2.8
Quality3.1
Difficulty17%
Would Retake91
Reviews17%
Would Retake
91
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
91 total ratings5
15
4
20
3
21
2
13
1
22
What Students Say
“I took 2 classes with him”
GEOG3010 - 4.0 rating“He is extremely monotone, if you want a passionate and lively professor he is NOT the best choice”
GEOG2060 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
57%
Textbook Required
58%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.37 avg changeRatings by Course
HIST
5.0
(1)URBANGEO
5.0
(1)GEO3250
5.0
(1)GEOG4605
5.0
(1)GOEG
4.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
GEOG2300
5.0
GEOG3080
5.0
GEOG
4.5
GEOG2030
4.5
GEOG2500
4.4
Reviews (90)
No Comments
No Comments
his classes are the best if you're anti-corporations
No Comments
condescending
nice overheads, interesting comments but sometimes a little much
he is never on topic hard to follow and understand what is important
Great! Inspired me to teach Geography!
No Comments
Good professor with excellent lectures. Prof Anderson should be more willing to entertain questions on issues students are having a difficult time grasping. Overall a good teacher but does not have much contact with the individual students.
Makes a morning class pretty interesting to follow. Nice Jokes (ie - Puerto-Ricans dressed as Brazilians during World Cup), and very funny slides (ie - Dildo, Newfoundland).
Good Professor, funny guy, but he uses WAY TOO MUCH SLIDES!!!!! He needs to get to the point!
Great prof! Very intelligent and knowledgeable! Funny slides and lectures. Definetely not an easy marker, but you learn a lot from the class. Definetly wakes you up in the morning. (The British accent - hot!)
His lecture's are extremely funny and entertaining. He's a hard marker, and gives you the same mark all year round, no matter how well you do!!
Funny, and helpful if u go to him during his office hours. He doesn't mark the essays too roughly. And the slides are amusing. :) Fairly easy class to pass.
Extremely unclear in his assignments..asks for one thing but wants another!! Good Prof..but horrible T.A
He writes excellent lecture notes. He's a funny guy. His tests are a little tough, but they have choice. Assignments are a little unclear, but have room for creativity.
He is a good Prof. who is willing to help any student who goes to his office. He is sensitive and understanding to student needs and circumstances. Labs are easy and tests are fair. Lectures are fun..He is very smart
Great professor. His lectures are different and innovative...and his powerpoint slides will never put you to sleep!!!...he always makes people laugh. He speaks his mind!
No Comments
his slideshow presentations are always interesting to see. Tests are fair, and straight forward
His lectures are great, but he can't T.A if his life depended on it. A word for the wise: if you get him as a T.A SWITCH TUTORIALS!!!!
Excellent professor, knows his stuff. Fair to all and yes, a good sense of humour.
He is a good teacher and explains the material in great detail. Tests are ok but long especially with an essay. If you have him as a T.A. he marks hard on the take home essays.
Aweful Prof. Like many Prof's at york, he is a horrible teacher. It takes a lot to be a good teacher and communicator. I guess he thinks he is good, so that is all that matters to him good for him. Altho where's my education I paid for? I was ripp
i had him for urbanization. class was a joke never went, with him you dont need to go because his assignments are only evaluation in class, he is a terriblly boring teacher otherwise. take his class to get ur sosc. out of the way
He's a bit wierd
he should spend less time talking and more time listening-not to himself though. Never met a person who is so oblivious to the fact he manopolizes a conversation. It is the Anderson monologue not dialogue. Really funny though, and quite intelligent. Recommend his class though
Man knows his stuff, fair marker too
Really good prof. puts all of his lectures online and includes funny pictures into his powerpoints.
Bad lecturer, even worse T.A. However still gets a lot of money.
approachable, helpful teacher
he's an interesting prof. makes fun of politics and the like. his marking leaves you wondering where you went wrong b/c all he puts on the paper is a letter grade and a half (i.e. C+/B )
No Comments
No Comments
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Interesting class.
Really enjoyed his humour and looked forward to class. He can talk a little too much though.
he was interesting, witty, and taught with ease.
