| Instructor: | Sue Greer-Pitt |
| Location of instructor in cyberspace: | sue.greer-pitt@kctcs.edu |
| When e-mailing from outside Blackboard always give your full name and course ID. E-mail received between between 8 AM and 6 PM Monday through Friday, and Most Saturday and Sunday afternoons from 3 PM to 6 PM will be answered with a few hours. E-mail received after those times will be answered the next day. | |
| Mailing Address: | Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College/2 Long Avenue/Whitesburg, KY 41858 |
| Office Telephone: | direct # 606-589-3338 OR 606-633-0279 extension 13338 |
| Office hours: | Monday and Wednesday 1:30 PM to 4:30 PM |
| Home Telephone: | 606-855-9928 (9 AM and 8:00 PM Mon/Wed/Fri and most weekends) |
| Division Chair: | Kevin Lambert, Social Sciences Division, (606) 589-3305, or 606-633-0279, ext. 13305 |
| Division Contact: | Denise Haynes, Social Sciences Division Secretary Southeast Community College, 700 College Road, Cumberland , KY 40823, 606-589-2145, extension 13012, or call toll free 1-888-274-SECC. |
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Important warning to all students: |
Catalog description: Introduction to the concepts and methods of sociology. Investigation of socialization, group processes, social institutions, and social change.
This semester the major lessons will include social systems, culture, social structure, socialization, family, and social stratification. Course emphasizes applying concepts to student's own experience. This is a completely on-line course. All assignments, discussion and tests are on-line.
You are required to purchase the TWO textbooks below
See instructions for ordering textbooks on line http://www.kctcs.edu/distancelearning/bookstore_procedures.htm or by contacting Ashland Community and Technical College’s bookstore, http://ashlandctc.bkstore.com/. Be sure that you identify which course (Soc101 and SECTION #C8Z1) you are taking and with WHICH instructor (Sue Greer-Pitt). Students with financial aid should see the instructions at kctcs.edu listed linked above. You can also use the "eResources" link on the yellow tab at the top of all your Blackboard pages.
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Students with disabilities or who believe they may have a disability that requires accommodations in this class, must contact their local community college's ADA, Disability coordinator. The Disability coordinator will discuss your needs with you and the accommodations that can be made, and the coordinator will contact your instructors to arrange for accommodations.
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Orientation
August 18 through August 19, 2008
You will begin the course by clicking on the "START HERE -- Syllabus"
link
when you enter the Blackboard course. All information about the course
and its materials are found in the Blackboard data base on-line. This includes
lectures, reading assignments (assignments are in the data base, the actual
readings are in text and reader that you purchase), written assignments such
as essays and all tests . Links to the course materials will appear
on the Unit 1 page in the database AFTER you pass the "syllabus quiz" with 43
or more
points..
It is very important to realize that all times are Eastern time zone.
Unit 1 -- Lessons 1 through 5
August 20, 2008 through September 7, 2008
Unit 1 exam -- Essays Due Sunday September 7, 2008 at 11:00
PM Eastern time .
Essays are open book, open notes and are available to students when all the
other course materials are available (after completion of the syllabus quiz).
Essays may be turned in earlier than the due date, but grading will occur
after the due date. Late essays are subject to late penalties after 7
days (see elsewhere in syllabus for details)..
Unit 1 exam -- Multiple choice Four DAY Availability Window: Thursday
September 4, 2008 (12:01 AM Eastern Time) through Sunday September 7, 2008 (11:00
PM Eastern). Multiple choice portions of the exam are timed and one hour
and 15 minutes is allowed
for the exam once begun. Make-ups for the Multiple Choice exam will
occur at the end of the term on October 8 through October 11,
2008 at SIX PM.
Unit 2 -- Lessons 6 through 9
September 8, 2008, through September 23, 2008
Unit 2 Exam -- Essays Due Tuesday September 23, 2008, no
later
than 11:00 PM
EASTERN time. Essays are open book, open notes and can be viewed any time.
