2.1
Quality3.5
Difficulty19%
Would Retake99
Reviews19%
Would Retake
99
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
14
4
5
3
10
2
17
1
53
What Students Say
“Doesn't grade in time”
POLI1 - 1.0 rating“Her online class was very unorganized”
F015 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
38%
Textbook Required
0%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.38 avg changeRatings by Course
POLISCI01
5.0
(1)POLISCI15
4.0
(1)POLISCI1
3.5
(2)POLI15H
3.0
(6)POLI10
2.4
(5)Difficulty by Course
POLSCI1
5.0
POLI1A
4.5
POLI01
4.1
POLI5
4.0
POLI10
3.6
Reviews (99)
Makes you memorize everything, you have a 10 page paper that is 20% of your grade and you're not allowed to use any internet sources to help write the paper. This would be okay if the topic was older news but most people write about what is happening in politics/government recently so it is so much harder to get good reliable sources.
Too many group projects, When exams come around, she makes it sound like a 100 question, but only 20 at most question. No study guide. Be aware of her attitude in the morning, Always sounds pissed off.
This class was super interesting and easy. She covered the basics of American government and politics and really tried not to confuse students with additional information. She kept it simple and her expectations were clear. Be sure to keep up with current events and use her online lectures as a resource. Everything is there.
If you work hard in her class, you will get a good grade. Lectures are never boring and if you ask her for help she is extremely helpful! Loved this class
Gives interesting and engaging lectures. She can sound a little mean when teaching but is actually really helpful and kind in person. Gives small 1-2 page group projects and is a fair grader. As long as you follow her instructions you should be fine. She makes tests sound really hard (which is helpful) because they aren't. Strongly recommend her.
At first I was going to drop the class because the workload is SUPER HEAVY but it ended up being quite easy. She gives out TONS of extra credit work to do. She is a tough grader when it comes to papers. Not sure what type of "MLA" format she is looking for but have never had issues with my format with anyone else. I recommend taking her class.
Kerri is a nice person but this class was so boring and her teaching style is very unclear. Although, she's not too critical of a grader there's a lot of work and it just felt like busy work. There's a lot of reading and weekly online quizzes. She requires you write a term paper but you have sufficient time to do so.
It's the 5th week of class & we haven't yet figured out how to do the online part of the class. She rather ignores it than solve it in time because we're practically done with half the quarter, & idk whats going on in class. She takes her weekend off too seriously so is v inaccessible during that time & not helpful otherwise! Doesn't grade in time.
This class is a joke. Do not take her. Half of the assignments assigned did not work. She told us to figure it out for ourselves. She does not have rubrics or guidelines or ANY information on the big projects in the class. Completely in the dark here. Students even resorted to the chat room to ask if anyone could find any information anywhere.
Her online class was very unorganized. None of her assignment had clear instruction and most of the time did not work. Several students had the same problems and concerns and she would not get back to us. While the work is not hard her teaching style and lack of communication will set you up to fail. She does not answer all her emails.
The recent reviews are pretty accurate. She doesn't respond to emails, her instructions are very unclear, she's very disorganized, and you really don't know what your grade is until the end of the course because she doesn't post grades for most of the assignments. Only take this course if it's needed for your degree.
THE WORSE PROFESSOR I EVER HAD IN MY 2 YEAR OF COLLEGE JOURNEY. DO NOT TAKE HER. very very unorganized, never responded to any of our e-mails, gradings were not clear at all, platforms that she use never works. 7 other classmates of mine are petitioning for a grade change right now since he basically fail us and did not give us the grade we deserve
Do not take this professor ever. Her online is do unorganized and is really bad with responding to our concerns. Only take it if it's needed for your major.
Ryer is clearly a very nice person, but she is so unbelievably organized and unclear when it comes to giving directions. It makes the class very stressful. This class would be a piece of cake if it wasn't for the fact that she is SO unclear. And that would be fine if she replied to messages asking for clarification, but she rarely does.
