Professor
Paul Von Blum
4 of 4
Most Helpful Review
I had the pleasure of taking Comm Studies 165 with Professor Von Blum over a year ago and it was the best choice I ever made. Von Blum is an amazing speaker and teacher. He managed not only to keep me interested for three hours, but to get me to WANT to come back to lecture each week. This class was so brilliant because the content is so intertwined with his own life and he teaches from personal experience. He's very approachable and he loves helping his students. He teaches you to THINK and to challenge yourself, not just to regurgitate facts that you'll never care about again. It was a truly inspiring class. Grading is 2 papers and a quiz to make sure you attend lectures. Very straightforward and he even gives you a choice between several paper topics.
I had the pleasure of taking Comm Studies 165 with Professor Von Blum over a year ago and it was the best choice I ever made. Von Blum is an amazing speaker and teacher. He managed not only to keep me interested for three hours, but to get me to WANT to come back to lecture each week. This class was so brilliant because the content is so intertwined with his own life and he teaches from personal experience. He's very approachable and he loves helping his students. He teaches you to THINK and to challenge yourself, not just to regurgitate facts that you'll never care about again. It was a truly inspiring class. Grading is 2 papers and a quiz to make sure you attend lectures. Very straightforward and he even gives you a choice between several paper topics.
Most Helpful Review
Course review for: Comm M179 Professor Von Blum does not care about grades and states it bluntly throughout the course which probably makes him one of the best UCLA professors. He genuinely wants you to remember the information he conveys and therefore does not want to constrain you with the stress of grades. I learned a lot through his class although he is very biased and blatantly states his political opinions. I liked the subject of the course but this is definitely not a place to voice your opinions. Von Blum does not encourage student feedback and shuts down opinions that are not in line with his. There were three main ways of getting credit throughout the course, a paper, an internship or an art gallery. I decided to do an art gallery which turned out to be really rewarding because I did not know anything about art and learned a lot throughout the process. Von Blum also deeply cares about his students, will answer emails in a heartbeat, and even hosted a class party at the end of the quarter at his house.
Course review for: Comm M179 Professor Von Blum does not care about grades and states it bluntly throughout the course which probably makes him one of the best UCLA professors. He genuinely wants you to remember the information he conveys and therefore does not want to constrain you with the stress of grades. I learned a lot through his class although he is very biased and blatantly states his political opinions. I liked the subject of the course but this is definitely not a place to voice your opinions. Von Blum does not encourage student feedback and shuts down opinions that are not in line with his. There were three main ways of getting credit throughout the course, a paper, an internship or an art gallery. I decided to do an art gallery which turned out to be really rewarding because I did not know anything about art and learned a lot throughout the process. Von Blum also deeply cares about his students, will answer emails in a heartbeat, and even hosted a class party at the end of the quarter at his house.
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Most Helpful Review
Professor Von Blum is one exciting, inspiring and intelligent man. He is extremely engaging with his students, managing to get impressive participation in a class of over 120 people on sufficiently controversial topics. As others have said, he encourages you to think about issues-apathy, inequality, racism, war, patriarchal society-in order to form (or reform) your position. His personal history aids tremendously to the lecture (more like discussion) time, and I suggest you talk to him during office hours to get a different side of his personality (he could come off as a screaming madman at first but he honestly cares about his students). He has taught for 45 years, and his teaching shows it- AWESOME professor! I took him for CS175
Professor Von Blum is one exciting, inspiring and intelligent man. He is extremely engaging with his students, managing to get impressive participation in a class of over 120 people on sufficiently controversial topics. As others have said, he encourages you to think about issues-apathy, inequality, racism, war, patriarchal society-in order to form (or reform) your position. His personal history aids tremendously to the lecture (more like discussion) time, and I suggest you talk to him during office hours to get a different side of his personality (he could come off as a screaming madman at first but he honestly cares about his students). He has taught for 45 years, and his teaching shows it- AWESOME professor! I took him for CS175
4 of 4
