HIUS 2101

Singerman is a great dude and a great professor. His lectures are entertaining and he encourages active participation in them, while also not expecting an unrealistic amount out of his students. There are weekly readings and discussion posts for those readings. The readings themselves can range from extremely entertaining to mind-numbingly long and boring. The required discussion posts also have strict standards, but only have to be a maximum of 200 words long. The biggest gripe I have with the course is the grading system. It's really confusing and I wish Singerman just resorted to a standard letter-grading system instead of the complete/incomplete + 'tokens' system. If you need this class for a disciplines credit or a history elective, definitely take it. Singerman is very approachable and likes to make students think in depth about the material, considering how average Americans' lives were changed following the introduction of certain technologies like railroads, telegraphs, and the internet.
#tCFS24

On the whole, I enjoyed this class although I've definitely had better classes at UVA. Professor Singerman is a great person and he clearly cares a lot about his students' learning. He is equally interested in teaching content as he is teaching how to be a historian -- as a non-history major, I sometimes would've preferred more focus on content. You talk about everything from the definition of technology to the railroads to early video games and throughout you are discussing not just what happened but also how we know what happened and what lessons we can learn. His grading system is atypical -- it's similar to grading based on completion with a few more regulations. It means you have a lot of control over what grade you get and this course never added any stress to my life. Course structure was that each week there was a handful of manageable readings and then you submitted a brief written response. Class time was a mix of lecture, discussion, and group work. Class discussions weren't always super lively but I think he'll improve that going forward. There are also three larger assignments that were paper/project hybrids. He gave plenty of time to work on all of them and also the ability to submit early and get feedback.