SOC 100 ONL Syllabus
Introduction to Sociology
Spring 2018

Quick Reference

No one has ever taken the idea of society as artifact to the hilt.
—Roberto Unger

Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please...
—Karl Marx

Description/Objectives

Summary: This online introduction to sociology is a primarily self-directed course of study available to students using Moodle. Our course is divided into eight units, each of which is one week long. For each unit, students are expected to read various texts (understood broadly to include multimedia content) and to participate in several activities. The graded activities include quizzes, discussion forums, informal journal writing, and ongoing wiki construction. At the end of the course, each student will essay his/her reflections on the sociological imagination in a short paper. There is no final exam. Although most of the requirements for this course can be completed on an individual basis (and schedule), students are expected to participate actively in small-group discussion forums and should plan to login (almost) daily. It is possible (and advisable) to work ahead in this course, but there are milestones to meet (and other deadlines along the way) so it is also possible (and quite inadvisable) to fall behind.

Details about the course are provided in this Syllabus, which may be revised from time-to-time, as well as in the instructions accompanying various activities in Moodle, as well as in various Class Announcements made by the teachers. Questions about the course will be addressed through a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Forum in Moodle. Students should be prepared to be tested on the course requirements, and so should read this Syllabus carefully and keep current with teachers' postings to the Class Announcements and FAQ Forum.

Sociology?: This course is a survey of the field of sociology. The field overlaps significantly with all of the other social sciences/studies (e.g., anthropology, economics, geography, political science) as well as many of the humanities (e.g., history, philosophy) and some of the natural sciences (e.g., biology). The denizens of our field, in other words, are wont to trespass anywhere and everywhere. But we send word home, and we try to fit the pieces together as best we can. Signs (numbers and narratives and everything in-between) of the great unknown-getting-known are always circulating in the sociological discourse.

But the facts we come to know are not brute facts: They are social facts. They are facts with a history, facts that vary across societies with different histories. We may, as individuals, lead lives that are "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short" (Hobbes), but we needn't fetishize any state-of-nature. As we exercise our "sociological imaginations" (Mills), we learn to see historical/structural forces at work behind our apparently private troubles. We learn to see these troubles as public issues, as social problems that invite collective action. We may be stuck with (and by) gravity, and we may be the products of a natural selection "red in tooth and claw" (Tennyson), but we are not stuck reproducing our legacies of race and gender. The "historical construction of our world" (the subtitle of our textbook, Making Societies) is ongoing, contested, and contestable. We must be sober about our histories, and appreciate that race, class, and gender (among other variables) remain compelling realities for us, but throughout this course we will also listen to those who challenge our institutions and our common sense. Along the way, we'll hopefully find memes and institutions we want to keep, or maybe just tweak, as well as problems we need to face together.

This sociological discourse, like the world it questions and describes, is a field of many contested and shifting boundaries. We argue among ourselves about our readings of the world, and you will learn to argue with us. But these are not, or at least not always, arguments for winning. A discourse oriented towards mutual understanding benefits from critical interactions (i.e., arguments), but it also depends upon exercises in verstehen, taking the perspective of another—whether friend or stranger, whether here with us now or known to us only through strange signs from alien times and places. With practice you may find that some of your best arguments are with people long dead, and with luck you may find that they have changed your mind. Does that mean that they 'won'? Does it matter?

Many of the questions and arguments you encounter in this course come from professional sociologists and other scholars. But they are not the only inmates wondering and wandering through the field. Throughout our lives, we can learn much from the work of various public sociologists, too. They come in many guises, from novelists to film-makers to bloggers to activists to … you. The exercises and activities in this course provide you with the opportunity to show yourself and your fellow travellers how to move beyond the well-worn pathways that we all—all too often—take for granted.

Un/Learning Objectives: Broadly speaking, the learning objectives in this course are those of any liberal arts course in social studies:

As we go through this course, more specific learning objectives may be highlighted with respect to particular units, activities, or themes (e.g., in the Class Announcements).

