They changed Soc 110 to Sociohistorical Methods, a methods course, and this was the first time it had been taught in this way. It was a lot of work and prof Speer was still working out the best way to teach the class. There was a midterm, a final, weekly readings of papers that used historical methods (sometimes really dense/boring), homeworks about the readings that were only graded on completeness, a final paper, and discussion section was worth 10% of the grade. You got to choose your topic for the final paper which was good. Overall I enjoyed the class and thought Speer was really great and lectures were engaging. It's a good way to get the methods requirement out of the way especially since there's no math.

This is my second time having Speer. His lectures are a bit dry, but he does really make the effort to ensure students understand what he is trying to teach. He's a nice, helpful professor. The lectures are very consistent. The tests were not overly difficult, but not exactly the best way to test theory (in my opinion). The readings were manageable, the homework was helpful in understanding the readings, and the structure of this class was consistent which was nice. I'd recommend Speer to other students, but I didn't find this class as engaging and interesting as I think it could have been. I loved 101 and was very excited for 102, but it was a bit boring.

Speer is just a great professor! He always tries to make concepts/readings as understandable as possible. The workload is really manageable and it is not too much. As long as you the readings and take notes you can definitely get an A. Also, Speer is a very nice and approachable professor who goes above and beyond to help students understand the materials!
I would definitely take another class with him.

Speer is the worst instructor I’ve had in my academic career. His lecture was extremely uninformative and misleading. His class material is outdated and lectures are extremely hard to follow with how monotone he is. Speer gets very off topic and side tracks to his political beliefs that he tries to impose on students, rather than focusing on teaching. I remember him comparing Trump to Hitler, to name one incident. I strongly encourage everyone to stay away from this class!

I find that Speer is not the worse professor to have, with lectures that are easy to follow. However, the style of having a midterm, 8-page paper due in Week 9 followed by a final in Week 10 did not make sense to me. I wish that instead of a final we only had the paper or vice versa. The format of the midterm and final is divided into two parts: multiple choice then short essay answers (about two.) The multiple-choice questions felt unnecessarily tricky, and as someone who did the readings and took notes, I was annoyed that several responses felt like trick questions. On that note, there are multiple lengthy readings required with weekly homework assignments (answering about 6-8 questions on the week's reading with a 150-word response to each.) I did not strictly adhere to the word count and was not penalized for this, but this depends on the TA. I think what made the class manageable to me is having a really good TA to break down the concepts, so I have to admit I'm hesitant to take another class with Speer without guaranteed additional help. (Approaching him for questions can be intimidating.)

This was an enjoyable class to take. Professor Speer is patient, accommodating, and presents the material in a clear manner. His assignments are pretty writing heavy which is expected when it comes to Sociology classes, but the workload is manageable. He is also rather opinionated which makes his lectures interesting and funny. I would try and take one of his classes if you can.

This class definitely deserves a better rating on bruinwalk!!! Wouldn't call this an easy class but as long as you put some effort into this class you will definitely do okay. Speer is very knowledgeable, clear and approachable. While not the most engaging, I enjoyed learning about the material of this class and would recommend it. There is a midterm and final, discussion participation grade, weekly homework assignments (they help A LOT for the exams) and a final paper (literature review). This was a very very fair class and I would not mind taking a class with Speer again.

Very run of the mill. To be honest, sitting through his lectures was very boring. I value that he really cares about his class and the subject, but sometimes it felt like he was teaching a class designed for high schoolers.

Sociology 110 is a wonderful class to take in order to meet the methods course requirement as a sociology major (it is the non-math methods course). This class is based off of a few things:
- participation in section: 9%
- course eval.: 1%
-HW Assignments: 20%
- Annotated Bib.: 10%
- Research Paper: 30%
Exams (midterm & final): 30%.
The homework for this class is fairly easy considering it is graded based off of completion. Although some of the readings are dense and can be difficult to comprehend. The research paper (which is 10 pages) is one of the major assignments for this class, make sure to start it ahead of time! The exams are fairly easy as long as you study. They tend to consist of 20 MC and 1 short answer. Lastly, Speer is a good professor, although his lectures can be boring at times. Overall a great class and as long as you put the effort and time in you should do good.