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Samantha McDonald
INST104 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/28/2026 |
DO NOT TAKE!!!!! I signed up for INST 104 thinking it would be a easy GenEd—easy class, double credit, good reviews. Turns out I played myself. This is, without exaggeration, the worst GenEd I’ve taken. Let’s start with the structure. You’ve got three exams (50 points each), three projects (100 points each), and random in-class assignments sprinkled in like jump scares. The exams themselves are actually not that hard—but only if you do the hundreds of pages of reading per week. For a 100-level class. Also, we were told the exams would be all multiple choice…they were not. And the dates? Basically suggestions. The last two exams got moved multiple times, so planning ahead is pointless. AND TOOK WEEKS TO GET BACK Now the projects. These are somehow both extremely vague and graded harshly. You’ll get almost no clear instructions, ask for clarification, and be told to “use your designing brain.” Then after everyone submits, you get a 10–15 minute lecture about how the entire class did it wrong. Late policies are brutal: one day late = 50% off, and being 10 minutes late can cost you 20 points. You can also lose 4 POINTS for ONE MISPELLED WORD. One word. That is the harsh grading In-class activities are where things get really fun. The professor says they’re weekly—they are not. They happen randomly within the lectures, so the only way to not miss one is to show up to every lecture just in case. And if you do miss one, good luck. TAs are slow to respond....if they ever do, and when they finally do, you might get a make-up assignment at 7 PM that’s due…that same night. Because obviously everyone is just waiting around for that email. The activities themselves are not exactly thrilling either. Think busywork, but graded like it’s high stakes. I once lost points because my submission wasn’t a PDF. Not wrong content—wrong file type. As for the professor, she’s honestly hard to approach and not very helpful when you try. Lectures try to be “interactive,” which in a class of ~75 people mostly means counting off numbers and making everyone awkwardly relocate. At one point, our project work was printed, cut up, and handed out to other students to critique—names and UIDs included—without anyone agreeing to that setup. That was…a choice. Also, be prepared for extremely strict rules about AI and citations. You basically have to cite everything, including stock images, and using AI for even small things like citations is heavily discouraged. Overall, this class manages to be disorganized, overly strict, and way more work than it should be—all at the same time. If you’re looking for an easy GenEd, this is not it. Save yourself the stress and pick something else. |
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Samantha McDonald
INST104 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/13/2026 |
Very easy class as long as you come to her lectures. Having a class that has in class assignments each lecture can be a pain but they are generally completion passed and the main grade in the class. A couple big projects which require some time but again straightforward and very manageable. |
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Samantha McDonald
INST104 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/07/2025 |
Format: No exams or midterms, instead have 3 big design projects (multimedia usually) One reading check due every Friday. Multiple choice and open-ended. Readings are ridiculously long, tho. Still, the HW never took me more than an hour for each. In-class assignments every lecture that are worth a decent chunk of your grade. In short, class is easy, sometimes annoying though, but as far as electives go, it doesn't get much better than this. She tries to make it as enjoyable as possible as well. If you have any interest in design or just like designing things, (like slideshows or posters or anything rlly) you'll find the class kind of fun. Since there's no exams, the lectures are practically pointless to pay attention to, unfortunately, and the only reason people go to lectures is to do the in-class assignments, which can sometimes be a lot of work. Only con is that she loves group work, which makes zero sense since its a LECTURE class with 150 ppl or something, so some of the in-class assignments that require working as a group can be rlly annoying. Find like two or three ppl u like and sit with them for the whole semester to make this easy. Also readings r super long but u can skim through them and still ace the hw assignments. |
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Samantha McDonald
INST104 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/03/2025 |
The class is relatively easy. However, there are weekly quizzes with hellishly long readings, attendance is mandatory with class activities every time, but no tests or homework. There are 3 big projects that serve as the midterms and final, the grading was pretty harsh, but you can rack up points through the participation points every class. Recommended for people interested in UX design. |
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Samantha McDonald
INST104 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/18/2025 |
I absolutely loved this class. If you’re into UX design or interaction design in general, she dives into what a designer really does beyond just making things look good. She genuinely gets you to start asking questions about the functionality and purpose behind things. She talks about different fields of design and explains them really well, in my opinion. The projects are cool, and the readings are definitely long, but you will definetely learn. Take this class if you want to really get your design thinking going. |
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Samantha McDonald
Expecting an A Anonymous 11/18/2025 |
I absolutely loved this class. If you’re into UX design or interaction design in general, she dives into what a designer really does beyond just making things look good. She genuinely gets you to start asking questions about the functionality and purpose behind things. She talks about different fields of design and explains them really well, in my opinion. The projects are cool, and the readings are definitely long, but you will def learn. Take this class if you want to really get your design thinking going. |
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Samantha McDonald
INST104 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/17/2025 |
One of the best professors I have had at UMD. The projects are very fairly graded. At the beginning she gave a lot of reading but made them a lot less after taking advice from our class. Showing up is mandatory but its not hard to do good in this class. |
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Samantha McDonald
INST104 Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/12/2025 |
She has no exams which is nice, but she has weekly quizzes that have insanely long readings or videos to watch. Expect around 70-100 pages a week of material that won't ever be used that much. |
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Samantha McDonald
INST104 Expecting an A- Anonymous 10/01/2025 |
It's nice to not have exams and have the class only be a project based class, but the amount of reading you have to do for the quizzes is way too much for a 100 level intro class. |