One of the most important of our learning objectives might better be called unlearning. Many of you have been subjected, perhaps for your entire academic life, to regimes of high-stakes "teaching to the test." One of the exciting things about Moodle is that this open-source technology is being developed by a world-wide community of educators who are committed to active learning rather than rote memorization. Martin Dougiamas (2016), who started coding Moodle some years ago, lists five guiding concepts that inform his version of a "social constructionist" pedagogy:

  1. All of us are potential teachers as well as learners—in a true collaborative environment we are both.
  2. We learn particularly well from the act of creating or expressing something for others to see.
  3. We learn a lot by just observing the activity of our peers.
  4. By understanding the contexts of others, we can teach in a more transformational way (constructivism).
  5. A learning environment needs to be flexible and adaptable, so that it can quickly respond to the needs of the participants within it.

With a little luck, the activities of this course will be guided by such principles—and that's not just a matter of technology/course design, but also something that you construct as you interact this term with others. We can all start with the words of Abraham Lincoln, that great vampire-hunting fan of the Wyld Stallyns: "Be excellent to each other."

Requirements/Grading

This section of the Syllabus provides you with a summary description of the substantive requirements of the course, the types and schedule of activities in which students will be engaged, and the way that grades will be calculated. More detailed descriptions and instructions are provided in Moodle, and you are expected to read and follow those instructions carefully.

Please read this carefully and be confident that you are able to participate actively.

This is an eight-week intensive course, and students are expected to complete twice as much work per day in this course as they would on a typical day of a semester-long version of introductory sociology. In other words: This isn't a mini-course; it's a full semester of work compressed into one-half the number of days.

Students engage in some activities that recur in each unit, and other activities that occur only once in the course. These are described here, but further details are available in Moodle, either on the activities pages themselves, or in our Class Announcements, or in our FAQ Forum. Students who still have questions about the requirements of the course or the expectations of the teachers are encouraged to make use of office hours and the FAQ Forum.

You are responsible for integrating this course into your life. This has been designed to emphasize asynchronous communications: We can keep our communications going even if we're not online at the same time. The only times that you will need to worry about scheduling a 'meeting' time with others are:

Recurring Activities

Reading Rewards

There is substantial reading throughout the course. For most units, you are expected to read chapters from Roy (2001) as well as some additional materials. These readings (and viewings) are the focus of Reading Rewards quizzes on the Mondays that start the units, and are also relevant to your other activities. You have access to all of these readings throughout the entire course, and you really should read ahead. We use the term "readings" broadly here, to include "other mediations" like listenings and viewings as well.

Textbook/s: Our primary text is: Roy, William G. 2001. Making Societies: The Historical Construction of Our World. Pine Forge Press. Thousand Oaks, CA. ISBN: 0761986626. The shorthand we use for this is 'Roy (2001)'. (This is an example of an in-text [or parenthetical] citation using the author-date system of the Chicago Manual of Style. We will be using this author-date system throughout the course, and these parenthetical citations will become familiar to you.)

This should be available from either the Illini Union Bookstore (phone: 217.333.2050) or T.I.S. College Books (phone: 217.337.4900), among other places. A non-circulating copy of the textbook should be available at the undergraduate library reserves desk as well. Failure to get a copy of the textbook is no excuse for missing quizzes or assignments!

Streaming Video: We will also be watching some documentaries:

Links to these videos are provided in the References and Resources section of this Syllabus, as well as in Moodle. These documentaries are freely available as online streaming media, but students must authenticate (using their NetID and AD password) to view them. Please be sure that you have the most recent plugin of Adobe Flash Player for your browser.

Cinematic Sociology Film: You will also be expected to view a popular film and use it to illustrate sociological concepts in our Cinematic Sociology project (crafted in Moodle).

Other Texts (Online): Some other articles, chapters, videos, websites, etc. will be available online. There will be links to them from corresponding activities (e.g., Discussion Forums), as well as under the Texts tab on our course home page in Moodle.

