Maloy is one of the sweetest professors I've had. His class is not too difficult and his lectures are very participation heavy so it's hard to fall behind. We used iClicker (an app and website) to replace actual clickers and we still use Launchpad. I found the Launchpad assignments to be mainly busy work but there is a lot of information in the book. The exams were really easy because of the format Maloy used. Exams would have two phases: the individual phase for the first 24 hours and the group phase for 2 days after that. During the group phase, we're free to work with people Maloy assigned into our group and can change as many answers as we want (but we have to give written responses as to why we're changing them). Because of this, the exams were really easy to get high A's on. Overall, this class is pretty chill in the online format and has mild problems with busywork (Launchpad).

Took LS7A first quarter freshmen year, and absolutely hated this class! Professor Maloy is great, he's easily understood, has good teaching skills, even brings his doggo to class, but the way the LS series is formatted with flipped classroom is annoying. If you like to learn from a textbook, this class is for you! Took me mid quarter to realize I didn't need to attend lecture since all of my assignments were from launchpad and did most of my learning there. Pod work, if/when you do go to lecture, are not helpful at all. iClicker questions seem useless but aren't! They help your grade and are good review questions to study from for exams! There are two midterms, one week 4 and the second week 6 which is rough if you don't know how to manage your time, so prepare for those!! Each exam gets harder as it goes, as they are application based questions, but there is a group exam to help your individual exam score. Overall, this is a fine class, annoying with so many deadlines from Launchpad and reading guides, but if you dedicate your time to memorizing Launchpad you'll be fine.

Dude. This class is so annoying. There are hours of pre-lecture material due before every class that is just regurgitated during class time. The professors act nice but then don't even include their emails and only use CampusWire where they only answer a few people and have really delayed responses. This whole class is basically a social experiment. There are no grades (A/F scale), weird pod groups where you have to go over some topics that sometimes have no relation to class material, and just really weird ways to earn points to pass this class. They believe that by eliminating grades they are actually allowing us to learn better and have less work. But it is actually the opposite as you are constantly bogged down with tons of work and constantly worried if you are doing enough to pass as there is so much to do and very little communication from the professors. The material is pretty easy as I took AP Bio in high school and its like the same stuff but these professors are insanely ignorant to how a class should be structured and how people learn.

(TLDR; Maloy is a wonderful professor, I just personally had a hard time with this class. Its difficulty level is highly dependent on your learning style, prior knowledge and the kindness of your peers, so just try to be mindful of these things if you do decide to take this class.)
This class was structured in a flipped classroom format; we essentially had to teach ourselves the material before lecture through textbook readings and worksheets, whereas lecture itself consisted of clicker questions and slides to briefly review what we were supposed to have learnt beforehand. I think this format has the potential to work well in a smaller classroom setting where students could have in-depth discussions with each other/the prof about any confusion or questions about the coursework, but being alone in a 400+ person lecture hall made it hard to get the help I needed. Maloy does assign groups - called "pods" - of four or so people at the beginning of the quarter to try and foster collaboration, but this could be a disadvantage depending on your group members' kindness and willingness to help. I also didn't have any high school experience with bio like many of my peers did, which definitely made trying to keep up more of a struggle than it could've been otherwise.
However, Maloy is both an amazing professor and person in general. He's passionate about the material he teaches and explains it clearly, using a plethora of great analogies to help clarify difficult concepts. He's also empathetic towards his students, and I really appreciate the emphasis he put on inclusivity in STEM and the compassion he always showed us throughout the quarter. Plus, on an unrelated (but equally important) note, he also brings his sweet dog Toby to lecture every now and then!
So, although I found this class to be an extremely difficult and taxing experience, it had more to do with the class' format than the professor. Maloy is great and if you have to - or would genuinely like to - take this class, I would highly recommend taking it with him.

I took this class Fall 2020. Maloy was a great professor. He was accommodating and understanding. He posted the slides before class time, so, you were able to review them. He does have clicker questions during class, but they are not graded based on accuracy; they're based on completion. I think as long as you did 70% of them you would get full points. In the quarter I took him, he offered 12 points of extra credit. The homework was on launchpad. Some weeks there was a lot of reading, some weeks it wasn't too bad. We had 2 midterms and a final exam. Maloy hosted 2-3 review sessions before each exam and they were very helpful. I would take him again.

Professor Maloy is the best. I frickin' love this man. He teaches this class super well and really gives students opportunities to succeed. His lectures are engaging and definitely help you prepare for the exam. Whenever you are confused, going to his office hours will definitely help you in your studies. I will say that launchpad, the book we read, is fairly tedious and kinda annoying to read, but definitely read as he might not mention everything in the reading during class. As for the content, think of it as AP bio but buff as in it is AP biology that goes into a little more detail on certain cell processes, but not too much detail. Studying advice: don't reread launchpad. Instead, look at the clicker questions, questions we answer during class and attend problem solving sessions, sessions where he reviews questions that will be similar to ones on the final. I should also mention that this class is super application based. Memorizing every little detail will only get you so far, so you need to be able to apply the knowledge that you learn during class to certain situations. The most common example is, "if one part of a cellular process stops working, what will happen to another cellular process?" Overall, would 100% recommend taking LS 7A with Professor Maloy, no matter what! (Note: this class for me was taken online because COVID was a thing)

Ok, let me start and say this class was REALLY easy. Doing the prep material he gave is sufficient and the concepts are not really that difficult to begin with. However, this man does not communicate well with his students. He doesn't give us his email and instead uses campuswire, which he frequents about every 5 days. Many times people send him a DM and he doesn't respond. Additionally, sometimes he gives additional questions and does not provide the answer to them, leaving students arguing with each other as to what is right. On the first midterm, he made a mistake on one the calculations, and while he gave credit to both the wrong and right answer, he never said in class that the questions answer that he initially accepted was wrong. So, many students kept using this incorrect methodology to solving the question which could have been so easily prevented if he just announced he made a mistake and told students how to do that question the right way. You should definitely take this class especially if you did well in 7B, but be warned that if you tend to communicate frequently with the professor, that isn't happening.

Pretty hard class. Very annoying exams. i feel like it tested how well exam could be taken and not how much I had learned. Dr.Maloy is a very nice person, but this class is not my favorite, simply because of how exams are structured.

Enthusiastic and helpful professor. He will answer the questions. However, I don't like the flipped classroom. You have to tons of reading of the textbook after class, and during the class, you are supposed to know everything and should start to solve problems. Not funny. Also, this professor can really zheng huo, meaning he creates various assignments for you to finish and submit. Learning pod, discussion worksheet, iclicker question (if you are at a different time zone, you need to do the makeup questions), Launchpad assignments. Launchpad quizzes... Just too many things. Easy to miss one or two (it's ok to miss only one or two tho).
I should also say you should definitely not try to choose LS7A to fulfill your GE requirement if you did not take AP Bio or AP Chem or something like that.

Launchpad was pretty worthless I started just skimming through it later in the class. Clicker questions are important but every time he asks one he makes us talk to our neighbors which wastes so much class time.