The WORST class I have ever taken! If the online lectures dont let you submit the assignment then good luck bc suddenly its not her problem. Notes from our discussions in class are absolutely a nightmare. The big term paper had NO instructions on how to collect data. Also posted the wrong announcements for her online class and in class!! How!?!?
the worst online class ive ever taken. there was no clear criteria for anything, never could access the syllabus, and was given no information for the length of the final paper or really what its supposed to be about. tests had next to nothing to do with the lectures, and most of the answers were on quizlet, not from the notes. definitely dont take
Professor Ryer is a really nice person. Her life story is inspirational. Her lectures are engaging with fun exercises. However, she is horribly disorganized. There is a huge research paper & a couple of group projects. She did not give us clear instructions for the paper until the last 3 weeks of class. Doesnt grade until the quarter is over.
Really fun but difficult material. Professor Ryer's content is engaging but you've gotta keep up if you want to succeed in their class.
So much busywork, nonsense assignments that waste time and don't teach anything, like making you make a meme. Course material is scattered. The "research paper" was especially frustrating. She micromanaged it and gave us so many unusual requirements. I've taken 5 online classes now, this one was the worst.
I was nervous to take a class with her because of her poor ratings, but I needed it for my major. She does take an extremely long time in grading assignments but she does also accept late work until the very end, so it works out. Overall, it was an easy but fun class. Just follow her guidelines. She is also really responsive and helpful.
Here's my attempt to write an unbiased review to help the students who don't know about Ryer. Let's start with the positives: She's very accessible outside of class Negatives: She offers interesting assignments, however, sometimes the links on the assignment don't work or the directions are unclear. Also the grading system is low key wack
I was a straight-A student and now have a C+. Your grade is basically based on 1 research paper that is really unclear and I didn't even get told why my grade was so low. I'm disappointed. There isn't too much hw but the professor never commented or gave feedback on your work. Good luck taking this, you're basically just teaching yourself.
Great experience. Pay attention to lectures. Very understanding. Allowed reading quiz retakes. Final was fairly easy. Used textbook for key terms and chapter summaries. Don't procrastinate. I worked about 2 hours a day with Friday off and got 100% on most assignments. Easy final with no time limit and open note. Would def. recommend taking.
At first it was okay, but she doesn't really explain each assignment very well, tends to be very vague making it really difficult to understand what to do. There's a decent amount of homework and reading per week.
After reviewing Prof. Ryer's ratings, I was hesitant to take her class but eventually totally happy with this course! She is really nice and supportive(ask her if you are unclear on an assignment!) Attend zoom meetings, they are essential for your midterm/final. Make sure to start ahead of time with your paper and again, ask if anything is unclear.
Class (Hybrid) was messy. Most of the learning is done at home and a lot of in-class time is wasted on something unnecessary. Midterm and final are average in difficulty.
Great teacher. I have a hard time believing the feedback from others on Prof Ryer. I found her instructional methods respectable, and she made herself available throughout the course to answer any questions. The content was not difficult but required engaging with discussion forums and a final project. Prepare to work on the project early.
I cannot believe the negative reviews on here. Prof. is willing to help if you ask and explains discrepancies if you e-mail. If you need more instructions on a particular assignment: e-mail. Prof. is understanding and accepts late work as well. Start early on the policy brief if you're an honors student. There are a ton of resources in the modules.
Rarely responds to Canvas messages and grades assignments weeks after they're due. 1 discussion post per week maximum (if any, at all) and 3 untimed exams. Never did the reading and Command+F'd the textbook for every discussion post. One hell of a prop-up of a class, I'd say. Great for my GPA!
There is a research assignment worth a bit portion of your final grade. Although we etch at this assignment throughout the entire quarter, the instructions for each portion of the assignment is extremely unclear. She is a tough grader, but doesn't tell you what she is looking for. Lecture vids don't help with lecture quizzes at all.
