2.8
Quality3.0
Difficulty39%
Would Retake107
Reviews39%
Would Retake
107
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
21
4
21
3
15
2
31
1
19
What Students Say
“If you are unfortunate enough to have him for global issues, do the readings keep your head down and try not to get too worked up about it, he is a bad teacher but you can get through the class”
UN1025 - 1.0 rating“It's pointless to even go to class”
UN1025 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Attendance Mandatory
22%
Textbook Required
47%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.69 avg changeRatings by Course
SS3100
5.0
(1)PIRATES
5.0
(1)WORCUA
5.0
(1)HIST1001
5.0
(1)SS3561
5.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
INSTITUTIO
5.0
UN2001
4.0
SS3100
4.0
UN0
4.0
WORCUA
4.0
Reviews (107)
Grading is arbitrary, can be a real jerk
Funny as hell! Great stories. Helpful. Enjoyable. Could be tough grader but I had him for Perspectives.
Can be a pompous SOB sometimes. Tends to talk waaaaay up above everyone's heads. Tough grader. Good stories though.
Great teacher, fun to listen to, you won't fall asleep unless he starts talking about furnaces
His stories are amusing, but have NOTHING to do with anything that is on the tests. Basically do the reading because you'll get tested on the small ideas. I had him for institutions.
Worst teacher I ever had!
The nut hugger pants gotta go buddy. Do the reading for the class or you'll be screwed.
I really liked him, but watch out for furnace talks. I had him for perspectives, fun class, you watch monty python and there's no final.
Excellent thinker. He provided an in-depth look at development from many different perspectives. I enjoyed the class and the challenge. Though a tough grader, he makes himself accessible to students in times of frustration and confusion.
He's alright. he rambles on about random little facts. We had to give a poster presentation where students and Blair would interact and ask questions. He asked questions that were way over our heads. One person did their's on medieval shoes. He asked why Christmas elves have curled-toe shoes.
Interestingly enough I'm the guy that did the medieval shoes...anyway not a bad teacher, just rambles a bit. Class if pretty easy, do the reading...kinda pointless projects.
I ended up in wrong class, wasn't interesting in the topic. He still made it interesting. He grades fairly, and is easy to work with. He is definantly the best professor i have had yet.
He's got a wealth of information and knew a great amount on the subject that he taught. I might be lucky that I got him for Perspectives, in a class he wanted to teach, but he seemed really into it and pretty helpful. He gave me plenty of tips on research.
Thoughtful class discussions, found him very enjoyable, and I actually wanted to go to UN1001 because I had him. I honestly really enjoyed his class.
Awesome class, love his teaching style.
Generally, the class was terrible simply because he didn't keep to the topic at hand. Most of the time he was going off on random topics dealing with Iron Smelting, life, and how much he "thinks" he understands the students of MTU. So yeah...having him teach a class like this is way beyond his comprehension...no wonder we hate showing up.
In general a easy and fun teacher with a laied back teaching style, just cite evey thought you have in a paper for him.
A pretty good teacher, he made class interesting, really helped me to pass the class when I wasn't doing well. If you get a bad grade from him, it's only if you don't go to class or turn in assignments. I'd take another class with him.
Probably one of the most knowledgable guys I've met, but his lectures are very boring. Goes off on wild tangents about lilac farms and yaks. Very fair grader however, and all around nice guy.
Horrible teacher- had him for perspectives and the only thing I learned was HIS perspectives on life-how he wants to have a turkey farm, he thinks the US should go to war with France, etc. Ended up getting a BC although I went to every class and did well on every assignment. Grading was very subjective- if he liked you, you would do well.
Very liad back and easy going. Just cite every sourse in your paper and you'll do well.
He seems a nice guy but he forgets everything and never responds to emails. He is unorganized and bad at technology. His grading for papers is harder than other professors that I know. He forgets to give us a break between classes and he doesn't even let us go home early. He is not in his office at his office hour.
Thought provoking and consistently interesting to listen to. It really shows when he is lecturing on something that really interests him personally. Assignments, tests, and workload were very fair, but the grades given to response papers seemed arbitrary at times.
