Jeffrey Parsells-johnson

This professor has taught: SOCY100, SOCY105, SOCY200, SOCY224, SOCY463

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Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY100 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/09/2024	I really do not understand the bad reviews for him and this class. This is quite literally the easiest class I have ever taken at UMD. All that is required is attending a Zoom lecture twice a week and you won't miss any of the class participations, but 4 get dropped anyways at the end of the semester, meaning you could miss 4 whole weeks of this class and still end with 100% for participation. The 4 papers were very straightforward, short, and easy to follow. I will say that I may have had a more lenient TA, but regardless if you put any sort of effort into them, getting an A is not very difficult. He also has a one week grace period for these so it's very low pressure and one gets dropped at the end. As for the weekly quizzes, there is no set due date, you can complete them at any time throughout the semester and I found them to be not difficult at all rarely getting below a 18 or 19 out of 20. Overall, just attend the Zooms!! I zone out all the time and can do other work throughout or just lay in bed while in the Zoom. He will randomly drop some extra credit questions to reward those that attend or make course participations one word or phrase to show that you attended class. I feel like the people leaving bad reviews were probably too lazy to join the Zooms or just put absolutely 0 effort into the class and did not care to complete assignments.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY100 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/04/2024	Although this class is extremely easy and a low time commitment it also was a major waste of time. The lectures are lengthy and pointless for completing any work for the class, however must be attended in order to gain the course participation which is dropped at a random time throughout. The weekly reading quizzes are a joke as all of the answers are online and the four critical thinking papers have a very broad rubric and have nothing to do with the class. While I did well on these papers I really had no idea what was expected of me and mainly just feel grateful to have a TA who didn't grade too harshly. As far as the actual professor I found him arrogant and honestly annoying. Yes, this was an easy A and its nice that it was such a low commitment. However, at a certain point the professor cancelling class every week and making it so you don't have to pay any attention at all and still get an A, makes me annoyed that I am paying to be here (and that the professor is getting paid for doing so little work). I'd recommend taking the class if you want an easy A, but Dr. PJ should really think his teaching style and the content of this class.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY100 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/04/2024	This was one of my least favorite classes I've taken at UMD so far. The content barely follows a structure; the professor fully admitted that he let the other section of his class choose the topic that my section would talk about the next class. The only positive of this class is that there are no exams. Instead, there are 4 papers that are graded unreasonably harshly. The main professor delegates the grading of these papers to "coordinating instructors" whose only job is to grade these essays and answer questions that the professor couldn't be bothered to answer himself, which he let the class know multiple times throughout the semester. There is zero clear expectations for the papers. One of the categories is literally labeled "Sociological Imagination" and you receive a point for whether or not you "wowed" the person grading your essay. Additionally, these essays are not graded in enough time to apply the feedback to your next paper, so if you get a poor grade on the first one, you are likely to get similar grades on the next three. Dr. Parsells-Johnson spends the majority of the 75 minute zoom call going off on unrelated tangents and anecdotes about his personal life, or closely monitoring the Zoom chat to call out students by name and reprimand them for engaging in discourse about the presented topics. He also canceled the class numerous times throughout the semester for no apparent reason. There are also course participation prompts that are given during the Zoom that are to be written about for a grade during the subsequent class. More than once, Dr. Parsells-Johnson spitefully changed the prompt when he noticed students logging off the call in order to make them lose the participation point the following class. Overall, I learned next to nothing in this class and had to endure a semester's worth of censorship, harsh grading with little to no explanation, and a professor that came across as self-obsessed and arrogant. If you need to take this class for a major or minor, try to take it with someone else.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY100 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/03/2024	He is a great professor! This is not your average lecture 24/7 class which I loved. He does explain lecture slides, however, he also does a lot of active conversation which really progressed my learning and thinking sociologically. The papers take effort and outside of the box thinking but he is very understanding of students having other stressful classes. Very lenient deadlines, and the homework's are just reading quizzes. He is so funny and truly cares about the success of his students.