Despite the previous review--I thought that this class was interesting and informative. The class was initially written as an internet class--hence, all we need is clearly written on Blackboard. Meanwhile, for those that seek out the professor they will find that he is willing and ready to help.

His creative writing/film class was wonderful. He was so helpful, not to mention brilliant. Wants students to succeed, energetic, thinks outside the box. One of the best professors I had all through college.

If you want to go to class and get fed history of philosophy dont choose Dennis. His class evolves during the semester. You have to be ready to roll with the punches. If you do you will learn a lot though it may be eclectic. He is a great mentor and is awesome for one on one conversations. Anything that he has to do with film is golden.

Bro. Packard gets a bad rap, but I loved both classes I took from him. He gave A's for showing up for every class. Contrary to other comments, I found his insight on process philosophy and the philosophy of film to be exceptional. He also pushes for your projects to leave the class room and wants to help you get published. I thought he was a stud.

Professor Packard is a great teacher. He has a tremendous wealth of knowledge that he truly wants to share. This is a professor that I would like to take more classes from.

Professor Packard cares about his students and wants them to learn and succeed. I had an A before I took the final. Do the work, go to class and you will get an A.

What a good teacher. He dedicated hundreds of hours to helping this class pull off a 13 minute film that was professional and well done. I learned more with his hands on style of teaching than I could have learned in a dozen textbooks. This class was time consuming during filming, but worth the effort.

If you want to study and learn material, take a course from Dr. Packard. If you want to be fed information and just sit through a course, take a course from any other teacher. Dr. Packard is brilliant, yet sometimes unconventional. He is interested in seeing you learn and create new knowledge rather than repeat back to him what he has said.

The class is called Intro to the Philosophy of Art, but it's about film criticism and aesthetics. Brother Packard is a great teacher and really wants his students to understand the importance of film and its relationship with philosophy. There are no tests but instead an end of semester project on a film you choose that you analyze over the year.

Professor Packard is a great professor! He is very knowledgeable and has a lot of passion for philosophy and helping others learn. Sometimes he doesn't clearly state his expectations for assignments, but he will explain more and help you if you go talk with him.

Dr. Packard is fantastic. The class is taught flipped, so you can participate a lot. He is very respectful of your input and your ideas. Sometimes his teaching isn't super clear at first, but when you work through enough examples you will do fine. If you do all the work, you will get an A. Definitely recommend this class!

Professor Packard is fascinating. His discussions, though sometimes out of my comprehension, always directed my thoughts in new directions. The class consists of showing up, watching movies, reading tough philosophy, writing brief paragraphs on Learning Suite, and writing a couple of papers. Take this class if you want a professor that listens.

Dennis Packard is a great professor. He has an open discussion with his students in Intro to Philosophy of Art, and we enjoy talking about philosophers' theories, reading passages, films, and our analysis. He gives everyone a chance to speak, even if for a limited time, and tries to reiterate our points of view to make sure he's understanding us.

He is a great professor and knows his field of philosophy. His classes are great and filled with discussion. There is a lot of reading though for this course and a lot of writing, but it helps you learn how to read and process hard material. He really works hard to know you and to help you have a good time and to learn a lot.

Dr. Packard's expectations can be a little unclear and confusing at times (he became easier to understand by the end), but if you put effort into the class, he is willing to help and does a good job of clarifying specific questions. The discussions were based mostly on participation, so be prepared with thoughts and ideas to contribute.

Prof. Packard is very likeable! He loves the subject even if he isn't the most accessible to student meetings or responsive to student emails. All that sort of thing goes through the TA, and it's awesome if you get a great one (I definitely lucked out)! It isn't too difficult to receive an A if you attend class and keep up with the homework.

This class was surprisingly interesting; be aware that you will dig deep into philosophy. You apply all of the philosophy to a film you get to choose. I enjoyed the class discussions, because Dr. Packard makes sure to make the lectures relevant. My only complaint was that sometimes it was hard to understand what was expected for assignments.

This class has been fantastic. I learned a lot about logic and mental processes, and had a good time doing it!

great professor! i really enjoyed the class and felt like i left the class having learned a lot.

The class is really good. Most of the points come from doing the readings and participating in class. Dr. Packard is really good at explaining difficult concepts.

I was not really excited about this class, but Prof Packard made the class understandable and in parts fun. There was quite a bit of reading, but it's philosophy. I'm glad I was able to take it from Prof Packard and would recommend taking it from him.

Nicest Professor! Really cares about the students and wants them to develop a love for philosophy. Don't get behind on the reading and you will do great!

This class was very interesting. Professor Packard leads great class discussions. He genuinely cares about helping you understand and connect difficult philosophers. You can tell he loves the subject. As long as you attend class and do your digital dialogues you will do fine.

I come from a CS background and the material was really easy in comparison. My advice would be to not be afraid to speak up and ask questions if lost. There's about 10 question homework due each class period and each question takes less than 5 min.

Dr. Packard's lectures are always interesting. I always enjoyed going to class. However, the course was not particularly organized and it was sometimes hard to tell what the expectations were for papers, exams, etc.

I really enjoyed the class. Good insight into philosophy, helped me to be able to read and interpret difficult texts and to think more clearly in general. Dr. Packard is really nice and very helpful. He is also very fair. I would recommend taking the class.

He's a great professor and the class was very interesting, but you must do the readings and attend in order to get an letter grade higher than a D, at least. It's about 65% attendance based.

The class was fine enough, don't get me wrong. Dr. Packard is a good lecturer and gets involvement from the class, but the class is awful because of the way the group project gets handled. There were many people forced into roles they were either not good at or didn't have motivation to fulfill, and making a short film is not something to do alone.

