Fall 2026

Social Media for the Sciences

LSC 432 teaches social media communication and tools specific to scientific fields, including how to build a social media presence.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Fall 2026 Brianna Van Matre3.7/5Manzur Maswood

Summary

1 / 6

The course has moderate difficulty, but grading is tough and attendance is strictly enforced with only four skips allowed.

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 or graduate/professional standing

    • Communications A
    • graduate/professional standing
    take one
LSC 432

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

Prerequisite text tree
  • Any of
    • Communications A
    • graduate/professional standing

Professors

Fall 2026
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.00/5 from 2 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: 4.0/5 raw quality · 3.0/5 difficulty · 1 reviews

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

Brianna Van Matre is described as a good professor who is also a tough grader. She enforces a strict attendance policy where students are allowed only four skips.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2025: 3.51 GPA, 79.8% A/AB (n=89 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Historical reviews of dexter patterson: Dexter Patterson is consistently praised as an engaging and caring instructor who delivers clear, interesting lectures. Reviewers highlight his respect for students and recommend his classes, particularly for those in Digital Studies, marketing, or life sciences.

BRIANNA VAN MATRE is recorded teaching in Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

DEXTER PATTERSON 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

Fall 2026

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction51 / 800

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

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Brianna Van Matre is a good professor who requires attendance, though she is a tough grader.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.75 GPA, 89.2% A/AB (n=93 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.95 GPA, 97.5% A/AB (n=81 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.51 GPA, 79.8% A/AB (n=89 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

The course has moderate difficulty, but grading is tough and attendance is strictly enforced with only four skips allowed.

Students find the professor good but must manage the strict attendance policy and challenging grading standards.

Topics

  • Readings from peer-reviewed papers, marketing, business, and communication journals

Skills

  • Building a social media presence
  • Social media communication and tools for scientific fields

Grades

Historical instructor

Fall 2026 · 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.

6 earlier forecasts · 0.16 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Fall 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Fall 2025 · 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

1320 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.

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Selected offering source records
LSC 432 · Fall 2026

Social Media for the Sciences

Recorded 2026-09-07
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20260907T155543-ce3781c4",
    "semester": "1272",
    "observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1272:120:023659",
    "course_id": "LSC 432",
    "course_uid": "course_713c792701f409fe129a1720",
    "term_id": "1272",
    "source_course_id": "023659",
    "source_subject_id": "120",
    "title": "Social Media for the Sciences",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Spring"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-09-07

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4",
  "model_revision": "1355db6a052410cfd62085d94b58866fd0f2c3c5",
  "task_version": "14",
  "output_id": "e72eec673523e087629efbf51a7c4c8e5e40c2b79ac119e822ad530d0f5deada",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
  "observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00"
}