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY100 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/03/2024	At the beginning of the semester I did not really enjoy his class. I got a bad score on the first paper I wrote and I just felt like the structure of the course wasn't great. But, he is genuinely a considerate professor. Deadlines are super flexible, and there were no exams. The homework was fine so long as you did the reading/understood the concepts. Communicating with your TA is super important in his class, as is thinking outside the box. Although it does take up a decent amount of time and effort for a GenEd, it was a nice break to have outside of the required classes for my major. I was quite frustrated with the vagueness of his rubrics early on, but I started to realize that part of the vagueness is to encourage students to take their own spin on the prompt and see it through their own sociological perspective. If you are the type of writer/thinker who needs a clear set of directions, and can't take a prompt and run with it, I do not recommend taking him, but if you are truly interested in sociology and going deeper I would. Again, expect this class to take up more of your time than you expected, particularly around the deadlines for the papers.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY200 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/01/2024	Alright y'all, he should NOT be this low. I really only took this class to satisfy a gen-ed but I have really enjoyed it so far. I think the professor is really funny and super accommodating. He acknowledges that lectures can be draining and rarely ever uses the full class time, I lost track of how many times we were let out 30 minutes to an hour early or had class entirely canceled. Exams are take-home, open book and open note...literally as stress-free as it can get. There is a LOT of reading, two textbooks but I was able to find both online for free...do some digging, you'll save a pretty penny. One of the textbooks was a much easier read than the other in my opinion, and that is the one that the exams are based on so you're good, just try not to fall behind and keep detailed notes (you will thank yourself later). His personality is great and you can tell he really loves the subject, just a generally warm vibe.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY100 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/27/2024	To start, I will say that this class has A LOT of leniency and no tests. The quizzes and papers all have a week-long "grace period" to be completed after the original due date and even then you can ask for an extension. There is not final or midterm test, just papers. I might have had a harsh TA grading my papers, but I did not do well in the course. Aside from this TA, professor Parsells was not clear on his expectations and even though other reviews say he was, there was also a vagueness to his instructions. That brings me to him. DO NOT take his courses if you don't want to have a biased, annoying to listen to, and self-obsessed teacher. Such a waste of time to sit through this zoom. Find another teacher, unless you can bare to listen to him.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY100 Anonymous 05/23/2024	To be honest this class is not at all difficult. However, the lectures are not engaging and not really necessary at times to complete the work that is assigned. There are weekly lecture quizzes and participation points worked into the class which are not difficult as long as you attend. There are also 4 critical thinking papers throughout the semester which are worth the majority of your grade. This would not be an issue but the papers are only graded out of 10 points so 1 point off is already putting your grade at 90%. This was frustrating throughout the semester because both he and the TA seemed to grade quite harshly considering this fact. I also had conversed over email with him a few times and both were met with passive-aggressive responses.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY100 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/22/2024	Fun professor with entertaining lectures, but the reaction papers, (i.e. majority of your grade), were not straightforward and barely related to the class content. Each one felt like a crap shoot and the TA grading my papers never left constructive notes, (just "good job" or "well done" before proceeding to give an 8/10). The content of the course was at a 100 level, but the way that this course was graded made it feel like a 200 or 300 level class.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY100 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/20/2024	Dr. PJ is a very forgiving professor for sure. I took the class over Zoom, so instead of exams, there are 4 “critical thinking papers,” of which the lowest is dropped. The grading for those is tight, but the TA’s feedback has been at least somewhat helpful. Also, he drops 4 weekly course participations if you have to miss a class and 3 weekly quizzes if something pops up. However, I wasn’t a fan of his teaching – a lot of what he mentioned was only loosely related to the content in the textbook and some of the cultural references he used were atypical for a classroom setting and slightly cringey. Overall, would take if you’re on a tight schedule, but be prepared to learn more from the textbook than from him.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY100 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/19/2024	Definitely not an easy A. The TA was unnecessarily harsh with very confusing grading parameters. The professor was very lenient with his due dates, but was also extremely harsh with grading. The chapter quizzes and participation were extremely easy with 3 drops of quiz scores and 4 drops for participation. However, the grading for the critical thinking papers was ridiculous. It would have been more helpful to have some example papers to know exactly what to expect on the critical thinking papers. The idea that you had to "wow" a professor who has been an expert in his field is a ridiculous thing to put on a rubric.