For most of our units, the required readings should take about 8-10 hours of your time. If you find yourself taking substantially more or less time to complete the readings for a particular unit, make a note of it. You will be asked to estimate your average reading time in the final questionnaire of the course.

Please also jot down any ideas you have for additional/different readings for this class. You may get some ideas from these readings, or from other courses you've taken, or from some stroke of inspiration. You will be asked for all sorts of feedback on this course, and these ideas will be most welcome. There's no reason that a course can't get better and better for each new cohort of students, provided that prior cohorts are offering some constructive criticism along the way.

Students will complete quizzes that reward them for doing the required readings (viewings, etc.) carefully and on time. These quizzes may also test students on their knowledge of this Syllabus, or other rules-of-the-road for this course, so students would do well to read all the instructions for activities carefully, keep current with the Class Announcements, and make good use of the FAQ Forum.

Quizzes are open-note and open-book, but not open web and not open to consultation. You should not discuss the quiz with anyone while it is available. Quizzes will be available for several days before their due dates, and students may take a quiz at any time during that window, but once a student starts a quiz it must be completed within 90 minutes. This will be more than enough time if you have already done the readings. While the quiz is open-book, you will not have enough time to find all of the answers if you have not done the reading.

Quizzes will generally consist of multiple-choice and true-false questions that require the best answer to get credit. (This is what we might call an "In/Correct" rubric: You are familiar with it from years of practice, yes?) Sometimes there may be short answer questions, too.

Extensions are available for Reading Rewards quizzes, but only for valid and timely excuses.

Discussion Forums

At the heart of each unit are discussions among students regarding the themes and readings for the unit. The teachers will be lurking in these discussions, and may join-in from time-to-time, but mostly we will give students space to think out-loud and give each other constructive criticism. Students will be randomly assigned to small Discussion Groups of 8-12 students each, and will (probably) be engaged in discussions with the same group of people over the term of the course. (Depending upon the distribution of students dropping the course, we may need to consolidate or reorganize a group or two at some point over the term.)

For Units Two through Seven, each Discussion Forum will be structured around a series of questions that students should address with respect to the readings. Each student will be responsible for providing an initial post answering one such question, responding to the answers of some other students, and (with respect to some threads, at least) maintaining some give-and-take with other students throughout the course. (You will see more details about this, and it should become much clearer, once the Unit Two Discussion Forum opens.)

Students are expected to spend 6-8 hours per unit engaged in these online discussions: Reviewing relevant readings, reflecting upon them and composing your thoughts, reading the posts/replies of other participants in the discussion, etc. Keep track of how much time you are actually devoting to this task in a typical unit, because you will be asked to share that information with us in the final questionnaire about the course.

The Classwide Forum Greetings and Farewells are worth 10 points each, and the remaining forums are worth up to 15 points for each unit. This is partly a matter of posting an answer (a "host-post") early (i.e., on time), and partly a matter of posting often enough to keep some threads vibrant throughout the course. But it is also a matter of quality. We expect students to engage emphatically in these discussions, by which we mean both critical and cooperative interactions. The term "phatics" refers to those communicative practices that help to keep discussions going, that alert other participants that you are paying attention and are responsive to what they say. (Examples include nodding your head while someone is speaking, or saying "um-hmmm" while on the phone with someone.) In a way, a phatic post is the opposite of a flaming post. We will be looking for posts that do not work to stop the discussion or secure the last word for the poster. You do not need to end every post with a question, just try to treat them as contributions to collective understanding rather than merely expressions of your own conclusions. At the same time, your posts should be critical, not in the sense of mere fault-finding (pointless carping), but in the sense of cultivating stronger, better (more valid) understandings of the subject matter. We evaluate participation in discussion forums using an Emphatic Criticism rubric.

No extensions are possible for discussion forum activities, even with an absence letter or similar excuse. If there is a valid and timely excuse, it may be possible to make-up for lost points with some extra credit work.

