John Shaeffer - Arizona State University

Professor: John Shaeffer

Department: TBD

College: Arizona State University

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: GCU332
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

This course was very well organized. The reading for this course was pretty light (only about 5 pages per module) and each module had about 3 20 minute lectures. He presents the material in a way that's interesting and easy to comprehend. I recommend drawing continuously on the same map to make the map quizzes easier for this course.

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: GCU322
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Dr. Shaeffer is clear cut in his grading criteria. He quotes his GCU322 class as requiring 135 hours of work, broken to about 18 hours per week... This is almost an overstatement, but only depending on who you are. I had lectures on 1.5-2x speed, I'm a fast reader, and never studied for the map quizzes. The ebook is free to download so look for it.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: GCU121
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Class is 4 credits yet I didn't spend much time on it. He drops the lowest homework and test, and the class is graded based on cumulative points instead of percentages which is really nice. It says the textbook is required but I never used it. All the material you need for the tests is given in lecture videos that he posts. Overall pretty easy

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: GCU421
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

The class is by no means hard, but it's busy work. I made the mistake of buying the physical book rather than the eBook so I literally read every single page he assigned. It's not an EASY A, more of a Busy A. Tons of quizzes every module and the lectures can get quite dreary. Knocked out a few humanities though.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: GCU421
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

All around easy class, just very time consuming. Be prepared to set all of the lectures to 2x speed, because the lecture videos are really long for each lecture quiz and he rambles a lot. Take very good notes on the lectures, get the eBook through Amazon Kindle, and have Google Maps available for the map quizzes. Otherwise, have fun lol.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: GCU426
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Do you enjoy monotonous lectures, pulling out your hair, and compact deadlines? Well here's the class for you. 10/10 would not recommend if you actually have a life and more important things going on. In all my years I have never given a professor a bad grade on rate my professor, but I guess there is a first for everything!

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: GCU322
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

18 modules with about 2 hours of online lectures per module. 3 quizzes with each module which aren't too difficult as long as you watched the lecture and read the textbook. Overall pretty good class.

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: GCU322
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

The class was at your own pace, lots of lectures but not a hard class. 18 sections with a timed lecture, reading, and map quiz. Lecture and reading fairly easy. Map quiz is stressful with 10 min/10 questions. Trying to understand a fairly complex question locate the 4+ cities/landforms in each question and then answer the question is tough.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: GCU322
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

He's very passionate about the content of the class. If you're really into the subject this will be a very easy class to take. I do not recommend taking online classes from this professor since the lectures can be very long and monotone and the professor tends to go on tangents that make it difficult to sit through the videos.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: GCU421
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Do not take this class for an easy A, there are plenty of better options out there. The subject isn't difficult, and it really doesnt take that much time, but if youre looking for an easy A look somewhere else

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: GCU322
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Exam-based; weekly exams over set of 3 criteria: lectures, textbook reading(1 chapter), and textbook maps. He allows you to use written notes of his lectures on exams, as well as the physical textbook. Tends to go on tangents (occasionally, few exam questions will refer to these off-topics). Straight forward class with a standard grading scale.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: GCU322
• Grade Received: B-
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Solid course and professor. I liked that he threw fun information into each lecture, like when he talked about hiking the continental divide when we discussed that region. Hope I get to take another course that he teaches.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: GCU322
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Class is solely quiz based. There are lecture quizzes, map quizzes and reading quizzes. Reading quizzes are EZ PZ, questions copied from book (cntrl + F), map quizzes are a little difficult because of time limit (10 min/10 questions), lecture quizzes are rough. You actually have to watch them to pass. About 20-30 minutes per vid with 4 videos.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: GCU325
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Professor Shaeffer is a wonderful instructor and has been everywhere so he has first hand knowledge of the regions he discusses. I have taken multiple courses from him and really do enjoy them! Yes there are lots of tests but you cover 16 chapters in a semester.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: GCU325
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

If you are interested in traveling through Europe, you must take this class. Professor Shaeffer gives great lectures and offers wonderful advice/awesome places to travel. Test questions come straight from lectures, yes he repeats himself but then again you don't have to stop the video to take notes. Time consuming but absolutely worth it.

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: GCU121
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

A lot of work! 5/6 tests count and 5/6 homework assignments count. Take notes on the lectures! If you take awesome notes you will pass every test. About 4-6 hours of lectures every week, lots of mastering geography, test due by Wednesday.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: GCU325
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

This class is an easy A as long as you have the time to watch the lectures and complete all of the work for the class. Watching the lectures is very time consuming, but necessary to pass the class because the lecture notes weigh a lot on the final grade, and the quizzes are taken on lock down webcam browser. Otherwise a very interesting, fun class!

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: GCU322
• Grade Received: A+
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: No
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Great professor that gives great lectures. I have taken a few of his classes and aced them all. This class is lecture heavy but very easy to follow along with. If you watch the lectures the tests are very easy.

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: GCU325
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Shaeffer is super enthusiastic and a great professor! He cares so much about the material and it's great to have a professor who's actually been to a lot of countries in Europe teaching about them! You need at least 18 hours a week to work on this class, but if you take advantage of the first 3 weeks, you'll be fine.

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: GCU325
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

I took GCU325 and GCU322 online with Shaeffer and really enjoyed both classes. Your 9 lowest grades (of 54) are dropped. If you listen to the lectures you can easily make an A in his classes, and the lectures he records are interesting (even when he goes on tangents about his travels!). He's very understanding as well!