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY100 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/19/2024	I do not understand the 1 star reviews in the slightest. I will concede that it is a bit difficult to pay attention to the lectures over Zoom and often they aren't related to your essays or reading quizzes for the week, but they're still engaging and related-- just spaced out a bit oddly (like he'll talk about a topic we need for an essay due weeks in advance while we're still working on an essay due the upcoming Sunday, but just take screenshots of the slides every week and you'll be fine). Besides that, I thought the class was an easy gened especially since so many of your worst assignments are dropped. 3 of the weekly quizzes are dropped, your worst essay out of 4 is dropped, and 3 participation points are dropped (you have to attend the Zooms every day and once a week there's an assignment to answer a question that he asks during the lecture, so if you miss a few weeks it's no big deal). I was assigned to the TA for grading and I thought grading was super fair, but I can't speak to Jeffrey himself because he didn't grade my essays, so maybe his grading was harsher. Due dates are also insanely flexible, you can do your reading quizzes literally whenever you want and all the major essays have a week grace period past the due dates where you will not get any late penalty, and they'll extend that even longer if you just ask. Also, I didn't even get the required textbook for the class due to our terrible school book store not ever delivering it, and I still managed to get a 94% average on my reading quizzes and pumped them all out during the first weekend of the semester just to get it over with. It's genuinely an easy class if you put in the most minor amount of work.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY100 Expecting a B- Anonymous 05/19/2024	Truly one of the worst professor I ever encountered with at UMD. He's a nice friendly guy but if you are looking for a gen ed to get an A+ in this isn't the one. Him and his TA are the one that grade the work, however they grade way too harshly given that instructions are barely clear on what he's asking for. It honestly is very annoying too because I would email to ask for clarification to see what he is specifically asking for and apply it too my paper and still will get an unreasonable amount of points taken off for no reason. I usually never take time to write a review but as a level 100 class there is no reason why stress should occur to write these critical reflections. HE HAS A LOW RATING FOR A REASON DON'T TAKE HIM IF YOU ARE WANTING AN EASY A.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY100 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/13/2024	I don't want to invalidate the experience of other students but Professor PJ was one of the best professors I've ever had at this college! I'm new to sociology and I found his passion for the subject inspiring. He is very lenient with deadlines and sets very clear expectations while giving us room to be creative. You can also see that he really cares about the wellbeing of his students, and rewards people who put in the word consistently. Thanks for a great semester Professor PJ!
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY100 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/07/2024	When I registered for this class, I had no expectations. To be completely fair, this class is challenging but you will succeed if you do the work. As a professor, he is very lenient on due dates and dropping assignments. He can be seen as a harsh grader, but he just wants you to succeed and do your best. I would recommend this class and professor to another student because he is very passionate about his job and position.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY100 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/06/2024	This is an introduction to sociology course, and this professor made it a great introduction with enough information to be interested, but not enough to where this would be considered a graduate level course. You have weekly reading quizzes that are from the textbook (you can find it online) so it is easy. You have 4 papers (<5 paragraphs) that are based on YouTube videos and you will be writing based on that and he literally goes over what to write about and that really helps. This is an online class (2 times a week) via Zoom. There is no final/midterms so that's awesome. You have course participations which requires in class participation where you write on the topic on ELMS for a grade and they just require a bit of thinking, not too tough. He is pretty lenient so in case your other classes are eating up your time, then you will still do well in this class as he gives a 1-week grace period for each assignment. As for the other reviews, he has mentioned that he has seen them and he takes it as feedback and made the assignments clearer by discussing them in class, so just know that he is trying. One of the feedback from planetterp was about the essay being unclear. He has since attempted to explain the assignments more clearly with his expectation, when and where the assignment is, the topics that you will need for the essays (they are explained through lecture slides), and some tips on how to make good essays. The TA had good feedback and really helped me with what I needed to include/fix about my essay. He makes his lecture more engaging by asking us questions and telling stories, which I enjoy. As a person who is not great at writing papers, these papers were not too difficult (I got a C, D, and A for my papers, the bad grades were on me as I waited until the last day to write it and I kind of rushed it).
