At times, professor Arbabzadah was unclear, however, she was a relatively easy grader and the work required for the course was minimal. There were 2 midterms and 1 final- both were easy. The midterms consisted of 2-3 essay questions that were fairly easy to answer as long as you reviewed the material beforehand. The final was a paper that we were given the prompt for at least a week in advanced. As long as some effort is put in, it's pretty easy to do well in the class. She's also very kind and accommodating of students with special circumstances (like being sick, etc...). Overall, I'd take another course with her because even though she was confusing at times, she was helpful and it was easy to catch up by just going back and taking notes on her powerpoint slides. I definitely recommend taking a class with her!

This class was very interesting -- alot of readings and material covered in lecture. The midterm had short answer questions and was in class - very easy if you studied! The final was take home with short answer questions in an essay format. There were 5 final questions with subsections and each question had to be 3 pages per answer. It took a lot of time writing, but overall easy.

The class has 2 midterms for 25% each and a final for 50%. The lectures are a little boring at times and might seem long because she tends to go overboard. They can be hard to follow, but if you get the main points, you should be fine. The midterms had 3 questions and you had to write a paragraph for each. The final paper was 10-12 pages double spaced, but it takes time. She posts a lot of readings that aren’t super necessary but help with writing the midterm and final. Overall she is a nice professor and the class is fairly easy with some effort.

For the sake of fairness and so that those who might join have a chance to get a fairer view of the class, I have posted official evaluations of the class discussed by the students above.

