Introduction to Sociology Fall 2019 CRN 15937 (SOCI 1301)

Some Basic Information about Sociology

When we try to explain Sociology we often have either not enough words or too many. However, Kenneth Plummer, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Essex, United Kingdom, put beautifully the magical draw of Sociology when he wrote:

And the sociologist gets up every day and stands in wonder at the little social worlds—and indeed human societies—that we have created for ourselves: their meaning, order, conflict, chaos and change. For the sociologist, social life is sometimes sensed as something quite inspiring, and sometimes as something quite horrendous which brings about disenchantment, anger and despair. Sociologists stand in awe and dreading, rage and delight at the humanly produced social world with all its joys and its sufferings. We critique it and we critically celebrate it. Standing in amazement at the complex patterns of human social life, we examine both the good things worth fostering and bad things to strive to remove. Sociology becomes the systematic, sceptical study of all things social. (Plummer 2010)

Sociology is a useful scientific enterprise because it gives us the scientific tools we need to understand ourselves and the people around us. Sociology matters because it gives us the scientific tools we need to analyze, explain, and predict human behavior in groups. Therefore, the information you will receive in this course is useful, and it matters. All of your course material is either peer-reviewed or is accurate based on your instructor’s training and knowledge.

Sociology is a science. Our scientific perspectives have descriptive meaning in the real world. Science observes various phenomena and then wants to know what those phenomena are, and under what natural or social circumstances they occur. From those observations, we develop theories that are tested many times so that we know they are valid and that they apply to real people, real societies, and real social systems in our real world. Science is as objective as the scientist can make it. We follow very strict protocols in our search for knowledge and truth. The material for this course is grounded in the science of sociology and is not “common sense,” or “opinion,” or “well, that’s just a theory.” In science, our theories are robust and have weight; they are valid because they have been tested, and they do explain and predict reality. Sociology is useful, and it matters because it is the scientific study of us, all of humanity in all our diversity.

To learn more about this, go to the Modules Tab in EO-Canvas and read all of the information about Perspectives, Theories, and Causation.

This course examines material and contains content that some of us might find challenging, offensive, obscene, or extremely difficult. No personal affront is intended, I am NOT trying to hurt your feelings or give you nightmares, but I maintain the right and responsibility to access your grasp of all the material discussed in this class since it meets all Sociology Department learning objectives. If you are disturbed and if necessary, you may contact me in Eagle Online Canvas email about this.

There are many topics that we may be studying this semester, including but not limited to rape, torture, murder, mutilation by the self and others, nudity (forced or voluntary), slavery, economic, social, and political inequality, human sexuality including gender identity, human trafficking, what it means to be human, how the structures of our society guide how we think and the way we interact with one another, cannibalism, globalism, isolationism, the movements of populations, war, climate change, religion, child abuse, and other equally difficult ideas and topics. I do not teach these things to hurt your feelings or cause you psychological damage; I teach them because they are about the way we behave and the way we interact with one another based on the ways we structure our societies. Many of these topics/issues are very difficult, and we will be looking at videos and still photos that will be profoundly disturbing to many of us. However, we are adults. Even if you are not a legal adult, you are in an adult college classroom, and you must be prepared to be confronted with ideas you had never thought about and knowledge that you didn’t know existed. If you are offended by the course material, withdraw from the course. I am not trying to upset you, I am trying to impart information that it is critical for an informed citizen of the world to know.

Welcome to Our Class!

I love sociology! Even the most difficult of topics that we study I find fascinating because sociology is delving into our collective psyche and behavior. Why do humans behave the way we do? How does our sociocultural background delimit our thought and behavioral processes? For example, I was born and raised in a small town in Southwestern Iowa, where we froze in the winter and sweltered in the summer. From the perspective of most of you, I’m about a thousand years old, so my upbringing was probably very different from yours. Not everyone had a telephone! Not everyone had a radio! Not everyone had a TV! All TVs shows were in black and white, there were only three channels, and they went off the air at midnight! Not everyone had indoor plumbing! Not everyone could read or write! Not everyone had a car! Rock and Roll was just starting out and most parents and teachers hated it! Most people didn’t have air conditioning! We walked to more places than we rode. Everyone seemed like a Republican—not the kind of Republicans that exist today with Trump as their leader—who could be very conservative or very liberal. Democrats could be very liberal or very conservative. We were at the beginning of the rise of the American Middle Class, letter carriers lived next door to the mayor and railroad workers lived next to physicians. Racism, sexism, and homophobia were prevalent and prominent. The Civil Rights Movement was just getting underway and a president and several Civil Rights leaders were assassinated.

That background colored and shaped the way I think about the world and the sociological perspective that provides a particular lens through which I see and understand the world. It is my hope that you will learn to analyze our human society from a different framework than ever before. I hope you will enjoy our class and that you will be glad you took sociology. Thus, I welcome you to our class! Learning is fun, fundamental, and lifelong now let’s get going so that we can be successful students of life!