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY100 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/02/2024	Dr. Parsells-Johnson is a highly motivated professor and you can tell he loves what he does. However, grading can be harsh. For example on the critical thinking papers, they are out of ten points but then you can get only a 90% if you don't meet the "wow factor" which out of my knowledge is just his opinion if he thought you stood out among the other students. For course participation there are times he puts up the question for only ten seconds and at least for me, I need to read the question a few times to understand what is being fully asked of me. Other times he states the question and when multiple people ask him to explain what he asking us to do, he just doesn't respond, and if someone knows what he is asking he doesn't want people to help others understand. Maybe it's because I am taking his class virtually on Zoom, but I do believe that the coursework is fairly light considering we only have course participations and 4 critical thinking papers this semester, but the way grades and runs the course participations just doesn't seem fair to me at all.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY100 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/19/2024	He’s definitely one of the worst professors I’ve ever had. He randomly says the course participation answer in the week before we actually have to do it to catch students who miss it. The critical thinking papers are graded extremely harshly and even after working on them for hours, I end up losing so many points. This really tanked my grade.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY463 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/19/2024	Cool guy but the way he does things is a little bit backward. The workload in this class just seems to be a bit much with quizzes papers and 4 exams. I wish he would pick one assignment type to focus on rather than including a plethora of them all. I also wish he communicated with us through elms more through announcements so that we could go back and look at what he said in class that day. To me, it seems like he is trying to encourage participation but it backfires a bit and makes the class a little more difficult than it has to be.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY100 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/16/2024	Personally, don't take the bad reviews to heart. While it's hard to focus and digest material over Zoom, Professor Parsells-Johnson is an insanely understanding guy. Due dates are more of a "frame of reference," for example, quizzes are open all semester and you can essentially take them whenever works for you time-wise. And I kid you not all the answers are in the textbook (and you can get a 20/20 by simply skimming the required chapters). The essays are a bit more tricky since they are graded a bit more harshly (but there's a one-week grace period if you miss the initial "due date" AND you can ask for an additional extension beyond this), but it's not overly difficult to get a good grade if you put in effort and show an attempt/effort to answer the course material. You also basically get free points through course participation, as long as you somewhat pay attention to what he's lecturing about, you can DEFINITELY get all the points needed. I also think Professor Parsells-Johnson is insanely lenient and understanding, there's one drop essay for the critical thinking papers, 4 (?) drops for your lowest course participation scores, and 3 drops for your lowest weekly quiz scores. It is completely doable to get a good grade in this class, and while it's a decent amount of work (so it can kind of be hard to focus solely on this class especially when midterms pick up in major courses) the extremely flexible due dates help for the workload of this course not be so burdensome. Would recommend taking Professor Parsells-Johnson, especially if you have a tight schedule the Zoom meetings are insanely convenient.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY100 Expecting a B Anonymous 03/12/2024	i do like Dr Parsells Johnson, and think his lectures are interesting and enjoyable, so i pay attention even though i normally cant really on zoom. However, I didn't really believe all the comments about the harsh grading, and he explained the expectations really clearly, so i thought i ate on the first essay but i actually got a low score (TA graded btw). the feedback i received and the points taken off didnt really seem proportional. unfortunately i will probably end up dropping this class because i put a lot of effort into the essay, and it wont be worth it to try so hard on future ones to bring my grade up, which is a bit sad since I do like the class. would recommend taking this class if u actually like sociology, but u dont mind a B too much
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY100 Anonymous 03/09/2024	Truly a terrible horrible unfair professor with insanely confusing expectations and no direction. Lectures are him talking about himself and making unbearably cringey jokes. Can honestly say I haven't learned a thing from him and it only leads to frustration. Entirely too difficult for a 100 level class. The good reviews must be by people who love sociology and awkward attempts to make relevant pop culture references. If you are looking for a gen ed look somewhere else for your own sake.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY463 Anonymous 02/21/2024	Very nice professor, lenient on turning things in essentially giving you a week to turn something in. However, I would say that some of the class content can be quite confusing to understand at times which kinda comes with classes in sociology. He doesn't post slides or record his lectures so you can't go back and reflect on what was taught during class. The reading quizzes can be a bit difficult if you don't extensively read everything that he assigns for that week. In this class, there are 4 exams, Multiple Reading Quizzes, Research Memos, and a final research paper. If you are looking more for a laid-back class that takes low-medium effort this may not be the class for you but if you are ready for a higher level of effort class Id take it.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson Expecting an A+ Anonymous 02/08/2024	Man all of these lazy ass students are liars. Don't believe them. Please please please don't take these reviews seriously. He is the best, most understanding, and smartest professor I've ever had. He acknowledges his privilege in every possible scenario. grades fairly. Literally says due dates are best by dates. He is so understanding and will adjust numbers of questions on quizzes just because he thought it's too much.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY105 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/31/2024	Dr. Parsells-Johnson is an incredible professor, honestly the best I've ever had! It makes me sad to see poor reviews on here because he genuinely seems to care so much about the students and the content as well. His passion for sociology definitely shines through, and his classes are beyond enjoyable! He's super lenient about attendance and assignments, and overall is super understanding about student circumstances. 100% recommend!
