Doan, Alesha  

she is a horrible, self-righteous bitch. I bet she wrote all those reviews herself. I dont see why ANYONE would like this (5-letter word)

Okay, so this class is an independent study class, so we only met once at the beginning of the year. I'm not sure what she's like as a teacher, but here's how the test went. About 2/3 multiple choice, with questions that were not even mentioned in the book--that sucked the most. The 1/3 is short answer: we're given three options, write about two. The questions came directly from the Recall book (the smaller, blue one). Take it if you want, I did particularly like the test, but I passed, and I only read, highlighted in the texts, and studied them prior to the exam, but making outlines of the important information would have been good, I just procrastinated. Try not to procrastinate--even though it's really hard--and I'm sure you'll do fine on the test.

wow

Dr. Doan has her heart in the right place, I think, but she is way to biased to be a really good teacher. She presents things that are so one-sided you cannot do anything but question her reliability. I am a complete liberal, but Doan goes way, way beyond that term. She is so set in her ways I don't really think she would even bother to hear an opinion outside her narrow scope of thinking. I personally feel this is a poor way of teaching a critical thinking class. On the other hand she is funny and the lectures are not bad. Be prepared to read a ton of handouts that are often very boring and again, totally one-sided.

Funny, smart, very biased. Only looks at one side of the story. Thinks her way is right and no other way is. Who knows, maybe she is right? But it can't help to look at the other side of teh story and present that as well, right? Makes a better argument and a better teacher.

Limbaugh fans beware: this woman is left of center, and it shows. Now, I consider myself fairly liberal, but I understand that there are two sides of every argument. However, Dr. Doan made it clear that her beliefs were her beliefs and presented many valid arguments for them. I know that many people can easily make a claim that she is anti-right or some kind of a Fem-nazi or the like, but consider for one moment the title of the class. I'm pretty sure that this is a class that would be difficult to teach with an unbiased perspective. As for the class, it was pretty managable. A midterm, final, personal project or paper (which has the opportunity to give students a chance to make an impact on our community) and group discussions. Where she lacks in presenting the conservative argument, the group discussions can just as easily step in. She is also a very personable, approachable, and downright nice and fun lady who has a deep understanding for the "college" experience. The lectures themselves were also very intersting and the reading was as well. If you are intersted in the plight of marginalized groups at all, I would strongly reccomend this class. If you are just interested in an easy GE, this can still be worth it, but just beware that you will hear a lot of controversial subject matter that will challenge you to think about our society critically. Overall, a great class.

Anyone who is not required to take this class, don't take it. I've never felt like I was wasting more time than with this pointless class. All you do is read biased articles about why men and conservatives are evil and then she blasts you on midterms on books you didn't even go over in class. Lectures are completely useless, even though she does her best to bring humor to the class. I took this class because she had such a high polyrating, but I recommend to avoid her unless you absolutely have to, or you are a liberal woman who wants to be a teacher's favorite.

Prof. Doan is another classic POLS professor. Slanted. She has a left bias on just about everything and it comes out clearly in class. Her lectures are interesting, and you do get a few facts in amongst the opinions. She does a good job at letting the students speak, but is quick to defend against any 'contrary' remarks. It is sad when you have to answer questions on her tests in the way that 'she would want them answered'. So much for objectivity.

Professor Doan is a dream come true in student professor relations. POLS 360 is a lame class otherwise but Doan makes the best of a bad situation. I've had her for two other classes and she absolutely shines in them. First off, she is closer to our age and this helps create a closer relationship because she'll actually talk about being drunk on the weekends, boyfriends, or lame professors. Two, she gets you the most informative and interesting part of each lecture. Three, she's so accessible. You can email her, meet with her, stop her in the halls, she's always willing to help you. Four, every class she teaches she offers extra credit and helps you as much as she can to get you to do it. Five, she is a great emailer. She goes beyond her job of helping you with her course work and tries to get you involved in events around the school and worldwide. Overall I would say she is the best teacher I've ever had here at poly. Please guys, if you've just had her for 360, get her for one of her other classes. She is great. But if you have to take 360 as all political science people do, take it with her. It makes the whole process a whole lot less painful.

Probably the best POLS professor at Cal Poly. She actually made the statistical information in 360 enjoyable. Your grade comes from a couple of tests, weekly labs, and a group project (you get to pick your group). HIGHLY recommended.

Dr.Doan was worth using a Priority for. She has a great personality and sense of humor that took a dry topic and made it interesting. She also uses contemporary examples/issues in her lectures which all students can relate to.The only weakness in the course was that in many cases lab was led by TA's who weren't always able to answer our questions, but Doan would always answer them on the next class day. There is a lot of homework(lab assignments each week) which are a pain but necessary if you want to learn the material/procedures. I recommend you practice with the SPSS program OFTEN in the reserve room between classes.There is a group assignment that, if done right, will be as big as a senior project and will definately prepare you for your senior project later on. Add'l advice: Get started on the group assignment ASAP and take advantage of extra credit opportunities. ATTEND CLASS and take lots of notes because very little of what you learn is covered in the text! It's a hard class, but its because of the content, not the teacher. Doan will be available to you if you're struggling, which is better than some other instructors who take the "oh well" attitude. Doan is a great professor !

Dr. Doan is an amazing teacher!!! She made statistics fun. Dr. Doan understands that statistics are challenging and she breaks them down into chunks of information that are easy to absorb. Dr. Doan is one of the best professors I've ever had. If you don't understand something she'll explain it to you in a different way. I always felt comfortable asking her questions because she really respects her students and is never condescending. Seeing the positive impact that Dr. Doan has on her students has actually made me think that I might want to become a professor. Take her classes!

