MOR 570 - Leading Effective Teams

Jody Tolan is a high school level teacher attempting to teach graduate level students. Who is this class for? Ones who don't value their time. Final Thoughts: It will make you worse.

Who is this class for? Course is best for those still wary of working in teams or people who want to expand their ability to analyze teams Final Thoughts: Class was fine. Was fun to work in groups but class was long and many lessons felt redundant and boring.

Boring class. There's a ton of reading and busy work, but you can get through the class without doing the readings. Professor is chill, but you will not learn any new valuable skills. Only take if you are looking for an easy elective and use time to work on other stuff. No quizzes or tests.

Absolute worst class I have taken at Marshall in addition to the least likable professor I have encountered at USC. The class experience is absolutely painful, and includes a ton of busy work. The professor doesn't understand the group dynamics in elective classes and repeats exercises that were already done during orientation with core teams. The essence of the course material for this class is "be nice to your colleagues". Save your money and take literally any other class.

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. This is a complete waste of time. You can accomplish more in life by literally filling buckets of ocean water and immediately pouring them back into the ocean. This is not a good "senioritis" class; this is an absolute waste of time and there are better "fluff" classes where you will actually learn something. I actively lost brain cells sitting through this class and I'd rather be pounding sand. In that sense, this class is extremely difficult and the hardest class I've taken at Marshall because it is incredibly trying for my patience and silly. It's so hard to keep a straight face and take this class seriously because of how silly and half-baked the content is. Everyone hates this class and actively memes and jokes about it. I'd be willing to bet money to find one person who says anything positive about this class. The final project is a complete joke and completely ridiculous. If I took the concepts that this person is trying to "teach" into the real world, I would get laughed out of my job. This job teaches the opposite of leadership and I'd rather spend my time doing something productive, such as breathing, eating, sleeping, and most importantly, making money. Literally take ANYTHING else. Seriously, why is this class even a graduate course? This class would be good for undergraduates, but subpar even at that. Why is playing with legos or watching Bugs Life even relevant to anything? There is an exercise where we went through some "team contract" and watched the recording as well as "feedback" from another group. It was a complete joke and people treated it as such. Another class session was one of listening to some lady explain how to work on virtual teams. Anyone who lived through the past 4 years knows how to work on a virtual team, let alone a team. This class is for those with no work experience, perhaps a high school course? The professor also has misplaced priorities and does not build a good reputation with students. Worst class I've ever at Marshall and I'm generally very easy-going when it comes to feedback, but this is the one class I will die on a hill to provide negative feedback for.

Horrible Class/worst class I've taken, waste of time and tuition, it's an easy class with lots of busy work but I haven't learned anything useful from this class

This is a good "senioritis" class, the workload is super manageable (5 page paper for a 6 person team!) and a good class to take with friends looking for a fun blowoff class. But you will not learn anything at all. The lectures are boring and not very fruitful, and the guest speakers are hit or miss. Sometimes it feels like the professor treats her students like kindergarteners, which can get annoying. If you are looking for a more meaningful class experience and want to make use of your tuition dollars, I would not recommend taking this class. Take literally anything else instead.

Incredibly easy class that is full of personality quizzes and overcomplicated but easy assignments. Only take if you want a very chill class with friends but do not take if you really want to learn about leadership.

Absolutely a waste of time. This professor takes herself way too seriously and rubs students the wrong way. You'll watch bugs life in class and play with legos for 3 hours. Her assignment instructions sometimes are 2-3 pages long for a 1 page assignment. The guest speakers are not good. I'm sure there's good things to learn from the materials but it's hard to get over how the professor leads the class discussions. I'd avoid this class if you like to spend your money wisely.

This class is useless. We watched 45 minutes of a Bugs Life at one point. Take if you want ultimate fluff.

Tolan has a tendency to treat the class like an elementary school class - everything is extremely slow and she is a stickler for taking attendance and having cameras on if you want to Zoom (you also have to email her in advance if you want to Zoom into class). The workload is pretty minimal, but there are a lot of other classes that you can take if you want true classroom value. Feel free to take this class if you want an easier class/easier last semester.

Lightest workload imaginable. Paying for credits

Total fluff class. Time is predominantly spent in breakout discussions where the professor allots way more time than necessary. No need to read any of the assigned readings because they're never referenced in lecture and they're pretty common sense. The group assignments are a waste of time (write a paper about a team that failed, write a paper about a team that succeeded). Had higher hopes to get more out of this class.