Personal Journal

Each unit will include a new theme that each student must address in an ongoing personal journal of reflections on sociology. The purpose of this exercise is to help you to cultivate your "sociological imagination," to move back and forth between the biography-scale and the history-scale, between the experience of personal troubles and the understanding of social problems.

These journal entries are meant to get you thinking, and you should use freewriting (not worrying about spelling, grammar, etc.) if you find it helpful. And they are meant to get you thinking honestly and reflectively about your own life and your own place in history. Thus, they raise potential concerns about privacy and confidentiality. Your journals should be available only to you and your teachers, but if you wish to preserve your privacy even further you may cultivate a fictional autobiography here. Please be realistic, but don't feel obligated to share secrets here. After all, Moodle isn't Facebook... :)

We recommend that you use Moodle's online text editor to write these while you are online, but you can also write a journal entry offline and paste it into the editor. If you do so, please be sure to paste text only, and do any formatting inside of the Moodle online text editor.

The journal assignments are available to you throughout the entire course, but you must complete each unit's entry by the corresponding deadline. You may want to revisit your journal entries from time-to-time, and you may find that you read passages in later units that prompt you to reconsider or refine your earlier reflections.

Your journal entries will be evaluated using an In/Complete rubric. If you have written a substantial entry, of at least 250-300 words, you will be given full credit for the activity (10 points). You should reflect upon these journal entries (as well as your other work in the course) when you are crafting your "Reflections on the Sociological Imagination" at the end of the course.

Students are expected to spend 2-4 hours per unit writing and editing their journals. Keep track of how much time you are actually devoting to this task, because you will be asked to share that information with us in the final questionnaire/survey of the course.

Extensions are available for personal journal entries, but only for valid and timely excuses. Unless a student has such an excuse, and has made alternate arrangements with the teachers, personal journal entries lose points for each day they are late.

Cinematic Sociology

After the add period has ended, the Cinematic Sociology Wiki will be created. In the meantime, you can familiarize yourself with the "Cinematic Sociology Project Instructions" in Moodle.

Unless a student has a valid and timely excuse, and has made alternate arrangements with the teachers, students must complete each milestone for the Cinematic Sociology project on time or lose all points for that milestone.

Grading Scale
Points%age *Grade †
* for estimation only
† probably, not certainly
‡ A+ grades are rare
465..500 ≥ 93 A ‡
450..464 ≥ 90 A-
435..449 ≥ 87 B+
415..434 ≥ 83 B
400..414 ≥ 80 B-
385..399 ≥ 77 C+
365..384 ≥ 73 C
350..364 ≥ 70 C-
335..349 ≥ 67 D+
315..334 ≥ 63 D
300..314 ≥ 60 D-
  0..299 < 60 F

Grades/Rubrics

Sometimes it seems we live in a world of points and scores and grades. As we make our ways up various poorly-graded (but often rather steep) learning curves, the score-keeping is often rather pointless. We won't fix this social problem in this course, but we will try to use a grading regime that simultaneously rewards participation, gives some honest feedback about where there is room for improvement, and is fair to those who perform particularly well.

The grading scale (see accompanying table) provides students with a way to monitor their progress in the course by keeping count of the points that they have earned. (Dividing points awarded by the maximum points available for an assignment, or a combination of assignments/scores, will provide a percentage that can be used to estimate a letter grade.) This is for estimation purposes only. Final grades will be based upon point counts (rather than percentages) and will be subject to adjustment for violations of academic integrity.

At the end of the term, students will be assigned letter grades based primarily upon the points that they have earned over the course of the term. The "Grading Scale" table indicates the points required to earn various letter grades. The "Activity Scores" table indicates how points are earned through the completion of various activities in this course. To a significant extent, a student's grade in this course is under his/her control. A significant portion of the points available are awarded on an In/Complete basis: Students earn them just by doing the activity. But some points are reserved for assessment of quality by the teachers. If a student reads and studies carefully before taking quizzes, there is no reason not to score highly on them. Most students will not score higher than a B-average on their formal writing assignments (e.g., their Reflections on the Sociological Imagination, the Director's Cut of their page in our Cinematic Sociology Wiki), because we set a very high bar for A-level work, but some work will meet that bar. And students who do well on everything else may find that the Extra Credit available gives them what they need to secure a high grade in the course.