Eagle Online Canvas Learning Management System

What Is a Learning Management System?

What are EO, Eagle Online, Eagle Online-Canvas, and Canvas?

This section of SOCI 1301, 1306, 2301, 2319 will use Eagle Online Canvas

HCCS, along with many colleges and universities in the world, uses a Learning Management System (LMS) to maintain and support the online teaching and learning tools that are used for most of our courses. Those tools include tutorials, videos, handouts, readings, links to important websites, and information from your instructor that is not in your textbooks.

We call our LMS Eagle Online (EO as a nickname). Our LMS is supported and managed by a company called Instructure. They maintain the cloud for our LMS and interface directly with the people at Canvas. Canvas is the LMS platform that we use at HCCS.

EO is the acronym for our Learning Management System at HCC 

Eagle Online is the title of our Learning Management System at HCC

Canvas is the platform of the Learning Management System at HCC.

We buy services for Canvas from Instructure who maintains our EO website, updates, and server cloud, and is our direct interface with Canvas.

EO-Canvas is the complete designation for our Learning Management System at HCC

Eagle Online, EO, Eagle Online-Canvas, EO-Canvas, and Canvas are the same thing and are merely different forms of the title of our Learning Management System at HCC.

If your Instructor tells you that something is in EO, Eagle Online, or Canvas, it means that you can’t find it anywhere else except in the body of the LMS—Eagle Online-Canvas.

Your gradable activities, videos, required readings, and miscellany that are not in your textbooks, handouts, commentaries, and other useful and valuable resources supplemental to other course material will be in EO.

HCCS Open Lab locations may be used to access the Internet and Eagle Online Canvas. It is recommended that you USE FIREFOX OR CHROME AS YOUR BROWSER.

HCC Online Information and Policies

Here is a link to information about HCC Online classes including the required Online Orientation for all fully online classes: http://www.hccs.edu/online/

Timeline for Completion of the Reflections Assignments

There are timelines in the Modules Tab in EO-Canvas that will help you figure out how much time it will take to finish the Reflections Assignments. I urge you to use this and all other the tools that I have given you to help you complete successfully all of the course material.

Scoring Rubrics, Sample Assignments, etc.

Instructions, Directions, and Rubrics for Gradable Activities Will Be in EO-Canvas

Look in Eagle Online Canvas for the scoring rubrics for gradable activities, examples of written work, and other information that will assist you in the course. https://eagleonline.hccs.edu/login/ldap

All Required Readings, Instructions, Directions, Rubrics, Templates, Examples (if any), Checklists (if any), Miscellany, Handouts, and any Activity or Resource that your Instructor deems valuable and useful will be in the Modules Tab in EO-Canvas. Gradable Activities such as, but not limited to, Quizzes (includes Exams if any), Projects, Assignments, and Discussions will be in the Assignments and/or Discussions Tab in Eagle Online and/or the link to your required textbook and textbook materials. It is your responsibility to follow the directions and read and/or watch and/or do whatever is required. If something says REQUIRED, it is required. All Assignments, Discussions, Projects, and any other Gradable Activities are REQUIRED.

Textbook Information

Required Textbook All SOCI 1301 (Beginning Fall 2019)

Essentials of Sociology, 7th Edition. Paperback©2019. By Anthony Giddens, Mitchell Duneier, Richard Applebaum, and Deborah Carr. W. W. Norton, Publisher.

This book is also available in loose-leaf and as an ebook. I love books, but for textbooks, I prefer the ebook; if you have a laptop, tablet, and/or smartphone, you can take the book wherever you go, and you can’t lose it or misplace it! 😊😊 This is the book that you must have for this course and it has a code that permits you access to the course material in components from your textbooks. (If the title, author, and edition are correct, the book will be the correct one.) Do NOT let the bookstore try to sell you any other book! If they do, please contact me immediately. Thank you!

Temporary Free Access to E-Book (Beginning Fall 2019)

There will be an ebook and platform with quizzes and interactive assignments for the assigned chapters that will help you learn the course material. You will be able to access online components related to your textbook from “Modules” in Eagle Online-Canvas and through the quizzes and assignments settings in Eagle Online-Canvas.

