Nushin is the best professor I have ever taken.
I recommend anyone taking her before they graduate. I have taken two classes with her and it has literally changed my life. The material is important and relevant to what is happening in the world today. There is one midterm which is worth 35% and then a final paper worth 65%. It's an easy class in the sense that everything is interesting and you actually want to learn, but don't expect to just sit through class and still getting an A.
Nushin is a fascinating person and I love that she shares her personal experiences, growing up in Afghanistan.

Professor is one of the best I’ve ever had at UCLA! She is incredibly knowledgeable, balanced, and funny. Her lectures are engaging and very informative. I felt that I learned not only about the communication aspect of the course, but also in a way about the human psyche. The class is structured so that there is 1 midterm and 1 final paper. The final paper is a sort of synthesis paper that requires much attention and detail since it covers questions and materials from the entire quarter. I would recommend that you start as soon as she releases the questions, which tends to be sometime at the end of week 8 and due finals week. Go to her office hours or email and ask her about what to improve and what you should actually be focusing on and because of her helpfulness and clarity, you should be rewarded with a good grade. Good luck!

The professor is amazing! She is very knowledgeable and engaging. The sources she brings are very diverse and thought-provoking. It forces you to think for yourself with the information you are provided but also makes clear that terrorism is complicated and not a black and white answer or issue. I feel more knowledgeable after taking this class not only about terrorism but also about humans. The class is structured with 2 midterms and a final. The midterms are usually an event like an article about an attack and the questions will make you use your knowledge and understanding of the material to analyze the article or event. The final is quite lengthy. It is around 10 questions that cover material from weeks 1-10. It is meant for you to synthesize and kind of bring all that you've learned together to produce balanced well-informed answers. I really enjoy working on it actually because it gives you a chance to really test yourself on whether you actually learned as much as you think you have. The questions are released at the end of week 8 [and due finals week] and I submitted an outline first for some guidance. The outline was absolutely helpful as outlines are but the professor directly edited and advised me on some aspects that really helped me produce the best work that I could have. Thank you for that professor :)!!! Go to office hours, email her about how to improve or what to focus on to really get the best you can out of each assignment. One of the best classes I have taken. Good luck!

I took this class as my first upper-div comm class and it was super interesting. the grade just depends on the midterm (35%) and a final paper (65%) so there is not a lot of work outside from that, lecture, and readings. The professor is very knowledgeable about conspiracy theories and the Middle East. Lecture attendance was mandatory but she sent the recorded lecture to international students and posted all the lectures the week before midterm and finals week. This is a good and somewhat low-stress comm elective to take because there is not a lot of work throughout the quarter except for midterm and finals week.

Class involves one midterm that covers all the main topics taught up until that point and one final paper that is a bit tedious but with time at hand is a walk in the park with the help of the professor and the TA. Take her for any requirement that it can fulfill

I wouldn't call this an easy A but it's a manageable A. The grade is broken down into 35% for the midterm and 65% for the final paper, nothing else.

The midterm is blue book but if you study it's not hard at all- she gives you a couple of questions and you just need to answer 3.

For the final paper, she'll give you a few articles to choose from (you need to pick one from the Middle East and one from a western democracy) and you pretty much analyze the media sources and the portrayal of America from the different perspectives (she gives a list of criteria for what to hit on the paper). It's 1.5 spacing, but it's honestly not that bad at all, just make sure you explain everything you bring up. The portrayals of America in the articles are not exactly straightforward, so you'll probably need to read each of the articles a few times before you have enough to start writing. The most important thing for the paper is that you can relate the content to concepts from class and that you can relate your own opinions and perceptions of America based on the articles. Make sure you go to the classes after the midterm, because she goes through example articles to show you how to analyze the articles for the paper and how to insert your own perspective in your analysis.

Also, you NEED to go through the readings that she posts. Most of them are incredibly long and they're not always straightforward and easy to understand (especially from the first two weeks), but they ultimately apply to both the midterm and the final paper and are where you'll get a lot of detail on the concepts from class.

While I felt like I didn't know what was going on half the time in class, the first few classes are crucial in regards to themes and whatnot. Midterm wasn't terrible, you choose 3 questions to answer out of about 8. Crammed the night before and got an A-. Other than that is the 10-12 page final paper. As long as you incorporate the things from the lectures pre midterm you will do fine. Ended the class with an A. Only skimmed a few readings, pretty much stopped showing up after the midterm.

I am a third year STEM major and this was my first time taking any comm class in my entire life, as I needed upper div units and this class fit my schedule nicely. I also didn't know a single person in the class nor was I ever able to go to the professor's office hours because I had class during that time. Your entire grade is just one midterm and one final paper that is 1.5 spacing 12 pages, which turns out to really be around 15 pages double spaced. This sounds pretty daunting because messing up on either of the assignments can really lower your grade. On the other hand, the midterm was very fair. The professor herself posts all the lecture slides after each week. At the end of each lecture slides there are "Test yourself" questions and basically if you can answer all of these, and the answers are all straight from her slides, then her midterm is extremely fair because her midterm questions are very similar, if not almost the same as the "Test yourself" questions in the slides. For our final paper, the professor took 6 quotes online from peoples' views on terrorism and we had to verify how accurate it was using the material we learned from lecture, 2 pages per quote. I was never able to go to the professor's office hours and the one time I tried to go to the TA for help, there was a long ass line for people wanting a regrade on their midterm. So I just went to the professor a few minutes before class started and she was more than happy to answer any questions you were uncertain about for the final prompts. As for the professor herself, she is extremely passionate and her lectures are very organized, and also incredibly nice. Lastly, besides the midterm which you really only need to start studying 5-7 days before at the most, and the final paper that isn't assigned until end of week 8, you really don't have to do anything else in between, along with not having to buy any books, unlike a lot of other north campus classes.

Nushin is the best. Her class is very straightforward and there are no textbooks/anything required for this class. This is my second class with her and her classes are all formatted the same: one blue-book midterm week 6 and a 1.5-spaced 10-12 page paper for the final, due at the end of finals week. The midterm is very easy if you went to the review session and took notes on what types of questions she was going to ask and going over the slides she posts to answer those questions. The readings posted are not necessary, but familiarize yourself with certain authors and their ideas because those will come in handy when answering midterm/final prompts. The final paper is long, but doesn't require much outside research; you just have to apply the lectures (posted online) and name-drop some authors/scholars and their concepts. There is only the midterm and final - you don't have to do anything else for the class. It is very easy and Nushin is great; she is excited about her work and will answer any questions you have.

I took this class because I had taken comm 106 with professor Arbabzadab and loved it, however, this class turned out to be miserable. The final paper which is worth 65% of your grade is so hard with no clear instructions. The professor decided to assign a new type of final which she hasn’t used before and her new style final ruined many peoples grades (my friend got a C and another an F). I am so disappointed I took this class because it messed up my gpa. The feedback I got on my paper was worded very rudely and didn’t even explain why I lost so many points when I did everything properly. I highly suggest not taking this class.