2.6
Quality3.5
Difficulty40%
Would Retake141
Reviews40%
Would Retake
141
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
32
4
20
3
12
2
17
1
60
What Students Say
“She needs to understand we don't have the time to read an entire book a week, many of us are interested in subjects beyond gender studies”
ENGL201 - 1.0 rating“Expects students to read a book a week, and yet takes forever to mark assignments (which she marks very hard)”
ENGL201 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
64%
Textbook Required
0%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
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Rating Trend
Stable
+0.01 avg changeRatings by Course
ENGL441
4.5
(2)ENGL253POETRY
4.0
(1)ENGL472
3.7
(3)ENG201
3.6
(8)ENGL395
3.2
(5)Difficulty by Course
ENGL253POETRY
4.0
ENGL254
4.0
ENGL251
3.9
ENG251
3.7
ENGL201
3.6
Reviews (141)
Class is interesting. Overall a great prof for english!
Lectures were long since this was a spring course, but Dr. Lackner made them interesting with stories. She is always willing to help when needed outside of class. Enough time was given for each paper before the due date. Marking is reasonable, and specific feedback is given in the comments so you can make adjustments in the following essays.
She needs to understand we don't have the time to read an entire book a week, many of us are interested in subjects beyond gender studies.
She treats an entry level English course as if we are all pursuing a major in English. Should teach gender studies if she is so passionate about that.
She's really nice to talk to after lectures and answers specific questions regarding texts studied really well but is extremely ambiguous regarding the test materials and assignments as she does not give out any rubrics for grading and leaves you to guess what you need to know and the corresponding grade on your own.
She needs to understand most kids in ENGL 201 aren't English major kids, we don't care English. It's a useless degree anyway
Expects students to read a book a week, and yet takes forever to mark assignments (which she marks very hard).
She expected us to do an excessive amount of reading. It also took her forever to grade papers. She also didn't have a lot of availablity.
Takes a long time to grade assignments, but gives minimal feedback so it is difficult to learn from your mistakes.
Keeping in mind, I am not very good at English in general, I loved her class. Her reading materials are interesting and it is easy to do well as long as you read. Take notes, she literally gives you all the information for an A paper and as long as you follow the guidelines you will do well. She cares as well as has faith in all her students.
She assigns A LOT of novels, and her lectures are very dry. If you aren't a strong writer you may struggle with her class, but if you go in one on one and talk with her she is more than willing to help you improve. If you don't want to read a lot she may not be the prof for you. ATTEND LECTURES
She's a fair marker, and she cares for her students. However, she gives way too many books for readings. You're expected to read 1 novel per week, and some of the novels are really lengthy. There's too much information to go over, so she only touches on each book very briefly, instead of explaining 1 novel in depth. Prepare to do a ton of readings.
I only read 3 of the assigned texts (the ones I did my essays on), and read chapter summaries for the rest (I recommend shmoop). Write down everything she says because she goes in depth with all the important parts of the texts so you can get away with just reading the chapter summaries. She is tough but she is very much willing to help if you ask.
Dr. Eden's classes are very interesting & informational. 90% or more of the test material are from lectures. She is an easy grader as long as if you stay within her guidelines (which she goes over extensively in class). Would take another course with her again!
A fair marker. Majority of the test contents were based on lectures so make sure to attend class. Reading material may seem overwhelming but you can probably get by if you read sparknotes.
would not recommend. eight books to read. 5 essays to write.
Will never take another class with her, do not recommend. Hard marker, boring lectures, too many readings and practically impossible to do well.
Lackner struggles extensively with articulating herself. Lectures go into detail about material that does not pertain to assignments or tests. Marking is ambiguous and unclear. She assigns too many readings to cover for an introduction non English major class. Disrespectful to students and expects them to act like adults yet treats them like kids.
Very unimpressed with her performance as an educator. Unrealistic expectations with no support to help you reach them. If you are looking to take an introduction English course, look else where!
Her current "2.2" rating is far too generous. Takes forever to mark any paper, you often get it back after you've written the next one, so you can't improve. She spends nearly the whole lecture telling "interesting" trivia about the author's life, none of which is useful for tests or assignments. If she mentions Snow Glass Apples, get out of there.