Other students will find that they need the Extra Credit as a cushion when they fall. Online learning is new to many of you, and fraught with bugs and bothers, so the Extra Credit (up to 5% of the course point total) gives everyone a safety net. Students who have valid excuses (and the approval of the professor) for missing unextendable deadlines may also be given some additional Extra Credit opportunities. These will be given only in unusual circumstances, and only if the Professor is given as much advance notice of the circumstances as is reasonably possible. You must contact the professor about this on a case-by-case basis.

Emphatic Criticism Rubric

Participation in an asynchronous discussion forum is partly a matter of posting an answer early, and partly a matter of posting often enough to keep some threads vibrant throughout the course. But it is also a matter of quality. We expect emphatic criticism in these discussions. The term "phatics" refers to those communicative practices that help to keep discussions going, that alert other participants that you are paying attention and are responsive to what they say. (Examples include nodding your head while someone is speaking, or saying "um-hmmm" while on the phone with someone.) In a way, a phatic post is the opposite of a flaming post. We will be looking for posts that do not work to stop the discussion or secure the last word for the poster. You do not need to end every post with a question, just try to treat them as contributions to collective understanding rather than merely expressions of your own conclusions. At the same time, your posts should be critical, not in the sense of mere fault-finding (pointless carping), but in the sense of cultivating stronger, better (more valid) understandings of the subject matter.

In/Complete Rubric

A significant portion of the points available in this course are awarded on an in/complete basis: Students earn them just by completing the activity. We refer to this as the "In/Complete Rubric." Please be sure that you are actually completing the assignment, however. Substantial completion means more than pro-forma compliance: Just turning something in is not enough. The work submitted must give evidence that the student has actually engaged the material, the prompt, etc.

In/Correct Rubric

Scoring on the basis of the correct vs. incorrect answer, or the "best" answer, is probably the rubric with which most students are most familiar. It has been used in testing (high-stakes and otherwise) throughout your years of schooling. We use it here, calling it the "In/Correct Rubric," for scoring most quiz questions. Please be careful when you are completing your quiz to select the best answer to each question, not the first answer that seems partially correct. Quite often, an answer that seems plausible on its face actually has a fatal flaw.

Formal Writing Rubric

To a significant extent, all assignments should meet the following criteria. But we have relaxed some of these requirements for some of the assignments (e.g., allowing free-writing for the personal journal entries). Unless otherwise indicated, the general rule is that all written work must satisfy the requirements of formal writing. And this will be rigorously enforced for certain assignments (e.g., your Reflections on the Sociological Imagination and your Director's Cut in the Cinematic Sociology Wiki).

Points will be deducted for failure to meet these requirements, but satisfying them is a minimum requirement. The difference between a 'B' and an 'A' is not a matter of following the rules differently. A-level work meets minimum standards, but is also especially insightful, thought-provoking, beautiful, etc. There is no formula for this.

Late Work

Students will be able to read ahead, and (to some extent) work ahead of the current unit/module. Please do not fall behind. Some work can never be submitted late: For example, the discussion forum participation is dependent upon the co-participation of interlocutors. If you do not post during the unit that a thread begins, then you simply cannot become a part of that thread. (Unless you invent a time machine.) Some work (e.g., quizzes) may be accepted late, without penalty, but only if there is a valid excuse. Other work (e.g., personal journal entries) may be submitted late, even without an excuse, but students will lose 5 points per day (or part of a day) that the work is late.

Extra Credit

You should not focus on extra credit right away: Focus instead on the core requirements of the course. As the course gets underway, and you have everything under control, you may decide to bank some extra credit points. Details are provided in the Extra Credit forum in Moodle.

