I guess the pros and cons of this class can be summarized by the following:

--The professor cares and you will learn A LOT about Islam

Now normally, a class where you learn a lot, and where the professor cares is a good thing. In many ways for this class, it is a good thing: the professor responds to emails, the professor has engaging lectures, and the course modules are very well designed. Furthermore, I learned more about Islam than I ever imagined I would have. Regardless of your experience with Islam, you WILL learn about things you will have no idea that existed. This class really opened my eyes about what Islam is and isn't.

That said, the professor acts as if this class is the only class we're taking. The workload makes engineering upper-divs look like cakewalks. During a typical week, you will be assigned 80 or so pages, and you WILL be tested on them. One week, I was assigned 160 pages of reading. Yes, that's right, 160 pages of dense reading, that ranges from really engaging to mind-numbingly boring. You will also need to acquire Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World and An Introduction to Muhammad. Those books are NOT listed as required books, but they are.

Exams are generally not too bad, but you will have 3 of them, weighted equally. You will be given a study guide for each of them, and exams are short response. Fortunately, the study guide has questions that will be on the exam, and since they're open note you can really prepare for them. Modules are also graded on correctness, and discussion sections are mandatory, with participation graded. Discussion sessions do cover tested materials. Like most GEs, the discussions were well organized (Azeem Malik was an awesome TA). Apparently, there's some extra credit, but never needed it; my grade was never seriously in jeopardy.

In normal years, there is a final paper required for this class. Fortunately, due to COVID, it was made optional (no-harm), but I imagine it would be hard to do

Maybe if we were on the semester system, the class would not be as bad. Then again, Dr. Sayeed would probably use the extra time to pile on even more work. Regardless, we're on the quarter system. so the class has horrible amounts of work.

But if you are really interested about Islam, and have a lot of time on your hands, this class actually teaches you a lot.

This class is a great option for the philosophical and linguistic analysis GE. Professor Sayeed's lectures are highly informative and use very interesting examples, and she is very open to advice about planning the course. Weekly assignments can seem daunting, with readings often approaching 100 pages, but most of these readings can simply be skimmed for quotes to use in the short reading response assignments that are assigned most weeks. These reading responses can be graded fairly harshly; make sure to follow the directions exactly and ask questions if they seem too vague. There are online quizzes pertaining to lecture material and other sources that can sometimes be a bit challenging, but they shouldn't hurt your grade too much. Also lumped in with these are short discussion assignments that don't really add much to the course. Discussion sections are really weird; they're synchronous, but almost nobody participates. You should definitely try to speak at least once, however, as your weekly participation in discussion sections is tracked and graded. There's also a very easy final paper that uses sources that are provided to you by the professor to discuss a term relevant to how people talk about Islam.

The grade breakdown is as follows: 35% online discussions and quizzes, 15% short reading responses, 15% Perusall "annotations" (this is really just writing a few short blurbs throughout a reading assignment; there are only a few of these and they aren't time-consuming), 20% discussion participation, and 15% final paper.

Overall, despite the few challenges I listed with this class, most of it is essentially free points. If you can manage your time decently, this class is a very easy A. It's also a great survey-style introduction to Islamic studies, and it touches upon aspects of the religion from the Quran to contemporary practices. Take this class if you're at all interested in the subject matter or just want to avoid taking a hard class for this GE requirement.

Professor Sayeed is one intelligent person. This class is an online course and it was not what I expected. Her lectures are professionally recorded which makes it easy to follow and understand the material (Impressive!). I have taken numerous Islamic courses (Art History/Architecture) but this was my first religious class. YOU WILL LEARN A LOT! Which is great but don't be fooled on the workload. There is quite a bit of reading and exercises that need to be done every week. Could feel like a burden after a while to be honest. However, I loved the lectures and Professor Sayeed.
As far as the discussion portion with the TA...ehhh. It's honestly not necessary. Just more busy work. My TA specifically sounded like she woke up half the time and made the hour seem like two. Nevertheless, I'm glad I took this course. Do I still have my opinions on the Islamic faith? Yes, but that goes towards all organized religions.

The workload for this class is intense and overwhelming. You do have to buy a textbook. Participation and attendance in the discussion sections are vital. Overall, if you have a lot going on in your life, this class is gonna be hard to manage. You have a series of lectures (3-6), quizzes (2-3), discussions, long readings, AND reading responses that make you quote each reading in one module/per week. Plus, you have to prepare to answer additional questions during the discussion sections. I like the lectures because they are clear and to the point, but this class would benefit from reduced assignments.

I took this class for my diversity requirement, so this was my first being exposed to this subject. Prof. Sayeed did a great job introducing and explaining the material to the class, and I really enjoyed listening to her lectures. As expected, there was a mandatory discussion, which was also very engaging and helpful because we went over the class material more thoroughly. Some of the reading materials were challenging to grasp but overall, it was not too bad. What I liked the most is the format of the exams - each exam had 4-5 essay topics but we were given study guides prior to that, which included all the possible essay questions that would appear on the exam. So, as long as you finish the study guide before the exam and answer those questions, you are pretty much set for the exam. There were also weekly quizzes and small assignments but they were pretty easy and short. The quizzes could be retaken multiple times until you get a perfect score, so they can be considered as free points.