The worst professor I ever endured at uofc. It shocks me that she can hold expertise in an area that she is incapable of teaching. After all isn't that what she is trained exactly to do? It is difficult to do well in this class, because this professor takes up to months to mark assignments that she does not prepare. Her lectures are so dry.
As someone who prides themselves on their writing and enjoys english literature this class was not pleasant. I regret taking this course with this professor, her grading basis is actually ridiculous. Many lovely professors out there who would make this course much more enjoyable and not to mention interesting...
Her lectures are super boring. The subject of fairytales is hard to take seriously. She grades you on like 4 things and it takes her years to mark it. She also happens to mark really really hard for some reason, even though we are talking about fairytales... I would go into any other class over this one. Legit, one of the worst profs ever.
If you want an A drop this class now. I just took this class last semester, on fairytales. Literally got a 100 on the English diploma, and got a B! I like English, and I'm a good writer with good skills, but this prof marks unbelievably hard and the final was unreasonable. I HAVE transfer credits, and took this as a GPA booster.. DROP THIS CLASS.
She can be very boring but overall she did great. The class was structured and interesting. If you do not enjoy abstract conversations, do not take this class. The assignments are decent but limited. I so not believe she is an unfair grader, I think she looks at detail greatly and helps you if you are trying to become a writer.
Bad reviews are bizarre considering how easy this class was. If you were an 80+student in HS, should be an easy A. Go to lecture (all oral lecture, no notes), read the texts (a lot of texts, but consequently, content and quality expected in essays is surface level and easy), and go to office hours so she can edit your essay. She is super nice too!
Lots of readings, but she tells you all the content you would need to know for papers and tests in class so you don't even need to read them. For those complaining about feedback: did you try her office hours? She will read your essay before its due and tell you everything you need to fix. How much easier does it get? Go to lecture,easy A.
Assessment is 2 essays, 1 group project (you can pick your group). As long as you go to office hours before the essay is due (she will read it line by line and give feedback) those are all easy marks if u were an 80+ student in HS. No online notes, everything is oral during lecture, so don't count on skipping this class.
Content is fairytales (old Grimme ones, modern novel adaptations, etc) and thematically is much easier to grasp than like poetry if you like talking about archetypes/feminism/changes to gender roles. She digs that stuff. The midterm is the scariest in theory (2 short answer, 1 essay in 90 min) but she also marks it very very VERY easily.
Dr. Eden Lackner was an absolutely amazing prof to have this term! Her enthusiasm and passion on the topic of Fairy Tales (Grimm brothers, and modern adaptations) made the lectures interesting and enthralling. I believe she marks fairly and takes the time to describe what she expects out of each assignment and mid-term!
Dr. Lackner is an AMAZING professor. All the readings are mandatory, and it's important to take notes during class. The fairy tale theme was very interesting, and Dr. Lackner was really enthusiastic about it. She's accessible outside of class, and is always willing to help with the essays. I would definitely recommend taking her class.
She was really amazing. She doesn't even mark that hard, if you read everything that she assigns and can write decent essays then you'll probably do amazing. She marked super easy on the midterm and final. Also, I didn't find her lectures boring ever, she has a lot of enthusiasm and isn't tedious to listen to.
The overall quality of lecture was unacceptable. To start off, she assigned 2 novels, a comic book, and 2 other books related to fairy tales. She thinks our lives revolve around this one class and have nothing else to do. On top of that the lectures were really boring and everything was irrelevant and off topic. Takes years to mark too. Terrible.
I really enjoyed our topic for the term which was fairytales; not just the ones with the magic and fantasy and the morals for children, but also the ones with horror, gore, sexual meanings intended for mature audiences. She is a fair marker. Some lectures may be dry because of the technical stuff, but the text discussions are really interesting.
If you want a good GPA , please! DO NOT take the course with her . I took ENGL 201 because I find english interesting, but she made it extremely boring and hard for me. She keeps on talking about irrelevant stuff about the authors life. Rushes through the text. Will literally give you just 2-3 days to finish an entire novel! Regretting now..
