This was honestly one of the most boring classes I have taken at UCLA, and I really don’t like Groeling’s teaching style. On the first day of class he had a screenshot of his bruinwalk reviews on his powerpoint as a way of telling us that people love his class which I thought was sort of weird. He has a sarcastic sense of humor which I found too much at times, like he was trying out a stand up routine and prove how clever he is. He also at one point told us to look up his salary and told us how much his house was worth, ostensibly to demonstrate how easy it is to find information about people online but it really felt like a weird attempt to flex his money. As for the class itself, at first the amount of reading he assigned for every class (3x a week) was way too much, there would be 5-6 often long articles we would have to read and then he would give a quiz on extremely minute details rather than quizzing us on the overall meaning or takeaways from the articles. Thankfully he gave us a survey to give feedback for him and I think enough people complained about the amount of reading that he reduced the assigned articles to 3 max per day. I did appreciate that he decided to assign 3 2-page papers rather than giving us tests because of the online format, and I thought the papers were pretty fair and easy to write. Overall I didn’t like the class or him as a professor but if you like his sense of humor I can see how the class would be more enjoyable.

One of the best professor in communication department. He is opened to help and his TA Mackenzie was really sweet and super helpful either. I was kind of confused about the assigned work materials at the beginning but ended up getting A+ on this class. We had quizzes everyday based on the assigned readings (one question from one reading), but the questions are fair and easy points. Plus he provides lots of quiz make-up opportunities as an extra credit so why not Comm 151 ? :)

Professor Groeling is amazing! The course material is a bit superfluous in the beginning, it takes a few weeks to really get into the interesting and relevant content, but Groeling did an amazing job at keeping us all engaged and participating! You start the quarter with a big group project, which was fun and allowed us to collab to revise his syllabus & lecture material. Throughout the quarter, he gives short quizzes every class based on the readings. Easy points and he also does plenty of quiz makeup opportunities. Also, he included guest lecturers who were professional and endearing. Prof Groeling really did his best to make this class as engaging as it could be virtually!

I really enjoyed taking this class! The professor was really thorough and always answered his emails. You can tell he loves teaching and he cares for his students. The class itself was fairly interesting, so lecture was very fun. He has clicker reading questions in the beginning of class so it was important to show up on time, otherwise you'll miss out. It's okay if you miss a few points because he has extra credit assignments to make up those points. The class starts off with a big project that revises the syllabus. He gives us a section of the syllabus and we had to decide to keep the old articles or find new articles for that week. I believe there were two midterms, both fairly easy since students were able to submit midterm questions. Each midterm has a take home essay, which were only two pages long. He also gives weekly mini projects that may be time-consuming. He takes points off for not answering all the questions or not going into details with your answer. It's okay if you lose some points since the max points you can get from the mini projects is 40 points. So you can skip some projects as long as you reach 40 points at the end of the quarter. Due to the pandemic, the final exam was 3 take home essays that were also two pages long.

I loved this class so much, probably one of my favorite classes I've taken in the comm department, I hope to take another class with Groeling! you can read the other reviews for a breakdown of how the class is graded but as long as you show up to class, there's no way to fall behind. the tests were extremely fair since the questions were written by students so we could study them beforehand. Groeling is always engaging with a great sense of humor and relatability to the students! even though the topic was something I never thought I would be interested in, he made it extremely relatable to our interests and I loved his lectures! so, if you are looking for a sign to take this class, here it is!

I like Groeling a lot because I can really relate to his humor and views on the world. He is extremely fair, extremely prepared, and always sleep-deprived. This class starts off with a big group project for revising the syllabus, which isn't too bad. I personally volunteered to be a leader for the double points and if you think you can lead the points are very very worth it to make the rest of the workload easier for yourself. The rest of the class you have to do small projects that are pretty easy to do, and you can choose which ones you want to do so you can do homework on your own schedule. There is a handful of articles to read each class with a clicker quiz, so it's kind of a lot of reading on that front but all things considered it's reasonable (not easy but fair). The exams were pretty good and fair as well (helped that the TA was very sympathetic towards us in grading). If you struggle with this, the one thing is that Groeling goes through lecture really fast (and sometimes still isn't fast enough). It is bruincasted but he talks really fast in class.

In all, I'd definitely recommend this class. It's not an easy class but it's definitely not a hard one--I thoroughly enjoyed the class and the reasonable workload and the class topics.

Groeling was a good professor. I took 151 and 160 during the same quarter, back to back. I thought the exams were easy because he lets students suggest exams questions, and then you just memorize the answers to those. Obviously only helpful if you have a good memory, but still a fun concept. People in his past classes on BruinWalk have said that he assigns too much reading, and honestly on some days it's a bit much, but I actually never really read them. As long as you know the main idea of the reading you're fine. On all of his iClicker Reading quizzes I got full points and I only skimmed each reading. Overall good class, wouldn't mind taking again if I had to.

As a foreign exchange student from Scandinavia, I was ready to drop this class after the first lesson.

Groeling is the most intimidating but also the funniest professor I have ever encountered in my life. Never ever during my existence on this earth have I experienced the satisfaction of being frightened down to the core while also being intellectually stimulated and laughing my ass off, at the SAME time, until my first class with Groeling.

However, class 151 is the best class I have ever taken in my life. The workload is immense but it is so relevant and important for someone who wants to educate them about one of the most revolutionary technologies in human history.

I am eternally grateful I got the opportunity to take this class and I will remember it forever.

But on the other hand, if you are just trying to fill up your units with an easy class, don't pick this one. This class requires A LOT of work, and it also requires you to actually use your brain. But this class will teach you something that you can use for the rest of your life, so it is worth it.

10/10 would take again.

The professor is funny and well updated with current news as the class requires him to. The material is different every quarter because he asks his students to create the syllabus. The tests are easy because every student can submit two questions and he creates his tests from these questions. Although the class is Bruincasted, you still have to show up to lecture because attendance is taken through iClicker.

While this class was not difficult, I wouldn't take it again. I don't like the style of Groeling's class. Your grade in the class is based on Clicker questions, projects, and exams. About a week before the exams, Groeling would open up a forum for students to suggest questions for the exams, and most of the questions he puts on the exams are student-suggested questions. So if you study the questions posted online, you can guarantee almost a perfect grade on the in-class portion. We also had take home essays as part of the exam, but they were only 2 pages each and they graded easily in my experience. What I didn't like is that because the exam questions were posted online and because the readings and lectures were posted online, there was no reason for me to sit through lecture, but I still had to in order to get my participation points. I felt like Groeling went too fast through the slides and was not engaging, so I would zone out during class other than the clicker questions, which I felt like was a waste of my time. Take this class if you want to be in control of your grade, but not if you really want to enjoy your time in it.