TLDR: Maybe an easy (low) B. Lots of reading involved with short weekly current event write-ups. Two big exams that should not be taken lightly. Course should be called "Data Privacy Laws and Regulations".

I'll preface this by saying that I rated this course a 5 for difficulty purely to offset the other reports of it being very easy. This course may be easy for those that have a surplus of time to study for the midterm/final or those that are simply exceptional test takers. If you don't fit into those groups, you may want to rethink taking this course. I wouldn’t consider this one to be an easy A, maybe an easy B at best.

The midterm and final count for 30% and 40% of your final grade, respectively. The exams require HonorLock, where your entire exam process is recorded, including a mandatory recording of the room, your face/ID, etc (how ironic for a course about privacy). Regardless of the curve applied to the exams, you will need to read the textbook in its entirety and take notes. I studied for the final and scraped by with a low B. The guidance provided for the exams is minimal and, while the questions are multiple-choice, they are convoluted descriptions of hypothetical situations to which you have to apply your knowledge of consumer/healthcare/workplace/etc regulations and how/when they might preempt one-another or state laws. Don’t expect to skim the chapters for an easy B. The exams are definitely challenging. The other 30% of the final grade comes from absurdly simple 200-word essays that summarize a news article and provide an analysis relating to the week's coursework.

Beyond the grade structure, it's worth noting that the course description might not completely capture what this course is. Put plainly, this is a data privacy law course heavily geared towards the IAPP CIPP certification. The content is an interesting departure into an important niche of cybersecurity, but is comprised of memorizing and applying state/federal/international regulations.

Would I take this course again? Maybe. I can certainly see how the subject matter could be useful. Especially when pressing for increased funding to ensure regulatory compliance. Ultimately, I found the course very interesting but would have much preferred weekly quizzes rather than two exams that account for such a large portion of the final grade.