- A very welcoming person when it comes to answering questions and had a ton of enthusiasm for this
course which made the lectures more exciting. I have taken a course of hers two years ago and I can
say that it has improved immensely in terms of her organization and clarity of assignments and test
preparation as well as lectures.
- Arbabzadah is a very interesting and charismatic instructor. I like her class a lot, but I do feel as though
sometimes the readings can be difficult without her explanations and that even then it could be slightly
more organized. Other than that, her class structure is great and I love that she keeps all materials
accessible for us to use and study from. That was very helpful, especially for exams. She is very
engaging and seems to genuinely care about what she teaches and how she teaches it. I find her to be
a very fair teacher who also pays attention to student concern and inquiry.
Can often be a little difficult to follow during lecture. Very kind and approachable. I just wish the slides
had a bit more of the important information for tests and prompts were slightly more clear.
Caring professor who wants students to succeed. Presentations are clear but not enough student
engagement in the discussion (could get boring at times just listening to professor lecture).
Extremely helpful outside of the classroom, which was greatly appreciated. Great lecturer as well.
Really enjoyed this professor!
- Great teacher. Enthusiastic and educated
- Her lectures were very interesting and engaging. The topics discussed in class are very relevant today
and I honestly didn't know what to expect going into the class. Professor Arbabzadah is an amazing
lecturer and is very organized.
I appreciated the workload of this class, but at times lecture was confusing. I think to some extent I had
trouble with the professor having her own soapbox ideas that she is very passionate and
knowledgeable about, but are hard to convey because she is talking about them from a place of she
cares about it rather than a I hope you care about it and learn it sort of perspective. The other thing was
that she constantly acknowledges the texts she gives are dense and confusing, but doesn't do more
than bold some things in it for us. Most of the time I didn't read the readings because it was too
complicated and sometimes it felt like not worth my time. Can I get away with reading only the bold? I
don't know. What I did appreciate was that she used the questions in the lecture to let us self check
whether we were learning. Overall the class was not too hard and the material was valuable.
I think sometimes the concepts would get too vague, even though the professor spent some time
N. ARBABZADAH, 19F: COMM 106 LEC 1: REPORTING AMERICA
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explaining them, I don't think I would be able to apply the material to numerous topics, only the ones
she presented. I think using distinct definitions would be more helpful, and then breaking down each
example to get a thorough understanding of how to apply what we are learning.
I thought lectures were well organized, and I loved the "can I" questions that were throughout the
lectures; it made going back and studying really straightforward. I had a hard time understanding how
some of the readings were integrated into what we were learning from lecture, but overall I thought the
class was interesting and organized, and I liked how the midterm and final paper were set up.
I took this class expecting a course on foreign journalism and reporting about America, but what I
received was some sort of pseudo-philosophy, pseudo-sociology course with no clear direction. I feel
that the class that Professor Arbabzadah taught was wildly different from what the course description
would have one believe and it should be described differently in the course catalog to more accurately
reflect the material of the course. There was a shockingly little discussion about foreign journalism.
Many of the lectures felt like extended ramblings with little direction. Professor Arbabzadah seems like a
nice and intelligent woman, but the disconnect between the course material and what UCLA would have
you believe this course is about is like nothing I have experienced at this school in my 2+ years.
Knowledgeable and caring
Loved Nushin's class as always. She is a breath of fresh air to have as a professor: she is so happy,
interested in teaching us and is passionate about what she teaches. Wish I could take her summer
course
Nushin is a very nice woman and really cares about students' learning. However, I think lectures were
hard to follow along with. She often rambles on about one slide for minutes on end, and I cannot follow
where she is going. The test yourself questions were very helpful, and those cleared up a few
confusions. Overall, I understood the material but it often feels repetitive lecture to lecture. The paper
also does not need to be as long as it is, as that seems superfluous.
Nushin is enthusiastic about her topic. She organizes her class well and gives students a chance to
reflect on course material. She also has students apply concepts to articles, which provides depth to the
lectures covered. I enjoyed this class because I felt that Nushin cared about communicating clearly with
students and listened to feedback. She also maintained high standards for our writing and work without
being unreasonable.
One of my favorite professors I've had hear
One strength is her approachability for students. I would feel very welcomed to speak to her outside of
class for additional help. One weakness is the lack of structure in her lecture slides.
Overall, I took this class to satisfy my GE requirements, but I was so glad to have been taught by this
teacher. She is so passionate and energetic when teaching the material to her students. She keeps the
class engaged throughout each lecture and really wants her students to succeed. I can't say anything
bad about this teacher and definitely would recommend to a peer.
Professor A is such an amazing person and she is very entertaining but she loses focus from time to
time and it is very hard to follow her lectures.
Professor ARBABZADAH is one of the best professors that I have taken. She shows that she cares
about the students learning the material and her class is unlike any other because she presents ideas
that are not as popular and has us question our views especially because she offers an outsider
perspective on America which is relevant to the course.
The most important aspect I have learned is how privileged I am to live in a country that allows the
freedom of speech and has diverse thought.
Thank you professor for passing along your knowledge to us and teaching us about the human step
which is not only relevant to your class, education, but in life. Our purpose on this earth is to pass along
our knowledge to improve our posterity.
Best class I have taken at UCLA. I look forward to taking another class with professor ARBABZADAH.
N. ARBABZADAH, 19F: COMM 106 LEC 1: REPORTING AMERICA
04/07/2020 Class Climate Evaluation Page 5
Professor Arbabzadah is an absolutely phenomenal professor. She has many strengths and among
them is ensuring her students are learning and that we understand the content being discusses. She is
brilliant in the examples she provides. She listens to her students and addresses their needs. She is so
well informed in this field and the topic. Weakness aren’t necessarily with the professor, but it’s not
always easy to understand abstract ideas, phrasing can be a little bit confusing. But again, not
necessarily on her part.
Professor Arbabzadah is very passionate about what she teaches but usually lectures at an extremely
fast speed and it is difficult to keep up with the lecture and PowerPoints. In addition and because of this,
most of what she says is not included in the slides and cannot be reviewed after class.
Professor Arbabzadah was excellent and made the class worth attending! Very funny and interesting
topic!
Professor Arbabzadah was very passionate and knowledge about the course subject matter. It was
also very clear that she cared very much both for her students and their understanding of the material.
Professor Nushin Arbabzadah is a truly amazing professor and is part of the reason that Reporting
America was one of my favorite classes of the quarter. She is very engaging and is extremely
knowledgeable regarding the subject matter. While many professors fall victim to the curse of
knowledge and end up having bland lectures, Arbabzadah always kept class engaging and facilitated
both excellent lectures and class discussion. She was very open minded and would engage in dialogue
with students... almost encouraging them to disagree with her and make good points! Professor
Arbabzadah also inspired me with her unique backstory that spanned migrating from Afghanistan to
Europe and eventually settling in the United States. I look forward to maintaining a great relationship
with her and will be taking her class next quarter.
-Saeed Ahmad
4th Year Pre-Law Student
Professor was AMAZING. She is very engaging and is super approachable if there were every any
questions that needed to be answered. She really let students speak their minds during class and she
seemed to be very interested in what she was teaching. I loved that she offered to give us more
examples as she explained new ideas. She really looks out for her students and it a great professor!
She is very engaging in the classroom. I also appreciated that she took the time to email me individually
and ask if there is anything she can do to improve my learning experience. I have never had a professor
do that and I truly admired that.
Strengths- has powerpoint slides and gives them to students ahead of time
Weaknesses- talks fast, uses large terms, covers too much in one class
Strengths: engaging the class, strong knowledge about course material
Weaknesses: Some of the prompts on the midterm and final were confusing. Sometimes the quotes she
would put on the exams would be placed with not much context.
Such a pleasant woman who is so knowledgable about the subject. You can tell that she loves what she
does and that made me want to pay attention and learn and understand the material.
The powerpoints were honestly super hard to understand, and the presentations were a little bit
convoluted. Besides that, Nushin was super kind and lovely.
The professor was incredibly well equipped with knowledge and mastery of the material. The only
problem is the lectures, at times, seemed to go on tangents. All in all, professor Arbabzadah is a
wonderful professor and a well-respected woman. I would definitely take another course with her.
This class was a mess. I love the professor. she is super nice and sweet and bubbly. You can tell she
cares, but her lectures seemed wayyyyy to convoluted sometimes. I would get lost no matter how much
I tried to pay attention. I left very confused. I appreciated her effort though. Maybe it was just me, but itThis is the second course that I have taken with Professor Arbabzadah and she is a delight to learn
from. She is very engaging during lectures which is something I really enjoy because she is so
enthusiastic about her course topics. I believe her grading is fair because I have compared my work to
another student's work and I could clearly see why I received an A- and the other student received an
A+. She is always organized with her lectures/presentations and does a thorough job of explaining
details, so there are no surprises when it is time to write papers. She has an active style, meaning that
she involves the students in Q&A during lectures which really helps to clarify points and close any gaps
between concepts. Overall, I have really enjoyed Professor Arbabzadah's courses and I will highly
recommend her to other students. She's a real superstar in my book and in my top 5 UCLA professors.
This professor is extremely vibrant and engaging. She really cares about her students and is totally
enthusiastic about the subject matter, making the course an excellent part of the communication
department.
she is passionate and she encourages questions.
sometimes i find her accent hard to understand. which makes it difficult at times to hear every word.
i like her! i like how she laughs at her jokes! i love we cheer at the beginning of class
very organized lecture presentations however sometimes gets carried away when speaking and could ramble on.

