Ronald Mower

This professor has taught: KNES100O, KNES131V, KNES157O, KNES186, KNES225, KNES287, KNES289R, KNES346, KNES389D, KNES485, KNES497, KNES498M, KNES612

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Ronald Mower KNES287 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/11/2025	The weekly essays make up most of the coursework and are graded really harshly. Nobody ever gets a 100%, and even though the minimum is 400 words, you basically have to write 800+ to get anything above a 90. They’re graded like it’s an English class—structure and quote use matter more than what you actually say. No matter how much you write, the comments always say to “go more in depth.” Most of the topics don’t feel very connected to “American society” and are just dragged out to make the class seem like it has more substance. Because of that, the course ends up feeling repetitive and hard to stay engaged with. Every week is just the same point being repeated over and over again. He talks the entire lecture about topics that are uninteresting like "difficulties pro athletes face". They are getting paid millions of dollars and there are people struggling to make ends meet, but we need to learn how hard the lives of pro athletes are? The midterm was also frustrating. Everyone got different questions, even different essay prompts, and some questions were super specific parts of videos we watched weeks ago, stuff you couldn’t have studied for even if you tried. Pop quizzes were supposed to be given when lecture attendance was low, to get people to show up. But even though the professor mentioned the low turnout multiple times, we didn’t get any until the end of the semester, right when everyone is busy with more important classes and finals. The course also pushes a specific viewpoint, so it feels like there’s not much room for your own opinion. Overall, don’t take this as a Gen Ed just because it sounds interesting. It’s not and it's way more work than it’s worth.
Ronald Mower KNES287 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/11/2025	The weekly essays make up most of the coursework and are graded really harshly. Nobody ever gets a 100%, and even though the minimum is 400 words, you basically have to write 800+ to get anything above a 90. They’re graded like it’s an English class—structure and quote use matter more than what you actually say. No matter how much you write, the comments always say to “go more in depth.” Most of the topics don’t feel very connected to “American society” and are just dragged out to make the class seem like it has more substance. Because of that, the course ends up feeling repetitive and hard to stay engaged with. Every week is just the same point being repeated over and over again. The midterm was also frustrating. Everyone got different questions, even different essay prompts, and some questions were super specific parts of videos we watched weeks ago—stuff you couldn’t have studied for even if you tried. Pop quizzes were supposed to be given when lecture attendance was low, to get people to show up. But even though the professor mentioned the low turnout multiple times, we didn’t get any until the end of the semester—right when everyone is busy with more important classes and finals. The course also pushes a specific viewpoint, so it feels like there’s not much room for your own opinion. Overall, don’t take this as a Gen Ed just because it sounds interesting. It’s way more work than it’s worth.
Ronald Mower KNES287 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/10/2025	This class required weekly 500-750 word essays every week including spring break whenever we did not have class. While I understand the intention behind these assignments the volume of writing took away the opportunity for deeper engagement with the subject material. In addition, the midterm essay format was changed around a week before we took it. It consisted of multiple-choice questions asking about specific quotes and what reading it was from. A majority of people did not remember the very first half of the semester source that was mentioned. Grading is heavily dependent on the TA for mini essays!! Pop quizzes in class too. Dr. Mower has a passion for this class, but on several occasions, the presentation of news events in this course was heavily towards a specific political perspective. This approach made it difficult for me to objectively evaluate the information because of the biased analysis. He teaches this class like it should be prioritized over others.
Ronald Mower KNES287 Expecting a B- Anonymous 04/02/2025	He's a satisfactory professor. His lectures are boring most of the time since he talks during the whole lecture. He gives pop quizzes at random times. The only dreadful thing about this class is the TAs.
Ronald Mower KNES287 Expecting an A Anonymous 03/06/2025	very manageable work. one 500 word essay and one 12 question canvas quiz due every week. super nice teacher who responds to emails
Ronald Mower KNES287 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/06/2024	I looked on here before the semester started and was a bit worried when hearing about his lecture style. While it is a waste of time (in my opinion), he is very relatable and personable during his lectures. There's a mini-essay due every week which does take up a fair amount of time, but if you put in a good effort, you're bound to get around a 90% on all of them. More often than not, he would let us out of class early, especially during discussions.
Ronald Mower KNES225 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/04/2024	Great professor. The Monday class is a lecture, and the Wednesday class is a discussion. Weekly assignments include an article annotation and completing a few required readings. Attendance is mandatory and contributes to your participation grade. There are three quizzes and three essays, but no final exam—there's a final project instead. Quizzes are taken online outside of class. Note that the cut-off for an A is relatively high at 94%, but it's doable with extra credit assignments given throughout the semester.
