Since she's young, she's tried to establish how "tough" she thinks she can be, which I can understand with college age kids. Her outfits are interesting, sometimes wearing shorter shirts which I think are rather unsuitable for class. Teaching style is okay, seems like a pretty average professor. Nothing outstanding but nothing terribly bad either.

Fun class! I learned a lot and it was entertaining.

Fun class!

Fun class, I didn't think I'd like it....it turned out to be really helpful.

While this class is a GER, I found the Professor's methods to be very engaging. I enjoyed the class much more than anticipated.

Enjoyable class. I felt like many of my classmates complained about her strict grading policy, but this is the first GER class I actually learned something. She has high standards, but it really does make you better. I would take courses from her in the future if it's possible.

Public speaking freaks me out, but she really helped me feel more comfortable. She offered to meet with us outside of class so we could practice speeches. That was cool of her.

She has passion for communication and she is willing to work with you at anytime...LOVE HER she is so funny too!

As long as you are prepared to talk about the assigned reading there aren't any quizzes! She challenges you to take a step out of your comfort zone and work with strangers which really helps. Her methods work great and she loves to help when she can! We got to pick whatever random speech topics we wanted and the class was pretty fun!

Professor Olson is NOTHING like what the below comments paint her as...more than likely they either failed or flat out didn't come to the class everyday. The key to this class:show up everyday, shut up, and listen! How easy can you get? Rude? No. Strict? Yes., but she is fair...It's college people...not high school! I HIGHLY RECOMMEND her class!

more than likely the people who rated her bad didn't come to class...thinking it was a skate course...Her class was GREAT! How do you pass? Come everyday and listen. THATS IT!...lol...it's not rocket science folks. Rude? not at all. Strict? in some ways... but its's college...not high school people!.I would take her class again...and she's hot!!

Professor Olson's communication class was simple enough to begin with. Blackboard quizzes on each chapter (better read because you won't find the answers online) and attendance is a grade. The speeches and group projects were kind of annoying and were a significant portion of the end grade. She was nice enough, but came off a little rude at times.

Professor Olson was an average teacher. I definitely learned a lot in her class, but does not go above and beyond as many of my other professors did. She provided good feedback and was helpful and pleasant and open to questions. All quizzes are online and open book.

She is a great communications professor! She gives online quizzes, which are the hardest part of this course, but you can use your book for those. She is very nice and helpful when asked questions. There's only one group project and one individual speech during the semester. The rest of the time she teaches the material out of the book.

Really nice, relatable professor. We did one large group project that took up about half the semester with a presentation at the end. Journal entries every week, 3 tests total. Not much homework other than journal entries. One individual presentation at the end of the semester. Class is pretty fun and engaging, not like a lot of the boring lectures

Great prof!

Absolutely amazing teacher! Attend class, do all assignments and you should have no problem passing! She makes herself Available at so many times so her students can succeed. Gives endless extra credit if your grade has dropped! Exams online and open book. Walked away with better communication skills for life.

She was nice, inspirational, and great with clarifying expectations. Theres two total presentations. One is a group voting project (pray you arent partnered with lazy people). There are weekly journal entries, 3 open-note online tests, and a final individual speech, which sucked. Its an easy A assuming youre willing to give a little effort.

Olson made this class interesting! I really hope UAA hires her on as a tenure track professor! She assigns a lot of group work, but a lot her projects are actually meaningful for the community.

She was amazing! All things considered with this semester she was extremely fair and genuinely cared about her students. Her class was engaging and fun and she kept us well up to date with all the happenings of Covid. I would definitely take her class again!

I really enjoyed Prof. O's course! The content we covered in class was stuff I literally used in a bunch of different areas as soon as we learned it. I thought the stuff about nonverbal communication was super cool.

This class was a blast! I took her class summer2019. It was intense, fun and engaging. I can see where those who struggle in discussion focused classes might not like her style as much. Things tend to be pretty casual. I really loved how she listens to students and seems to genuinely care about them and what they're saying.

Honestly, she's my fav prof at UAA. Never makes you buy a textbook, instead you read a bunch of different articles she provides. Her approach is sneaky, you don't really realize how much you're learning until the end of the semester when you reflect back on things.

Loved this class! Online classes can be hit or miss, but she set things up so it was easy to follow. Every week you know whats expected. Really enjoyed her videos, it felt way more personal than my other online courses. She was so funny and fast with responding to emails.

Prof. O is so much fun. I had for UNIV 150 and it was the best class I had that semester. Attendance is required and there are assignments by week. Plenty of writing but not too much. Lots of participation needed and we used breakout rooms a lot.

Professor Olson is so sweet and caring. She puts her students well being first and makes sure they're doing okay mentally and physically. She is very thoughtful and her assignments are not hard at all. It is an easy class to pass with some fun during the online course. I would highly recommend taking her for the university studies class.

COMM 237 was my fav class so far at UAA. You do have to read some articles, but Prof. O keeps it managable. The discussions about relationships were really interesting. I liked that I got to spend time applying the class to my own relationships. Felt like this prof and class helped me beyond college.

Prof. O was so helpful. This class is really easy, but we still learned alot about how the university works and what to prepare for. i really thought it was cool that she emailed me when I wrote about struggling this semester mentally. it felt like she legit cared about me and my classmates.

Prof. O was really nice and answered all the questions i felt dumb asking. she was the only prof i had this semester who talked about our mental health and told us to take care of ourselves.

Took this class in the spring during Covid. She was really kind about my having to help care for my dad and honestly helped me during a full breakdown. I never felt judged.

