FALL COVID ONLINE QUARTER
Reviewing so that others taking a class with him during covid online quarters can know what to expect
I LOVED this class. Ben is amazing and he's funny and tries to be as engaging as possible despite COVID online conditions.

He splits up the lecture so you'll end up having just one live lecture once a week, which is mandatory attendance but he also uploads videos teaching you the unit you will learn. The workload can be a little much, every two weeks there is a quiz, an interview with a classmate, and a video journal. However I think those assignments are necessary to keep up with learning the language, and the interviews are with different classmates each time so it's a great way to get to know people a bit. You just need to record some pre decided questions and answers for the interview and video journals.

You also have one midterm one final and a final presentation. The presentation was graded way more kindly than the video journals in my opinion. You have to follow videos for all the exams and submit a PDF of your answers and sometimes they can sign a bit quickly but I think just going over the unit videos before class is enough.

You'll also have a TA, we had a student who was amazing, she made a group chat for us and answers literally every single question you could have, as well really helping out during her tutoring hours (sort of like office hours) and was nice about finding other times to meet, would recommend going ove your final presentation with your TA so they can help you out with signs you're unsure of.

materials: you have to sign up for goreact which is a video streaming service and get the book signing naturally. The book didn't seem required until the final where he asked one book specific question