Essays may be turned in earlier, but grading will not occur until after the
due date. Late essays are subject to late penalties after 7 days (see elsewhere
in syllabus for details)..
Unit 2 Exam -- Multiple choice Four DAY Availability Window: Saturday
September 20,
2008 (12:01 AM EASTERN time) through Tuesday September 23, 2008
(11:00
PM EASTERN time). Multiple choice portions of the exam are timed and one
hour and 15 minutes
is allowed for the exam once begun. Make-ups for the Multiple
Choice exam will occur at the end of the term on
October 8 through October 11, 2008 at SIX PM.
Unit 3 -- Lessons 10 through 14
September 24, 2008 through October 11, 2008 (at SIX PM)
Unit 3 Exam -- Essays Due Saturday October 11,
2008, no later than 6:00 PM EASTERN time.
Essays are open book, open notes and can
be viewed at least two weeks in advance of when due. Essays may be turned in
earlier. No late submission
can be allowed, unless the student applies (in advance) for an incomplete. See
policy on incompletes.
Unit 3 Exam -- Multiple choice Three and a half day
Availability Window: Wednesday October 3, 2008 (12:01 AM EASTERN time) through
SATURDAY October 11, 2008 (6:00 PM
Eastern time). Multiple
choice portions of the exam are timed and one hour and 15 minutes is allowed
for the exam once begun.
Make-ups for Multiple choice exams 1 and 2 will occur during the following Window: Wednesday October 8, 2008 through Saturday October 11, 2008 (6:00 PM Eastern time). The course offically ends at 6:00 PM Saturday October 11, 2008. Nothing can be accepted after this date.
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The grade in this course is primarily based on discussion and examinations (both open book essays and closed book multiple choice tests). This course is divided in to three parts, in each part you will earn points by doing the following:
Discussion: Each discussion entry is worth 5 points. You can earn a maximum of 100 points (a minimum of 20 postings) through discussion in the entire class. You should average about 6 or 7 discussion postings in each part of the course. There is no requirement for a specific number of postings in any part of the course. You are not required to post on each Lesson, as long as you make a minimum of twenty postings through out the course. However, it is strongly recommended that you post several times every week, so that you do not fall behind. Even more importantly you should READ ever posting made. The discussion board is our "classroom" where we can ask each other questions and respond. The purpose of discussion is to prepare students for writing essays and taking tests. Therefore discussion boards are closed ONE DAY BEFORE the beginning of each test. Post early, post often. The criteria for discussion postings is discussed in a separate section of the syllabus on Discussion Criteria.
Examinations: Each of the three parts of the course has both an open book, open notes essay exam (60 points) and a open book, open notes, on-line multiple choice examination (40 points). The multiple choice exams for part 1 and part 2 will be 40 points each, the multiple choice exam for part 3 will be 60 points (more material is covered in part 3). A student should complete all the material for a particular part of the course before attempting the examination for that part of the course. The "study guide" or preparation for the examinations comes from the Learning Objectives for each Lesson.
Exam Part 1 -- Essays: The criteria for grading essays is described in the Essay Criteria section of the syllabus below. Students will choose two questions from a list of 4 to 6 questions. Each essay is worth 30 points. This portion of the test is worth 60 points. These are open book, open note essays. Essays must be written in computer files and uploaded to the course. The questions can be viewed at any time through the Essay Exams link on the Unit 1, Unit 2 and Unit 3 pages. I strongly emphasize that the purpose of the essay exam is to 1) demonstrate that you have read and understood the ASSIGNED readings and can discuss the ideas found in those readings IN YOUR OWN WORDS, and 2) to work on developing your own writing skills. Criteria for the essays are spelled out in detail at the end of the syllabus.Exam Part 2 -- Multiple choice exam: There is a multiple choice exam for each part of the course. This is open book and open notes. No proctor is required. Student takes the test on their own computer at any time during the testing window (which is 4 days long). All three tests are 40 points. To prepare for the multiple choice exams read the "Learning Objectives" for each Lesson. Once the student begins the test they have one hour and 15 minutes to complete it. This means that if you start the test at 1:00 PM, you must finish the test by 2:15 PM, even if you are not on-line the enitre time. If you take longer than 1 hour and 15 minutes the test will not be automatically graded. It will require me to grade it manually, alerting me to the fact that you went over time. There is no penalty if you go over by a minute or two. Although the test is open book, open notes, many of the questions are "application" questions, meaning that you are being asked to apply concepts and ideas to NEW situations. Therefore you will not find the answer to many of the questions in the readings.
