Reviews for Susan D. Moeller
Average Rating:| hotchips Course: JOUR175 Grade Expected: B January 12, 2012, 9:11 am | As a previous poster mentioned, Moeller is the type that you will either love or hate. Personally, I loved her. She likes to keep things young and vibrant (even down to the way she dresses lol) so she shows a lot of Youtube videos and takes lots of class time up asking the class their opinions on current events. I honestly didn't learn anything in this course, but I did find her lectures to be very intriguing and I looked forward to the class. I must admit, outside of lecture the assignments were highly annoying. Every week you have to write a 300 word blog post on some 10+ pg reading about nothing. You have to write papers after visiting the holocaust and newseum, several group projects, and there is a short news quiz in every lecture and discussion. None of it is hard, but the assignments never relate to anything (like I said, I didn't learn anything) so completing them always feels like a waste of time. Everyone has said the most important thing is picking a good TA, but most of the time you won't know who to pick since they change often. To be safe I would say don't choose this as an easy A course, but if you want to balance out a difficult schedule with a good time, lazy elective, then this is right for you. |
| Anonymous Course: JOUR175 Grade Expected: A November 7, 2011, 3:45 am | Very fun and interesting class! Moeller is quite the character. You either love or hate her personality. She's very active in her field and a good lecturer. She fills lecture with intersting and often hilarious videos to keep things interesting. She's a big fan of YouTube. Discussion is fun too, that depends on your TA though. There is definitely some work involved - very heavy on homework, a couple projects, papers, exams. The assignments are time consuming but also unique and fun. (e.g. there's one where you write a paper about going 24 hours without any technology). I definitely recommend taking this class! |
| Anonymous Course: JOUR470 Grade Expected: B May 16, 2011, 12:30 pm | She is awful! First of all, we only met once a week, and she wasted our class time by asking us to go around the room and share random anecdotes that had nothing to do with research. Then, in the last 5 minutes of class, she would suddenly ask us to do a bunch of work, but wouldn't explain how to do it. No one had a clue what was going on. After giving little to no feedback all semester, she all of a sudden told us how much she hated our blog posts. I do not recommend this course. |
| ltilley Course: JOUR175 Grade Expected: B April 26, 2011, 2:23 pm | I took this class as an elective and it was one of the reasons I decided to change my major to journalism. The class itself is very interesting. Lectures with Moeller are typically interesting, she shows a lot of YouTube videos/ads/photographs to analyze. It's not about memorizing everything it's about learning general ideas (properties of propaganda) and applying them to everyday media. As everyone else has said, your TA is the most important part. I have Elia Powers and he's great and is a pretty easy grader. He never gives C's (he told us this) and usually grades between high B's to low A's. Every week in lecture is a news quiz to basically take attendance (just Google questions). Every week in discussion is a 2 question quiz on basic concepts from class (like what artist did we watch a YouTube video of in class) to again get attendance. Every week there is a blog post due on a certain topic where you have readings to look at and you must respond to them in 300 words, it's a lot to do it every week but not that hard. There's also a few projects. You have to go to the Holocaust Museum and write a 5 page paper. You also have to visit the Newseum in D.C. (actually an awesome museum) and write a blog post on it as well as a question on the final being about it. You also have to make a PSA, but it's not that hard. There's a midterm and a final with 3 essays. The midterm gave a picture and you had to analyze it, we watched 2 news clips covering the same event and had to cover that, and then write an essay on how social media plays a role in natural disasters. It's pretty easy to BS cause it's a lot of opinion. I know this is a lot but I like to find reviews that tell me what assignments there are and everything like that. Overall, enjoyable class. |
| Anonymous Course: JOUR175U Grade Expected: B+ February 17, 2011, 12:02 pm | I really enjoyed the class but my TA refused to give anything above an 8 on the homeworks and nothing above a 90 on the midterm and final. I ended up with an 89 and he wouldn't bump it to an A. Make sure you get a cool TA if you take this class. |
| Anonymous Course: JOUR175 Grade Expected: B+ July 7, 2010, 6:16 pm | I for one thought Professor Moeller's lectures were almost useless. The only new things I learned were the terms I had to memorize for the midterm and final, and I forgot them as soon as the tests were over. She's very unresponsive to students and does not do a good job weighting grades. For example, a five page paper for which I was required to visit the Holocaust Museum in DC was worth as much as finding a video on Youtube which talked about cell phone usage. She didn't offer a good excuse. Like a previous poster said, what makes this an easy course depends largely on your TA. For the first half of the semester, my TA wasn't very specific about what he expected on the homework assignments. It reached a point where I pestered him for two weeks until he gave me an answer. Only then did I start breezing through the course, but by that point it was too late to raise my overall grade to an A. Bottom line: Make sure you know what your TA wants from you. |
| Anonymous Course: JOUR175 Grade Expected: B May 16, 2010, 8:06 pm | I think that Prof. Moeller is great at lecture, there were some really interesting days, but pick your TA carefully! The grades vary between the TAs greatly - mine doesn't give out As at all - so if you're taking this as an "easy A" beware to pick a good TA! Overall not a class I would take again. |
| Anonymous Course: JOUR175 Grade Expected: A April 21, 2010, 11:22 am | I am not responding to Professor Moeller as a lecturer. She is actual quite interesting in lecture and uses lots of good videos as part of her slides. However, the discussion aspect of the class is extremely confusing. It is impossible to figure out what you need to do for the assignments and there area a lot of group projects. I would not recommend that you take this class at all (I signed up for OurUMD just to make this comment), but if for some reason you still want to, make sure you check out the COURSEEVAL link on Testudo... although the average GPA for the class is high, it actually varies significantly between TA's. So if you're taking this class as an "easy A" it will most likely make your life easier to pick and choose what section you are in carefully. Again, I'm really not trying to bash on Professor Moeller as a lecturer. She hasn't been very responsive to student concerns, but she doesn't really know what goes on in the discussions. |
| Anonymous Course: JOUR175 Grade Expected: B December 7, 2009, 6:56 pm | She is a good teacher. Many videos are shown in class so its very rare that one gets bored. There are two tests and they are easy (basically argue your opinion very well and its at least a high B). The only catch is that there are about 12-13 pages during the semester, and they are moderate. The first few papers are graded very harshly but it eases out in the end |
| omgitsalexis Course: JOUR175 Grade Expected: A May 23, 2009, 5:47 pm | Professor Moeller is very knowledgeable, she is just terrible at transmitting that knowledge to students. Lectures were sometimes interesting, but unnecessary to attend to achieve a high grade. There is a 2 page paper due every week, but they're a piece of cake. Final was a breeze. Get Jessica Roberts as your TA and the course is a cakewalk, she rocks. |
| kvizzle321 Course: JOUR175 Grade Expected: A April 28, 2009, 11:31 am | Professor Moeller's class was very easy. Lectures were pretty much optional, although there was one day in discussion when they quizzed us to see if we were at the previous lecture. There are weekly assignments that are short and easy. There is no midterm and a final that from what I have heard is easy. The class is very interesting and it does not take much effort or knowledge to get a good grade. |