EGMT 1540

The concepts this class covered were super interesting, but it largely ended up being Walsh just talking to himself for what seemed like the entire class. There isn’t a ton of work, just readings, weekly reflections, and a fun final project. The readings were definitely tedious, some of them up to 80 pages long, which seemed like a lot for an engagement, but skimming worked pretty well. Walsh is super invested in what he’s teaching, which makes the class really fun and he knows so much about what he’s teaching. It was not the most interesting course for me, but it was pretty easy and his passion is contagious.

With a title like "Paranoia, Conspiracies, and Fake News", the course had a ton of potential, but it fell into the main pitfalls of most EGMT classes. The material covered in class and in the readings was interesting, but discussions often just became the professors talking to each other about something marginally related and the cool material just fell to the wayside. Also, since this is such a large Engagement, it is much harder to have real class discussions, so the time in class left me wanting a lot more. There were weekly discussion posts, except the professors forgot about them two different weeks so we didn't have to do them. Profs Walsh and Ferguson are very lenient with all of their deadlines, which makes life easier on you as a student, except it kind of feels like they were flying blindly through the course even though they've taught it several times before. The final project, writing your own conspiracy theory, was very fun to work on. Overall, this is probably an above average Engagement, but that's not saying much.

This was a weird course with the two professors. THey basically just talk back and forth between each other about random stuff which has no value. However, the conspiracy theories you cover and read about are cool. Like most engagements, there is reading for each class with a short reflection that is a good chunk of your grade. The main part of your grade is making your own conspiracy theory which you can do in a group. Overall, the class is ok and not too difficult.

Paranoia, Conspiracy Theories, and Fake News was taught by David Walsh and Andrew Ferguson together, and they really just made the class so much fun. Their dynamics as people and as instructors allowed for a fun lecture and discussion each week. The topics we dove into were always so much fun to learn about! We talked about every theory imaginable, and each week we focused on a different over arching theme! One week was anti-Semitism and all of the theories that derive from that topic. The grade is made up of 6 discussion posts and a final project! The final project you can do individually or with a small group, and you just have to write three pages on a conspiracy theory you make up yourself. It was really fun to work on, and they also made the deadline before finals which was really nice. We had a pizza party the last lecture and discussed everyone's final projects! This class really was so much fun, as well as an easy A. Highly recommend!! #tCFfall2021

This was my only hybrid class, so I really enjoyed seeing the professors in person! However, this engagements class was larger than previous ones I've taken (this one had 70 students, while others had 30-35). In this sense, I felt almost distant from my classmates and we didn't ever have any opportunities to work together. This class was co-taught by Prof. Ferguson and Prof. Walsh. During class, they often made jokes to each other or talked to each other about topics that students didn't understand, so it could sometimes be hard to follow along. While learning about conspiracies was interesting, I found the lectures sometimes boring and pointless. It was fun, though, because for our final project we had to make our own conspiracy theory. There were readings every week, but I got away with spending about 20-30 minutes skimming them. Sometimes, I didn't complete the readings but was still fine because we were never required to participate in the class. #tCFspring2021