Students are also expected to display ethical behavior in writing essays and taking tests. This means no plagiarism, and no cheating. Cheating on the multiple choice test is getting answers from another student. Plagiarism on the essays (and in the DISCUSSION area) is defined as using four (4) or more exact, consecutive, words from a source written by anyone other than the student without placing the borrowed words in quotations and providing a reference or citation to indicate the author of the words used, source (title of book or webpage) and location of those words (page number or url). This applies to ALL books, text books, readers, lectures, and all internet pages. This rule applies to all courses at all times. Note, that even when a student does not use exact words, but does borrow ideas or statistics that were originated by some one else, quotes are not needed but references are required. The student may select whatever reference/citation format that they prefer. Some of the recommended formats generally taught in ENG101 and ENG102 are APA and MLA. This instructor is not picky about the exact format of references as long as all the information mentioned in red above is included.
The penalty for the first case of extensive plagiarism is an automatic zero (no points) on that essay. If, after being warned a student engages in plagiarism on another exam, he or she will receive an E for the entire course. [A student who waits until the last week of the course to turn in essays from Unit 1 and Unit 2 will not receive a warning, but will be given an E in the class if there is plagiarism on more than one essay exam]. Iif plagiarism is discovered in an essay later in the course, the instructor reserves the right to re-inspect earlier papers to see if they also contain plagiarism that was overlooked.
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The syllabus quiz is NOT included in your grade total. The grade in this course will be based on the percentage of possible points that you earn. The total number of points available in this course is based on the discussion (100 points), essays (60 pts x 3 = 180 points), exams (40 pts x 3 = 120 points). At the end of the first exam, the total possible points will be: 135. After the second exam, the total possible points will be 265. At the end of the course the total possible points will be 400. If you post a lot to the discussion areas, you may have more than the total points after the first and second exams. At any point in the class you can figure your current standing by adding up the points that should have been completed and the number of points you have and calculating your percentage. The "running total" in My Grades tells you your total points at any given time in the class.
A is 90 percent and above
B is 80 to 89 percent
C is 70 to 75 percent
D is 55 to 69 percent
E is 54 percent and below
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Multiple choice tests can be made up during the last 4 days of the course as specified in the course schedule above. Essays can be made up, by contacting the instructor as soon as possible and request permission to e-mail essays. Once permission is granted e-mail essays to sue.greer-pitt@kctcs.edu A LATE PENALTY will be deducted from essays turned in more than 7 days after the due date in the syllabus. After 7 days, 10 percent of the points will be deducted (that's 3 points out of 30). After 14 days, 20 percent (6 points out of 30) will be deducted, after 21 days, 30 percent will be deducted, and so forth. The maximum deduction is 50 percent of the points. Please note that it is very easy for essays that are e-mailed to get misplaced (or even deleted) because the instructor gets a huge volume of e-mail. The only way to guarantee that your essays will be graded in a timely fashion is to submit them through the designated essay exam drop boxes in each unit of the course.
If a student has completed and turned in EVERYTHING for the first two thirds (all of Units 1 and 2) of the course by seventh week of the course [seven (7) days before the"course end" date given in the schedule above] and that student has an illness or emergency that makes it impossible to complete the third exam, that student may request an incomplete. The request for the incomplete MUST be received by the instructor at least 48 hours before grades are due (grades are due 24 hours after the course end date). Students who have not turned in all their essays, completed all their discussion points, or taken all their multiple choice tests from part 1 and 2 are NOT eligible for incompletes and should withdraw from the course if they wish to avoid a failing grade. Students must withdraw before October 9, 2008.