Ronald Mower KNES287 Expecting an A Anonymous 08/08/2024	Dr. Mower is a cool professor; I always found his lectures enjoyable & interesting. You will have a mini essay & quiz due every week. Also making up your grade is your discussion participation (discussion is mandatory attendance & lecture is not- however I recommend attending lectures as they are useful to understanding the weekly topics for the mini-essay & quiz), in-person timed mid-term, and a final paper. The lowest 3 mini essays & topic quizzes are dropped. [Note: If he cancels a mini-essay for a week cause of a holiday (which was very nice of him to do at the time, then only 2 will be dropped- this was not clearly explained which caused me to do an unexpected essay at the end of the semester right before finals which was very annoying and added unnecessary stress.] All of your assignments are graded by your TA. So how “fair” the grading is depends on who you get as a TA. I felt my mini-essays were at times graded pretty harshly. There is a 400-500 word limit but often there were critiques that I and fellow classmates needed to “go into more detail”, “explain this better”, etc… but ya can’t really do that with such a small limit so I just went over it & often got fewer points taken off for going over the max than not explaining enough. You should be fine as long as you don’t go over 800 (max of 2 pages). The mid-term & final essays I felt were very fairly graded and the topic quizzes were easy as long as ya look at the published lecture slides & pay attention in lecture. The cut-off for an A is high at 94%, I believe a 93.5 got rounded to 94%, but he did give out an extra credit opportunity by attending a symposium/panel of health professionals speaking & answering audience questions in the SPH building which I found to be very enjoyable! Overall, he’s a good professor and I’d have no problem taking him again.
Ronald Mower KNES287 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/23/2024	Dr. Mower is an amazing professor and I always looked forward to attending his lectures even though originally I thought the course would be boring. He always makes sure that the lectures are interesting and that we were engaged in the topics. There is a bit of writing in the course consisting of 400 word mini essays every week as well as a final paper but it’s all graded fairly. I would strongly recommend taking this course if you are considering it.
Ronald Mower KNES225 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/30/2023	Good professor! You can tell he’s passionate about his work! He is understanding and doesn’t assign too much. Drops a good few assignments at the end of the semester and the content is really interesting! Class could get a bit dry at times but maybe it was the time of day (my class was later in the evening). I recommend! Had a media text project at the end that I found fun as well!
Ronald Mower KNES485 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/20/2023	You literally cannot find a cooler professor anywhere on campus. He is so raw and super interesting and clearly knowledgeable. The class is based on discussion posts and quizzes, one per topic. You have to go to class at least 6 times. Classes are discussion based since they are only once a week, so make sure you participate because if not it will be super awkward when no one talks. Also got to go on a field trip to the African American museum in DC for a private tour with the curator of the sport exhibits which was literally the highlight of my college learning. It was SO fun and interesting and an amazing opportunity! Could not recommend Mower more, for any class :)
Ronald Mower KNES225 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/07/2023	A bit of reading, but very interesting class and on the easier side of classes.
Ronald Mower KNES287 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/31/2023	I thought I wasn't going to like this class but once we got past the first few units it got really interesting. We talked about things in class that we all notice, but we spend more time investing the effects of how sport is influenced by social settings and cultural norms. Both TAs for the class are incredible and are super friendly. Mower himself is really interesting and he did a good job of keeping the class engaged in lecture. A lot of people stopped going to class so he started keeping track of the people who went to class. I don't know if he did anything with it, but it was sad to see people stop going because he really did enjoy the content he was talking about. There were weekly quizzes and 300 word mini essays as well as a midterm and final exam which were 1500 and 2000 words respectively.
Ronald Mower KNES287 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/18/2023	Dr. Mower is an amazing teacher. I go to all his lectures but have many friends who just looked over the slides and were fine. The quizzes aren't bad given they are the open note and all about the slides. He has such a great personality and connects so well with every student. He also relates these topics to us so we can better understand them. Brandon the TA was just as as amazing as Dr. Mower as well. Highly recommend having him as a professor.
Ronald Mower KNES225 Expecting an A- Anonymous 01/23/2023	I took this class as a last-minute class because it satisfied a gen ed code for me and sounded interesting, and I'm really glad I did. Dr. Mower is so passionate about what he teaches and genuinely cares about each and every one of his students. He keeps his students engaged all class and doesn't just assign useless work. Each week he gave us interesting readings (sometimes videos) and we would have to do a discussion post and article annotation. At first, they took time, but once you get in the groove they are really easy. There are 3 mini-essays, which I found actually to be enjoyable which are accompanied by 3 quizzes. The quizzes are open notes but can still be challenging because they ask very specific questions about the readings and lectures. There is also 1 media-text project which I enjoyed but it was very time-consuming. I really enjoyed his class and would definitely take another one with him. His TA Emilio is also great, and grades really fairly. If you need an easy gen-ed I would definitely recommend this class.
Ronald Mower KNES289R Expecting an A ahundito 11/21/2019	There weren't a lot of reviews for Dr.Mower so I was very hesitant to take this class at first but now I am very glad I did. Dr.Mower is a very engaging professor that will keep you listening the entire class. I am generally someone who does hw in my gen ed classes but I couldn't in this class because I didn't want to miss anything. He is also young and relatable and tries to connect with his students. The class is not very hard but it is essential to go to lecture to be able to write good essays. There were 2 essays, 2 projects and 2 quizzes which isn't bad at all and he's very helpful during office hours if you're having trouble with any of the assignments. Hands down the best class I've taken at UMD so far in terms of the topic and the professor.