If you are looking for an easy managable GE with a great professor this is the one you should take. Prof Woods is very passionate about his teachings, not to mention the course itself is very interesting and engaging. His assignments are project-like assignments, where it could be a slide of a country or video, or simply reviewing a movie or a piece of writing. They are very doable and are easy to do if you put semi-effort into it. The final is open-note and was allowed to be done over some time (not sure if this applies to just summer), but this is very easy to do as the answers are all in the lectures and readings. This class is easy and fun if you are interested in learning the history of Asian countries and having a great professor!

I took this class based on the reviews I saw. This summer’s class was hardly like that. He’s one of those professors that doesn’t give 100s for a full score and up to a 95 only. His TA Jessica is also known to dock points on assignments if they’re not perfect or go above and beyond. Professor’s grading plus Jessica’s grading is a recipe for struggle in this class, and they make it so difficult to get an A. Unless something changes, then I’d recommend it as a lower division GE.

This class was a pretty chill and fun GE! I thought it was going to be more of a history class, but I was pleasantly surprised by the more philosophical approach he took to understanding Southeast Asia. Professor Woods is not always the best communicator in terms of his expectations for assignments, but he grades everything pretty generously as long as you put the effort in. The grading scheme for my quarter (during COVID) was as follows:

Short response paper to Ramadan film (200+ words): 10%
PowerPoint presentation on country of your choice: 15%
Analysis of movie of your choice (500 words): 15%
Cultural research paper on topic of your choice: 15%
Virtual tour group project: 20%
Final: 25%

All in all, I highly recommend this class! Professor Woods is very sweet and genuinely cares about getting to know all of his students, even with the constraints of online learning. I also really loved how much personalization was allowed in this class. Aside from the first short response, you could pretty much choose to write about and study whatever you wanted in Southeast Asia. Definitely take this class if you can!

Professor Woods is so caring and accommodating! Not only did he make this class enjoyable, he also interacts with his students and get to know them on a personal level. I totally recommend this class if you want a light GE that is fun! Would take this class again 100%!!!

Dr. Woods have so many interesting to teach us about the region, and you can tell he loves what he teaches a lot! There are tons of writing and be careful with diction and grammar as he can take points off those. Still this is the hardest GE I have had as you have to read a lot to do well on your final paper.