Great class! clear writing assignments, structured class time to brainstorm and compose work. Fair homework load. He cares very much about student success. Very transparent with grades and standing. Plays music at the beginning of class!

Stephen ("Kip") Tobin is overall a very friendly and engaging professor! He knows how to cater his classes to the individual needs of his students and often spends time reviewing tricky concepts. Final grades include participation points, online homework, three essays, five pop quizzes, and a final oral presentation. The workload was not too heavy, but consistent and constant, with homeworks due before each class (three times per week). Students are required to buy new copies of the textbook in order to utilize the online book access codes for the homework, which is extremely annoying because it is so expensive, but this is a Spanish 25-wide issue, not specifically for Professor Tobin. Occasionally he will get a little short or noticeably irritated with students but ultimately is a great professor who plays music before class and knows how to cater to the students!

Professor Tobin is by far the best professor I have had at UCLA. I have taken his classes a couple of times, and he never fails to make the class exciting and engaging. His in class quizzes are fair, he'll let you know everything that will be on the quiz, and his take home papers are not too difficult if you have been going to class and paying attention. After his class, I ended up loving the topics of science fiction, and I definitely recommend anyone who has an opportunity to take this class, even if you think science fiction is lame or you've never read it.

This was a very fun class overall. I came in thinking it would be an easy class with little interest, but after a few weeks, I got hooked into the subject. Such a fun an interesting subject. All the readings and discussions were great! They were interesting and fun and it made you view different view about robots, cyborgs, and clones. Made you think about the world that we live in and were technological are taking us and what our future might look like. Would highly recommend the class to anyone who wants to have a fun and interesting class. Professor Tobin has been the best Spanish professor I've taken so far due to his passion about the subject and just how carrying he is about student learning and understanding of the subject. Would love to take another class with him if possible. Amazing class and professor overall.

Professor Tobin is amazing. He truly cares about the material he teaches. His grading is fair and if you have any questions office hours are great to go to. He is one of the best professors I have taken here at UCLA. Lectures are easy to follow and he posts the slides. He is a very forgiving professor. He will tell you that you are wrong on something which is good. The class is in spanish but if you need to switch over to english he is fine with that as long as your idea or comment is clear. There are group essays that are done in class. They are not extremely difficult but you do have to analyze the reading/movie. The readings are fun and not too difficult. I had more trouble with the readings in english than spanish. They were the theoretical texts like Haraway but everyone had a little difficulty. He also broke the readings down. You have to do the readings in order to do well. Like I said, the readings are not hard . He even asks at the end of the quarter on his weaknesses or ideas for his next class. He is the only professor who does that to my knowledge. TAKE HIS CLASSES. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR??

He loves the phrase " O Sea" which I find funny. Everyone has their own words they like to use. Seriously though. Take his class and you will not regret it.

Professor Tobin is one of the best professors at UCLA. I have taken two Science Fiction classes with him and they have been one of the most innovative classes I have taken. His readings are clear and above all very informative. All the information that he provides to his class is very relevant and up-to-date. It is noted that Professor Tobin prepares himself very well before his lectures, but above all, he cares that his students understand very confusing concepts about robots, cyborgs, and clones.

I took this class in the Winter of 2018 and later completed a Span 199 Directed Research project with Professor Tobin in Spring 2018.

Beginning with Span 150, I truly enjoyed every aspect of the class and was incredibly interested in all of the material. We covered a wide variety of science fiction short stories from across Latin America, centering primarily around robots, cyborgs and clones. Kip came to every class extremely prepared and ready to answer any questions any students had. He really placed an emphasis on the thought process of the students and keeping an open dialogue available amongst everyone in the class.

I approached Professor Tobin for my guided research (Span 199) after taking 150 with him and he was extremely helpful throughout the entire process.

I came to him with a vague idea of the project I hoped to create and he immediately took my ideas and offered various options for how I could get started with the project. It was especially appreciated because Professor Tobin took time out of his week to take on this project with me after already having a full class load to teach. He was always available and continuously offered external articles/stories/documentaries that would help me better understand certain topics. Once again, I was extremely impressed with how he made an extra effort to always answer any questions I may have had or provide guidance. After these 2 classes, I can say I highly recommend taking a class with Kip if you have the chance.

I took this class as an undeclared major not sure if I would want to be a Spanish major, and it cleared a few thing up for me. Overall this class was pretty straightforward and clear but was not as engaging as I would have hoped; but that may have just been because my class was low energy. Professor Tobin is very well prepared for class and very well organized, my only criticism is that I wish he would have made class dialogue more required because I don't feel that I actually spoke that much Spanish. However, I left class with a very concrete understanding of writing in Spanish which is the main point of the class. Would surely recommend this class and professor to anyone looking to do a major or minor in Spanish.

Everything that we were assigned as homework was relevant to the course and the content we were learning. I think critically about everything I watch now outside of this class, because of all that I have learned in this course. We have weekly assignments in the form of watching films, reading before classes (providing context for discussions), and reflections on the films and the readings. I am very grateful for this professor having required weekly reflections because we essentially had 10 weeks of practice for the final essay. I can not emphasize how many times I have felt lost in a course over what the Professor was looking for in a final paper because it was the first or one of the few that we were completing. This professor is incredibly organized, engaging, always prepared for lectures (I am impressed with the amount of effort he puts into his presentations) and you truly learn so much. This professor has been an integral part of my success, my learning, and the value that I have received from my undergraduate education.

Honestly this is one of the best people from the Spanish department!! Very accessible and willing to work with you. I´ve taken two classes with him and had a blast both times. This quarter I learned about scifi films in Latin America and he is very knowledgeable! Movies give you a better perspective of what was happening around that time and some of them are very interesting. BONUS: He has a very cute cat named Milo