Spring 2027

The Information Society

The Information Society examines the social, legal, and historical contexts of information technologies and explores the significant social, legal, and moral questions surrounding them.

offering recorded4 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Greg Downey4.0/5

Summary

1 / 5

Past student reviews · Greg Downey

Greg Downey's class required reading two 8- to 15-page articles weekly, plus one midterm and one final.

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Satisfied Communications A

  • Satisfied Communications A
LIS 201

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Satisfied Communications A

Professors

Spring 2027

Greg Downey

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.14/5 from 80 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

For this course: 3.7/5 raw quality · 2.5/5 difficulty · 15 reviews

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Past student reviews · Greg Downey

Greg Downey’s teaching was described as fair and engaging, though some students found the early material boring. Assessments varied by term, including options like one midterm and final, or one test, two papers, and a video project.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2012: 3.82 GPA, 92.3% A/AB (n=155 letter grades); Fall 2013: 3.73 GPA, 86.6% A/AB (n=149 letter grades); Fall 2014: 3.72 GPA, 84.6% A/AB (n=143 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Past student reviews · Jacob Thebault-Spieker

Students described Jacob Thebault-Spieker's past sections as engaging, noting that he made complex topics accessible and accommodated personal circumstances. The class involved regular reading and writing assignments, which some students found manageable and interesting despite the 8 a.m. lecture time. He was often praised for his approachability and passion for the material, making the coursework feel straightforward and enjoyable for many.

ALAN RUBEL is recorded teaching in Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2019. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

GREG DOWNEY is recorded teaching in Fall 2008, Fall 2009, Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2014. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JACOB THEBAULT-SPIEKER is recorded teaching in Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

KAJSA DALRYMPLE is recorded teaching in Fall 2024. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 1500
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 240
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 240
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 240
DIS 304Classroom Instruction0 / 240
DIS 305Classroom Instruction0 / 240
DIS 306Classroom Instruction0 / 240

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
Download part 1

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Greg Downey

Greg Downey taught LIS 201; students described the material as interesting, while one student called the work tedious and annoying.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.62 GPA, 86.5% A/AB (n=126 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.71 GPA, 87.9% A/AB (n=132 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.66 GPA, 86.0% A/AB (n=136 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Greg Downey

Greg Downey's class required reading two 8- to 15-page articles weekly, plus one midterm and one final.

Past student reviews · Greg Downey

One student found assignments hard to understand at times, but usually understood the intended idea by the deadline.

Topics

  • Social, legal, and historical contexts of information and information technologies.
  • Significant social, legal, and moral questions surrounding information technologies.

Skills

  • Examine social, legal, and historical contexts of information technologies.
  • Explore social, legal, and moral questions surrounding information technologies.

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

5 earlier forecasts · 0.11 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
LIS 201 · Spring 2027

The Information Society

Recorded 2026-10-29
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261029T213040-0fa85c20",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-29 21:30:40.248904+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:544:023086",
    "course_id": "LIS 201",
    "course_uid": "course_0f3c5b46df0c6f3e2fd183c1",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "023086",
    "source_subject_id": "544",
    "title": "The Information Society",
    "credits_min": 4,
    "credits_max": 4,
    "typically_offered": "Fall"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-29

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1Download part 2
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "0ab86011ea86a735cc76f4bb570b2b4eb3277fba08f3865e78a1b1bcee02c3f8",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "c9cd06eaa45f9ddf7e69faa38b89ff3d3dd995dd",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-29 21:30:40.248904+00:00"
}