This class was useless and stupid. Do not take it! I thought I would be fun..but since its online, the quizes never correlated with the test...yet all the quizes were easy to google. You WILL fail the test....90% of the class never got higher than a C Choose something else esp. if your Gen ED. Waste of time.

For our lectures if anyone laughed or a phone went off, she'd freak out. At one point she said to the class of 300, that we were worse then kindergarteners. She reads right off the slides, does not really answer questions, and gets quickly frustrated. Her quizzes are easy to google, but the test are 100 questions and really hard. DO NOT TAKE HER!

Terrible class. I got an A, but she made it difficult to do so. She is very unclear about assignments and takes 3 weeks to respond to emails. Very poorly laid out online class, I have had much better online professors. She made me dread doing the work and was not helpful at all. Would NOT recommend.

This is an online class and she is never there for you. If you try to email her she will probably never reply back. The workload is really easy but it would be nice if a professor would email back.

She taught BIO 103 online. The lectures she pre-recorded were terrible quality, the assignments showed poor planning and clearly taken off of other websites. Half of the labs she set up didn't work and the lecture or book had nothing to do with the graded assignments or labs. She also won't update grades for the class the entire semester.

Book is required for this course because that is what the quizzes are on. Online lectures are ok, the powerpoints are oftentimes 100+. Teacher barely replied when you asked her questions via email and hardly was in her office for her office hours. If this is your first online class or you do not do well in online classes, DO NOT TAKE THIS ONE.

Honestly, couldn't stand her. This class was Online and lecture and she "taught" the lecture portion. She annoyed me honestly. I emailed her for help and she responded "Look for it"... but anyways don't bother buying a textbook cause you really don't need it at all

Very very hard class. Best to attend SI sessions if you want to do well. Lecture heavy class. Test are kind of difficult and shes very monotone. Good luck

Avoid, at all costs. Unnecessarily hard for a 101 level course. Lecture heavy, does not utilize text book, which is only "supplemental". Quizzes do not sync up with lectures, tests do not sync up with lectures. Practically impossible to utilize traditional study methods for, you have to attend special SI sessions to get any clue. Avoid!

This was the worst class I've ever taken. I can't even explain how much I hated this lab. Prof was wrong in lecture, test answers were SO specific, tests took a full hour in a 50 min time block, labs took forever and were SO boring, cumulative final, and mandatory tophat attendance. Awful lab, 0/10, stay away forever (you don't even learn anything)

Well this class wasn't fun at all. Just the way she gives lectures are just straight from the powerpoint instead of explaining it to us to understand. She is a very hard grader (even the tests are hard) and all we even have to show up to class because of the tophat attendance.

Not a good professor. Reads straight from the slideshow. I had her in lecture format and online and they were both awful. Doesn't seem all the way "there". Super monotone. I'd pick another professor.

She reads word for word from her lectures, but doesnt actually TEACH the material to her students, there's no interaction. You have to eat, sleep, and breathe biology in order to pass her class. Her exams are based on your knowledge of the material and applying it to everyday scenarios. Attendance is taken through tophat

Hasn't responded to any of my emails, goes through lectures very sketchily. GET THE TEXTBOOK IF YOU WANT TO LEARN anything!!! She does a very poor job of explaining things and the tests are hard. I'm only a few weeks into this class and have already had a mental breakdown. SWITCH OUT OF HER CLASS IF YOU CAN

I took her class for Environmental Science. The class is online and fairly easy. MAKE SURE YOU SIGN UP FOR PEARSON CORRECTLY. However, good luck trying to get ahold of the professor. She either takes forever to answer or will have someone else answer for her.

Do not take Colleen Higgins for BIOL 101. She reads word for word powerpoint slides, and bases the tests off of information only provided audibly during lecture. Her online quizzes aren't too hard, but they don't count for too much the grade. TopHat the minute class starts AND ends.

Do not take BIOL 101 with her. She isn't good at teaching the info and doesn't care to explain the material. The quizzes are very simple but they don't effect your grade much. The tests are nothing like the material presented during lecture and the "study guides" don't match the test material either. You're better off taking it with someone else.

Colleen does not care about her students. PERIOD. I took her for a 2 credit lab. when classes were shifted online for COVID-19, she never replied to emails, she made exams and quizzes so much harder. she is just very rude and refuses to take students feedbacks into consideration. She does not give EC or round the course. stay away!!!!!

THE WORST LECTURER. Extremely boring and monotone. Her lectures are so broad and almost do not relate to the tests she gives. Shes a nice but so boring. Quizzes were taken from home, but tests were actual hell. Did not retain anything from her lectures. Even after TUTORING, still failed tests. Dont take her especially if youre a STEM major.

This prof is lost. she doesn't know what she's doing. Her tests require math work yet she gives little time and a bunch of questions. A 2 credit lab section SHOULD NOT be this difficult and frustrating to be in/learn. I would not recommend anyone to take her. Im not a slacker at all, this lady will maker your grade suffer. DONT DO IT!