Worst teacher ever, doesn't reply to emails doesn't do anything the T.A are bad as well , avoid this class i have a overall gpa A and i worked 5 times as hard and got a C.
Professor Anderson was the 2nd half professor and hes unhelpful Swales is okay. The T.A were very hard no one got higher then 70% on the final
if u dont have to take a course with this professor dont plz
I like his sweater.
he did nothing in this course why is York paiding him to give students a hard time
His teaching skills are comprised of visuals a picture to make every point, well it wasnt hard to anderstnad overall he was a great prof.
Really nice guy...passionate in his work makes him a great proffessor
Probably not the "best" but my fav @ York. Nice guy, straight forward and understandable, and witty. Shows tons of photoshopped pics which I think sometimes even he thinks are real. But, like I said, he won't give you any problems. If you have questions, ask during not after class. if you don't, he rambles on and you won't be able to leave.
Not a great professor but nice guy thats Lazy and talks about something else
the worst professor ever so lazy
i learned nothing for the entire year while he was lecturing
You can tell he is a smart man, however you will learn nothing from his lectures. All he used us pictures to try to convey his messages which does not work. Throws in too many pointless pictures to make you laugh but just confuses you. Every lecture seemed the same to me.. Need some content in his slides to study from! Nice guy though..
No Comments
Good professor. Not much of a point in going to class, he puts the powerpoint presentations on his website. Text was useful but not necessary. Final exam questions were a choice and were the same as last years and were posted before the exam so you could prep. Very easy and interesting course.
Meh...uses a lot of pictures in lectures.But atleast he has lectures notes unlike DAS!!!
He is witty
Some of the content of his pictures/slides is ****ed and that might even need the attention of the department.
This professors lecture is based on pictures rather then content. There really is no purpose in going to his lectures because he uses almost 50 slides on pictures!
Rambles rambles rambles about who gives a flying f*ck ... no point in attending class cuz it is comprised of 3 essays and take home final that can be completed very easily without listening to a word he has to say . but just dont expect to get an A also i found it ludarcious how he marks an essay out of 20 with 50% of it being based on your source
all the notes are presented on the slides. textbook is not needed for this course.
This class is totally pointless... uses pictures in his lectures. Rambles on and on about none sense! absoultly the worst prof ive had... I dont recommend this course nor prof!
enjoyable lectures. quite funny!
Awesome prof not hard with marking. Very knowledgeable, he was predicting the risk of sinkhole at finch/dufferin before it took place. Loved That Course. He provided extra help after classes and discussed assignments throughly.
His lectures are so dry, and has nothing to do with the readings. Otherwise he is a good prof.
Lectures are boring. does not respond to emails. Assignments are extremely vague no clarity! Rambles on and on doesn't answer questions. And has No constructive points to add when marking your papers. Hard to know what he wants because he is too vague. Interesting class - very bad prof!
I don't know what you need to keep to keep your eyes open in this class. Most boring prof I've had yet, I found myself drifting all the time while in class. The course is interesting, the nature of environmental disasters are fascinating to learn about, but rambling on and on totally killed it for me.
A lot of useless information on his slides. Attendance in class is not mandatory (only for tutorials).
Some find him interesting, others don't. I liked him. The assignment and exam were straightforward. Pretty easy to come out with a B. Attendance wasn't mandatory.
Take another course instead. Poor lecturer. Uses a survey textbook and almost no other reading. You don't know what he wants (he doesn't run tutorials for 3010) so your grades may suffer. Turns you off the subject. Look elsewhere. Geography is better than this.
Professor Anderson is the greatest professor ever! Cheers!
Best Prof. in the Geography Department at York
Richard Anderson's lectures are a test of human patience. I appreciate a geography prof that's well travelled, but I sign up for courses to learn, not to hear personal anecdotes and storytime. The course started with one professor, then switched to him in the second half. It was amazing to watch attendance drop. Attendance not required. Awful Prof.