I transferred into her class for Winter on the recommendation of my friend who said it was easy marks. Very true! There are many texts but she stays very general (plot and themes) so you could really just come to class and not even read them. She's an easy marker + if you go to office hours she will basically tell you what to change for an A.
Do NOT TAKE this class!!! Lectures are dry and she just rambles about irrelevant stuff. Hard marker and doesn't know what she's talking about
Worst teacher Ive ever had. She expects you to read an entire novel in 2 days, she rambles about nonesense and doesnt know half of what shes talking about. She says essentially about 100 times per class because her vocabulary is sadly not as large as her ego. She is obsessed with irrelevant history and useless facts about authors. Do not take!
She has no idea what shes talking about. Rambles about nonsense and then tests on her opinions and is confused when people dont get the correct answers. Half the class failed the exam, must be because nobody pays attention in class. Refuses to admit that she teaches nothing and sets kids up to fail. Only a bad teacher fails a whole class.
Her lectures are useless, she make us read 6 books in one semester, u write 2 essays one group presentation a midterm and a final! Memorize the books u read cuz if u dont u dont pass.
One of the most passionate teachers I've had in university. I was dreading taking an English course but thanks to Dr. Lackners enthusiasm and genuine love for the subjects, it was easy to become immersed. Essays and tests were fairly simple, she sticks to over-encompassing themes and morals.
Dr. Lackner is an excellent English professor. She is very engaged with her class and truly wants everyone to do well. Tests are on the hard side, but are not worth as much as the essays, which she marks very generously. Would definitely recommend her!
She's a great teacher and a great person. She expects all her students to be prepared and hardworking all the time, so if you're just taking English for credits, consider finding a different professor. But if you're enthusiastic about analyzing stories and want to actually become better at reading and writing, this is the class to take! Love her!
she is a nice lady but she is way too hard on marking. lectures are very boring and are testable. makes you read novels extremely quickly to just keep up with the class. I tried very hard to receive good marks but was unable to
She has too many readings chosen for the course that aren't really necessary. The amount of time she gives to completely read a whole novel is way too short just to keep up for the lectures, not even for graded material. Lectures are extremely boring.
Dr. Lackner is very passionate about what she teaches but there were way too many readings and she took extremely long to grade our papers. She didn't even have two of our assignments marked before writing the final like she promised.
I was terrified of taking this class because English is my weakest subject. However, Dr. Lackner was amazing. I think the only way to do well is to write down everything that she says in class, since she basically gives you all of the points needed for the essays/exams. The writing centre at TFDL was also super helpful for the essays. (Don't skip!)
Probably the worst prof I've had. The reading load is insane and the course load is heavy. She is also a difficult marker. I finished the class with an A- which was well above the class average. If you do not attend lectures, you will not pass.
She gives clear grading criteria for her assignments. She's very accessible outside of class. Even if you're not good at English you can just ask her to look over your essay before it's due and she'll give you feedback. The essays are easy but beware of the tests. I did absolutely trash on them. Also attend class and take notes.
If you want to do well with her: go to class, do the readings, participate, and it doesn't hurt to go to office hours. There was definitely a ton of readings to do but as long as you read the material and listened in class discussion you'll be fine. She's fair with marking and if you go to office hours she'll tell you what she wants to get that A.
Very disorganized and behind. Took her until NOVEMBER to mark anything then expects you to hand in the next assignment literally the next day. Incredibly unfair to be expected to improve your work without any feedback. To make it worse she's a very particular and nit-picky grader. Not in a place to be teaching right now. WOULD NOT RECOMMEND!!!
Dr Lackner is passionate about the course material and tries to engage students in discussion while in class. My problem with her mostly lies in the assignments; the group project was worth a lot, and some of the readings were insanely boring, which is weird for a comic book class. We had a lot of pop quizzes, and she took forever to mark papers.
Interesting class and it is clear that Dr. Lackner is passionate about the subject and topics, but NOTHING was graded or handed back until the very end of term while we were still expected to hand in assignments and even the final essay without any feedback. Expect lots of reading and pop-quizzes.