Do not take her! She doesn't grade on time and provide feedback early enough for students. This is important because there is a final project which consists of several build-ups throughout the course. My assignments weren't graded until the last week of class after had submitted my final project. It was bad becos I couldn't make use of the feedbk.
Professor Kerri Ryer is terrible. I'll keep this short. Does not grade timely at all! Research project was very tedious and required tons of attention and work, only for her not to grade ANYTHING until late in the quarter Lacks communication SEVERLY Grades HARSHLY on essay q's lecture quizzes have answers not covered in the lecture or are of
Does not grade in a timely manner and heavily relies on Crash Course Government videos. Hardly lectures at all and responds to questions later than the self-imposed 24 hrs. Lots of extraneous material that isn't used for assignments. Kept dropping assignments I had already completed if there was an error in the instructions which was frustrating.
Prof. Ryer is extremely hard to get in contact with and consistently posts assignments late. The class was given the option to either take three tests over the semester or write one research paper and I opted for the latter. They did not post any guidelines for the research paper until 6 days before it was due despite my reaching out months earlier
I wish I would have read the reviews. She doesn't grade assignments but says you can correct for a higher grade (The semester ended without most work being graded so I didn't have the opportunity to correct) She doesn't respond or set proper communication expectations. The coursework doesn't set you up to take the tests in any way.
I did not enjoy the class for the most part because it was very self-study. Over a month into the course I had still not received grades back, after I had reached out I received them. The rest of the grades were received the last few days of the course, leaving little time to make changes. It seemed the Professor was checked out/involved when asked
Professor Ryers class was very organized and also very knowledgeable. I would recommend the class to anyone. Accessible outside of class as well, most of these reviews do not describe my experience.
She stopped grading assignments by February (winter quarter) and literally didn't grade them or publish the grades until the second to last day of school. So for half of the quarter, I didn't know my accurate grade. However, she is really accessible outside of the classroom so that was a nice feature.
Not organized and a waste of time. Not sure what I learned.
Professor stops communicating after the first week. Good amount of work, but incoherent structure of material. She is obviously doing this as a side-job.
I agree with all the negative reviews here and I feel like the positive ones are written by students who were told to do so or the Ryer herself. It seems odd to me that a teacher like this still holds a position in academia and a supervisory role. There are plenty of other excellent political science teachers, take them at all costs.
Agree with the other reviewers, this professor is absent after the first week. She's basically a facilitator of an online forum.
Very bad professor, I didn't know she couldn't access my link until the end of the semester, which prevented me from getting a grade, and she doesn't remind you unless you ask her, otherwise she just gives you a straight F.
The curriculum of this course was good, but professor Ryer after the first week of communication is absent and does not answer emails or give you any feedback on the work. You don't have any chance of making up your work or getting a higher grade and an assignment of 500-word count of feedback they want and is required but does not count as a grade
Worst professor. I have sent several emails over the course of a month. No response. Selfish instructor
they were easy to access during office hours and responded quickly through pronto and email. there is a lot of writing so be prepared but they are a pretty easy grader. super easy to fall behind but they take all late work and don't take off points. extra credit is also super easy and beneficial. tests are low pressure and replace midterms/finals
Professor Ryer is a kind and polite teacher who does not give severe grades. She gives office hours if you miss a class or need help with an assignment. Her in-person lectures are easy to follow, and she accepts and rates late work equally. Ryder is concerned with quality rather than quantity. I really recommend her.
Doesn't respond to emails and takes weeks to grade any assignments. Any time i asked a question i got a rude response. Doesn't care about students. Avoid if you can
This teacher is the worst I've ever had. They don't answer emails and take a whole month to give feedback on any assignments. It seems like teaching is just a side job for them and they don't care about it. You should avoid them if you can.
I understand why people find Ryer's grading annoying, but I promise taking their class is worth it! Ryer is more of a holistic grader so as long as you show up to class and do the work you will be fine.
Prof. Ryer is so knowledgeable and if you can get past not getting grades very frequently you will get a lot out of taking their class.