Her lectures are pretty boring and confusing because she uses a lot of big words and assumes that you are familiar with the topic presented. Her slides are posted online so thats a huge help when studying for the midterm. The midterm was like 10 questions and you pick 3 or 4 to write short essays on in class. The final was a take home essay worth more than half the final grade, highly suggest you work with others to create ideas. She's a bit unclear of what she wants and apparently office hours do not help but its good if she can put your name to your face. Try to get on her good side, not a must, but its a plus.

This class was run with a 35% midterm and 65% final, which means you could (and a lot of people did) disengage from class pretty much. There's nothing to do except go to lecture, and try to understand what Prof. Arbabzadah's personal soapbox is, based on her life experience living in the Middle East and Europe. There are readings, but I never did them (just tried to integrate a couple randomly into the final paper); she says "yeah I know they're dense" and says but read it anyway, no I can't lol what does this meannn
Personally I had a hard time understanding what the ideas being presented really meant and synthesizing everything, which meant I just did my best to spit her lectures back out at her in the midterm and final (which are pretty straightforward but depend on your understanding). But it seemed like some kids in the front of the class who always asked questions understood what was going on, I just didn't.

I have NO idea what is happening in this class... EVER. The topics are all over the place and you will sit behind your laptop baffled on what is going on in class. Fairly easy A, but just really confusing at times.

Nushin is a very fair grader, and the material she presents is super interesting. You have one in class midterm, where you have a choice of 6 questions to pick 3 from. ALL the questions are from the discussion questions at the end of the lecture slides. What I did was make a study guide, answering all questions for the lecture each week, with copying and pasting relevant information from the slides. This helped a lot for the midterm as I had a paper due a couple days before. I studied and reviewed in advance for it, studied hardcore right before the exam for 2 hours and got an A-. The final is a little tricky, we had to answer all 5 questions that were asked based on these mini-articles, and write out mini-essays. 1.5 spacing, 10-12 pages. I got an A on that. The good thing to remember about this class is that if you don't do well on the midterm it's okay because the final is worth 75%. I would still try to do well on it though because a lot of the information on the final is based off stuff pre-midterm. I honestly did a lot of the readings at the beginning for the class for the midterm, but when I found out that the exam was basically the discussion questions I gave up. For the final I didn't incorporate any of the readings as nothing was specified, but basically if you do for both the midterm and final you are for sure going to get an A+ - so keep that in mind! Anyway, overall a very interesting class. Do the work in advance and you will do well!

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 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.