this class was veryyy computer based. if you just take good notes in lecture and put a good amount of time and effort into the papers and projects you will do fine. the final was really long and hardly anyone finished before the three hours were over. presner is a great guy... hes understanding, very passionate about his work, and very informed. lectures are pretty good. you also get graded on participation in discussion and lecture, so you have to go. overall, it was a pretty good class. i did all the reading from the course reader and the ladd book and it didnt do me any good at all. and took an extra 40 or 50 hours, because i tried to remember and understand all of it. dont even buy the course reader or the ladd book. i highly recommend this class.. its kind of a lot of work for a GE (project or paper almost every week, on top of the final project and final exam) but its pretty interesting.

For starters, this class is way more computer-based than any other course I have experienced at UCLA. I am basically deficient when it comes to technology--pretty much a Microsoft Word and Facebook person all the way--so there was a major learning curve for me to pick up programs like Google 3D Sketch Up. However, Professor Presner was very understanding of the wide range of experience that comes into the class, so he and his TAs took that into account in the grading. His main materials were HyperCities, a book by Brian Ladd, and a course reader. I did not buy the course reader because none of the other reviews called for it, and I was fine for the quarter. He reviews the main selections in class, and did not test on any readings beyond those. However, there definitely were moments where understanding the material could have been facilitated by having this book, so it's up to you. The Ladd book is your standard textbook. I read it once in the entire quarter, and all it really did was give me a jump-start on the time period that he would cover in class that day. Hypercities, as many have said before me, is frustrating to no end! Sure, it's improving with every time he teaches this course, but there are still discrepancies and posting KML maps to this site were the bane of my quarter. If you experience similar trouble, go and meet with him early in the term and have him walk you through it. Even if it doesn't lead you to understand any better, at least he'll see that you tried. Since I experienced so much difficulty in this aspect, he was more than willing to post it for me when the same trouble arose in the final project. I have not gotten back my final exam yet, but it's biggest hurdle was the length. I finished relatively close to the 3-hour mark, and perceived that there were people no where near finished. Only people, places, and concepts covered in class appeared on the test, but you'll want to be ready to write at least a paragraph on each. If you study anticipating this, you'll be fine.

In short, this class is not, in terms of getting a full-fledged A, the cakewalk that it once was. However, the material is interesting, Presner is passionate and knowledgeable, and it's definitely a good pick in terms of your Historical Analysis GE.

I don't know why Prof. Presner has such good reviews. First of all, yes, he has a website instead of a textbook, but the website SUCKS, I would rather have to read a textbook than sort through that slow mess of a website. Also, its not like there is no reading: there's an $80 course reader (which, I noticed, nobody read). Just thinking about this class annoys me-- we learned almost nothing of value in this class. Half of the class is learning how to navigate his website and add stuff to it (using google maps, and other google apps)-- nothing to do with Berlin. And of course, the final project must be done on his site instead of just writing an essay.

I agree on the last post, Professor Presner is one of the nicest professors I have had at UCLA. He is very passionate about his work and he is very helpful to all of his students. His office hours are great and he is very welcoming. His lectures were interesting overall and I never found myself falling asleep in his class, except when I was really tired. I also enjoyed the projects he gave us. Grades were based on 4 mini papers (approx 2-3 pages= 20%), no midterm, participation and attendance (20%), two projects (10% and 25% of the grade), and a final (25%). All of them graded fairly easy. Movies were great, even though it's two hours and we also had to use his website that features googlemaps, which was also great. No textbook, so do the assigned readings online and go to lecture to get an A in the class. Highly recommended.

If you're a person who hates having to read an entire textbook for a history class and not learning anything worthwhile, then he is the professor for you! Professor Presner is currently performing a project that will allow students to learn history not in a textbook, but on the internet!

How is this possible you ask? Well Professor Presner is the Director of a website that will not only teach the history of Berlin from a different perspective, but it also allows you to compare maps of Berlin from different years! Although there are still bugs in the website, our class was pretty much the first class to test-drive this website and give feedback to the professor about the website itself. My feedback: When you read a history textbook, you simply consume information without interaction whatsoever. With a class that utilizes Hypercities Berlin, students are encouraged to actually do something rather than just read something. Basically, it was more interactive, and the material online is much easier to comprehend than a regular textbook. You can also learn several things on Hypercities Berlin that you cannot learn in a history textbook (and, on the contrary, there are some things you learn in a history textbook that you cannot learn on Hypercities Berlin).

It was quite a hassle to have to go through all the features of the website while it was still under construction, but it was definitely better than reading a book. Fact of the matter is, you will still have to do some assigned readings Professor Presner gives you, so it's not like you don't have to do any reading at all in the class. But really, you don't have to comprehend the readings. All that's important is that you go to lecture AND section (you can't skip section because one-fifth of your grade is participation and attendance in lecture AND section), and you're pretty much set.

The good thing about the class is Professor Presner didn't give us a midterm because he knew we were going to get bombarded with other midterms. But he still gave us a final. The final itself was NOT tricky at all. It was, however, quite long in that you had to do a lot of writing, but other than that it's not too hard to get an A, like I did. You will have to do some projects using Google MyMaps, but Professor Presner's research assistant will teach you how to use it in section.

All in all, I highly recommend Professor Presner, especially if you HATE reading history textbooks.

I took this class spring quarter and it was interesting. He had podcasts and while listening to them when I was reviewing for the final, you can hear the enthusiasm he has for this subject. Web designing is an important part of the class but the discussions teach you how to create one. It is easy to get an A, the assignements are pretty easy but the final was long. Just budget your time on the final and you should do fine. It's too bad he won't be back until fall 2007.