Privacy for Professionals

I enjoyed this class and felt that most of the material was practical for my current corporate management role. The ripped from the headlines articles were easy and interesting to me. I enjoyed the lecture videos and interacting with the professors. The TAs were generally fair and constructive. The weekly workload is fairly low, but I spent about 20 hours studying for each of the exams, including reviewing lectures and building matrices for groups of laws like state breach notification requirements, as this is primarily a privacy law class. Overall I felt it was it was a good class, but worst part if the level of detail you need to learn to do well on the exams.

Overall I think I was kind of disappointed with this class.

• weekly essays, ripped from the headlines were kinda fun. They were trivial and easy to get 100% on
• I personally didn't find the content to be interesting and am kind of surprised its a popular class. A more apt name for this class should be "Privacy Law for Professionals" -- privacy is a diverse field of which the law is only one aspect of. Memorizing various factoids like how much a company can be fined in California vs Utah for a privacy violation is not mentally stimulating to me. Specifically since by the time I'll ever need this info, it'll be out of date and superseded by some other new law.
• Exams were brutal. Contrary to what the TAs will tell you, you basically need to memorize the slide deck. They will expect you to have a large variety of factoids memorized, like how much revenue and/or records a company must hit to be considered covered by xyz law.
• If you don't have said factoids memorized, you'll struggle more on certain exam questions. I thought the questions were pretty good and thought provoking (which should be to the goal of a masters program). Perhaps a 1 page crib sheet as a reference would make the exam better and more representative of reference resources a professional has at their disposal.
• Exam curve was generous to make up for how hard the exam is.
• No guidance on how to prep for the exam, aside from learn "everything, including the 2020 textbook and some of the 2023 textbook"
• Speaking of which for this semester the combination of the 2023 lectures, 2020 text book, and 2023 textbook was confusing to say the least, and instructor explanations did not clarify what was really expected.
• I hate it when professors require reading from their textbooks -- huge conflict of interest.
• I did like how the class covered interactions between laws. I used to work in healthcare so I had a good understanding of the HIPAA privacy rule, but most HIPAA resources I learned from don't really touch preemption beyond that its a thing you should think about and pay a lawyer to do.
• Grading was really fast, a rare thing in OMS.
• Course instructors/TAs are top notch. Professors are involved with office hours and seems like a legit good people.

The homework was pretty easily but the exams were very brutal. Based on previous reviews he used to curve pretty generously before but that is no longer the case. He still does curve but no longer massively.

The Summer 2022 class distribution was as follows:

A: 49 B: 53 Cs and Below: 11

Overall, the class material was interesting but the exams were quite brutal. If you are looking for an easy A, I do not recommend this class, only because of the exams and the weight they have for the grade.

I enjoyed Privacy for Professionals. The information was presented in a clear manner, and happened to be directly relevant to my work. If I was going to take the CIPP/US exam, this would be a good preparation course. The Ripped from the Headlines summaries were not overly difficult as long as you follow the format; get a Word template together to make sure you don't forget anything. The IAPP's website is a good source of articles for summarization, and the keywords they index on are often aligned with the course modules.

Midterm and Final were both largely scenario based - given a situation, which of the following scenarios would apply based on the laws we've discussed? Often, it would end some question like "Is this allowed?" and options of yes, because law 1, yes, because of law 2, no, because of law 1, no because of law 2.

Rather a lot happened in the US privacy landscape during the course of the semester; these were touched on in the office hours but exams were based on the state of the law as of the beginning of the semester.

If your company is an IAPP member, you may be eligible for a corporate membership; this gives you access to a discount on the book.

Overall this was a pretty easy class, the professors were good and the content was good. What I didn't enjoy was the way the grading was laid out. You do a weekly assignment called ripped from the headlines that is basically a gimme 100, especially with the extra credit. However, the only other two pieces for your grade are the mid term and the final. This wouldn't be so bad if there was some guidance on how the mid term and final work, but it is just everything in the book and lectures is fair game... This was frustrating because I got a 75 on the mid term and there was no other way to pull my grade up except the final. I got a B overall and I am happy with it. I just wish there was more of a breakdown for the grading.