Interesting class to attend. He seemed to expect a lot us to do a lot of reading, but often the reading had nothing to do with the lecture. He likes to talk about iron and has a few pet cliches that he will repeat over and over. His quizzes were kind of hard, and the questions were often ambiguous.
Worst professor I have had at tech so far. Very very nice person, but he is extremely lazy. All semester he promised slides, they never came. But at the same time went through his slides fast so it was impossible to catch what he was saying. Lectures: long, boring, pointless
Never responds to e-mails. Never puts up slides. Talks too much about iron & never the subject you are studying. Funny guy, but completely arrogant.
Lost our papers. Never responded to e-mails. Never stayed on topic. I was so sick of hearing about iron smelting! Funny guy, completely arrogant.
He keeps things really easy and simple. Even if you have trouble understanding, paying attention in class helps a lot, then asking questions after class. Grading is fair when he does, no so much when the TA does. Tests and quizzes are easy as long as you paid minimal attention in class.
Blair is a good professor and knows a lot about world cultures. The lectures are usually somewhat interesting. Take Blair if you are up for a challenge. The work load is definitely higher in Blair's World Cultures compared to the other WC professors.
Good teacher, is really interested in what he teaches. Has a tendency to talk about iron.
At first come off as kinda rude, but is really actually pretty fun and a very interesting professor. Would recommend.
As a good student, I would NOT recommend taking any of his classes. I once went to his office hours to get suggestions on how to improve my papers. He was very rude and told me I could not write and should switch my major because it was dumb. Needless to say, I dropped his class.
He May seem arrogant, because he is but with good reason he really knows his stuff and makes it interesting. His jokes are a bit dry but still funny. He is a very lecture heavy professor but he covers everything well so if you can listen he is fantastic.
Arrogant and just a mess when it comes to organization.
Not that bad. talks about beer and iron a lot. thinks he is super cool, dresses pretty funky. pay attention, write down his notes and ask questions during review days and you should do decent
He is an arrogant tool. Boring lectures. Expects too much from a gen ed class. Would not recommend with so many easier world cultures profs available.
Granted he knew his material really well, I did not enjoy the way he taught the class. He tended to teach the class as a History class, and judging from the title it should not be a history course. He is an arrogant pig when it comes to understanding other cultures from their prospective. Overall, it was a very typical English version of history.
Awfull teacher, went over such a broad span in slides, then had minute, useless details on exams. Once said a students question was "not important enough" and did not answer it. Carl Blair also has a fetish for iron, he will frequently go off subject to talk about iron smelting and how it excites him. Avoid at all costs
Absolutely horrible professor. Everyone else that has commented is right. He makes it a history class, and tests absolutely useless facts on exams. Do not take this professor unless you really have to because of your schedule.
Absolutly HORRIBLE professor. Welearned nothing about "World Cultures"-it was history from his point of view. Arrogant and self-absorbed, he soley talks about himself, yells at his students,and his exams are full of random little facts. There is no use to studying broad concepts because he will ask you something he covered in half a sentence.
Would NOT recommend him for any World Cultures class. Boring lectures, talks about himself & irrelevant topics. Goes over a huge span of topics, expects you to take notes, and makes rude comments when students are "frantically writing everything down." If he posted slides, it would've helped. Tests you on nothing he goes over in class.
WORST PROFESSOR EVER. Arrogant & self-absorbed to say the least. All you will learn is that he loves iron & he loves riding horses on his many acres of land. Exams are not based on material learned in class. LEARNED ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Complete waste of my time & money.
grades are 100% subjective, just kiss his butt - he needs to feed off you're pion-ness to maintain his enormous ego, simple if u understand that going in
He is an alright teacher but when it comes to exams, they are sometimes way different than the lectures and it's hard to do well on them.
Blair was the worst teacher I've had. His lectures were boring and he didn't relate to the book. His TA's were horrible at grading papers. I had to take 3 papers to him to re-grade. Every paper was to long or not long enough. He made it impossible to follow his rubric. He talked about things that had nothing to do with the material.