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY224 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/25/2024	Anyone saying that there is "too much work" or "he grades weird" is just lying or lazy. There was not even close to a lot of work in any of the classes I have taken with him and all of the information was comprehensive and interesting. He is funny, kind, caring, and charismatic. The only thing I could criticize is that he needs to loosen up, he is a new professor here so it makes sense for him to be a bit stressed. However, he does seem a bit tense even though he is genuinely an enjoyable professor!
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY200 Expecting an A cm222 01/15/2024	super nice and friendly guy, tries to make class interesting but his lectures could get very confusing and he can tend to ramble. content was interesting just hard to follow. very lenient about due dates, attendance, but doesn't go easy on grading. group project for final which i didn't love.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY200 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/20/2023	Pretty cool professor, was scared to take him at first because of all of the reviews about weird grading but the grading ended up being fine. Make sure you get the required reading materials because that is what the whole class is based off of. His teaching style is pretty average but I liked how he cracked a few jokes and made references to old 90's/ early 2000's shows. For my class you get assigned your TA by first letter of your last name that you can communicate with through the semester. We had a total of 2 and Prof. PJ was assigned the rest of the students, so if you would ever email him and he is not your assigned TA/ instructor, he probably won't get back to you unfortunately. Overall this class was just taking notes on slide shows and reading the materials to write papers on (lowest paper gets dropped). It's obvious Prof. PJ has a dedicated passion for this subject so he's not all that bad.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY105 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/19/2023	He is a great person and really makes sure he doesn't offend students. Sometimes I think he over apologizes but I get it, you don't want to offend anyone. A lot of reviews say that he grades harshly but with my experience I would disagree. So maybe he has become a less strict grader. If you put in the time and work to do readings and the reading summaries (which isn't too much) you will get a good grade in the class.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY100 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/17/2023	I had this class online and I found it very enjoyable actually. Assignments are reasonable, no midterms! Reading quizzes, course participation, reaction papers and the final, a sociology podcast are what makes up your grade, three lowest quiz grades are dropped and your lowest reaction paper. The reaction papers will give you the hardest time, you get four a semester and they are graded kind of harsh and they are out of 10 points but are 35% of your grade, so a 9/10 still bumps you down pretty good. His lectures didn't really apply to the assignments very much, but I liked it that way, I didn't have to write a crap ton of notes, I could actually listen to what he was talking about and actually enjoy learning for once. Very engaging and would always read the zoom chats and laugh with us. No complaints here!