Both an interesting and easy class. The workload is pretty light and consists of some lectures, reading, and then a small weekly essay. The material is pretty interesting and the professor does a good job at tying current events into the lesson. The mid term and final are average difficulty -- but mostly due to the vague multiple choice answers and not the difficulty of the actual material. Little guidance is given on the exams, which make up 70% of the total grade, and the multiple choice answers can be like: A, B, C, A & B, A & C, All of the Above, None of the Above --- and A, B, and C are all partially right but one is more right than the other. The exam answers can definitely be refined.

To top it off, the textbook is the book for the IAPP CIPP certification, so at the end of the course you are well positioned to take the CIPP exam.

Full Disclosure.. I fully anticipate that I will get an A from this class. There are no sour grapes in this review. I am simply trying to provide honest feedback as to what to expect.

If you are looking for an easy A with minimal work, this is the class for you. I took this class for this reason, and this aspect was as expected. What I didn’t expect was the reason for the easy A with little or no effort. I thought maybe the content would be light, and that it was fairly easy to prepare and take the exams.

This is the bottom line for this class: The HWs make up 30% of the grade. They are 10 min assignments. They are a JOKE. Basically, you start the course with 30% of your grade at 100% for 10 mins a week of work.

The material in the lectures covers a TON of ground at an extremely thin level. It is basically a light recap of the chapters in the book that the professor wrote.

The exams are ridiculous for a variety of reasons. First, there is absolutely no guidance on the material to be covered. The guidance is “All”. Since the lecture material is so vast and there is nothing emphasized, it’s impossible to properly study for. There’s simply way too much material to memorize. Secondly, the structure of the exams is subjective. All questions are in the A, B, C, A and B, B and C, all of the above, none of the above structure. They are incredibly confusing.. And, unlike other classes where questions are refined and harvested out due to student feedback (during post exam review sessions), the professor has decided that the exam results will remain hidden. You do not know what you missed, what you got correct, or the rationale behind the correct answers. They basically made the conscious decision of “that whole piece of learning, let’s just throw that out.” This compounded into the final, as it was 20% cumulative, and you didn’t have the midterm to prepare for the final. The result was a low C average grade for the exams.

So, why is the average grade for this class so high? As mentioned, you start with 30% of your grade at 100% (if you put in 10 mins of work on the HWs). Plus, you get extra credit for your HWs (just to ensure the 100%) by simply posting 5 seconds about yourself on Piazza at the start of the class. Add in HUGE (I mean HUGE) generous curves on the exams.. Plus, an extra credit opportunity for your Midterm by simply turning in an additional 10 min HW.

Essentially, this class is a cake walk.. Tons and Tons of thin level material. Easy HWs. Confusing and poorly scored exams. And then the application of easy extra credit and a massive curve to make up for the reality that students sh*t the bed during the exams due to the half assed delivery.

Again, I consciously took this class for an easy way to knock off a class, and to pad the GPA. Unlike Data Analytics in Business (the worst class in this program), I wasn’t forced to take it as part of the required classes. It delivered as advertised on that aspect.. If you can get your mind to ignore how horribly it was structured (it was just a money grab class and a way to sell the Professor’s book), you’ll get through this class quickly and have it in the rear view mirror in no time.

This was a great course. I was not really looking forward to it because it did sound boring but I trusted everyone's opinion. I really learned a lot and will apply it on a daily basis. I think everyone should take this course!

The exams were tough, so do not skim on studying. The questions were all situational but all you need are the updated PowerPoint slides and you will do great. I spent usually 3 hours a week completing lectures and the weekly assignment. For the midterm and final, I spent about 12+ hours studying. I finished with an A.

Great course!!