Just listen to what he has to say, thats what's important. He wants you to understand the big picture. Its not that difficult, if you just show up and listen. No need to copy ever little thing on the power point. He'll stress certain things when talking, thats what you want to pay attention to.
he tests over random stuff. you want to study hard and take good notes. he talks about everything he test on but it is not all in the powerpoints.
Arrogant, talks about his life to much, turns a cultures class into a history class, TA's are terrible at grading. overall not a good class, take someone else for Cultures
I always laughed when I saw people writing down his powerpoints word for word. Total waste of time. Listen to him, you'll do well. Didn't even buy the textbook, attended half the classes, came out with an AB -- and only then because I missed two quizzes. Blair himself is kind of a blowhard but he's still a nice guy with funny stories. I liked him.
He is interesting. Goes off topic a lot. Knows a lot about certain things which makes it hard to BS sometimes. In perspectives, our essays were all research and opinion based, so the books were optional to read (i didnt read them). Mostly discussion based class. He is a good guy but not sure about the teaching aspect,he takes a while to get used to
Useful class, very interesting presentations (especially near the end of the semester).
Take someone else for world cultures. You'll come out knowing a lot, but not being able to take his tests.
Easily side-tracked and is extremely unprofessional in emails
Extremely interesting in class.
I love this guy.He is hilarious in class and wants you to see the big picture. He wants you to understand what is happening in the world.He's easy to understand and if you listen to his lecture you learn a lot.lectures have a lot to do with exams so listen.
This dude will knock you out with his words. I dare you to stay awake an entire lecture, like really just try. You will get a good grade probs though.
Excellent teacher. Provides the most clear lectures of all the social science staff. Funny, engaging, and gives helpful feedback, in a very timely fashion. Very friendly.
Nice chap. Teaching 1500 years of british history is not easy or interesting to a lot of people, but I held on to every word in lecture. The text book put me to sleep but you must read it! Exams and quizes aren't necessarily directly from notes. Sometimes he gets side tracked, tells good stories. Easy man to talk to!
B.L. Air because he's fresh as air. He's a great teacher at what he does because he has plenty of prior experience. Quizzes and exams really aren't hard if you pay attention. Great guy and extremely $wag. He takes a very dull topic and makes it as interesting as it can possibly be. Highly Recommended. Supa Phresh.
Actually a decent teacher, but leaves out a lot of information in lecture that would be on the exams. Good dry, sarcastic humor if you like that. Hard to stay awake in most lectures if it's morning. Recycles all old exams and quizzes from past years.
Overall good teacher. Passionate about his classes and tries to make them as interesting as possible. Lots of sarcastic humor. Exams fairly easy as long as you pay attention and take notes. Definitely recommend taking his classes.
Good teacher, keeps thing interesting with stories although they are off topic. Lots of sarcastic humor, he'll make you laugh. Just take notes and pay attention then you'll be fine.
Lectures are informative, but the material on the tests is not necessarily the material covered in class. Tough to study for these exams because the test questions are so random (often include material not covered).
He isn't a bad lecturer, but he is quite full of himself. Class is fairly hard for having nothing to do with the rest of your degree.
He's not an AWFUL teacher, but he will get under your skin. "Blairology" is typically what his courses are called, since many that go against his opinions don't do very well. His lectures are often off topic, but he never strays far from the lesson (unless it's the day before an exam). Pay attention, write notes, and you'll survive.
Doctor Professor Carl Blair is a doctor and a professor he is a funny guy and he ya know hes well he really likes Europe.
I liked Blair, besides the lectures that seemed to go on forever... There were many small group actives to brainstorm and talk about current issues. The T.P.P. details was just released and thats all he has talked about. Half pay attention to the news and take notes and you're golden.
No feedback from him for papers so it's hard to know what you're doing wrong and why points are taken off. Doesn't answer emails. Does not post grades or any power points so studying for exams is difficult. He's arrogant and likes to talk about himself. You'll learn much more in a different class. Don't take him.
Blair is a little full of himself but a great professor. He is a professor to teach, he wants you to learn interesting things about history. Grades are second to him and if you show up and do what he asks of you, you will receive a good grade.
