COLA 1500

The Good Place COLA was a really nice and easy COLA, a great class for your first semester. Each week we typically had to watch a couple of episodes of The Good Place, read a philosophical reading, and write/respond to a discussion post around the reading/episodes for that week. The class itself was a discussion as well of our assignments that week. The readings could be cumbersome at times, and I found I didn't read them if they were too heavy. You could spend hours on them, but they honestly aren't worth your time because they only really matter in the discussions, which you can choose not to participate in. He also posts them towards the end of the week, and that could be frustrating if you're the one who had to write the discussion post but only had two/three days to do it because of how long it took him to post the assigned reading. The discussion was mainly around letting everyone speak than letting us have a thoughtful discussion, but I appreciated the encouragement he gave us to speak up. It was definitely the class I engaged in the most. The writing exercises were really easy as well. If you're looking for an interesting, easy COLA for your first semester, I'd definitely suggest this one.

I took a COLA on the TV show The Good Place this semester, which met once a week. It was a one-credit course, and the homework was great because you got to watch episodes of the tv show! In addition to watching 2-3 episodes per week, you also read some applicable philosophical works and added to discussion posts about the episodes and readings each week. You also write 3 or four short writing exercises, which are tailored toward the show. For a one-credit course, the philosophical readings were sometimes unduly heavy and complex, requiring up to 2-3 hours just to understand what the heck you're reading. Professor Shuve let us go early each week though, which was really nice. During the lecture, I would have appreciated more student discussion, as there were definitely many opportunities for students to speak, and opinions were always welcomed, but it was more of a facilitated "hearing everyone's opinion" vs. actual, engaging, student discussion at times. Overall though, the course was really interesting and made me watch The Good Place more analytically, and we had a good group of students. If you're in cola, the professor of your course will also be your advisor, which Professor Shuve was a generally good one. Would recommend taking it if you like The Good Place, like philosophy, and want a lowkey class.
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