Her class was by far the MOST ENJOYABLE poly sci class I've taken in four years here. Professor Doan is a FANTASTIC teacher who makes the lectures interesting and easy to understand, and makes her students look forward to class. I dreaded taking POLS 360 for years--I never could have imagined that I would actually enjoy and look forward to it! You can tell Professor Doan cares about her students and wants to make the class as fun as possible. She doesn't ask you to memorize long formulas; she just wants you to understand how they are applied to statistical analysis. And she makes sure that she explains everything thoroughly, so that everyone understands the process before we move on. She is definitely THE BEST poly sci teacher at Cal Poly; possibly the best teacher period. She's very smart, nice, funny as hell, good at explaining things, and a sports fan! (Everything you could possibly want in a teacher.) You know how there are some teachers who you like, but you could understand why someone else might have a problem with them? Well this is not one of those teachers---I can't even imagine anyone NOT liking this teacher. She is AWESOME. If you have to take POLS 360 or any other class she happens to be teacher, try to get Professor Doan. Use a priority if you have to--it will be worth it.

Good god, Doan is awesome. By far, the best teacher I've ever had here at Poly. She's completely accessible, chill as hell, and actually cares about you doing well in her course. She is so internet and email savvy that you never have a question go unanswered for more than five hours, even if its the middle of the night. There is nothing bad at all to be said about this woman. If you can't get an A in her class, which isn't a cakewalk but actually challenging, then you can't make it as a college student. She gives you everything a professor should and more. Take her and avoid the rest of the dreck of the Poli Sci Dept. Take her! You'll be more than happy you did.

Best damn teacher ever at Cal Poly. No question. I have probably had fifty different teachers in four years at this school and not one has come close to Professor Doan. (Especially in the political science department! Those people as a group just cannot teach!) Now Professor Doan's nice, smart, funny, and she sure as hell knows how to teach. A lot of teachers are smart but just can't convey the material in such a way that students actually understand. Professor Doan knows how to do this, and isn't that the most important part of teaching? She not only made very difficult material easy to understand, but she also made a very (VERY!) dull class (statistics, applied to political science--could it get any worse??) so enjoyable that I never missed a class. We had two lectures and one lab every week. Now normally, if I have a class three times a week, I go to it about once every two weeks. For once I actually wanted to come to class. I wanted to try to get an A so I could show that this class was important to me. I did get an A and the class was not easy. It was a lot of hard work. We had a lab assignment due every week and a major group project that ended the last week of the quarter with a 25 or so page paper due and a 20 minute presentation by our group. Don't let this discourage you from taking the class. It ended up not being that bad and the opportunity to take a class taught by Doan far outweighs the burden of one group project. She gives a midterm and a final (both are in the lab, application and short answer) and each is worth 25% of your grade. The project is 25% and the lab assignments are combined for 25%. She doesn't test on extraneous material--like she doesn't make you memorize stupid shit like how do do the formula for a slope. She just wants you to be able to understand and analyze things. I could go on and on about what is good about this teacher. Just take her class--anything she's teaching, do yourself a favor and register for it. You'll be glad you did.

I really can't imagine taking this class with anyone else. She presents a boring subject in an accessible manner, creates less pressure through making everything worth 25% of the grade (2 tests, one project, and weekly labs) and offered extra credit opportunities which amounted to about plus 3 percent of the TOTAL grade! She's fun, witty, understands students, and all around perfect for the class. TRY TO GET HER!!!!!

Dr. Doan is a fine instructor. The class was not challenging, and she was an incredibly fair grader. She succeeds in insuring that any student can excel in this class. As far as the abundance of comments about her "liberal" views, what do they expect when taking a class on the politics of ethnicity and gender? We do live within constructs of institutionalized racism and sexism; if you don

Doan is incredible. Easily top poly sci teacher at Poly, probably one of the top teachers of any department at Poly.

Far and away the best POLS prof at Poly. She is awesome and a teacher you want to get to know well. She is highly active in student activities and clubs and really understands everything we're going through. She is flexible if you are having problems and genuinely cares about you. Even if your politics falls outside of hers she will respect your opinion and way of thinking and she does a great job of giving unbiased, factual information. She is a true scientist of politics and is not bad too look at either.

Dr Doan rocks my world!!! amazing professor. she is one of the best professors i have had ever! she is totally willing to help outside of class and she presented 360 material in an interesting manner. it is basically stats for political science students so i was completely dreading this course. i am glad i had it with her!

Professor Doan is the best teacher I have taken at Cal Poly. I looked forward to attending her class and the two hours went by quickly. There is a lot of reading for this course but it is all incredibly interesting. She gives two midterms and a choice between a research paper and a research project. You will learn a lot through the tests and research assignments. I learned something new every class period. Alesha has a great sense of humor and she relates to young people really well. She reminded me of what it was like to be excited to learn.

Doan is so great. I took 360 and 457 with her and both were really cool (and 360 is basically statistics disguised as poly sci so imagine how good she must be if she can make that stuff interesting). She is really nice and funny and her lectures always go by quickly. Doan is the ONLY good poly sci teacher I've had since I came to poly. And I've been here since 2000. If you are taking 457, don't be put off by the first day or two where it's basically Feminism 101. It gets so much better. We read really interesting articles and had great discussions in class. Her tests are straight essay so they're easy to do as long as you've come to class and paid attention. There's a huge research paper, but you can opt to do a project instead, which is really cool if you have the time to put into it. And don't take 360 with anyone but Doan. She is so good at explaining everything so it makes sense. Take her classes if you can.

Doan is amazing. she made feminism convincing to a guy nicknamed 'the bull.'

Taking this instructor is like being in a Twilight Zone episode. You just can