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.