Not present in the class. She took half the semester to grade our papers and give feedback on a massive project. Half way through a project is not the time to give feedback. Doesn't respond to emails in a reasonable time. Class is disorganized and difficult to follow. Don't take if you can help it. Would not take again.
This professor does not respond to emails. However, if you book an online appointment with her, you can talk to them. Even this is not reliable however as they canceled the appointment twice. Overall, this professor does not grade quickly or even at all and is very hard to contact. I would choose a different professor or if you have the option.
Possibly one of the worst Professors at Foothill. Material is mostly Youtube videos. She will not communicate with you whatsoever or respond. Will not give partial credit and will give an automatic 0. She claims she will give you credit if you complete the missing criteria but doesn't and will take all quarter to grade. Avoid her at all costs.
I wonder why Prof. Ryer is still at Foothill. She is awful. Never answers emails, doesn't respect students. She was very mean to one of the girls in the group chat when she asked about the assignment. Prof. Ryer grades randomly. Avoid her as much as possible!
This is the worst professor I have ever taken. She never answers any email that are sent which is weird because she is dempartment chair. She is so rude and states that she is not a hard grader and will give you points but that is not true at all she does not care at all.
Honestly I had a great experince with this professor. I promise if you work with them they'll work with you. Super understanding even when I was struggling to turn in assignments. For the negative reviews all I can say is that their grading style is very holistic which may not be for everyone but I personally could work with it and recommend!
Terrible professor. Takes forever to return work and when you email you get a rude response 2 weeks later. Doesn't deserve to teach. AVOID!
The worst professor I have ever had! Avoid them at ALL COSTS. Listen to the reviews. Im surprised they haven't been reported to the Dean, which tbh they should. They are unfair and do not care for their job or the students. Will fail you purposely.
Actually completely clueless, all of the online material including the course lecture videos and assignments are super out of date even to a point where she has links to an unupdated 7 year old website to use as a resource for the main project of the class. It is supposed to display who represents your district in government but is super dated.
Only few assignments given a grade. SLOW GRADER. Mixed opinions. She doesn't reply. 3 quizzes (1 essay in each). MUN resolution & Policy brief. Time consuming projects. Do not really like grading (very messy). Grade can change by summative projects. Most assignments are graded for completion though! (formative ones). Keep in work, you'll be fine
I don't understand how she is still a Professor at any institution. Seriously, anyone who hires this person needs to rethink their priorities.
DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. She's terrible at responding, I sent multiple emails and attended office hours, which were ignored. She will not help you. Help yourself and AVOID this class. Also no partial credit! If you miss ANY part of her criteria, its a 0. Plus she doesn't leave feedback until its too late!
This class is super straightforward. Read the modules -> do discussions -> work on portfolio project That's it. Don't overthink the grading system, just turn your stuff in. There is ample time in-between due dates, you really couldn't ask for a more uncomplicated class. If you're looking to complete your GE's, I highly suggest taking this class.
Lectures were interesting and they offered lots of extra credit opportunities, but the other reviews are true for the most part. Their instructions on the important assignments like the final were extremely unclear and they did not give us an actual rubric for the final paper.
Doesn't respond to emails for weeks and when she finally does it's not helpful and pretty rude responses. Didn't give feedback until there's no time to fix your mistakes, and no partial credit. The project portfolio was weighted 100%, so nothing else counted toward the final grade but still said you can't pass if you have ANY missing assignments.
Terrible, try best to avoid.
I've taken two courses (International Relations & Global Studies) from this prof. and both have been awful. Low-effort modules, extremely difficult grader looking for any excuse to take points off easy assignments. Doesn't assign quizzes to boost grade consistently, often unlocks modules days late. Extremely rude and unprofessional email responses.
When taking a class where you are building a project week to week, feedback from the professor is critical, especially when the guidelines for the project are vague. Unfortunately, by the time I submitted each project piece, the professor had still not given me feedback on the last one, so I kept building on parts that were not to her specs.