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY105 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/11/2023	He's very nice, and lenient with deadlines. I just was never able to understand his slides. The way he explained and graded things was confusing. But there were only 3 essays and 2 take home exams, so the class wasn't bad. The final project was very group oriented, so if you had a bad group you were screwed.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY100 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/09/2023	I personally love Dr. PJ but I have to say I think I got fairly lucky. Some reviews on here talk about how he grades weirdly and is very broad with his teaching and I have to say I agree with the teaching part but I honestly think that's what made the class so easy. It kinda fit with my learning style very well because I just had to make sure to read the textbook and I could pass all the quizzes and barely had to pay attention in class. However, for the grading part I did get lucky. He wasn't even the one grading my papers he like split all the grading up between him and his TA's and I got a good TA that would give me good grades but other people would complain about how their TA's would take off points for no reason and what not. He's a very nice and chill guy and I would recommend taking his class. You honestly have to put in minimal effort to get a good grade but that could just be my situation. Otherwise easy GenEd class.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY100 Anonymous 12/07/2023	Honestly, horrible. Dr. PJ, you're an amazing person and your class was engaging, but I was learning from the textbook(barely at that) and then listening to you talk about an entirely different topic during lecture. The worst part of the entire class was the god-awful "reaction papers" that had no guidelines at all. You were given an often VERY SHORT video and told to react to it. In my first paper, I was so confused; we got a video explaining the link between sociology and food and I had NO idea how to approach it. Even now, I still don't know how I was supposed to approach that video. The rubric is so cryptic and vague, that you can't even use it as a guideline. No beneficial criticisms, just a low score on your paper. You figure it out. Didn't want to take any questions, and would defer you to your "coordinating instructor"(literally such BS). NO examples, and he doesn't even post his slideshows(they DEFINITELY wouldn't help with anything, but it's the thought that counts). Goes on and on about a random topic daily and it doesn't even relate to what you would be reading for his reading quizzes. I truly hated this class, and I feel like it was for seasoned and well-adapted sociologists, not just people who were starting the topic(as one would expect with a 100 class). Dr. PJ, please make some changes or modify your syllabus. Think about what class you are teaching, and the reasonable expectations to have from them. Students, believe me when I tell you, STEER CLEAR OF THIS CLASS(there's a reason for the 2.39.)
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY105 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/07/2023	Overall, PJ is a very nice professor. He is down-to-earth and sincere and he really seems to care about students. He's the type of guy I would love to be friends with and have conversations with, but when it comes to teaching and grading, he is not the greatest. Don't get me wrong, I understand the concepts, but a lot of it is very hard to grasp your head around and PJ could break it down more. His writing assignments and the final project are very vague and hard to figure out. When it comes to the "reading summaries", which are the essays we had to write, I didn't really know how to improve on them. I tried to incorporate his feedback into my 2nd one, but it only increased my grade by half a point. The exams, which were all multiple choice and open note, were confusing as well. The first exam was entirely too long, but thankfully he shortened it for the second one. It was still a bit long in my opinion. The questions were worded where there wasn't a clear correct answer or a specific concept it was directly testing you on. In some other classes I've taken, MCQ's have been very academic and tricky, but I was able to figure them out after really thinking about what they were asking. His are not like that and as a result, I did fairly poorly on the exams. I'm not sure if all sociology courses are like this though, I get the vibe that this is how it is as a discipline and if it is PJ is a fine instructor. If there's one that breaks the material down better that may be a better option, but overall PJ listens to his students and I really value that. He may not be the teacher, but he is the kind of person we need more of in higher education.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY105 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/06/2023	This class was quite confusing for the first few weeks. Professor Parsells-Johnson immediately starts teaching and it seems likes he expected students to already know specific concepts even though this is a 100 level class. With the first paper, he even admits that the name "reading summary" is misleading but it sounds better for students. The rubrics are extremely confusing but usually the week before any big assignment is due he will use slides to go more in depth about what each section should look like which I really appreciated and it made the directions more clear so don't freak out! Also I think that probably 10 or more of our classes were cancelled throughout the semester or we were planned to not come and do something online. Also one of our major papers got cancelled but of the three papers, the lowest grade was going to be dropped anyways. The deadlines are all "best-by" dates which is nice. I had a TA (who we never met) do all my grading and I got good grades on everything so I think part of your experience in this class is all based on who grades your papers. Parsells-Johnson tries very hard to make class light and entertaining but I think my class was just not into it so there was an awkward vibe but I think that mainly has to do with the students.