I thought I was in for a ride taking this class. There were readings every class period. I chose to go down the route to not do those readings and honestly it hasn't affected me much. There was a minimal amount of effort needed. I'd say pay attention to his lectures and take notes to study with for the exams.
Doesn't know how to use canvas, does not grade like he says in the syllabus, doesn't check his email, full of himself, does not put grades in until the end of the semester. i do not recommend. for grading, he says in the syllabus he puts in participation and quizzes, which he did not, nor did we have quizzes
Not really that great. He kind of reminds me of Gilderoy Lockhart from Harry Potter. He talks about himself a lot and doesn't really follow very structured lectures. I took Global Issues from him and also did a study abroad trip that he lead. I'm not very impressed at the end of it all. Some people like him, I personally don't. Take at your peril.
Dr. Blair gives fantastic, engaging lectures. The material in his Global Issues course is absurdly easy to understand if you come to class, listen, and think about it. If you want to pass his exams, be sure to read the assigned articles, and at least the chapter summaries.
Blair is a great professor that is given too much criticism based off what I've seen posted here. He's an interesting guy and Global Issues ended up being an enjoyable class.
Global issues is a dumb class but he seems to love it and cared about what he taught and cared about us succeeding in his class. However, he can't use canvas and he grades so slow. He gives a review sheet before each exam which helps a ton. A lot of my friends struggled with their global professors but I never had lower than an AB all semester.
Global Issues with Blair is literally the most pointless class at Tech. His class is not worth going to because he constantly spews false information and rambles the whole time. He is a super easy grader as the trade off for being a horrible professor.
Honestly, I couldn't pass this class. Looking back, I don't feel like I could do any better than I did. The class is basically graded on exams and quizzes which are over material not discussed in class. It's in the book, but there's a LOT of material there. If you aren't great at retaining info (like me) you won't pass. Simple as that.
He literally rambles on about things that have no relation to the class what so ever. It's pointless to even go to class. He just goes on about his life, without at all talking about the actual concepts of the class. He's the worst.
Blair is "the highest paid anthropologist in North America". During his lectures, he will go on and on about his career and other parts of his life. He will not announce the readings, you have to find it all the way at the bottom of the front page of his canvas class. Honestly, I rarely took notes, only tallied how much he talked about himself.
Blair talks more about himself and his "amazing life and career" just as much as he does the actual material. Every chance he gets he tries to boast about himself. I fell asleep in class more times to count. Boring lectures, self-centered professor.
Carl Blair's name has quickly become an insult amongst my friend group. I used to never miss a class, but there came a point when I couldn't take it anymore. No one cares that you're an anthropologist, Carl. Please tell me something useful for once.
I see a lot of people complaining about Prof Blair's seemingly self-absorbed nature, but I personally found the guy to be very entertaining. I enjoyed when he would break up lectures, finding ways to relate the topic at hand to his own life. He & the TAs do a fair job grading exams, and quizzes are super easy as long as you pay attention in class.
If I could go back and skip every single one of Blair's lectures I totally would. He never talks about anything beneficial or anything that you can't google and figure out by yourself. Don't buy the book, you don't use it. Ever.
If you are unfortunate enough to have him for global issues, do the readings keep your head down and try not to get too worked up about it, he is a bad teacher but you can get through the class.
Lectures and readings had hardly anything to do with the papers he assigned. The first paper he grades decent, but the rest he is super harsh.
This was my favorite class my first semester. I thought the class handled the real world problems of today and future. Professor Blair is also one of my favorite instructors due to his direct, but laid back personality. I recommend this course and my friends who had other instructors did not enjoy this course half as much as I did
Carl Blair is the one professor where his 1 hour classes can feel extremely stretched out, or short. It depends whether or not you like his lecture style of talking. You do lots of whiteboarding, and group talking. Iclickers are pretty often used. Do the readings at night, but if you dont, it's not the end of the world. He has small quiz's
I think that we should talk about climate change more but not for a whole semester!! Literally it was 14 weeks of climate change!
