Prof Weltman is very sweet and funny. Class isn't very important since he posts the slides and allows a page of notes front and back for midterms. I often came 20-60 minutes late or skipped class and I still got an A. Midterm and final were multiple choice, and if you come across anyone who has an old test, I believe most of the questions were reused or just phrased differently. The papers, especially the group paper, were frustrating to write (mainly bc my TA was pretty awful), but I think most of the grading is preeetttyyyy lenient for the most part. Most of the prompts are Civil Engineering related, which was a cool way to learn about some Civil ethical failures, but I think most people thought it was boring.

Honestly i liked this class a lot :). I went lecture and learned a lot about the present issues like overpopulation, environment, laws, history etc. I enjoyed the lecture taught by professor Weltman. It's even more convient because he post lecture online. This class give you knowledge in different field like history, war, environments, ethical knowledge, laws.... etc. Many different fields crambled in one course

The class itself is pretty good, there are a lot of writing things but not that bad. The only thing I'd complain abt is, it was the WALL STREET guys and/or politicians made this world miserable, not our nerdy software engineers. Why do engineering students need to take an ethics class, even if ethics is necessary, why not let these future businessmen do?

This class is one of the most useless classes you will take at UCLA. I'm surprised HSSEAS still requires it. While you do learn an "ethical perspective," the professor's opinions and past career experience really shine through and impact the supposedly objective material taught. You are recommended to purchase the textbook because 5% of your exams are the optional textbook quizzes. Unfortunately, the textbook is not free and suspiciously enough is written by the professor himself. I felt like I was paying the professor for a grade boost. The lectures effectively copy from the textbook, provide little new insight than a high school history class, and have minimal relation to the class essays. The first essay takes over 6 weeks to complete while you only have 3 weeks to complete the second essay. In addition, the professor re-introduced a complete waste of time class project that supposedly builds teamwork skills. This took way too much time to complete and felt completely unrelated to the class. They also required a recorded team presentation to be viewed only by the TAs which was an even bigger waste of time. The professor and Professor Browne hardly helped with the assignments. It felt like the TAs were in charge the whole quarter. The tests were equally useless. Questions typically involved meaningless factoids that the professor writes about in his book. They ask you questions about quotes, random historical events, and random statistics. Even more infuriating is the insertion of questions with answers that reflect the professor's opinions on the subject. I received points off on my final due to these questions. Unfortunately, you have to take this class, so I recommend preparing yourself to be subject to an insane and cramped workload with no help from the Professors. Once you accept that you will learn nothing useful, the class becomes way easier to take.

The contents of this class were super interesting, but I feel like it wasn't worth spending a whole quarter on the subject. The writing portion was mildly annoying since we had to submit either a draft or a paper every 2-3 weeks. My TA, Ryan, was super nice and helpful on reviewing our papers, and the professor also gave great lectures. Overall, I would recommend taking this class with this professor, given that engineering writing is a degree requirement.

Gershon Weltman and Donald Browne "co-teach" this class during the summer. Lecture is interminable sometimes, but lucky me, I got to watch it on 1.5x speed!
Lecture is for ethics (case studies, formal ethical theory, industry specifics, etc.), discussion is for writing (how-to, assignment details, peer reviews, style guides, etc.). Prof uses slides which are great for referencing and studying during exam season. Two major essays, one on the tragedy of the commons and one on an ethical case study (I chose the I85 bridge collapse). Pretty easy to swing an A IMO if you study and attend discussion/TA meetings to improve your paper before submission.

Class was alright. I found some of the topics interesting so not too boring overall, but lectures are all powerpoints. Tests were all open everything with generous time limits, so it was easy to find what you needed in the book as you took it. There are two essays which are both pretty long, but they're not graded too harshly and aren't that difficult to write.

Engineering 183EW was more interesting than I expected it to be. I learned about major ethical theories, history topics, and other concepts that are interesting to learn about.

Weltman teaches most of the lectures and Dr. Browne teaches two case study lectures before the midterm. I recommend going to all classes to not miss important topics. For the midterm and final, I went over ALL the lectures (I rewrote them, which is time-consuming, but it is my style) as well as the types notes I made on the book chapters. For the midterm, we got tested on Chapters 1-5 in the ethics textbook and for the final, we got tested on Chapters 3 and 6-10. Unlike what other people believe, just going over the gray boxes is NOT enough. You should try to also go over the italicized sections (e.g., major types of fallacies), which are not in gray boxes. This will make sense when you take the class. Also, if you are a good writer, then the essays will be time-consuming but nothing impossible or too stressful. PLEASE try to do the best first draft you can so that the final version of your two individual papers involves less work and therefore less tress. The team paper is time-consuming, so it is essential to communicate with your team members effectively and to ensure that everyone does his/her own part with a solid effort. Also, Dr. Browne is in charge of the administrative details of this class, NOT Weltman, so email Dr. Browne if you have any questions about changing discussion sections, etc. For the 8 AM lectures, there was not a sign in sheet on the first day of class, and Dr. Browne did not include one either. What I don't get is why there even is a sign in sheet to begin with. You also use an online UCLA poll in lecture to answer questions in many classes. Couldn't this be a way of ensuring attendance, thus rendering the sign-in sheet moot? Maybe there's something I'm missing, but hopefully the professors can address this in a future class.

Overall, I did like a lot of the things that I learned, and just try to stay on top of your work both in lecture and discussion. Do NOT procrastinate, and you should be in good shape.

You can also look up Gershon Weltman for more reviews, as this one page seems to be lacking.

Professor Weltman is a pretty cool guy. He credits himself as one of the founders of MMORPGs, so that in and of itself is pretty baller.

The grade breakdown of the class is like:

5% - participation/attendance (participation in discussion section, attendance in class via a sign up sheet)

24% - 2 papers (6+ pages), 1 on Hardin's Tragedy of the Commons relating to a Californian issue from a list of issues you pick from and another on an ethical case study from a list you choose from (12% each). These are graded by your TAs, so hopefully your TA isn't a hard grader, though they all seem to be.

24% - team research paper, topic is picked from a list given on day 1 of class. Be sure to get rid of slackers/dgafers from your group asap or else it hurts EVERYONE.

5% - team research paper oral presentation, pretty fun, probably graded easily by your TA.

16% - midterm, write fast because you only have 2 hours to finish 10 short answer/essay questions. The grading is super easy though (more or less how much you complete of the test is = to your grade).

26% - final, same as the midterm, just 12 questions instead of 10 and 3 hours to do it instead of 10.

Professor Browne does 2 case study lectures before the first midterm, so be sure to go to those if you want to know the answers to some of the midterm questions. He is also a bit more animated than Professor Weltman and reminds me of Penguin from Batman Returns.

Overall a pretty easy "A" if you do well on your 2 papers in your discussion (ask your TA for help since you are given a chance to revise your initial turn in of the paper), don't have a group full of slackers for your group project, and can write fast on the midterm/final.