Buying Your Textbook and Financial Aid (Beginning Fall 2019)

Unless there is a hold on your account, Financial Aid is always disbursed ten days before classes start. You will have access to your Financial Aid funds ten days before classes start, which means that you must purchase your textbook either as a physical copy or as an ebook when eBooks are available. You will have temporary free access to a digital version of the textbook for the first fourteen days of class. Therefore, there will be no problem for you to have your textbook ON THE FIRST DAY OF CLASS. If you are not receiving Financial Aid, you will also have temporary free access to a digital version of the textbook for the first fourteen days of class. This textbook is REQUIRED ON THE FIRST DAY OF CLASS. If you tell me that your Financial Aid did not come in on time for you to get your book before the Temporary Free Access runs out, you must provide written documentation from your Financial Aid officer and the manager of the bookstore

Course Overview

Course Description

(Sociology) SOCI 1301 Introduction to Sociology—SOCI 1301, Introduction to Sociology is a survey course which focuses on the nature of human groups in American and world societies, their social and cultural adaptations, and the impact which various social processes may have on their social organization and social change. This is a Core Curriculum Course.

(From: ACGM: Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board 2016)

SOCI 1301 Introduction to Sociology

The scientific study of human society, including ways in which groups, social institutions, and individuals affect each other. Causes of social stability and social change are explored through the application of various theoretical perspectives, key concepts, and related research methods of sociology. Analysis of social issues in their institutional context may include topics such as social stratification, gender, race/ethnicity, and deviance.

Approval Number                                                     45.1101.51 25 maximum SCH per student

Maximum SCH per course                                       3 maximum contact hours per course

Core Curriculum Objectives

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, students will:

1. Compare and contrast the basic theoretical perspectives of sociology.
2. Identify the various methodological approaches to the collection and analysis of data in sociology.
3. Describe key concepts in sociology.
4. Describe the empirical findings of various subfields of sociology.
5. Explain the complex links between individual experiences and broader institutional forces.

Core Curriculum Skills and Assessment:

Sociology 1301 is a core curriculum course. It may be used to fulfill the requirements for a core Social and

Behavioral Sciences course OR a core Cross/Multi-Cultural Studies course. 

Please click here to go to the HCC Student Catalog for more information about course offerings.

Given the rapid evolution of necessary knowledge and skills and the need to take into account global, national, state, and local cultures, the core curriculum must ensure that students will develop the essential knowledge and skills they need to be successful in college, in a career, in their communities, and in life. Through the Texas Core Curriculum, students will gain a foundation of knowledge of human cultures and the physical and natural world, develop principles of personal and social responsibility for living in a diverse world, and advance intellectual and practical skills that are essential for all learning. Students enrolled in this core curriculum course will complete several assignments designed to cultivate the following core objectives:

• Critical Thinking Skills—to include creative thinking, innovation, inquiry, and analysis, evaluation and synthesis of information
• Communication Skills—to include effective development, interpretation and expression of ideas through written, oral and visual communication
• Empirical and Quantitative Skills—to include the manipulation and analysis of numerical data or observable facts resulting in informed conclusions
• Social Responsibility—to include intercultural competence, knowledge of civic responsibility, and the ability to engage effectively in regional, national, and global communities.

These objectives will be assessed as follows:

• Critical Thinking: Nearly all the work in this course will require critical thinking about the societal topics that we address. Your critical thinking skills will be assessed through the written work that you submit and being able to conduct an informed discussion of the required readings.
• Communication: Nearly all the work in this course will also require that you be able to communicate well in writing. Your communication skills will be assessed primarily through the written work you submit and class participation.
• Empirical and Quantitative: You will be required to answer questions from the required readings that assesses your empirical and quantitative skills. Furthermore, you will be expected to critically assess various research projects and comprehend various quantitative facts.
• Social Responsibility: This entire course, reading and class material, is largely focused on social responsibility as an element of Sociology is the understanding that we are interactive social beings.

Program Student Learning Outcomes (PSLOs)

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Course Students Learning Outcomes (CSLOs)

1. Compare and contrast the basic theoretical perspectives of sociology.
2. Identify the various methodological approaches to the collective and analysis of data in sociology.
3. Describe key concepts in sociology.
4. Describe the empirical findings in various subfields of sociology.
5. Explain the complex links between individual experiences and broader institutional forces.

Student Success

Expect to spend at least twice as many hours per week outside of class as you do in class studying the course content. Additional time will be required for written assignments. The assignments provided will help you use your study hours wisely. Successful completion of this course requires a combination of the following:

• Reading the assigned portions of the textbook or other written material
• Attending all classes in person and / or online
• Completing all gradable activities on time and correctly
• Actively participating in-class activities
• There is no shortcut for success in this course; it requires reading (and probably re-reading) and studying the material using the course objectives, grading rubric, instructions for any gradable activities as your guides.
• Showing up every day or being online every day does not guarantee a passing grade for any SOCI course taught by Ruth Dunn. You must DO THE REQUIRED work. If you don’t do the REQUIRED work, you will not be able to pass this course. REPEAT: Just showing up does not guarantee a passing grade. YOU MUST COMPLETE AND PASS ALL OF THE REQUIRED WORK IN ORDER TO EARN A PASSING GRADE of 70% or above. There are NO exceptions to this policy.