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY100 Anonymous 11/29/2023	First of all, I've gotta start by saying that Dr. PJ is a really, really nice guy. If you're reading this, Dr. PJ, which I know you probably will be at some point... please know that this is not a dig at you as a person. You are an awesome dude and I wish you the best. I did not enjoy this class at all. I took this class because I saw it was online and heck, it was a 100-level gen-ed in sociology, a field known for being mostly fluff. What could go wrong? The problems with this course are a result of two main things: unclear expectations/guidelines on assignments and ridiculous grading. Let me give you an example of what I'm talking about. There were four big papers in this class which were essentially the biggest part of the grade aside from the final project. No example papers were provided for any of these, and the guidelines were vague. A rubric was provided, but it was cryptic and esoteric for no reason. It would say things like, "The paper POPS with conceptual scaffolding." Dude... just say that you want to see good connection to course concepts. The most ridiculous part of the rubric, however, is that 10% of your grade for each paper depends on if your paper "gleams with sociological imagination." The syllabus even admitted that the "gleam" part of the rubric is pretty subjective. I hated the papers so much. I don't think I've ever procrastinated on an assignment more in my life than I did on these papers. It was so hard to even start writing because I didn't know what was expected of me. The one thing I did appreciate is that Dr. PJ had a "best by" policy for due dates, which meant that assignment due dates were more suggestions rather than actual hard deadlines. Dr. PJ, if you're reading this, your class could be so much better if you would just provide an example paper for the assignments and grade more fairly. This is college so I understand expectations should be high even for a 100-level sociology course, but students can't do well if they don't know what is expected of them. I have a sibling who took SOCY100 so I know that this is not what other SOCY100 classes here look like.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY200 Expecting a B- Anonymous 10/21/2023	Dr. PJ is really enthusiastic about the topics but does not explain them in a good way. He tries to explain complex concepts with other complex concepts that also make no sense. This class consists of lectures, take-home tests, 3 critical thinking papers and weekly class participation that is about a paragraph response to a prompt he gives in the lecture (so you have to go). The critical thinking papers have a rubric but it is not clear and he is a very harsh grader. Easy class if you are very perceptive to what he says in class and the take-home tests are super easy.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY463 Expecting an A Anonymous 09/13/2023	nice professor, do the readings, lenient with deadlines, really helpful in office hours
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY224 Expecting an A- Anonymous 08/22/2023	Nice guy but weird grading
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY224 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/02/2023	great professor, very lenient with deadlines and flexible with classes.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY224 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/20/2023	Good teaching, very funny. Workload is manageable and easy. Classes are straightforward and interesting. If you come to class, the class will be very easy.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY105 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 02/28/2023	This was first GenEd that I thought was overly drawn out with excessive and harshly graded work, this professor is too broad on his expectations for assignments in class and will make it seem like an assignment until you see a poor grade for an assignment you worked hard on. If you want a class that you deliberately want to waste your precious time with then go ahead, but if you make the right option, do not take this class with him. He does have a kind and understanding persona, but for the sake of your grade, there are better options. Also take in consideration I do not write reviews for these classes/ professors and taking the time to do this should speak volumes on how you should avoid this course with this professor.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY100 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/25/2023	Dr. PJ seems like a nice guy who's trying his best. Unfortunately, his best just isn't good. This man does not know how to explain concepts in a clear and easy to understand way. He'll define an incredibly abstract concept we haven't learned by connecting it to other equally abstract concepts we haven't learned. He'll spend an entire class doing a deep dive of a concept but won't define it until the end. He'll casually mention the theories of random sociologists as if we should know them. All that would probably work if he was just teaching grad students, but he never should have been put in charge of an introductory class. I feel like I should comment on the harsh grading debate, since everyone else is. Dr. PJ's inability to explain things extends to assignment directions. He'll devote an entire class period to explaining an assignment in some complicated way, but won't post a simple rubric half the time. When he does, it includes phrases like "pops with conceptual scaffolding" (uses connected class concepts) or "gleams with sociological imagination" (literally just a point for vibes). I usually did well on the assignments, but I would spend hours before each big assignment gathering all the different rubrics and expectations from different places and writing them out so I understood it, then doing a huge pre-write for the essay with the class concepts I was going to include. I got good grades from him, but I shouldn't have had to put in that much work to get them. Also, the class was set up so Dr. PJ would grade half the students and the TA would grade the other half. My final assignment was graded by the TA (Danielle Koonce) instead of Dr. PJ and randomly had 15% taken off with no explanation, so some of the harsh grading mentioned here could have just been the TA.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY105 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 12/24/2022	The only people who said he doesn’t grade harsh definitely wants to be teachers pet LOL. Worst professor ever. Grades harsh and refuses to admit his rubric and feedback are ridiculously unclear. Unresponsive through email. PLEASE DO NOT TAKE UNLESS YOU WANT EXTRA STRESS!!!!!
