Current instructor

Derek Johnson

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.63/5 from 43 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.

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

What students say

Original student reviews · all captured dates

CA313 · course not matched
Quality 4/5Difficulty 2/5
Professor Johnson was great! A lot of readings, but they are talked about in the lectures and referenced later on. Not a super strict grader and seemed to care about the subject.
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CA313 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 2/5
TAKE THE DISNEY CLASS!! I ended up learning so much, and it even prompted outside-class discussions with friends about race/class/capitalism related to Disney. In-lecture assignments, midterm and final are only grades, but you get all the potential exam questions in advance. Well-structured class with lots of reading, but SO fun and interesting!
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CA351 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
fair and overall good guy with interesting lectures
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CA351 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
My favorite professor in college. Took it for mandatory course & and workload is super stressful (if u read & watch things) throughout, took me around 8~9 hours per week in average and finished a 100 page of notes lol. Definitely recommend it him if you're interested the TV industry and culture in the U.S..
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CA351 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 5/5
DJ is the best lecturer that I have ever met. His lectures are logical and definitely worth to follow even if I hear a lot of complains about it. Take the lecture serious if you really want to learn something from the media & communication field.
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CA351 · course not matched
Quality 1/5Difficulty 3/5
Lecture slides are confusing not uploaded Write down a lot of the definitions in your notes because you will need to reference these definitions in your final paper. For the final paper pick a streaming service that mainly only has TV shows to write the paper correctly. Johnson did not even give mcburney accommodations to a student.
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with Derek Johnson

COMARTS 950

Seminar-radio Television Film

2–3 credits

A graduate seminar offering an advanced review and exploration of theoretical and methodological developments in media studies, radio, television, and film.

Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2020: 3.91 GPA, 90.9% A/AB (n=11 letter grades); Fall 2023: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=10 letter grades); Spring 2025: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=10 letter grades).

Derek JohnsonDiana Leon-Boys

historical GPA · grades

Fall 2022–Spring 2026

Recorded teaching history

Distinct courses recorded per term

Explore courses taught by this instructor →
Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Spring 2027COMARTS 682Senior Honors Thesis
Spring 2027COMARTS 799Independent Study
Spring 2027COMARTS 950Seminar-radio Television Film
Spring 2027COMARTS 990Research and Thesis
Fall 2026COMARTS 110Artificial Intelligence in Story and Screen
Fall 2026COMARTS 681Senior Honors Thesis
Fall 2026COMARTS 990Research and Thesis

Teaching history may be incomplete. Course pages contain course-specific feedback and citations.

Instructor identity & provenance 
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