I absolutely loved this course, but that is because I absolutely love music history. I decided to minor in music history after taking this course. I wish I could take it again.

There are prerecorded lectures that are not really worth the time it takes to watch them (usually around 10 minutes), but sometimes there will be something from them on the quiz. Every week you are supposed to read a very long module (but I was practically the only one who consistently did this), and then you must take a quiz on the info you just read, as well as make a discussion post answering a prompt by the professor that is related to the module. There are a lot of options for the final project, such as an essay or PowerPoint on the history of a genre of music. I had a lot of fun with the project, and the hardest part was just making sure all your sources are in place. There was one extra credit assignment analyzing a postwar era song, but the professor only offered it because a lot o...read more

Professor Mullen wasn't very present during the semester because the lectures were by a previous professor, but I asked him an absolute ton of questions about the final project and he answered every single one. He's a great guy.

The final exam is just writing a ton of essays as fast as you can. Before the final exam, copy and paste everything you wrote in discussion boards and essay sections of quizzes, and order them by subject. He gives you possible prompts beforehand, but he won't tell you what genre it's for, so you need to be prepared for almost anything. I made a word document with all of the essays and discussion posts I had made, arranged them by subject, and edited them all down into a block of text for each subject. This was crucial for the final, because I had info ready when I got my prompt. A lot of students didn't finish all their essays in time, but I did thanks to this method. It's a lot of work, but it pays off.