Honestly this classes GPA should be higher than what is shown. Professor Lyons is an amazing professor and he teaches with a slow and methodical approach that allows for information to be absorbed well. the class has 4 book reviews each worth 20% of your grade. He is strict with grading these; however, he gives people a lot of time to edit and ask him for support. These book reviews are presented and the presentation is accounted into your grade. The remaining 20% is a midterm exam where you write 4 essays in the span of the class period. It sounds horrible but in reality he is very forgiving with these essays. Trust me you'll do great without having to try at all.

I really enjoyed this class! The topic was fascinating, and professor Lyons was a pretty good professor. I found his lectures really interesting, but if you hadn't done the reading before class it was probably pretty confusing. There was only one test in this class, a midterm, and I didn't think it was too bad. The rest of your grade was made up of three papers and participation. The rubric for the paper was pretty vague, but you choose a topic and article to write about. It didn't take too long to write and the topics were interesting, so I didn't find it too bad. Overall, I found the class very enjoyable!

i took this class to fill the humanities requirement and i seriously recommend trying to find something else. i have never been so bored sitting in a lecture - time moves so slow in that room. During the semester the professor took attendance every class, so you had to go which sucks. It is also unclear how he grades the papers and the midterm exam. Being online has been super challenging in this class. The information and instructions are not always clear, but the professor is sometimes rude-ish when responding to emails, so it makes you not want to ask. He also just gives out readings that do not really make sense and do not connect well with each other.

Definitely a worthwhile class, touches on an area of the world least known to most Americans. Overall fascinating topics although Shawn can get really dry sometimes. Pretty easy class and you'll learn a lot!

This is pretty much the only class on Central Asia, and it focuses on pre-1800 times. Professor Lyons is very nice. Two exams and two book reviews are manageable.