Basically the only grades in the class are a few papers. One was really difficult, but mostly they just require research. The lectures are usually interesting, but if I hadn't gone to a single one, I would've gotten the same grade. The final was meant to be 6-7 pages but I was lazy and only wrote 3 pages and still got a B. Overall an ok class.
If you take one of Blair's classes you NEED to show up, especially if its a history class. He doesn't use textbooks so everything will be based off of his slides. He's not very good with technology, often forgetting to post things on canvas, or post the grading criteria. He will often go on rants. However if you pay attention, his class is easy.
Honestly what a horrible guy. Won't even email you back, and is incredibly rude to just about everyone. I would absolutely recommend avoiding his classes at all costs.
I don't understand all of the hate on this page. Global Issues with Carl compared to the other profs is so easy. All you do in this class is write a couple of essays. This is the easiest A I ever got in college. I think people on here are just mad cause Carl anonymously makes fun of you if you don't believe in climate change -- he's not wrong.
He will spend most of the class on some side tangent that has nothing to do with the lesson. He does a horrible job explaining his expectations on assignments and gives poorly worded and vague questions for homework prompts.
Overall an amazing lecturer and an easy class to pass if you set aside an hour per week and about 3 ahead of the final. I have heard that he was unlikely to respond to emails, but personally never had to email him for anything. The key to understanding his lectures really relies on understanding why the tangents he goes on are important to material
Lack of organization for assignments, exams and especially grading. Not an overly difficult class. He likes to babble on about personal experiences (sometimes very irrelevant ) which makes the lectures very hard to stay attentive to.
I can see why people are so intimidated by this professor, but I admire his work he has done for many people in the world. His stories and lecture style fits with me, I am intrigued every time. I am a little worried about my final grade because he hasn't entered grades for anything on canvas yet, though.
Grading is inconsistent, you never really know what is happening.
Dr. Blair definitely knows his stuff, but he talks quick and tends to skip over important things under the assumption that you already know them, just take detailed notes as he talks (type your notes so you can keep up). If you consistently show up and actually interest yourself in the topics, you'll be ok. But definitely show up to class.
Grades seemed to be entered randomly with no consideration to the work actually done and would sometimes change for no reason (thankfully for the better). Most other professors for the same class gave very few or no exams and Carl gave us two midterms and one final and a final paper, in addition to weekly readings and assignments.
Bad at grading, Canvas, communication and put one of my exams in for a 0 and my grade couldn't be rebounded.
only take a class with him if you actually like the subject and when studying for a test go over everything in extreme detail because he will test you on things that he only mentioned once 5 weeks prior
Carl Blair is a professor that every MTU student should avoid at all costs. His lectures are extremely painful to sit through. He talks more about his farm, archaelogical background, metal working, and the England study abroad program than the actual course material. On top of that, he takes forever to grade exams and doesn't give good feedback. F-
He did not assign a lot of assignments. However, every assignment you receive will be confusing and difficult to understand. He spends more time talking about himself than he does talking about the material. Besides that, he will mention something once in class and then 3-5 weeks later that specific sentence will be a question on the exam or quiz.
Very easy but classes can drag on
Good professor. Classes with him are not difficult if you show up and pay attention.
You are graded on very few things (that tend not to be talked about in class). He never takes attendance so if you don't want to go just read the books and you will be fine. He tends to get off topic a lot, and his lectures are SO BORING. The exams aren't bad if you study, but he doesn't give you any idea what they are about until a few days before
He's funny, sure. But there's barely any assignments, so good luck bringing your grade back up if you bomb an exam. Also the lectures are admittedly super boring but you kind of have to pay attention or you will be screwed on the exams. Also: assignment instructions are unclear half the time. Be warned.
Class Info
Attendance Mandatory
22%
Textbook Required
47%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.69 avg changeRatings by Course
SS3100
5.0
(1)PIRATES
5.0
(1)WORCUA
5.0
(1)HIST1001
5.0
(1)SS3561
5.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
INSTITUTIO
5.0
UN2001
4.0
SS3100
4.0
UN0
4.0
WORCUA
4.0