Stanko, Taryn  

Great teacher!! People say 387 was SUPER easy for other teachers to the point of not learning anything, but I felt that I learned a lot from Stanko and put in decent effort without feeling over burdened. She's super passionate, a great speaker, really organized. Balanced class lectures with some short videos, interactive team activities where you could get major EC points on exams. As long as you read the book and reviewed her powerpoint slides, you did fine. She genuinely cares about students so she took our mid quarter feedback very seriously and implemented changes like adding a group component to the final, enacting a FOOD BREAK during class where teams would sign up to bring food (and could eat the food when other teams brought food) if they wanted to participate in it (I never went hungry during class again!) We did interesting case studies every other lecture just reading articles and having a class discussion on them. Weekly quizzes were hard at first but she adjusted to make them easier for us, and even included EC on them after our feedback. Our final project made us interview a few indidvudals from a company of our choosing and apply concepts from 1 chapter of the book to the interview. We had to write a 7 page paper double spaced, but it was really easy and she had intermediary deadlines we could follow IF we wanted to and it really helped. GREAT teacher, worth taking.

Professor Stanko's Org Behavior class was tolerable, and even enjoyable at times. She is engaging and full of energy. There is typically one activity per week, which were fun and inspired learning. However, there were mistakes made with more than one activity that genuinely affected the quality of the lesson. The lectures did not seem to prepare us for the exams, as the first two midterms were rather difficult even with studying and attending every class. The wording of the questions seemed to be structured in a manner that made the tests more difficult. The project was loosely described, but she also gave plenty of room for creativity and originality. Class discussions seemed to be a bit moderated, leaving quite a bit on the table imo. She may be the better choice for this course right now, and I do believe she will become an even more effective educator over time.

Professor Stanko is very passionate and shows this throughout each lecture. She really helps students understand the material. Each class is about half lecture half group activity. There are weekly quizzes and 2 big exams. I really enjoy her class, even though I am not interested in the subject, because she has a great personality. The final assignment is to write a paper about a leadership project she assigns everyone, but it's not hard at all.

This was one of the most engaging classes at Cal Poly. The lessons I have learned in this class I will take with me for the rest of my life. I would highly recommend Taryn!! She is always prepared, ends every class with a life lesson and truly cares about pushing you to become the best negotiator. This class requires weekly reading which correlated with the negotiation simulations we did in class. We aren't allowed to talk about specific simulations, but the idea is to get experience in difference situations, some based on true stories. The simulations will usually come with a document you read in preparation. Take the time to read and prepare, it's worth it. There was a midterm, final and two papers. That may be subject to change since the class is still in development. Just go over the study guide and you will be fine.

I came into this class hoping to have fun, but overall just found stress and a huge sum of money leaving my pocket. Professor Stanko seems to think it is ok that students spend $300+ on materials for her class, and does not realize how much stress each negotiation is for her class. People took things personally often. She never was clear about rubrics or what she is looking for in her planning documents, and expects an outrageous 2 hours of reading every night for the first half of the quarter. For a support class, I was very disappointed in it. Also exams are half group and half individual, she loves trick questions and to make things unclear on purpose.

I took this class to fulfill a concentration elective credit. At first the class was pretty interesting and entertaining- we do a lot of in-class practice negotiations, or "simulations." Most of the time spent in class is negotiating, and then debriefing and discussing the negotiation. There are two papers that aren't too bad, but A LOT of reading. And she hardly goes over any of the reading but still expects you to know all of it for the tests. The negotiations also require a lot of planning, some of the students are really aggressive. No group projects, 2 midterms, no final, but still plenty of work. Stanko is very nice and approachable.

BEST CLASS I'VE HAD AT POLY. Dr. Stanko is amazing. She is engaging and works super hard on the back end to make her students successful. Take this class no matter what major you are.

The class was quite interesting. Said before, every week you will participate in a negotiation either individually or group. The planning document is due before class begins. There are debrief after every negotiation and these are important because it can be on the midterms (not a significant majority). There are surveys we did at the end for the negotiations in class especially with group. She grades one randomly for midterm 1 and midterm 2 so do put some effort to it. In the beginning of the quarter, she did talk about a few readings. However, after the first midterm she did not really go over much of the readings. She only posted grades on polylearn for midterm 1 and a few other assignments. She never posted grades for the final, the 2 papers you had to write etc. Not sure how our grade is calculated but I only saw it on polyprofile. There are technically 2 papers to write for this class. One is for your "Collecting Nos" Assignment. It seem generally a lot of people did pretty good on this assignment as long as you did the assignment and provide a decent analysis. The other paper is split into two parts - an analysis on a negotiation you conduct (discussed in the beginning of class) and an analysis on your learning experience in the class. For the negotiation you will be doing, you need to fill out a planning document and write an analysis about it afterwards. She's very lenient on change of what you choose as long as you let her know. I have no idea how I did on the second paper because no grades were posted. Also, a lot of assignments are due on PolyLearn so you do not have to print out anything to turn in. The two midterms were fair, but definitely not easy. I suggest reading thoroughly into the readings. The material on the test is not surface; it is more in-depth. She also has short answers on the midterms, which generally aren't as bad as the multiple choice. One of the short answers is listing a few problems and positions and interests for both sides along with BATNAs or Alternatives. She doesn't pass back the exam in class so you don't know what you got wrong unless you go to her office hours. If she doesn't provide a study guide, make sure to ask! Even though it's not the most helpful guide, at least it will you give you some guidance and make you read. No group projects. Do not have to show up on finals day. Midterm 2 is the last day of class. Final Paper due on finals day online. Also, there's 2% extra credit available. They are to find a video about a negotiation concept and write a brief paragraph analysis on it. Nothing hard. I recommend it because it can definitely help your grade after you take your first midterm. You might want it..just saying. It honestly wasn't that hard. She's not looking for a whole essay after all.