This prof is literal trash. Makes a big fuss about how it's our duty to come to class prepared, ready to take the class seriously. Hypocritical garbage can't even fulfill her bare minimum responsibility to mark assignments. It's the last week of classes and absolutely nothing has been marked. Why should we take it seriously when the prof doesn't?
Absolutely terrible. End of the see and 0 marks have been returned. Also generally rude and unpleasant to be around.
I really enjoyed her class. The discussions were very interesting and she is very respectful of her students and encourages everyone to participate. She never shuts down ideas and is open-minded about different interpretations. Unfortunately she does take a long time to grade papers, but she remedies this by offering extensions to the whole class.
Dr Lackner cares about the material she teaches. Unfortunately, it took her 2 months to grade our first 15% assignment. There is no way to improve because you don't know what you are doing wrong. As fun as the class is, I would never take another course with her because she just offers her students hollow excuses when they ask about marks.
I was in Dr. Lackner's poetry class, it was such a lovely time. She taught so much and was always so enthusiastic, and always went into so much detail about the authors and the poems themselves. Great prof.
Dr. Lackner clearly understands what her students value. An English prof who stays humble? Rare. But she somehow manages to be one of them, making her one among the four best professors I've had in my degree.
Dr. Lackner is a nice professor and will do as much as she can to help you succeed in her class. She often fell behind in class and had to give us extensions on papers because we had not learnt the material yet. She doesn't give out any study guide-like materials. Overall, if you go to the class, pay attention, and read your book, you'l be fine.
Do not take a class with Lackner. She has not marked any of our assignements since the beginning of the semester and its almost New Years.
Lackner was marking Oct assignments after New Years - don't expect feedback or timely marking. Berated students for talking in her class and doing poorly on pop quizzes - she deserves respect, but was excessive in demanding it. Content, lectures, and assignments are surface level. I stopped going to lectures in Oct. Got B+ w/ 0/10% of pop quizzes
Dr. Lackner is an amazing teacher: she helped me write essays for her class, was super considerate when I needed extensions, and was passionate in her lectures. You need to do your readings to pass, but that's a reasonable request considering this is a second year english class.
Dr. Lackner is one of the kindest people I've ever met. She gets bad reviews for being a slow grader, but she's significantly improved on that this semester. She is approachable outside class and truly wants her students to succeed. Only issue is that there are a few students who talk too much and she doesn't really reign them in, so we fall behind
Marks pretty easy, but doesn't really actually teach anything, just kinda talks about stuff she finds interesting. Classes are boring and long and useless.
Spends a lot of class time answering inappropriate specific student questions that should be dealt with in office hours. Tends to get behind on lectures and content. Super slow marker - had 15% of our mark by the last day of class.
The lectures for this class were uninformative and boring, but mandatory due to random in-class reflections throughout the semester. These in-class reflections were maintained even during zoom lectures. Assignments were not marked on time, and questions in office hours were answered quite condescendingly. I would avoid!
As someone who has always been a strong writer, this class was an epic fail. Honestly, I almost failed this class and ended up with the lowest mark I have ever received in my University career. The whole class I felt like I was blindfolded. There are so many better English 201 courses being offered by amazing professors, and she is not one of them
Expects you to be up to date on material but is unable to follow the schedule she sets out at the beginning of the year. Her job outline is to teach students and mark their assignments. I learned nothing and have no idea what my final mark will be even though its May.
I had really high hopes for this course, but it sucked. I understand that Covid threw everyone a curve ball, but all of my other profs managed to do their job. Grading criteria was arbitrary and minimal feedback was given, but it didn't really matter anyway because almost nothing was marked by the end of the semester. TA was super unhelpful too. :(
Contrary to other reviews, Dr. Lackner is far from a "bad prof." She's a hyper-academic, deeply involved in her field which to many can come across as cold. I've had the pleasure of meeting the other side of that; through office hours, I've gotten to know her as very caring. Slow marker? yes. Expects a lot? yes. A bad prof? far from it.