Course withdrawal requires permission from the instructor which can be granted by e-mail. The last day to withdraw from the course is three days before the end date for the class. Requests for permission to withdraw need to be received 48 hours in advance of THAT day.
ATTENDANCE in this on-line class, especially for the purposes of federal financial aid policies, is based on PARTICIPATION, not merely accessing the course data base. The last date you post something that is graded -- a discussion post/response, an essay, and/or a multiple choice test, will determine your attendance.
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Through discussion, essays, and objective examinations students will :
a. Recognize the major perspectives of sociology, important sociologists and their ideas.
b. Identify the basics of social research.
c. Demonstrate an understanding of the sociological concept of culture.
d. Recognize the processes of socialization throughout the life cycle.
e. Recognize the basic concepts of social structure.
f. Demonstrate an understanding of social institutions in society.
g. Demonstrate an understanding of social stratification and its significance.
h. Recognize the importance and role of race and ethnicity in society.
i. Recognize the importance of gender in society.
By the end of the semester students will have achieved or made measurable progress in the following:
II. Think Critically
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Breadth and Depth of Sociological Content: 70 percent
Use of Examples and Social Science Terminology: 10 percent
Writing organization: 10 percent
Sentence Structure and Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling: 10 percent
A reminder -- an essay is in part intended to give the student an opportunity to improve his/her writing, therefore any essay that is substantially copied from other sources EVEN IF IT IS NOT PLAGIARIZED (that means even with quotes and references), will receive a lower grade than one that is original writing.
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Participation in the Discussion is an important part of the grade. As stated earlier in the syllabus, to be counted a post must be at least 50 words. This is not as long as it might seem. This short paragraph is more than 50 words in length. A link to the discussion forum is found in each part of the course.
A quality Discussion posting is one that is focused on the course materials. A Discussion posting may be a question that occurs to you while reading to which you wish others to respond. It may be a simple question like "what does this guy mean by...." Or it may be a more open question about how something in the reading applies to something in the real world. A Discussion posting may also be an opinion (either positive or negative) about the reading or some point in the reading. A two word comment like "this sucks" is NOT appropriate for the Discussion. But negative opinions can be legitimately expressed in appropriate language. A Discussion posting may be a simple reaction -- "this reminds me of...." Personal experience is appropriate in moderation IF and only if it directly illustrates, or substantiates the point you wish to make about sociology and the reading material in the course.
The Discussion Area is for interaction with other students, so read other people's postings and respond to them as well as starting threads of your own or making declarations. Points are given for both responses to others and for new threads. When you have similar reactions or experiences you may wish to provide validation to class members. You may wish to answer someone else's question. You may disagree with a point someone else has made. Knowledge grows through discussion among people who disagree, but only if the discussion is respectful and focuses on the issues and not personalities. Disagree with IDEAS, do not indulge in personal criticisms.
Because the discussion area is designed to help students understand the material before writing their essays and taking tests, the discussion area will always be closed the day BEFORE the beginning of testing for for each unit of the class. Always be sure to make your contributions to the discussion area early. Do not wait until after you have done everything else. Even more important than posting is reading -- you should read all posts, whether you respond to them or not.
Discussion posts should not use profanity or obscenities. Discussion posts should not disparage any individual or group on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, disability, gender, marital status, parental status, or sexual orientation. The instructor will regularly monitor the Discussion discussions. Students should also feel free to report (via e-mail) any posts they feel violate the rules. An individual violating the principles of Discussion posting will be given a warning, and the instructor will remove offending posts and they will NOT count towards the grade. A repeat offense by the same individual may result in being barred from participating in the Discussion, which will mean that student will NOT have the opportunity to earn any more points towards that part of the grade. .
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