While there were a few people who seemed to enjoy Donohue, I think that the feeling overall was that she could barely hold a coherent lecture. The tone for the class was set on the first day when she gave us an basically impossible task (her description) and then gave all groups no higher than a 70 because they weren't able to complete it. The readings were pointless and she was obsessed with certain types of charts that were necessary to include in the hideously boring group projects with assigned groups (besides the final project which was nice). Donohue is very nice and really cares about the students but runs an abysmal, if easy, class; overall opt for another section if you can.
Grade Distribution
10 Reviews
I highly recommend avoiding this section. While a lot of the other ENGR 1620 classes are generally easy A's, this one will require significantly more annoying busy group work and a lot of time put in writing reports and such to get an A. You will end up doing far more group work outside of class than other students that have different professors. Like others have said- Donahue is a nice lady, but the lectures painfully drag and the material doesn't seem to flow together well in the end.
None of the lessons make sense together, the projects are things everyone probably did in middle school, and the professor spends a lot of unnecessary time talking about her cat. Easy class, but I still would recommend taking a different section.
Easy class. Just make sure you go, she takes attendance secretly. Lectures are a bit of a drag, but the information is actually useful and helpful. The readings are optional and you really don't need to do them. Skim them if you're a huge overachiever. Quizzes are easy and open notes. The class is mostly group work. You get to chose for your final project so pick well with that because you're stuck with them for half the semester. As long as you try somewhat, you shouldn't do worse than a B+
This class is an attainable A. I'm hesitant to say easy because there's a lot of very gruesome busywork and the A cutoff is a 95%..anyways, if you're looking for a GPA booster, go ahead and take this. That said, I'd consider this class the equivalent of a high school non-honors intro engineering class..you don't really learn much and everyone was just laughing when it was time for lecture. Donohue is the nicest lady in the world but has very nit picky rubrics and it seems like she doesn't know what the hell is going on sometimes.
This class was really just a lot of assignments and group work, but if you do the work you will do well in the class. Professor Donohue is really nice and easy to approach, as well as an easy/fair grader. Just make sure you do the homework and you will get an A.
Pointless class. She just gives really stupid group projects so you can write silly presentations. The lectures do not provide any information for the final or for any of the projects, you just go for the participation points.
I would definitely recommend Donohue for 1620. She goes over somewhat boring notes in class, but as long as you fill up one page per week in your lab notebook with notes it's fine. She makes you do readings and reading quizzes on Collab but you can see the answers to the quizzes so you don't even have to read. Donohue will move assignments around if you go and talk to her. There's no midterm and our final was designing an app. There is a lot of groupwork involving writing reports but those aren't too bad.
She seems nice and all. However, she just goes over kinda boring notes in class. All that matters, at least to me, is that mostly people get easy A's and that's why I like this class. It's also really practical and groupwork oriented, so if you're not used to that, you're gonna have to get used to it.
Professor Donohue really cares about her students and tries to make sure that they're getting the most out of the course, and this is reflected in the projects she chooses to have students complete. In the course, you get a broad range of knowledge about the engineering design process, which is good for an introductory course like this one. She is also very fair with grading and is conscious of other courses and isn't afraid to move deadlines back to accommodate busy students. If you have the opportunity to have Donohue for this class, I strongly recommend enrolling in her section.