A sample of anonymous student comments on ARTS 199, "Cliques, Crowds, and Individuals," taught by Kenneth Westhues in Winter 2008, at the University of Waterloo

Excellent! Strengths were ability to draw connections to personal life, and to discuss and share opinions.

Good. A place where you can be encouraged to think for yourself and be taken seriously when you have something to offer. It requires a lot of work on your own and depends on what others bring/contribute to the class.

Great. Strengths were the professor, reading material, size of class, opportunity for discussion. Weakness was uncertainty of grades throughout the course.

Excellent! Highly recommend for first-year students. Strengths were in-depth class discussions and teacher involvement. Weakness was some of the course readings, e. g., Billy Budd.

Favourite course, great talks.

This is a great course where students are encouraged to be mature and take their work into their own hands. Parts of this mature approach is leniency on the teacher's part, but this also causes people to take advantage of this course.

Great.

My favourite class of first year. Excellent opportunity to participate and contribute. Weakness was lack of feedback on grades.

Good, would take it again if possible. Teacher was organized since the beginning, kept interest every week. Need more hours a week.

Really informative/unique.

Strengths were the instructor's open-mindedness in valuing the contributions of students to discussions, and the choice of source readings (the variety and ability to expand students' capacity to question). Weakness was the marking system. It was a welcome relief but at the same time, it would have been nice to get an idea of where my strengths/weaknesses are in this course.