SOCI-1306-007 (03668) Social Probs
NOTE: this is a
sample syllabus. The course will be run according to this syllabus each
semester, but in order to find out the correct dates that each unit is
due, you will have to log into your Blackboard course at the beginning
of the semester. You won't be able to do that until the first day
of class. Until that time, though, you can learn about the course
content and requirements here. The book listed here will be the
correct book for your course, so you can order or buy it now. All
the assignments are the same each semester too.
Text: Eitzen and Zinn, Social Problems 10 ed.
Professor: Scott Swearingen
Office:
see BB site each semester
Office
Phone: see BB site each semester
Answering
Machine:
223-1795,
Email: scotts@austincc.edu
these remain the same each semester so you can always contact me with
either. email is best.
Overview of the Course
This course is meant
to provide you with a general background in the root causes of social
problems
in the
General Statement of Open Campus and this course
Open Campus courses are designed for people whose schedule makes it difficult to get to class or who work rotating shifts. They are not designed for those people who "do not have time to go to class." This type of class will take about the same number of hours to complete as attending a class 3 hours a week, but you do the work on your own time. There are two important issues to keep in mind when taking this open campus course; turning in materials and timing.
Turning in materials.
This is a PCM course, which means all your work is turned in electronically. You write your answers to the assigned questions and either turn them in through the digital drop box, or simply email them to me.
** Regardless of which method you use to send me your materials, ALWAYS MAKE A PRINTED BACK-UP COPY OF EACH ASSIGNMENT. There have been times in the past when student work gets lost in the system, and if this happens to you, you will simply be able to resent your back up copy for credit.
Turn in all
material at the same time, on ONE document or email. Do NOT send me
individual
chapters or other materials to grade. I
will only grade your work when you have finished the unit and put all
work
together on one document
Timing and due dates. In an open campus course, you complete the assignments for the course at your own speed. There are some time limits, though. Many people do much of the work in a short period of time and turn it in early, and this is perfectly acceptable. However, it has been the experience of open campus instructors that some students leave everything to the last minute and turn in their materials with only a day or two for the instructor to grade. This is unfair to both instructor and student. The instructor has too little time to adequately grade the assignments, and the student has no chance for feedback on her work. Unit 1 is especially important, because my experience is that people who put off beginning the course have a history of not completing the course. Therefore, I have established due dates for each unit in this course.
****IMPORTANT: If
your unit 1 is not in my box or email by
midnight, [see BB site each semester], I
will drop you
from the course.****
For unit 2, there is a 2 point per DAY late
penalty
to the total score. For unit 3, you will
simply not get any points, because I am grading them and turning in
final
grades the day after they are due.
Any extra credit may be turned in along with
the
units (extra credit is described below)
Unit
assignments and due dates
Unit one chapters 2,7,and 12.
Unit two chapters 8,9,14, and 16
Unit three chapters 3,4,5,6
Grading
System
This PCM course is not test driven. There are no tests. Instead, you earn points by completing a series of required written assignments, and any optional assignments you choose to do. These assignments are grouped in 4 categories;
1) you will write answers to a series of questions for each chapter in the textbook. These are required. The questions are found on the assignments page of the BB site.
2) you may write a unit essay that applies
information from
the chapters to a contemporary social issue or problem.
The unit essay is included on the assignments
page of the BB site. All three
unit essays are required for an A
in the course.
3) extra credit: you may earn by extra credit by reading some of the chapters that are not required, and writing a one page synopsis of the material and your thoughts on it.
Your course grade will be computed on the number of chapter questions you answer, whether you write the unit essays, and the total number of points you earn doing those things:
A= In order to earn an A you must answer all chapter questions for every chapter and do all three unit essays, and earn a total of 140 points.
B= In order to earn a B you must answer at all chapter questions for 10 or more chapters and do one unit essay, and earn 110 points.
C= In order to earn a C you must answer at a minimum all the chapter questions for 9 or more chapters and earn at least 80 points
D= In order to earn a D you must answer the questions for 7 or more chapters and earn at least 65 points
**NOTICE: A GRADE OF D DOES NOT TRANSFER TO OTHER SCHOOLS**
F= answer fewer than 7 chapters or earn less than 65 points. .
Assignments
Chapter
Questions
= up to 110 points
In the assignments section of the BB course, you will find a list of chapter questions for each chapter in the unit you are working on . The questions generally follow the chapter outline. You will write down your answers to these questions and turn them in to me. Each question will require 2-4 sentences to answer. Your answers are my way of evaluating how much you have learned from each chapter. In order to get any points for a chapter’s questions you must answer all the questions for that chapter. You can earn up to 10 points for each set of chapter questions, for a total of 110 points (we will only cover 11 of the chapters in the text)
The chapter questions that are required come from chapters: 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,12,14,16. So to get an A you have to do all of them, a B you need 10 of them, a C you need 9 of them, a D you need 7 of them. If you don’t do at least 7 you can not pass the course. And of course you have to earn enough points on them to bump you into your grade category: you could do 9 chapters so badly that you only earn 5 points on each, thus earning only 45 points, and failing the class.
Unit
Essays = up
to 60 points
Unit essays are applications of the course material to a contemporary issue or problem. Your essay needs to be about 2 pages, typed, double spaced. You must quote information from the text in writing the essay: short quotes of text, facts and figures from the illustrations, etc.
Note: in order to earn an A you will have to answer all three unit essays. For a B you will have to answer 1. You can not earn and A or B without writing the essay, regardless of how many points you earn otherwise
Extra
Credit ; up to 5 points per additional
chapter (= up to
40 points extra)
The course only requires to you read and answer the chapter questions for 11 of the 19 chapters in the book. If you want to earn extra credit you may read any of the non-required chapters. These wont have chapter questions on the BB site. Instead, you will write a one page synopsis of the chapter, and include any thoughts you have about the material in the synopsis. You can earn up to 5 points per synopsis.
The non-required chapters you may do for extra credit are: 1, 10, 11, 13, 15, 17, 18, 19
Student Consultations
Each student is required to conduct one consultation for each unit. A consultation can be a phone call, visit, or email discussion with me, Dr. Swearingen. During each consultation, you will be able to ask me any questions about the material you are reading or any other of the activities listed above. But the main reason I require these consultations is for me to make sure you are working on the material and understand how to write the essays (if you chose to do so).