She is very disorganized and it seemed as if she just came up with her lectures on the spot. Almost half the lectures would be her talking about irrelevant stuff. It took forever for her to grade assignments and she marked pretty harshly considering she didn't give us much criteria in the first place. Worst prof I've had in my 3 years at U of C ...
Dr. Lackner was by far the most neglectful, unprofessional, and disappointing professor I have had in my four years of university. She takes months to mark group projects and gives next to no feedback, even with a TA. She also rambles about random facts in lectures that yield no meaningful information about the texts. Avoid this class at all costs.
Dr. Lackner was the worst professor so far. I will admit, English is not my strongest area, however she assigned us way too many readings. 100 pages a night at times... This may not have been as bad if it was the only class I was enrolled in, but I have 4 others to attend to. She is unorganized and has no clear points in her lectures! DON'T TAKE
Super kind, very involved in what she is teaching. She's a really slow marker but makes up for it in enthusiasm. Also her office hours are a great time to get into good discussions about course material and things outside of it. Overall, really great!
I do agree that there is too much reading for this course. Not too much for me to do, but too much content to have enough in-depth discussion about it. I enjoyed 393 more, but this class was still really fun. Eden is super nice and fun to chat with, and her bar for grading was a bit higher than I expected for a course of this level. Not an easy A!
Dr. Lackner is knowledgeable on a variety of things, and connects them to course content in lectures. I learned a lot beyond the topic of English. Get ready for some heavy reading if you are not a book worm.
I'm in my last year and Dr. Lackner remains the worst professor I have ever had. She yelled at me during an office hour because I said there was no rubric for the assignment yet she had a marking rubric. I personally love English but she made me hate it for that semester. I now understand why shes still a sessional professor, can't teach at all.
Dr. Lackner is a truly wonderful person and a stellar prof. I didn't do 'amazing' in her class but that's not because she's a bad prof; in fact, Dr. Lackner was one one the kindest people I've met. To students reading these reviews: don't believe them. She receives a lot of bad reviews because most of us expect easy As and don't get them.
feedback was vague. lectures didn't help with essay writing.
Feedback is incredibly vague, unhelpful and takes a long time. Have never written a university level paper before as this is a first year course and I certainly did not learn how to from her. Multiple choice tests are very opinion based so if you understood a different meaning from the text then too bad for you. She is very slow with communication
Not fantastic. Lackner takes AGES to reply to emails and does not really outline her expectations for essay writing, provides no examples. Thank God i took English with Olbey before this who actually outlined what he expects properly. Lectures are interesting and she is kind. I didnt have my last essay make before the final tho which i hated.
She takes ages to mark, only had 2/6 things graded and given feedback for before the final, literally went in blind. Don't take her if you have other options.
I really enjoyed this class. Lectures were really interesting and as long as you created specific notes on the main ideas discussed in class, you should do fine on the exams (based off your Profs thoughts). As for the essay portion I didn't learn much on how to write specifically for this class which made it difficult...
Dr. Lackner is very sweet and makes her lectures interesting and allows students to participate in discussion throughout the whole lecture. However, she does take a very long time marking anything; went into final exam with 2/6 marks back. I found it very difficult to ensure I did not need to drop the course as I was never sure of my grade.
Make sure you're taking notes during her lectures to get her interpretation of the novel -- it's always difficult when English tests are multiple-choice, but she gives you her answers in her lectures if you pay attention & take good notes. Most of the novels are online. I found the "textbook" necessary, but the other structure guide I did fine w/o
HORRIBLE! ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE. Would not recommend you take this even if its your last resort. Never available for help, and responds to emails weeks after sent. She took 1 month to mark our essays and provided 2 lines of feedback and took off a huge chunk of the grade for no explained reason. A's don't exist in her dictionary.
She's not THAT tough of a grader, but I think she gives relatively low marks. And it's not like some other classes where you're graded on many assignments, I think we only had 4 items that were graded, and essays took her SO long to mark. Her lectures are so-so, and honestly, she wasn't very organized for online classes.
