UMPI Class Review Master Thread

[RbxFunRocks]

Reposting this here to give it separation from the original post:

---

Name: HTY 456 - Films of the Cold War
Subject: History
Semester/Term: Fall Term 2 2022
Instructor: Zaborney
Long or Short?: Long
Number of Outcomes: 5 real outcomes, 1 "Are you ready?". The movies begin in Outcome 2.
Adaptive Outcomes?:  No
Number of Milestone Activities: 5
Type of Milestone Activities: Essay (500 words)
Type of Final Assessment: Essay (1000 words)
Notes & Overall Thoughts: This is a pretty fun class. You get to watch some Cold War Era movies and analyze them through the lens of the time. There are also some documentaries, PSAs, and TV Shows mixed in. There are also some readings/regular lessons to give you some background knowledge. 

All films and videos are provided within the lessons. These are actual full movies and episodes. Some documentaries are split into multiple parts. All movies are between 1 and 2 hours. The longest is Double Indemnity (1944) at 1:47:38. Most movies are close to 1 hour 10 minutes. I really enjoyed the 5 Twilight Zone episodes that were included. These are 25 minutes each.

Outcome 1 is pretty simple, focusing on culture and how movies reflect it. Outcomes 2-4 follow a similar format where there are 4 main movies plus some other videos, documentaries, and shows preceding them. Outcome 5 has 5 movies, 4 episodes of The Twilight Zone, and some other assorted videos (such as government PSAs). My personal favorite films from the class would have to be Quicksand (1950) and The Blob (1948).

Outcome 1 is the shortest. Expect Outcomes 2-4 to take at least 5 hours of watching movies and videos each. Outcome 5 is the longest, which may take close to 10 hours of watching movies and videos. This doesn't account for writing the milestone activities and final assessment.

This is a good class to take, but not to speedrun. Don't get me wrong, the class is extremely easy. It's just that you will want to give these films your undivided attention to fully understand them. I spent an entire weekend watching these films. Usually, in other classes, I listen to lessons on Speechify in the background while doing other things. Can't really do the same with this class. Easy writing assignments, though.

I recommend this class to students who aren't trying to rush things & want a simple class that is easy to pay attention to. The most entertaining class I've taken at UMPI so far.

---

Classes cannot be added with 10 days remaining in the session without approval from your academic advisor. You can't add classes on your own anyway. They always have to add them. The 10 days remaining in the session is past the 6th week mark.

Define long or short? Not sure what you're referring to there.

I was the first one on here to attend UMPI and report back with a lot of details. I am interested to see what changes happen with the move to Brightspace. One thing I hope happens is that students will be able to communicate with each other.

Filling this out really only works if you do it right when you take a class. I finished my second degree back in March and there's been some changes since then. Some of my professors are no longer teaching the course I took. I know one class has an entirely different course on Strut now and the Final Assessment is drastically different.

One thing that might be helpful is which style of quiz the course has. Those adaptive quizzes can sometimes hold you back from quickly moving through the content.

Did you watch whole movies for HTY 456? Or just clips of movies?

Thank you for the catches. I've updated the thread to reflect them.

I've included this in my update, but I'll also say it here. To me, "Short" is a class that takes less than 10 hours of coursework, "Medium" is between 10 and 24 hours, and "Long" is longer than 24 hours. If a student works on a "long" class 2 hours per day, they could expect to take at least 12 days to complete it. A "Short" class would be something like Arab-Israeli Conflict (which I'll write a review on at a later time). A "Long" class would be something like BIO 105 from what I've read.

I know the label is extremely subjective, but it's also useful for students passing through and wanting to find a quick class to take/long class to avoid.

The move to Brightspace will be a welcome change. Will be cool to see.

Yea, I imagine it will be hard to remember every single detail after some time has passed. Some of the history classes I've taken are different from what I've heard about them over a year ago. The students who read this thread should be a bit skeptical about how relevant class reviews from older terms are to them today. Still, I think older class reviews still have some use. Some classes aren't that good and don't have many signs of being updated. One review is all it takes to help someone avoid taking a class like BIO 105.

HTY 456 had full movies. I've updated my review to include more details. In the class, you watch some films from 1940 - 1960 and write papers about how they relate to the Cold War culture of the time. Most films are in black and white. I've had a lot of fun with the class. Glad to have taken it.