Professor profile for Joseph Potter
Student reviews of Joseph Potter
Review from a student who took SOC 369
I was thoroughly disappointed in this class. The material was simplistic, the presentation uninteresting, and the course structure disorganized. Dr. Potter constantly updates the syllabus, and as a result several members of my class came to class for the first test unaware that it would be taking place, because their syllabus said it would be the following Thursday. In addition to tests (which aren't difficult if you know they're happening that day), much of the course grade comes from a series of group projects on the demographic characteristics of an assigned country. This is highly problematic, as all group members are frequently punished for the lack of work ethic from one. He accounts for this by incorporating group evaluations of each member into each members' grade, but when the overall product suffers greatly, this may at times be insufficient to make up for their dereliction. Dr. Potter, while a nice guy, is a huge dork with little idea of how to run a class. I'm sure he's good at what he does when it comes to research, but his teaching skills are, to put it nicely, severely lacking. Hold out for a different course and prof if you're interested in demography.
I was thoroughly disappointed in this class. The material was simplistic, the presentation uninteresting, and the course structure disorganized. Dr. Potter constantly updates the syllabus, and as a result several members of my class came to class for the first test unaware that it would be taking place, because their syllabus said it would be the following Thursday. In addition to tests (which aren't difficult if you know they're happening that day), much of the course grade comes from a series of group projects on the demographic characteristics of an assigned country. This is highly problematic, as all group members are frequently punished for the lack of work ethic from one. He accounts for this by incorporating group evaluations of each member into each members' grade, but when the overall product suffers greatly, this may at times be insufficient to make up for their dereliction. Dr. Potter, while a nice guy, is a huge dork with little idea of how to run a class. I'm sure he's good at what he does when it comes to research, but his teaching skills are, to put it nicely, severely lacking. Hold out for a different course and prof if you're interested in demography.
Review from a student who took SOC 369k
The other reviews seem to cover this class pretty well. Dr. Potter is a really nice guy but not very organized and not very forceful in keeping control of his class. My high school was more respectful of the teacher than some of the students in this class and he did nothing to shut them up - very annoying. Lectures are pretty random going from broad overviews of demography to insanely specific facts about the shrinking population in Italy. I didn't really know anything about demography going into this class so I can't really say I was disappointed in it, but I did not find anything in the class interesting and the group projects were crazy frustrating! Be sure to have someone in your group compile the data and make all the fonts/graphs/citations the same format OR YOU WILL GET SLAMMED!!! Tests weren't that difficult if you pay attention and are able to stay awake during lectures. I don't recommend this class to someone who is interested in learning about demography or someone who thinks this will be an easy A.
The other reviews seem to cover this class pretty well. Dr. Potter is a really nice guy but not very organized and not very forceful in keeping control of his class. My high school was more respectful of the teacher than some of the students in this class and he did nothing to shut them up - very annoying. Lectures are pretty random going from broad overviews of demography to insanely specific facts about the shrinking population in Italy. I didn't really know anything about demography going into this class so I can't really say I was disappointed in it, but I did not find anything in the class interesting and the group projects were crazy frustrating! Be sure to have someone in your group compile the data and make all the fonts/graphs/citations the same format OR YOU WILL GET SLAMMED!!! Tests weren't that difficult if you pay attention and are able to stay awake during lectures. I don't recommend this class to someone who is interested in learning about demography or someone who thinks this will be an easy A.