Do not take anything with him if you want a decent grade. This prof is unresponsive to email, unclear with instructions and unwilling to accept and admit that he has graded a student wrong. Plays favourites as well. Elitist to the core. His lectures are almost nonexistant because it is like flipping through a pictures only version of a magazine
The guy might be boring bc he has a monotone but he is very knowledgeable and nice. I took 2 classes with him. He is not easy but is doable. No textbook and attendance is not a must. 60% assign, 2 exam (30%), 10% partic
He is extremely monotone, if you want a passionate and lively professor he is NOT the best choice. Does not give rubrics for assignments or even a proper indication of what he is looking for. He gives a broad statement followed by "discuss". I would not recommend this course to anyone
Ohh he just goes ON! I feel like he guesses the grades he gives, especially the google+ participation that was worth 20%
I have had three classes with him. Lectures are all off PowerPoint, but easy to follow. Boring at times, but helpful in person. Okay grader, assignments and tests are flexible. Sometimes drags along, but he's not that bad.
Very Monotone but clear, explains everything, you have to be self motivated
Great Professor. He was extremely passionate about the course and gave myself and many peers a great learning experience. I wish the class was full year and not only half a term. He tells it bluntly and has a good sense of dry humor in seminar. There is no better professor for this class. Loved it!
Pretty easy to get a decent mark in the class if you're a decent student. Pretty much a guaranteed B. Getting an A is sort of tricky, his grading for papers seem to be based on how much he likes the topic. Really easy 6 credits, lectures are optional and don't really introduce any new concepts that aren't covered in other classes.
Professor Anderson is the most disorganized prof I have ever had. He attempted to bellcurve everyones grades DOWN, because he didnt do his job and check up on his TAs who were apparently inflating marks. Didnt get away with this, as the department intervened. Highest mark on the exam was an 80. His lectures are dry, but not the worst.
Save your soul and avoid this Prof. No syllabus given, no contact email. Assignments and exam are too vague, too much is expected with word limits given (depending on TA). Prof announced new grading scheme AFTER course was finished because marks were too high. After outcry, he gave us the marks we earned. Finished with 81, he gave me a B, then A
All lectures were prerecorded videos online and a lot of them had so many unnecessary facts that nobody cares about and veered off of the main subject matter. I never actually spoke to him as it was an online class but his grading scheme is very tough and he deeply cares about the spread of grades so I feel that I got lower marks because of this.
Not helpful and condescending. Gave everyone a C+ or B on the final exam. Poorly organized course w/ repetitive material. No syllabus or contact information was provided. All assignments were vague and no feedback was given. One of his assignments is worth 40% of the final grade. Never clear by what he means, a picky grader, and uninspiring.
Prof Anderson is definitely passionate about geography but he's a very monotone lecturer. The class itself was fairly easy but the weighting of class assignments was odd.
Non respectful individual, Does not help students when emailing and he provides very few words back to the student in response as if he is bothered to answer. Do not recommend him and not polite.
I really liked professor Anderson and im surprised by all the poor reviews. His lectures were extremely informative and he includes interesting facts and ideas about the city of Toronto. I thought his course load was very fair, it mostly consisted of essays but as long as you write clear and well organized, you can get a good mark
Mr Anderson is knowledgeable and packs his lectures with lots of information. Know that he posts lots of weekly readings and online lectures. Grade is split into just a few tasks each worth 10-20 % of your final grade, mostly graded by your TA. It is a very interesting class and you learn a lot. Though tough, it is rewarding.
The lectures were often long-winded and meandering. If you like having information presented in an organized manner, probably not the professor for you. While he is clearly knowledgeable and provides many interesting examples, the tangents and information dump gets hard to filter after a couple of weeks.
everything is marked by the TA however the final exam is marked by the Prof. after sending a copy to the TA, I was informed that I would score "very well" however when I got my grade back, it was 72 without any feedback or comments. I honestly think that the prof is marking the final exams to make sure that the average GPA falls within a quota
This class wasn't what I expected in any way. The TA is the one that marks the assignments, but the assignments in general lack so much clarity that when you email either the prof or the TA, you have to second guess what they're looking for.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
57%
Textbook Required
58%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.37 avg changeRatings by Course
HIST
5.0
(1)URBANGEO
5.0
(1)GEO3250
5.0
(1)GEOG4605
5.0
(1)GOEG
4.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
GEOG2300
5.0
GEOG3080
5.0
GEOG
4.5
GEOG2030
4.5
GEOG2500
4.4