I loved this course. Dr. Packard knows his stuff, but better yet, knows how to get the students to understand it as well. This is a course that is academically and intellectually rigorous, but not impossible. He lets you control your learning and coursework, but guides very, very well. He's a great, comprehensible philosophy professor. 2 thumbs up!

Dr. Packard is very intelligent and knows how to lead a discussion well. The class was worth taking because I learned so much. However, his group project for the class (making a short film) was a little strenuous, especially if you were the writer/director.

The subject matter in this class is really complicated, but Dr. Packard formatted the class in a way that we were able to not only learn the material, but also retain and understand it better because over the course of the semester we used various handouts to write (essentially) a textbook covering the material for the entire course.

This class was basically a research and writing course for developing resources for metalogic teachers. The work was more akin to graduate work, but the workload was fair and the professor cared a lot about his students and their success. I'm sure that he would be a great professor in a more traditional classroom as well.

This class focuses on film. This class constantly has homework. A big group movie making project was both the highlight and hardship of this class. A time consuming but fulfilling and fun class. Packard likes to tell stories and relate the philosophers to church doctrine. Sometimes lectures seem irrelevant to what we're learning, but that's okay.

This class was a research and writing course. Professor Packard was kind enough to give us other writings to work from. However, the writings given were mostly what helped me understand. I recommend this class for someone who is dedicated to learning the material.

Reasonable guy and will adapt teaching as needed. He's open to suggestions. HW--read about philosophers from the textbook and read a piece of writing from each philosopher and give a summary. Class--discussion on the reading. Textbook-free, easy to understand. Writings--difficult to understand. Be on time and do the summaries, and it's an easy A.

Teacher really good at explaining philosophers. TA super helpful in explaining things and directing us. Liked how the teacher linked concepts to the gospel. Course organization could have been improved some (eg expectations for midterms/final). He talked about politics a little more than I thought was good but wasn't a problem. Overall excellent!!!

Dr. Packard's classes tend to be less organized, but this is due to his novel teaching style. He wants students to take initiative in their education. For this class, you will only write one paper during the entire semester. That being said, this paper will be heavily critiqued. However, the workload is very manageable.

I like Dr. P. He's always willing to listen to ideas about how to improve. I didn't like a couple things about the class, though. First, grading. You get 1 pt/day only if you come to class and do the homework. It's not motivating to work hard on a long assignment because it weighs as much as a 1 paragraph response. Also, I wish Dr. P graded himself

Dr. Packard is a great teacher. Like most people have said his class can be disorganized but he actively tries to improve it. The organization got better as the semester went on. He listens to student feedback and is available for help. I found the course to be enjoyable .

This class was SO helpful. I really feel like my writing improved because of this class. He was very reasonable in adjusting assignments, and the ones we had were really helpful. It wasn't hard to get a good grade. Awesome class!

Pros: really interactive class. Students have ample opportunities to ask questions and give comments. The professor is always very helpful. A great learning experience if you are truly interested in the subject. Cons: the instructions on the final exam and final paper were a bit vague. Some examples online would have made a huge difference.

Professor Packard is wonderful person, who offers very insightful feedback. He is truly interested in your projects. The class was interesting but seemed very impractical at times. I struggled to see valid application of the theories being discussed.

I took his Philosophy of Film class. Very interesting subject. I would recommend this class to anyone that enjoys film or has any interesting in learning more about film. Overall a fairly easy class, but you MUST attend class, ass the majority of your grade is based off of a quick daily write up of what you learned and questions about the topic.

Although Professor Packard's classes are extremely unorganized, if you do what he says and show up to class, you will get a good grade and probably enjoy the lectures.

He is a good choice

Attendance and reading accounted for 60% of the grade. Some philosophical readings were hard to get through but he explained each philosophers well in the lectures to prepare the students for the final paper and the exam. It's hard to not get an A if you come to class and do the assignments on time.

I thought I would hate this class and was only taking it to fulfill two GE credits- But it turned out to be my FAVORITE class! Sometimes I got lost in his lectures, but I really enjoyed his thoughts most of the time. The class is pretty easy. Come to class everyday, do the readings and you'll do great.

The textbook was an online google doc he had created with his students. We traded off between reading from it to reading excerpts from different philosophers. I've never taken a philosophy class and only signed up for this one because it fulfills two GE credits. At first I was sure I'd hate it. But I was surprised when it became my favorite class!

Dr. Packard's focus is primarily upon making you a better writer, so you spend a LOT of time in class going over other's papers, and most of the learning is done by readings at home, but it's not too extensive. I enjoyed the class, but only because I tried my best to participate. It would be really boring if you didn't want to learn anything.

Professor Packard is great during his lectures and often has very insightful comments. Classes are fun and often begin with music. The readings are daily, but they are online so it's easy to access them. Class discussions are always informative and help with the understanding of the overall material.

This class was great. Definitely not for everyone, but it's a pretty easy A if you do the work. You get out what you put in, so be ready to be actively engaged, or this class will bore you to tears.

Professor Packard is an intelligent man capable of offering insightful lectures on this topic. He obviously understands art in the philisophical stance well. Students who actively participate will find the class enlightening. On the other hand, the class is pretty unorganized. Many of the lectures are poorly run and result in wasted time.

Professor Packard is great, I learned a lot in this class. The only drawback is there's a lot of homework, but it's not difficult, just time consuming

Professor Packard gives great insight into the course material and philosophy in general. This is the second class I have taken from him and I loved it also. Typical to Dr. Packard the course isn't as organized as other courses normally are. His teaching style is unique and sometimes that can make understanding how the class works a bit difficult.

The class if philosophy of art, but it focuses on film in particular which I enjoyed. Professor Packard gives a lot of good insights and taking the class helped me gain a better appreciation of film and art in general. One criticism is that the class assignments can be vague or confusing. If you love philosophy or film the class is a must have.