MDST 3405

This course is very interesting and comprehensive, covering a range of topics that are both challenging and relevant to today's society; that being said, it is not an easy course by any means. Almost the entire grade is determined by performance on a few take-home exams, which can take an entire weekend to write, and grading is meticulous. However, Prof. Ali is very available and wants to help students do well, so definitely visit his office hours. Overall, a very worthwhile course, though definitely not a light one.

Great professor, heavy reading but he really synthesizes important information in lecture!

Not the most interesting course- it all becomes very thematic and repetitive (along with negative- we get it- corporate America sucks, and so does the dominant white man). Prof. Ali definitely makes this class as interesting as it could be, but he is a hard grader and picks and pries at your responses (which are often 250 words...) Kinda frustrating when he tells you to elaborate on a part when he asks a loaded question to begin with... #tcf2016

Professor Ali was very engaging and passionate about the subject which in turn got me really interested in the material. I didn't think I would enjoy this course as much as I did but Professor Ali made the material comprehensive and intriguing. He doesn't post the powerpoints online so you reall have to pay attention and take notes. Weekly quizzes aren't too bad and the essays require work but it's worthwhile if you're interested in media and law.

This class is incredibly dry and boring unless you enjoy learning about media policy. Ali is a nice guy and grades fairly. The class deals a lot with current events so the topics change regularly. We had weekly multiple choice reading quizzes, a 5 page policy memo and two take home exams. Overall a fairly easy class but was often hard to sit through lecture.

This was one of the best classes I took at UVA, I'm reviewing classes now as I'm getting ready to graduate. Dr. Ali is an engaging and comprehensive lecturer and a fascinating person - look him up and take advantage of office hours. The material is super relevant and interesting. That said, if you're not already interested in the topic, the course will likely be a drag. If you're already a policy nerd, you'll love it and will learn quite a bit. Under no circumstances should this be considered a GPA booster. He's a tough grader who looks for genuine analysis, not recitation. At the end of the day, this class is a lot of bang for your buck: you'll feel like you actually learned a great deal rather than just hitting the grading wickets and then data-dumping everything at the end.

This class is pretty boring for the most part but Ali is a really good professor and he really wants his students to do well. The midterm and final are both take home/open note and are very fair, in my opinion. This semester Ali started doing group discussions once every other week and we also did the policy memo in those groups. I hate group work so I really didn't like that aspect but other than that the class is fine. You really don't need to do the readings, maybe just skim them for the weekly online quizzes. Overall I would recommend this course if you are interested in media policy at all.