Fairly easy grader on papers. Lectures are engaging and she clearly is passionate about English. She is very caring and accommodating. I found her tests biased, so make sure you're taking notes on her interpretations of readings. She does not provide good feedback and does not teach proper essay writing. Weaker/Beginner uni writers will struggle.
She is very knowledgeable and I feel like I learned something new in every lecture that I had with her. She is an excellent speaker and I thoroughly enjoyed the books she chose for us to study. The grading is very slow and the feedback is unclear. She also sometimes spends a long time answering student's questions that have already been answered
She is truly a gem. I don't think I've had any prof take time out of their busy day to walk through my essay with me and give amazing feedback and suggestions to improve it quite like she has! Lectures are always interesting and she is very approachable and easy to talk to!
Professor Lackner has a lot of poor ratings from students who weren't satisfied with their essay grades or feedback. It's primarily her TAs doing the marking and giving the feedback though (and you shouldn't expect As on all your essays, it's the top mark for a reason). She was the most caring and accommodating teacher I had in my first semester.
Professor Lackner is very caring as she reassures us during the midterm that everything will be okay and has extended almost all deadlines. She makes the lectures engaging by delivering the course material in an enthusiastic manner. She also encourages open discussion and expands on all the students thoughts on the subject.
Will assign 40% of final grade all due in the same week for 1/3 of students. Other 2/3 of students had 1-2 months extra to work on the same group project final drop date of classes passed, still dont have 60% of grades marked so I couldn't make the decision to drop or continue When asked about missing grades, given useless response
Took this as prereq for masters program - way harder than expected. The prof takes way too long to grade, didn't have my 40% of grade back going into the final. Gets sidetracked in lectures and hard to follow what is important and what is a random rant. The prof is helpful in office hours to go over essays, but that is it.
Such an irritating class solely because of the prof. We were always so behind and she always got so off topic. Midterm and final exam both had very wordy questions and they were tricky because they were based on class discussions which were mandatory if you want to do somewhat well. The semester is over and I still don't have half my grades back.
She is a teacher who acts like she cares about her students but in reality wants us to fail. She says during tests you can email her and she will respond right away however will respond days later. She gives us little to no practice questions before tests and they are nothing like the test. She also gives the practice questions during the test.
Dr. Lackner is only really resourceful during office hours (which you have to wait for about an hour or two due to the office hours being filled with two whole classes that have over 100 students in each class). Secondly, she does not make PowerPoint so you have to hope that your notes are okay for the tests. The tests are also prewritten.
I liked reading the books provided, and the theme about monstrosity. However, there was not a need to assign so many readings for just a spring semester. It was definitely hard to keep up with the readings each week as there were also assigned projects, exams and essays. She does extend deadlines but mainly because she is always behind schedule.
I would not recommend having this professor. First, she does not respond to emails within the 48 hours duration. Second, for exams she does not post information about or practices for the exams rather posts it after 2 hours into the test.
Marks way too hard and her feedback is so inconsistent, will simultaneously ask you to do be more simple and more complex in the same breath.
She is really hard to reach and goes against the advise she gives you during her office hours when marking essays.
Not sure why Dr. Lackner has such a low rating. All of the assignments were clear, and her lectures were extremely enjoyable. One of my favourite online classes due to how understanding she was about mental health, and other restrictions. If you're willing to put in the work you'll definitely be rewarded in this class!
She teaches nothing during the lectures, projecting her opinion on her students rather than teaching about the text itself. Takes months to give marks back when there are only 20 people in our class because everybody dropped out due to the fact that she can't teach.
Overall doesn't seem like a terrible prof besides the fact she grades nothing and her lectures are extremely tedious to get through. Want to use feedback to improve your next essay? Good luck with that. It's been over 2 months and essays have not been returned. Not a difficult class but if you have the option to go with a separate prof, do so.
Dr. Lackner is the least organized person I've ever met, we got our first essay marks the last week of the term. The lectures are incredibly boring and I would get any other prof you can bc she is an awful prof.