Professor Stanko is hands down the best professor I have ever had at Cal Poly, and her Negotiation course has been the one of the most interesting, well-taught, and educational classes I have ever taken. Professor Stanko is truly passionate about what she teaches and is the most qualified instructor to teach this course. The course consisted of several scenario negotiations that applies directly to what many people will have to face in their lifetime (ex: selling/buying a used car and negotiating your salary). Stanko also structures the grading in her class in a very fair way; she grades on participation, planning documents (your strategy of going about a negotiation which is due before each negotiation), 2 exams (based off of mostly readings/takeaways from negotiations/in-class discussions), a final project (which is basically your takeaways from going through a real-life negotiation), and some smaller assignments with opportunities to submit extra credit as well. Professor Stanko also brought in snacks and drinks for one of the negotiations and the last exam!!! She is seriously so amazing and you will not regret taking her class. Just be prepared for a reasonable amount of work and preparation, but trust me it's all worth it! You will love Stanko and the class because it will give you confidence in negotiating practically ANYTHING. BTW took her Fall quarter and around Christmas she suggested students to wear ugly Christmas sweaters/Christmas socks to our last exam and she even handed out a few Christmas socks to the students who didn't have anything! Thanks for the dino socks Professor Stanko :D She is just an amazing instructor/person and the course will only benefit your life so do yourself a favor and register for her class!!! Boom.

Dr. Stanko is an amazing amazing professor! Every day she goes above and beyond to make her classes interesting and engaging. You make lots of friends and do many individual and group negotiations. Dr. Stanko is nice, very approachable, and genuinely seems like a great person. However, don't be fooled by all the fun you have in class and her "niceness". This class is NOT easy whatsoever. The class in split into essentially in class negotiations, 2 midterms, and a project. You are responsible for all of the, very detailed, readings (The reading material is not gone over in class much so you must review it on your own) If you fall too behind in the readings, you're essentially screwed, they are a HUGE part of the midterms. On top of the readings, you have to prepare for in-class negotiations, individually or in groups. They are lots of fun however they can be very very detailed, and extremely time-consuming, especially towards the end of the quarter. The final project is either to do an actual negotiation and write about it or come up with your own negotiation simulation. Both must be extremely detailed and require weeks of preparation. If you want to learn how to negotiate, this class is for you. I really loved this class. Every day I looked forward to it! But at the same time, there are weeks during the quarter where the workload was insane ( Multiple heavy readings, multiple group negotiations while at the same time preparing for future negotiations, and a midterm) all within a week or so. I want to emphasize that I learned a heck of a lot but I wish I would have known how intense this class would be. It's really hard to tell what you're getting into at the beginning of the quarter. I feel that I would have learned a lot more and enjoyed the class even more without all of the extra “busy work” Dr. Stanko throws at you.

I wish I would have known how HARD this class would be before taking it. I would recommend taking it Pass/Fail. I thought that Prof. Stanko did a great job preparing activities for each class and emphasizing the importance of being in class every single session. However, for an ELECTIVE course there is no reason why the heavy reading based exams should be so in depth. We spend most of our time preparing and conducting complex negotiations and little time if any going over any of the readings. This is Cal Poly we learn by doing, not learn by reading a chapter and taking a test. More emphasis (percent of our grade) should be based on our participation rather than the readings. I would not recommend this course in the future because the level of difficulty is much higher than what an ELECTIVE course should be. All Prof. Stanko needs to do is lighten up on the reading material/Exams & have more of our grade be dependent on the "doing" (in class participation and negotiations) portion and the class would be 1000x better.

One of the best classes I've taken at Cal Poly. I learned a lot about other people and myself from the negotiations. She assigns a good amount of reading, but I wouldn't say it's more than necessary. The first half of the quarter focuses on one on one or two on one negotiations, and then the last half focuses on group negotiations with up to 7 people on each team. There are two tests (one in week 5 and the other in week 10) and a final paper due during finals week on PolyLearn. There is also a small assignment due in week 7. I would highly recommend this class. Professor Stanko is so sweet and truly cares about her students.

Best class I took at Cal Poly. Professor Stanko truly cares about her students and wants them to succeed. She will challenge you, and every student leaves her class a better negotiator.