Monitoring Your Progress

Students will find the Moodle Grades tool available to them. You may use that information to keep track of your performance from time to time during the remainder of the term using the grading scale provided here. (Though final letter grades will be determined on the basis of raw point-values rather than percentages.) Please do not start the course by stressing-out about grades. For the first couple of units, just try doing your best work, and getting it done on time, OK?

Throughout the course, please don't think about how you are going to game the system and get lots of points. It isn't that grades are unimportant, but sometimes they are the tail that wags the dog of learning. Please don't lose sight of your education by getting obsessed with your score, like everything online was a video game. That said, once you start seeing feedback in the form of scores (and comments), you should ask yourself what it means. There is no shame in a lack of "A's" in your writing assignments, but if you are scoring very low then you should visit with your teaching assistant and/or the professor during their respective office hours.

Teachers will typically enter grades for activities within a week of their due date. Please don't dun the teachers with questions about scores and grades. If you have questions, and a week has passed since the due date (which may differ from the date you actually completed the activity), then contact your TA (in the case of Discussion Forum and Cinematic Sociology activities) or the professor (in the case of other activities) during their office hours.

Please think of the grading scale provided here as a "safe harbor." Anyone earning these points—provided they have not done anything outrageous in the process (e.g., cheating, plagiarism, repeated flaming, etc.)—is entitled to at least the corresponding letter grade. If it turns out that nobody in the class is earning enough points for an "A"—but the teachers believe that the class as a whole is performing well—then the scale will be adjusted so that the highest scores are worth an "A" and all of the lower scores will effectively curve up by the number of points needed to bring those high scores into A-range. This way, if we experience any technical difficulties that bring down everybody's scores (e.g., if Moodle crashes for a few days), it will not jeopardize the bottom line.

Schedule

The official deadlines are those provided in this Syllabus (as modified or corrected from time to time by a post in the Class Announcements). Sometimes you may see different due dates/deadlines in Moodle. This reflects limitations in the Moodle software, not an opportunity to play for time. Please meet the deadlines given by the teachers.

