MDST 3704

I will never take a class with Sean Duncan again. He claims to use a specs grading system where everything is either Meets Expectations (ME) or doesn't (DME); however, it's not implemented correctly. Rather than using specs as a checklist, it is arbitrary for him. You can do everything on his rubric and he will still give you DME because he didn't like one sentence or your citation method. He claims to want paper MLA or APA but really has his own system that you have to use. His logic for being able to do this is that it's a revision based class where you have revision tokens to fix (I want to say 4) assignments; however, this relies on him actually being consistent with grading and giving you feedback. He fell very behind in my class. He also takes no advice or criticism from students. On the last day of class he asked for ideas on how to improve the class but shut down anyone who actually had ideas because he didn't like it.

However, I did enjoy the content of the class. The 1st half of the semester you get to play board games, which was fun. However, it's often limited to 1 or 2 people only. You also got into a lot of complex topics like consent and decolonization. Beware for the 2nd half though. You go from having a 1 page writing assignment each week to having 2 8 page (1.5 spacing) papers due within about 5 days of each other.

First, something to be aware of: Sean Duncan teaches the class his own opinion on the media being studied. He has something in mind when he begins a class discussion, and doesn't allow room for any contrary opinions. I found he would be critical of what people were saying, without necessarily trying to build on it. From an academic perspective, it feels like you are getting your colleague's opinion on a piece of text rather than being in a class. The readings are excellent and taught me a lot about Game Studies and Game Design, but I wish we could participated in a more open class discussion about them.

When it came to the course structure, I found the rules strict, yet inconsistently followed. The strictness was in the name of education, which is admirable, but it was executed poorly. The class design is sound, yet the professor does not have the focus to maintain it. At many times it felt like we, the class, were against the professor and that he simply did not care about our opinions. This, along with an unfair enforcement of the strict rules, made Sean Duncan seem like an asshole.

TLDR:
I would not recommend taking a class with Sean Duncan for the time being. While a knowledgeable professor, his subjective nature of going over the material, extremely delayed grading, and inconsistent enforcement of strict course policy made the class a significant headache. I hope that Media Studies gives him an assistant to free him up to teach.