This fast-track (8-week) online Introduction to Sociology class will take place during the second half of the Spring 2017 semester (starting April 3, 2017). Students will be taking their two major exams online through a proctoring company called ProctorU. Please note that students will need to have a webcam on their computer monitor to take the two major exams (a Midterm and Final Exam) online. Also, you will need to take the exams using either a desktop computer or a laptop (ProctorU says no tablets or smartphones will work).To see a short video that explains how the proctoring system will work, please go to this page, scroll down, and watch the video titled ProctorU — Watch How It Works. https://www.proctoru.com/pre-exam-checklist/ . Although you may be able to sign up for a ProctorU account before the semester begins, you will not be able to make appointments yet to take the exams as I have not yet written the exams or decided on the exam dates. (There will be multiple dates to choose from, and ProctorU is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.) The information on which exam dates you can choose from will be given to you once the semester begins.
This course, like almost every 3-unit college course throughout the country, requires a minimum of 144 hours of work for the typical student. This means that in an 8-week, fast-track semester like this one, a student would need to spend approximately 18 hours per week on this course. If you don’t have that much time available this semester (I know that some of you are taking multiple courses, working full-time, and raising children), you should take the course during a different semester when you do have the time available.
We will be using Blackboard, an online learning system, for this online Introduction to Sociology class. Most students find this program easy to use. (I know that many of you are already familiar with Blackboard because it is used in many college courses.) If you have never taken an online class before, please take a look right away at the following information (titled “Are you ready to be an online student?”) to help you figure out if you would do well in an online course: www.palomar.edu/areyouready/
It is absolutely essential that you have extremely reliable Internet access (preferably broadband) if you are taking an online class. If you don’t have access to a computer with reliable Internet access at home, or if your Internet access at home is temporarily unavailable at some point during the semester, there are computers available on campus for your use. However, please note that the hours to use the campus computers are limited, and the campus computers would not be acceptable for taking the two major proctored exams because the proctoring company (ProctorU) requires that you take those exams in a room with no one else present in the room. Please remember that it is your responsibility to have access to a reliable computer with reliable Internet access at all times during the semester.
If you are already registered in this online class, you will have access to our specific class Blackboard site on Monday, April 3, the day the eight-week semester officially begins. If you register in my online class after that date, you should have access to our Blackboard site within a few hours after you officially register for the course. Please note that people who join the class late do not get any extra time to finish assignments.
The optional on-campus orientation for this class is on Tuesday, April 4, from 12-1:00 p.m., in LL-104, on the main campus in San Marcos. If you already know how to use Blackboard in online classes, you are NOT required to come to the orientation on campus, but you MUST log in to Blackboard, read the announcements that are already there, and do the first short assignment by 11:30am on Tuesday, the day of the orientation; this lets me know that you intend to stay in the class. (Think of this as the online equivalent of showing up in class on the first day of a face-to-face class on campus.) If you don’t either do this short writing assignment by 11:30am on Tuesday or show up at the orientation at noon on that day, I reserve the right to drop you from the class to make room for any crashers who might show up at the orientation.
If you are currently registered in the course and decide to drop it for whatever reason, please do so officially as quickly as possible. As soon as one student officially drops, another student who was waiting for an opening can get into the course.
If you are not yet registered in this course by the first day of the semester, you can try to “crash” it. To do so, please come to the orientation on campus on Tuesday, April 4. If I have any spaces available, I will give out permission codes at that orientation meeting.
If you are a registered student in one of my online classes, email me at professorlesyna@gmail.com whenever you need to email me. Please sign your complete name to the email and identify your five-digit class number (for example: Maria Gonzalez, 34514). It’s extremely important that you include both of these pieces of information in every email that you send to me throughout the semester.
If you are NOT already one of my registered students, then all emails to me should be sent to klesyna@palomar.edu.
To access our class information on Blackboard on or after Monday, April 3, registered students should go to https://palomar.blackboard.com/ and input your username and password from eServices in the appropriate boxes. If you successfully log in, you will come to a page with various boxes of information. The box on the left should be labeled Tools, the middle one should be labeled My Announcements, and the one on the right should be labeled My Courses. Click on the name of our course in the My Courses box. After you have successfully clicked on the name of our course, you will eventually see purple rectangles on the left side of the page (they have titles such as FAQs, Quiz Materials, etc., and it may take a while for them to appear). You will also see one or more announcements (messages) from me on the right side. Read the announcements carefully for further instructions and information about the class.
In addition to the two major exams (a Midterm and a Final Exam) that you will take through ProctorU (the proctoring service I mentioned above), there will be quizzes that you will take online that will cover assigned articles and videos. (You will have multiple days to pick from to take each quiz.) You will also have some writing assignments. I will explain how to take online quizzes and how to post to the Discussion Board at the orientation on campus.
There are two required textbooks for this course. The main textbook, titled Society: The Basics (14th ed.), is by John J. Macionis. It is published by Pearson Education, Inc., and the copyright is 2017. Please note that you do need the current edition. Here is a photo of the textbook cover from the publisher’s website: http://www.mypearsonstore.com/bookstore/society-the-basics-0134206320. However, please note that you can probably get a new loose-leaf copy of this book cheaper through the Palomar bookstore, and the copy you get through the Palomar bookstore should include access to the REVEL online resources. Although it is not at all necessary for you to have access to the REVEL online resources for this course, you might find them helpful to you during the semester. Also, please note that you cannot get by with just the digital version (sometimes referred to as an e-version) of this textbook. The reason this won’t work is that Pearson (the publishing company) does not include page numbers in their digital versions of their textbook, and on the study guides, I often refer you to specific page numbers. I have suggested to the Pearson rep that they include page numbers in their digital versions, but to this date they have not included them.
The second textbook, titled Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets, is by Sudhir Venkatesh. It is published by Penguin, and the copyright is 2008. Here is a photo of the textbook cover: http://www.amazon.com/Gang-Leader-Day-Sociologist-Streets/dp/014311493X/ref=tmm_pap_title_ This book is also available at our campus bookstore; however, if you are buying it new, it may be cheaper through online sources. My understanding is that the Kindle version of this book does include page numbers, so for those of you who use a Kindle for reading, that might be a good option for you. (But check to make sure that it does indeed include page numbers.)
If you are going to buy the books online somewhere other than the campus bookstore or through the book publishers, please make sure you look at the photos of the book covers at the above links to make sure you buy the correct books. In past semesters, some students have bought the wrong versions of the Macionis book from online sources. Also, before you buy books anywhere, you should always check for their return policy.
You should buy your textbooks right away. Reading assignments in the Macionis textbook start the first day of the semester. It is always your responsibility to have the required textbooks. Unfortunately, I do not have any extra copies of the textbooks to lend to students. You might want to check with the campus library to see if they have any copies on reserve.
If you need to contact me before the beginning of the semester about anything that is not covered above, please contact me via email. However, please note that I do not make course materials such as the syllabus, schedule, etc., available to students before Monday, April 3.
I hope you will have a really great semester!
Professor Kalyna Lesyna