Schedule of Activities
Milestone * Activity † Rubric Score
Notes
* For Discussion Forum activities, "Milestones" are the beginning of several days of posting/replying. For all other activities, the "Milestones" are deadlines by which an activity must be completed. See the discussion of each type of activity (above) for details.
† Activities/tasks are sometimes listed in this table as links to the appropriate pages in Moodle, but sometimes these links will not work until the activity is available (e.g., Discussion Forums). Please let the professor know if there is a broken/incorrect link to an open activity.
‡ The actual deadlines for these activities are relative to when a student is enrolled in the course. The Milestones here indicate the number of days after the later of (1) the start of term and (2) the date a student enrolls in the course. Moodle may indicate a fixed date, but students are responsible for abiding by this schedule.
"Unit One: Introductions" (2018.01.16—2018.01.21)
within one day ‡ Moodle Profile In/Complete 10
within two days ‡ Classwide Greetings Emphatic Criticism 10
within three days ‡ Opening Survey In/Complete 10
within four days ‡ Howdy Stranger In/Complete 10
within five days ‡ Working With Wikis In/Complete 10
Unit 01 Subtotal 50
"Unit Two: Reality TBD (To Be Determined)" (2018.01.22—2018.01.28)
2018.01.22 (M) Unit Two Reading Rewards In/Correct 15
2018.01.23 (T) Unit Two Discussions Emphatic Criticism 15
2018.01.24 (W) Read ahead and work those threads! N/A N/A
2018.01.25 (R) Authority Figures In/Complete 10
2018.01.26 (F) Cinematic Sociology Worksheet In/Complete 10
Unit 02 Subtotal 50
"Unit Three: The Long Now on Spaceship Earth" (2018.01.29—2018.02.04)
2018.01.29 (M) Unit Three Reading Rewards In/Correct 15
2018.01.30 (T) Unit Three Discussions Emphatic Criticism 15
2018.01.31 (W) Read ahead and work those threads! N/A N/A
2018.02.01 (R) Complex Freedom In/Complete 10
2018.02.02 (F) Take One In/Complete 10
Unit 03 Subtotal 50
"Unit Four: Reconstructing Race & Ethnicity" (2018.02.05—2018.02.11)
2018.02.05 (M) Unit Four Reading Rewards In/Correct 15
2018.02.06 (T) Unit Four Discussions Emphatic Criticism 15
2018.02.07 (W) Read ahead and work those threads! N/A N/A
2018.02.08 (R) Dyadic Tensions In/Complete 10
2018.02.09 (F) Take Two (CS04) Formal Writing 20
2018.02.09 (F) Mid-Term Feedback Survey In/Complete 10
Unit 04 Subtotal 70
"Unit Five: Reproducing Gender & Sexuality" (2018.02.12—2018.02.18)
2018.02.12 (M) Unit Five Reading Rewards In/Correct 15
2018.02.13 (T) Unit Five Discussions Emphatic Criticism 15
2018.02.14 (W) Read ahead and work those threads! N/A N/A
2018.02.15 (R) Kinship Nets In/Complete 10
2018.02.16 (F) Critics-Squared In/Complete 25
Unit 05 Subtotal 65
"Unit Six: Class & Status Under Construction" (2018.02.19—2018.02.25)
2018.02.19 (M) Unit Six Reading Rewards In/Correct 15
2018.02.20 (T) Unit Six Discussions Emphatic Criticism 15
2018.02.21 (W) Read ahead and work those threads! N/A N/A
2018.02.22 (R) Social Movements In/Complete 10
2018.02.23 (F) Director's Cut Formal Writing 50
Unit 06 Subtotal 90
"Unit Seven: Institutions, Intersections & Other Problems" (2018.02.26—2018.03.04)
2018.02.26 (M) Unit Seven Reading Rewards In/Correct 15
2018.02.27 (T) Unit Seven Discussions Emphatic Criticism 15
2018.02.28 (W) Read ahead and work those threads! N/A N/A
2018.03.01 (R) Complex Identities In/Complete 10
2018.03.02 (F) Problems & Institutions In/Complete 20
Unit 07 Subtotal 60
"Unit Eight: Conclusions" (2018.03.05—2018.03.11)
2018.03.05 (M) Classwide Farewells Emphatic Criticism 10
2018.03.06 (T) Personal Troubles and Public Problems In/Complete 10
2018.03.07 (W) Discussion Forums Two—Seven Close N/A N/A
2018.03.08 (R) Closing Reflections on the Sociological Imagination Formal Writing 25
2018.03.09 (F) Closing Survey In/Complete 10
2018.03.10 (A) Critical Acclaim N/A N/A
Unit 08 Subtotal 55
SOC 100 ONL (Spring 2018)
TBD LAS Online End-of-Term Survey In/Complete 10
Course Total 500
2018.03.11 (U) Extra Credit In/Complete 25

Policies/Procedures

Various specific policies and procedures may be announced in class (or online) from time to time, as issues arise. But here are some standard (and easily anticipated) issues. (If you know of other resources that might be of use to fellow students, please let the teacher know so that he can incorporate them into the Syllabus. Thank you.)

Academic Integrity

The Illinois Student Code should be considered as a part of this Syllabus. Students should pay particular attention to Article 1, Part 4: Academic Integrity. The Code is available to you at: http://www.admin.uiuc.edu/policy/code/. Academic dishonesty may result in a failing grade. Every student is expected to review and abide by the Academic Integrity Policy, and is responsible for reading it. Ignorance is not an excuse for any academic dishonesty.

Disability Accommodations

To obtain disability-related academic adjustments and/or auxiliary aids, students with disabilities must contact the course teacher and the Disability Resources and Educational Services (DRES) as soon as possible. To contact DRES you may visit 1207 S. Oak St., Champaign, IL 61820. Or you may call 217.333.1970 (or 217.244.9738 for TTY). Or you may send e-mail to disability@illinois.edu. To insure that disability-related concerns are properly addressed from the beginning, students with disabilities who require assistance to participate in this class are asked to contact the teacher as soon as possible.