You have to pay attention to the rubric to ensure full points on the assignments. If you have a good partner/group for the Model UN project, you're set if not, you will struggle since its a big portion of your grade. Good amount of reading, 3 quizzes with essay in each & discussions. End of the quarter and I don't know my exact grade lol
Professor Ryer is very intelligent and she makes her lectures interesting. There's a lot of lecture material which is basically just crash course videos but you have to take notes on EVERTHING. the final was 100% of our grade which i think was ridiculous but she graded well. gave options for our final and i chose portfolio. Is available w/ email!
This class is awful. It is only the first week and this professor has assigned many things already. Granted, I am taking this class in the summer but usually summer class professors are understanding. I really wish I would have read the reviews on them before registering. Honestly will probably drop this class. Too much weight on discussion REPLIES
Absolutely terrible, would rate 0/5. no regard for students or their success,no support,finds every opportunity to take points off w/ unspecified reasons- including on the final & no rubric.Grades harshly/unreasonably/late. prof wants u to fail. Interesting class material but ruined by prof. Poor canvas/email management. DO NOT TAKE THIS PROF
tough grader and does not leave a ton of useable feedback, grade depends on one assignment. She's very specific on what she looks for but doesn't tell you what. Avoid if possible, hard to track down for office hours and doesn't respond to emails.
Absolutely awful teacher. AVOID! Doesn't answer emails for weeks if at all and grading is slow with no comments. Took the final and still haven't graded the midterm. Lets you revise work to improve, but that doesn't mean anything if they never return the assignments in time to revise them. AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL.
I took Professor Ryer's Intro to American Government this past Spring quarter at Foothill online. Zero effort dated youtube videos and prompt responses. Grade dependent solely on a six part final portfolio. She didn't provide feedback on it after part 2. Absent the last month of the course, no activity whatsoever, no transparency, unprofessional
don't rely on syllabus - pay close attention to what she wants on the rubric, take notes from her lectures and textbooks, and apply it to your assignments. she grades pretty leniently & fair, never thought of it as "difficult" or "harsh". if you have a good UN partner, you're chilling. emails intern opportunities on and off campus for her students.
AVOID THIS PROFESSOR. they are the absolute worst. total nightmare. takes forever to respond to emails/messages AND grade so u couldn't even revise nor resubmit bc guess what - quarter is finished by the time they give u ur grade. i truly wonder how they're still teaching. i am frustrated and mind u, this was the only GE that i got a C in.
DO NOT TAKE THIS PROFESSOR DURING SUMMER! Ryer does not grade anything ever and all assignments are unclear. The expected timeframes to complete some assignments are insane. The prompts and questions asked are confusing and have unfavorable implications. Is also not empathetic in the slightest.
Impossible to reach in a timely manner (response time was ~10 days for me), takes the entire quarter to grade one assignment, and clearly does not care about her class. Multiple videos or links on her lecture slides do not work. A lot of lectures and assignments. Very frustrating class to take.
Horrendous professor. She never responds. Said class was graded only on final assignment then sent out email saying if you didn't complete other assignments you'd fail. Very egotistical, 10 page syllabus, 2-3 pages solely about her "credentials" and personal life. Politically Bias (the irony). Focused on her new wave teaching theories.
Unfortunately, I cannot recommend taking this class over the summer to anyone. Professor Ryer did not submit grades until the last week of the quarter, and if she spotted so much as a typo, she did not give any credit whatsoever. I believe she is well-meaning and wants to polish the skills of her students, but I found her behavior unreasonable.
Overview: • Grades submitted during the last week of the quarter. • Grades count for either full credit or none. No in between. • Did not respond to emails until the second-to-last week of the quarter. • Makes contradictory statements about grading criteria. • Allows revisions, but may give under a week to complete before the end of the quarter.
Listen to other reviews about this profesor. We are literally down to the last day of the quarter and she hasn't graded resubmitted assignments. Avoid this professor at all cost, I wasted my time taking this class
Hard grader, very hard to track down. Not very helpful in office hours and that's if you can track her down. Does not respond to emails. Seemed like a nice person just not a good or caring teacher. Try to avoid if possible especially for transfer students, will tank your GPA. I've been an A student, this class was the outlier.
