What you learn in this course will benefit you by helping you by teaching you to critically evaluate research on social issues, by giving you new concepts and tools to understand the many social problems we face in the U.S. and the world today, and by giving you an opportunity to think about your own life in new ways.

You will learn by reading in your textbook, by completing practice exercises to test your understanding, by keeping a personal blog about what you are learning, and, most importantly, by interacting with your classmates, discussing your thoughts, reactions, and questions as you each learn about sociology for the first time.

Entry Level Competencies:

There are no official prerequisites for Soc 200.  However, the course is a sophomore-level course and requires significant reading and writing.  If you are new to the English language or are a native speaker currently placed in developmental English classes, you will likely find it difficult to succeed in this class.  I recommend that you take the course at another time, once your English skills have improved enough that you can take full advantage of the course materials and really do your best.

If you do well in this course, you will be able to:

• understand and apply the three major theoretical perspectives in sociology;
• explain how sociologists use scientific research to study social life;
• understand and apply major sociological concepts;
• be able to better understand diversity and see social issues from other people's points of view; and
• use the sociological imagination to better understand your own life.

Besides the textbook, there will be no other required materials to purchase. However, if you are new to online courses, you might want to also review some advice on succeeding in the online environment. A good text for this purpose is Ryan Watkins and Michael Corry, E-learning Companion: A Student's Guide to Online Success. I have not ordered this for the class so you will not see it listed when you go to the link above to order your course textbook, but you can find it at various online booksellers if you are interested. You can also borrow the book from NOVA's library.

Possible Assignments Include: (Subject to change each semester. The actual assignments are available in the Syllabus in the Blackboard course site on the first day of classes.)

Your final grade may be based on the following scale.

There are 3 proctored exams in this course.

Last Updated: August 19, 2010