Absences/Incompletes

Students who claim a valid excuse for an absence from this course (including failure to complete an assignment or activity on time) must notify their teachers (both their TA and the professor) as soon as possible. "As soon as possible" may mean "ahead of time," and students should not wait until after a deadline has passed before they notify their teachers of a reasonably anticipated problem. Teachers will determine the appropriate course of action once they have been notified by a student, and a valid excuse for not attending a class in person will not always be a valid excuse for missing online activities.

Only the LAS Student Academic Affairs Office or the Campus Center for Advising and Academic Services can authorize extensions for completion of required work after the end of the term. For more information, please refer to the LAS Student Handbook: http://www.las.uiuc.edu/students/attendance/absences/.

Counseling Center

The Counseling Center is available to all students who may need help with test anxieties, reading skills, or other educational issues—as well as various other emotional or psychological issues that students encounter.

Communications

Students are encouraged to communicate with their teachers outside of scheduled class meeting times, but students are expected to understand and respect the schedules of their teachers. Students should use the scheduled office hours to meet with a teacher in person or online, and should only request appointments at other times if there is a unavoidable scheduling conflict.

Email communications with the teachers should always (a) properly identify the student (both in the email address and in the closing of the message), (b) properly identify the course in the subject line of the email, using the short course rubric (e.g., "SOC100"), and (c) use proper grammar and spelling. "Drive-by" emails will be ignored, as will those asking questions that have already been answered (whether in this Syllabus, in the FAQ Forum, or otherwise). Students are expected to consult the Syllabus, the Class Announcements, and the FAQ Forum before raising questions.

FAQ

Students in this course may have similar questions, and a "Frequently Asked Questions" (or "FAQ") forum is provided (in Moodle) to address them. Please consult the FAQ Forum if you have a question of general interest, and feel free to raise it there if it has not already been raised. The FAQ Forum is not the place to inquire about grades or matters specific to an individual student (e.g., excuses for missed work), nor is it a forum to question policies in this class. It is an information forum, not a therapy session or deliberative assembly.

References/Resources

With the exception of our textbook, which you should purchase from a bookstore or publisher, all of the other materials are available to you through Moodle or the UIUC libraries (with appropriate links to the texts from Moodle).

Adelman, Larry, Jean Cheng, Christine Herbes-Sommers, Tracy Heather Strain, Llewellyn Smith, Claudio Ragazzi, and C.C.H. Pounder. 2003. Race: The Power of an Illusion. San Francisco, CA: California Newsreel.

Alvarez, Louis & Andrew Kolker. 2001. People Like Us. New York, NY: Center for New American Media and WETA.

Dougiamas, Martin. 2016. "Pedagogy." https://docs.moodle.org/32/en/Pedagogy (last revised 2016.11.08).

Mills. C. Wright. [1959] 2000. The Sociological Imagination. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. (ISBN: 9780195133738.)

Newsom, Jennifer Siebel. 2011. Miss Representation. Ross, CA: GirlsClub Entertainment.

Richards, Sam. 2010. "A Radical Experiment in Empathy." TED Talks. http://youtu.be/kUEGHdQO7WA (uploaded 2010.10.21; last visited 2014.12.19).

Roy, William G. 2001. Making Societies: The Historical Construction of Our World. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage/Pine Forge Press. (ISBN: 0761986626.) (This is available from either the Illini Union Bookstore (phone: 217.333.2050) or T.I.S. College Books (phone: 217.337.4900), among other places. A non-circulating copy is also available at the Undergraduate Library reserves desk.)

Social Sciences, Health, and Education Library. 2014. http://www.library.illinois.edu/sshel/sociology/index.html (last visited 2014.12.19).

University of Chicago. 2015. “Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide.” Last visited 21 January 2015. http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html.

Notes/Log

Notes

Log

This section of the Syllabus lists most (hopefully all) changes to the file since the beginning of the term. Worry not, good students! No substantive changes will be made without reasonable notice, and you will not be sandbagged with extra work.