Takes 18 years to mark essays, handed in a paper around Oct. 20th and didn't get them back until Dec. 6th. She doesn't respond to emails AT ALL, I emailed her beginning of sept, she didn't reply until end of oct. She does assign an absurd amount of readings. Very nice professor though, aware of mental health & anxiety issues students may have.
She is arguably the worst prof at U of C. She is an unreasonably tough marker and expects the most with such little guidance. She takes years to mark any assignment and still insists on unreasonable due dates. She is overall a terrible prof and extremely lazy.
I have honestly never hated a prof more than Dr. Lacker. All of her lectures consist of her blathering on about nonsense for over an hour, and not that this matters but she also slapped her dog. I have watched netflix on my phone through most of her lectures and missed absolutely nothing. She is so dumb and doesn't know how to teach.
Makes the class so hard unnecessarily, takes forever to grade. She had to extend her own deadline 3 times because she didn't mark the previous essay, even then we only had 5 days to incorporate our feedback into the new essay. Her tests are too hard for an introductory English class.
Is very slow with giving feedback, extended one essay deadline 3 times because the class still hadn't received their grades from the first essays. test q's are very vague, which is an issue because her lecture content rarely discusses relevant issues of the text. Will not be taking a class with her ever again! Avoid her as much as possible! RUNNNN!
This class lacks structure. I wish we had PowerPoints to actually study off of. You pretty much have to know everything she states in her lectures and im not joking when I say I had 115 pages of notes for this class. Tests are very vague, very little learning that can happen, more just getting screwed on assignments.
Our final was 50 mc questions and 2 essay questions. All having to be done in 2 hours. If the mc questions were straight forward I wouldnt mind but since they were all choose the MOST CORRECT answer just pissed me off. The prompts she gives are so vague and very difficult to understand. Her lectures are also very vague and she strays off a lot.
Worst class I've ever taken. No structure to any lectures you just had to pay attention to anything she mentioned because there were no notes or powerpoints to know what we were supposed to be talking about. Takes a ridiculous amount of time to mark anything. MC tests were unnecessarily difficult for an English class not meant for English majors
Lectures were boring, difficult to follow, and didnt expand on the texts read. Assignments were not graded on time and when they are graded, it is harshly or by the TA. I dont understand how a professor can be so disorganized. Perhaps she is better in person
Next semester is starting soon, final exams all done with, etc. Still have only two things marked from her class. Has extended deadlines because she hasnt been able to mark on time, extremely inconsistent feedback on assignments. Unclear about the criteria, no examples to work off of. Practice questions posted the day of the exam. No notes posted.
Very hard to reach and just a horrible professor
I love Dr. Lackner! She is extremely understanding of students and the difficult situations they might be going through! Even if it's not course-related, she is WILLING to listen to students and their issues and provide any help necessary! I had the most difficult semester because of another prof and Dr. Lackner supported me with my assignments.
SHE IS THE BEST PROF, REALLY CARING KNOWS HOW TO EXPLAIN
In every lecture I've had with professor Lackner, she seems to really deeply care about not only the course content, but also the students, and she delivers the material in really thought-provoking ways. She's the kind of person I'd love to have a long conversation with; just really personable and friendly. Grades do take a while, but so what?
Extremely Inaccessible outside of the classroom and will take over half the semester before any of your work is graded. For your sake, please avoid if at all possible if you want a teacher that will reply to you or give you sufficient feedback on work.
Now, keep in mind that I am an English major and a huge nerd, but I didn't mind her classes one bit. They were engaging and really promoted good discussion. The tests are very hard, and she can take a while before she returns marks to you, but it's not impossible to pass. Pretty good overall, but the tests can be a bit hard.
The only way to do well in this course is to know exactly how she sees something and write/answer based off how you think she would interpret things. There is no room for creativity. Assignments that you hand in are graded months after completion and feel like unfair assessments.
She is good at teaching and encouraging discussions, but I have never in my life been so frustrated with a professor. She takes absolutely forever to grade, so long that I am going into the final exam period knowing only 15% of my grade. Continually pushes off giving grades and feedback until the very last minute. Wouldn't recommend to anyone.