Incredibly disorganized professor with little sympathy for the current circumstances. TAs are either lost and don't know what they're doing or on some power trip. The grading is so subjective and slow you won't even know where you stand in the class. For the sake of your sanity please don't take this class unless it's absolutely necessary.

Not even exaggerating when I say she is the worst professor I have encountered in my entire life between school and college. I truly cannot believe she is even allowed to teach, she makes you do wayyy too much work for a 2-credit class and will never own up to her own mistakes. She doesn't care at all about student concerns. AVOID AT ALL COSTS.

Avoid this professor. Her tests are impossible with not enough time to answer entirely short answer and calculation questions, and you cannot go back or skip ahead through questions. She never answers emails. She does not supervise the TA's so a lot of them are not great and can do whatever they want.

DONT TAKE IT W DR. H! 1. it's a 2 credit class, she tells you treat it like a 3 credit 2. she does not email back 3. you will have a final exam, a final paper, and a final presentation. 4. her tests r easy but they r lengthy, require calculation, can't go backwards, and you NEVER have enough time 5. Her TA's r careless and grade unrealistically

Awful teacher and class. My TA as a graduate student said this is graduate level despite being 300. The professor doesn't put effort into the class, moves too fast, consistently unnecessarily confuses you for simple questions, is unorganized, and wastes your time and GPA with difficult or tangential things. This is harder than ochem lab. Avoid.

Do not take Professor Higgins' class if you value your GPA, especially if you are pre-health and need the good bio grade to get into your program. Granted, the tests are open note, however, the notes and lectures are very barebones and will not help you. She also doesn't answer emails. I took tutoring for this class and still struggled greatly.

She made the in-person class hybrid so that students could choose and she drops the lowest test and quiz grades. However, she doesn't respond to emails and her test questions sometimes feel like they come out of nowhere. I don't recommend her class, but she's not completely awful.

Makes it actively difficult to attend class if not in person. Terrible teacher.

The amount of work required for this 2-credit class is literally INSANE. Half of the class withdrew from bio310 lab, you immediately fail the lab portion of this class if you miss two classes. The ta's don't careless about how you do in class, they grade very strictly. There are weekly quizzes for the lab when you come to class. don't, take it!

If you already have a hard time in genetics, do not take the lab with this professor. Her lectures consist of rereading slides and testing you on material that was never performed in lab. The exams and the effort put into explaining the concepts do not match. Also it is very hard to get in contact via email.

I did hybrid class. Lectures are optional. pros most grades are done canvas quizzes and activities are easy Labs are fun cons answers are on google right down to the typos a lot of reading leaves work to the TA not present in labs boring lectures $ textbook with no used option many questions not even in textbook Don't take this class!!!

Avoid!! Higgins does not care about her students, even when you bring up an issue with how unprofessional her TA is. She will claim you are questioning the TA's unprofessionalism because of the person's race in front of Franklin. Now the TA is falsely reporting a student and trying to hide evidence. They shouldn't still have a job.

Will ignore your emails on purpose I realized this during the semester and emailed several times to get a sassy reply she claimed I was wrong on a test grade question that I was clearly right on according to the answer key didn't change it bet she didn't even look at it and didn't reply when I explained further it was right per answer key AVOID!!!!

worst professor, disappointed when i took her last semester and i ended up with a D. didn't put a grade for my paper and just put in finals grades. When emailed, she ghosted me. Also followed me to the bathroom and privacy invasion. TA joonseung kim is lazy racist, you dont even get your tests back. if you fail to come to lab 2 times, you get a F

Do not take this teacher, she does not reply to your emails and her assignments come out of nowhere and you get 0 help, take any other quant teacher.

Do not take her, take any other bio teacher, she does not reply to her emails and does not communicate, does not care and her assignments have wrong answers, I am a top student with 98% being my lowest grade but this class is bs.

Do not take her, take any other bio teacher, she does not reply to her emails and does not communicate, does not care and her assignments have wrong answers.

Please fire her, vcu is actually not doing its job.

For a 2 credit lab this class is more work than my 4 credit classes. 3 papers, 3 exams (which are all free response), and lot of pre lab& post lab work.

Monotone and does not care about helping students even if they have excused absences. Very unreasonable when it comes to expectations from students.

Genuinely so much work and studying for a two credit class Take any other lab this is not worth it

3 12-20 page exams. A 10pg paper, a review paper with 3-4peer review parts to it. She is a terrible teacher. Makes the class super hard. Harder than my 500 level class. She is condescending. Dont do it.

If you're okay with being left in the dark, receiving translucent instructions at best, and post lab complications, I would advise heavily against taking this class. Everything was out of order in the lab manual and you have to hope your TA is helpful enough to provide any form of communication. Unnecessarily convoluted for a 2 credit class.

The professor is not understanding by any means and it's too much work for a 2 credit class.