AWESOME prof, caring, and funny. Homework was all papers (4) and 1 presentation. Adored this class. I would say the papers were a 5/10 difficulty because you're writing about a relationship and its aspects relating to communication. The presentation was about the same. 100% would take this class again. Amazing prof!

i loved this class and prof o. she was funny and kept class interesting. she teaches real skills that helped my relationships. i also can't believe how quickly she taught us how to give a speech! i was so scared, but now it feels like i can give a speech in any class. i'm not terrified of public speaking anymore.

Easy class. The content was really helpful, she helped me get a lot better with time management and goal setting.

SHe's pretty cool even though she likes taylor swift. jk. This was a really helpful class and one that I always enjoyed attending.The assignments all seemed like they had a purpose, it never felt like busy work.

I took COMM 111 because it was a GER and I had to. This class and prof o really surprised me, it was interesting and pretty fun. Public speaking isn't my favorite, but we worked on a lot of things during class and by the time I had to present it really wasn't so bad. we laughed a lot and I did find a bunch of things about conflict really helpful.

Loved this class! Marsha was understanding and had a good sense of humor about things. She cares A LOT about communication and it made me consider majoring or at least getting a minor in comm.

I failed out of college the first time I tried, so my advisor had me take this class. I liked all the goal setting assignments and feel like I have a better idea of what I need to do for class. Prof. O talked a lot about how to manage mental health and got me thinking about all the things I did wrong the first time I tried college.

Prof. o was fun and nice. The workload seemed well spaced out and we had a lot of freedom with topics. I didn't realize it until the end of the semester, but I really learned a lot about communication. This is the most valuable GER I've taken.

Loved this professor and this class. I learned so much about my relationships and how to communicate better. Everything we did in class felt really purposeful and practical. I have already been using a lot of what we learned in teh first month of class and it has made my relationships much better.

W end of semester pizza party. (Even though she used dominos)

learned a lot. didn't really want to take this class, but am glad i did. honestly it was my favorite class this semester because it felt like we actually learned things that matter, she didn't treat us like kids.

Great class! Loved the prof!

this is the only GER I've taken that was helpful! professor olson tells lots of stories that are funny and sorta sneaky with how they teach us about communication.

Pretty cool for a Taylor swift fan! She has a good sense of humor and made this class fun.

I felt like I learned a lot in this class. Professor Olson split the class into three sections, at the end of each section, it did feel like a natural progression. The public speaking section was the one that was most helpful to me, I think her approach was supportive while still having high expectations for what we could do.

This is the first professor I've had who legitimately cared about me. When I was struggling with some personal stuff she reached out and worked with me to make sure I could stay up with coursework and help my family. She even checked on me after the semester ended to see how I was doing.

my favorite class this semester!

Good class. Covered public speaking, groups, and interpersonal communication. I would have liked to spend more time in groups, but don't really know that there is anything we could have done without.

I very much enjoyed this class during this semester. I learned so much and had a very fun time interacting with the other students in this class. Definitely my favorite professor!

I was a lot more interested in the class than I thought I would be when the semester first started. At first, I wasn't sure how I would feel about the material or what the class would be like overall. However, I ended up really enjoying it, especially the topics we went over during the beginning of the semester.

She brought her foster puppy to class, so she's my favorite professor to ever exist.

Great professor, knowledgeable and fair.

I thought this class would be a waste of time, but I had to take it for AMCS. I am grateful for Prof. O and everything she taught us in this class. She helped me think more about my future and how to plan for success. There was a lot of work around goal setting, which I didn't think would help me at first, but I found to be very beneficial!

The materials were challenging, but I also have been told I am not a good communicator. Professor Olson was supportive with feedback and helped me get better at interpersonal communication and public speaking. I understand why people sometimes get frustrated with me. I found the perception checking message tool very helpful.

I took this class in the summer and my only regret is that I didn't get to spend a full semester in the class with Marsha. We learned a lot in 5 weeks, but I would have loved to have more time to discuss the concepts! I loved how this class had practical ways to use the things we learned in class in our lives. It's the most useful college course!

good professor. she taught the class in a casual way. wish it was longer.

interesting class. thought it was well taught and helpful

Prof O really really really loves communication. I wasn't the most excited about this class, my advisor said everyone has to take it, but I found myself looking forward to it every week. The assignments were interesting and seemed purposeful. not sure if that totally makes sense, but it just didn't feel like busy work.

i currently have her as a professor, and she is the most awesome, tolerable taylor swift fan.

She is a really, really passionate professor. She makes you care about the course while not putting a ton of responsibility on you. I didn't have much homework and the assignments are pretty easy.

i currently have this professor, it's my favorite class and the one i feel like is most valueable to my life. i even gave speach, something i really didnt think i would be able to do. it was scary, but she was really realy encouraging and made it suck less than it could have!

pretty easy weekly assignments, it's just a reflection over the class that week. i wasn't very excited about that at the start but it was kinda cool to write about the things in class that were important to me. other than that it's one paper, a speech and a group presentation. everything feels like it is there for a reason

Interesting class and very passionate professor. She caers a lot about students and communication.

Professor Olson is caring and extremely passionate about communication! She made this class, a GER, interesting and helpful. I can honestly say this class is the best class I have taken in my time as a college student.

Marsha was extremely easy to work with and very kind, so the neg. reviews are surprising. We had one relationship analysis paper, one individual public speech, and a group presentation. There is also a journal where we submit weekly, reflecting on concepts and what we did that week. Comms class was the one class that I looked forward to the most.