Joel Nicholson

I took a few courses with Joel after my first course at SFSU. His classes were so much fun and informative,so that I decided to change my major all together from Finance major to an IBUS major. Then I became his TA and had the pleasure of assiting him. He is by far the best professor I have ever had. He knows many different languages and knows a lot about different cultures. He is very fair in his classes, if you study you do well!

It's been almost 3 years now, since I graduated from SFSU, but he is still my friend, mentor and professor!

I recommend him to everyone to take him and enjoy his class. Good Luck.

I took his class online and was very interesting and easy class, however I think it is very helpful to read the book because the final is cumulative and if you didn't read the book you will not get a good grade.

All the quizes are timed, but they are open book, because you do them online.

The only time you have to come in and take a test without the book, is for the final.

I really recommend this teacher.

He is an easy going professor and easy professor. I took it during summer session and it was not difficult.

His exams are straight forward and simple. Multiple choice. Straight from the book, rarely anything from his lectures which makes it unimportant to attend classes. I fell asleep during his class every session because his lectures are boring.

There was 5 NAFTA survey that was worth 10% of our grade. It was very simple, just get 5 people to fill out a 15 minute survey and easy 10% of grade.

Joel is a great professor. His lectures are a bit dry but he does his best to spice them up. The class is fairly easy. Read the book because thats where all his test questions come from. The CD that comes with the book has sample questions on it and he usually puts a few from there on the tests. Personality wise hes extremely kind and very understanding.

He is a nice person and a fair grader. The tests are straightforward from the textbook. The textbook is expensive but if you are taking his class it is worth it to buy the book. There are a lot of reading as you have to flip each pages in order to do well in the test, but the reading and case studies are interesting and you will learn a lot!!! No homework!

Great professor. Very smart. Fair grader. He knows how to create a classroom atmosphere that's conducive to participation - but at the same time is not afraid to lecture (don't worry, he keeps it interesting!). He's the kind of professor that does such a good job in class that you don't have to work as hard outside of the classroom... he makes the material memorable. Great class to take during the summer too - there's a lot of reading but other than that not a single complaint. Take this class from Papa Joel! I am about to graduate and I would have to say that he is one of the top 5 professors that I have had in the program.

I had this class and found it super enjoyable. Dr. Nicholson's class was fun and he was so intune with other cultures.

I took "Papa Joel's" class during the Summer '00 semester. As such, the class was squeezed into a few weeks with very long class hours. I feel that this is very important to point out as the summer schedule surely changes all aspects of the class schedule.

I can easily credit Nicholson for his friendly manner and jovial attitude. During the first week of class he took the time to learn every student's name -- an effort that I always appreciate.

Unfortunately, we received minimal lecture time from Nicholson. Instead we were subjected to a sequence of films, one after another, during class hours. Outside of class hours we were required to read a tremendous number of pages from the text book, and the brief spoken lectures rarely served to indicate the key areas that should be focused on in the text.

Due to the summer schedule of the class there were just two exams. The entire class grade was a result of their average score. In this regard, fewer films, and more lecture would have been much more helpful.

Nicholson made thorough use of his web page, multimedia, and his good personality well during the class. My only complaint was that he relied too heavily on the "media" rather than actually "teaching" the class.

Nicholson is a pretty good teacher. His format is fairly straightforward. He makes the class a bit better with his levity. However,the class is in a theater,it's dark, and it's early in the morning.If you can't wake up in the morning; you'll probably be asleep halfway through the class.In response to the comment made on readings, hey buddy! Wake up! This is college and this is probably one of the lighter loads of reading that you will have to do. You can pass the class easily if you read the book. I aced the first exam in 20 minutes and I showed up for class about 3 times before.

I believe the instructor loves teaching and knows his subject very well. However, in my case I did not get too much help from him when I needed it. He was always very busy and did not really try to make time to meet with students. His answers to my questions were very brief and he made me feel uncomfortable coming to his office after a couple of times. His lectures though were very interesting and he was always perpared. I did not like the format of the exams. They covered too many chapters, but the time limit was unreasonably short. I think his interpersonal skills are weak. Overall he was not a bad instructor, but I would think twice before I recommend him to my friends.

Joel Nicholsen is a fair and good teacher. I enjoyed his class very much, and was able to learn a great deal about International Business. His exams are fair and based squarely upon what has been previously discussed and presented. I would recommend this teacher for the particular subject, and would assume that his teaching style lends itself particularly well to more advanced courses in the area of I-Business. As far as personality goes, he is a jovial person. While serious in his teaching responsibilities, "Joel" as people call him is unpretentious and very down to earth. This means that if you are not a flake, you will have no problems talking to him if you are having difficulty in the class.