Dr Lackner takes forever to return assignments, going on almost 2 months since the first essay was handed in. She is terrible at answering emails and d2l discussion posts. She did provide extensions on assignments but that does not outweigh the time it took to receive feedback.
Great prof. Interesting, consistent theme to the semester and assigned reading were interesting. Expect to read quite a bit, but the assignments are very doable and Dr. Lacker is willing to review and provide feedback on your work. Very understanding of student's situations.
Dr. Lackner is super sweet and tries to make unique assignments. Her classes are participation heavy, and directed by students, so be ready to talk! She is very understanding and kind about student deadlines, and sometimes needs that kindness returned to her due to chronic health issues. If you come to class, you will pass.
Lackner is one of the most caring and thought-provoking profs out there. She promotes wonderful class discussions that reinforce the stories that you later write essays on... if you focus in class, writing the papers are an enjoyable task and she also helps out along the way (provided you utilize office hours)! Grades do take a while to get back.
Lackner's lectures were very engaging and she is also an amazing person. However, her organization and time management is horrible. Grades take months to come back and we were almost always behind schedule. As someone who isn't great at English, it was very difficult to figure out if I'd pass knowing less than 50% of my grade on the exam day.
I don't think Dr. Lackner prepared a single lecture for the entire class I had with her. Instead, she functioned as a moderator for vague and wide-ranging group discussions. I was very interested in the subject going into the course, but I was often bored by the way she "taught" it. I achieved a high grade but I learned nothing.
The majority of the class ended up doing the final with zero idea about their overall current grade and what to expect and or aim for, with essays from 7/8 weeks ago still not yet marked. This is extremely inconvenient as you get very little feedback, after waiting months meaning you have little idea how well you are even doing. Respectfully, avoid
Lackner was an overall amazing professor. She cares about her students and is super flexible on due dates, so we needed more time we would get an extension. Having her read the essays is such a nice bonus, and I did well on my essays because of her feedback. If you stay on top of the readings and go to class you are guaranteed a B. I recommend her!
I don't know why Dr. Lackner's rating is so low. Words can't describe how brilliant she is. Yes she might grade things a bit slow because she does not have any TA and she never respond to emails. However she is always accessible if you go to the office hours, and she gives good suggestions. Don't let the rating stop you from going to her classes!
This prof is good. If you want to do well in English 251, be sure to attend her lecture and office hour, because she will provide the good feedback to you before you hand in any assignments. This prof mark the assignment late, but so what?
Honestly I don't think Professor Lackner is a bad prof at all. The class wasn't bad. There are definitely some frustrating aspects. For example grades take a very long time to get back to you. Not totally her fault as she doesn't have a TA and has so many students to grade. It can also be very difficult to reach her outside of class via email.
Dr. Lackner is a great lecturer. MC exams are mostly based on lectures, however there are written portions that can be tedious. She gives good feedback even though she is difficult to reach through email and discussion boards. You can get around that by going to her office hours though! She takes awhile to grade but that's not a big deal.
The contents in this class was great. However, the quizzes are so hard, and there are lots of readings to read. Also be aware of pop quiz, you never know when you will have a quiz. She did the lectures after the quiz, which I think I will learn better in opposite. She does not have a TA, maybe that's why she grades late. But never reply to emails.
This was super enjoyable and the content was well taught. The projects we had were also great and I had fun doing them. Instead of emailing her I found it easier to book office hours so I could get direct help for my essays and such. I highly recommend Lackner as her lectures are always interesting :)
I really enjoyed Dr. Lackner. She was very engaging and enjoyed discussing the topics and ideas brought up by students. It is an english class so obviously you need to read and keep up with the readings to join the class conversations but the grading scheme was fair and easy to follow. She gave good feedback and was easy to meet with for questions
Lackner is a hard marker. Always seems to fall behind schedule. However, she a very caring prof. She sat down with me for an hour when I asked for help with an essay and she gave me amazing feed back. She is very reasonable with due dates and switched due dates if students were overwhelmed. Don't email her, ask her after class to meet for help.
One of the worst online courses I had the misfortune of taking at U of C.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
64%
Textbook Required
0%
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