helpful during office hour appointments. |
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Alexis Lothian
HDCC208J Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/16/2020 |
Dr. Lothian's class is one of the few times at UMD where I really felt like I learned something. Thank you for an amazing semester! |