Took this class during summer. Each week we had a discussion forum, every other week an exam with multiple choice and 1 essay. She grades leniently. She doesn't respond to emails though and grades very last minute. Some of her instructions on assignments were also unclear and contradicting. But as long as you follow the rubric you should be fine.
didn't grade anything until multiple days after the end of the semester so don't expect any feedback. prof grades easy for most assignments. focus on tests!
Literally did not grade a single assignment. I ended up getting a blanket "A" grade without any feedback. I have a feeling she didn't review any of my assignments and assigned a grade based on "gut feeling". DO NOT TAKE THIS PROFESSOR. The assignments were out of date, some links were literally expired. Worst experience at Foothill.
this class was horrible, teacher did not grade anything in a timely manner and was not available when I needed help, I would avoid this teacher. I am surprised she is teaching, avoid her at all costs. She deserves an F not me
Take ANY other class!!!! This professor will disappear after day 1, not grade a SINGLE assignment until days after quarter is over when grades are already final, and will leave your messages on read! I wonder if she knows students can see that she reads messages on pronto and never responds? Turned in every assignment, received an F 0 explanation.
PLEASE DO NOT TAKE! any other teacher or just take it the next quarter if she is your only option it's not a good idea. 4.00 student this class tanked me, doing academic renewal for this class. spent so much time on the assignment because there is only one and still BARELY PASSED.Does not care about her students and was so unhelpful in office hours
Plagiarism none of the material is her own never saw a real lecture or article written by her. A ton of outside sources and very politely biased which I didn't have a personal issue with just found it funny because of the class she taught
Honestly, I'm not sure what to say. The class and material are interesting, but it sometimes feels like the professor isn't really present. She's a slow grader and doesn't always respond to emails, making it hard to know your standing. I took the class to learn more about international relations, but someone else might have been better.
Can not find any original material from her and she's super unhelpful in office hours, she'll say your doing good then you'll get a bad grade.ONLY ONE THING IS IN THE GRADE BOOK! You won't know your grade until the end of the quarter when it's too late to fix it. I was unable to find a rubric like others stated previously. 10/10 would cry again :(
DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. They are extremely unresponsive and grades every few MILLENNIA. I literally had a project that went ungraded for 3 weeks, just for it to return as incomplete. She gave little to NO help at all, with the phrase "Almost there, but pieces are missing." WTF IS MISSING??? YOU'RE THE PROFESSOR, TELL ME? Pure genuine ragebait.
Literally the worst professor I've ever had, grades nothing, is not accessible, and is not nice when she does respond. Will tank your GPA and make your life miserable.
I did not believe the bad RMP rating at first so I took the course. However, now i regretted my decision. She never responded to any of my email, never had a rubric for grading assignment. She grade all the work at the very last day, so that she will be out on "vacation" and won't respond to any clarification emails
I don't have one good thing to say really. Class relies heavily on online textbooks. Lecture slides not available on Canvas. Open notebook exams, notebooks only available in class. Last minute grading. Assigned entire books for extra credit 2 weeks before class ended, and they haven't even been graded. It's like they think we have no other classes.
BIG extra credit assignment at the end, lenient with late work, and very helpful in-person. I'd recommend emailing minimum 2x/day if ur trying to reach them because they get a lot of spam. I emailed them 5x over 2 days and heard back. A bit disorganized, but generous rounding makes up for it. Really fun class and loved Prof. Ryer!
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
38%
Textbook Required
0%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.38 avg changeRatings by Course
POLISCI01
5.0
(1)POLISCI15
4.0
(1)POLISCI1
3.5
(2)POLI15H
3.0
(6)POLI10
2.4
(5)Difficulty by Course
POLSCI1
5.0
POLI1A
4.5
POLI01
4.1
POLI5
4.0
POLI10
3.6