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY105 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/19/2022	To whoever said "A lot of people think that he grades harshly, but frankly, that's not entirely true." Yes, it is. I have spent hours upon hours across several days working on his assignments only for him to give me a mediocre grade. I'm not the greatest writer ever, but I have never gotten worse grades on writing assignments than I have in this class. Absolutely insane standards for a 100 level course.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY100 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/16/2022	Was super chill and down to earth but his grading standards and expectations for students are ridiculously high. This class was designed for introductory-level sociology and as a 100-level class, I felt like I was back in my 300-level class with the standards and expectations. Not an easy A, you have to work for it. His rubrics (if he has one, sometimes he doesn't) can be somewhat unclear and one of the points is if it wow'ed him. However, he drops your worst grades for certain assignments which can be great. He's also pretty forgiving with deadlines (as long as you ask for an extension), especially for STEM majors since he understands the struggle. I think he'd feel a lot more comfortable with a higher-level class because it's clear he's passionate about sociology, but the introductory class just doesn't seem to fit his standards and expectations.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY105 Expecting an A- kitkaty 12/13/2022	Honestly not an evil professor, very accommodating to extensions and deadlines. Nice and engaging lectures. However, like all the previous reviews mentioned he grades harshly for a 100-level class so do not expect an easy A class which many do for SOCY. I would not recommend taking him unless you're interested in sociology discussions or is a sociology major (the majority of my class were not).
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY105 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/12/2022	A lot of people think that he grades harshly, but frankly, that's not entirely true. He expects specific things in his grading scheme, and doesn't have much lenience in definitions, applications of concepts, or otherwise. Yes, that is something that I would expect to see in a higher level sociology class than SOCY105, but I think he makes up for this. He is completely willing to work with you if you need extensions for one reason or another. Being an electrical engineering major, it would happen more often than not that a paper would be due within a day or two of an exam in one of my major requirement courses, and since he has a Bachelor's degree in math, he understands what that courseload is like. Additionally, he is a very knowledgeable person who does a remarkable job at keeping politics out of the classroom as much as possible, given this class could be easily turned into a propaganda fest, one way or another. I enjoyed his approach to teaching, and really enjoyed his envolvement of the classroom in discussions about the course material. Ultimately this class was NOT the easy A I was expecting it to be, rather quite the contrary, and I would not recommend it for anyone who only wants the easy A. Anyone who has an interest in sociology would absolutely do right to take this class, especially with Dr. PJ, and I would highly recommend him as a professor for other classes. His expectations are high but to be honest, welcome to college. This isn't high school anymore, and since I have experience with the UMD math department, I know what harsh grading looks like and this isn't it.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY105 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/11/2022	Too much work
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY105 Anonymous 12/10/2022	Grades harsh, respond once a month. Way too much work for a 100-level
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY105 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/09/2022	Harsh grader and unresponsive to emails and comments. Do not take unless you Loveee sociology.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY105 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/09/2022	Please do not take this class if you need it for a prereq or expect a 100-level type class. He’s nice, and clearly knows a lot about sociology. However, he expects a LOT OF WORK for a 100-level class and rambles a lot during lectures. It’s incredibly draining. He grades so so so harsh for a normally “easy” class, with his rubrics being incredibly unclear. Even tho prof leaves feedback, his standards are high and requires you to be deeply interested in sociology. The average for most of our writing assignments were C-! Attendance is mandatory. There are 5 big papers and then a BIG PODCAST at the end- however he takes 3 weeks to grade a paper so by the time I knew how bad the class was it was too late to drop out.
Jeffrey Parsells-johnson SOCY105 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/06/2022	Professor Parsells-Johnson is a very interesting and knowledgable professor and he knows how to keep a classroom engaged. He also is understanding when it comes to deadlines and will always be willing to work with you if you need an extension. However, even though this is a 100 level class be prepared for the grading to be very harsh and more like to that of an upper level class than its 100 level designation. And although he does give extensive feedback, I would not recommend this class if you do not have more than an elementary level understanding of sociology or see this class as easier to get an A in, as even if you put in the work to obtain a better understanding of sociology in the class you most likely will not end up with an A, but an A- or B+.