Course Syllabus

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Sociology 173: Inequality

Instructor: Andrew Penner (penner@uci.edu)
TA: Zaib Tufail (ztufail@uci.edu)
Spring 2016

Overview

Inequality is a core, if not the core area, in sociology. It touches on issues of gender, race, and class, as well as many other axes of along which inequality is created. Likewise much of the work on key concepts like stigma, reference groups, and organizations considers how they help us understand inequality. In this class we will cover some of the most important concepts (e.g. stigma) for understanding inequality, and examine several key axes (e.g. gender) along which inequality is created.

Student Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course:

Knowledge & Understanding

  • Students will be able to provide a broad overview of the sociological perspective on inequality
  • Students will be able to discuss 2-3 key concepts about one core topic and one key axis of contemporary US inequality

Cognitive Thinking Skills

  • Students will be able to synthesize research on inequality and explain how core topics and key ideas are related

Key Transferable Skills

  • Students will be able to design a blog using video technology to effectively communicate ideas
  • Students will be able to personalize a web-based ePortfolio template that will synthesize their work in the course with a summary of their learning

Format

Class Structure

This class is structured as an online seminar. Because it is a seminar, the focus will be less on the instructor and more on interacting with each other and the ideas in the readings and other course materials. As an online course, this interaction will take place online and will be technologically mediated.

Weekly Tasks

You will be assigned to groups containing up to 9 other students. Every week, some members of your group will be responsible for facilitating discussion and making a short (2-3 minute) video blog covering that week’s material. This video will be watched by the other students in the group.

In addition, students will also watch and comment on video blogs made by students in other groups. As with any seminar, we hope that these comments and discussions are just the start of the conversation, and hope that you will use the tools at your disposal to continue the discussion.

Other Expectations

Given the nature of the class, you will be expected to engage at a deeper level (e.g. there will be much more emphasis on synthesizing material (i.e. relating materials to other materials) and interacting with others to explain your thinking). The class is less about memorizing vocabulary and concepts. This format also allows you to gain fluency with video conferencing, video blogging, and your final project will be to build an ePortfolio.

Timeline

Quarter Overview

  • Week 1 will examine neighborhoods and give you a chance to meet each other, the TA, and me, and become familiar with the tools for course.
  • Weeks 2-5 will cover core concepts in inequality.
  • Weeks 6-9 will cover key axes of inequality.
  • Week  10 will be spent on your ePortfolio.
  • Everyone will make one video blog on a core concept, one video blog on a key axis and develop a web-based ePortfolio of their work.

Modules List

 

Weekly Overview

In a typical week:

  • Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday will be spent going over the material from that week and meeting in small groups with your groupmates and the TA to talk about the material. In addition, the TA will hold a class-wide office hours/discussion Wednesday from 12pm to 1pm.
  • Students’ videos are due by 6:00pm Thursday (Irvine time). Half of the students making videos for that week will then participate in a live discussion with each other and the professor Thursday from 7:00-8:30pm, which will be broadcast for other students to watch. Students who are not in the discussion can participate by asking questions in real time in writing (your TA will monitor these and introduce them into the discussion as appropriate).
  • Friday, Saturday, and Sunday will be spent watching and commenting on the videos for that week and starting the reading for the following week. Sunday evening there will be a short video introduction posted on the core concept or key axes being covered in the coming week.

A Note about Technology

Technology provides wonderful tools and allows us the flexibility to do amazing things and carry out discussions in new ways, but it requires new skills that you will be expected to learn. This class will allow you to explore with the course content using some these new forms of communication and educational technologies (real time online video meetings, video blog recordings, online discussion boards, developing a web-based ePortfolio, etc.)

To complete this course, you may find the following campus resources helpful:

You may also use personal technology such as your phone, tablet or computer.

Netiquette Respect

“Netiquette" is defined as network etiquette, the do's and don'ts of online communication. In this course it is important to respect each other. People are not always very nice and respectful to each other on the internet, but I expect you to conduct yourself in a way that reflects well on UCI.

In an online classroom, we will be communicating via video, but much of our communication will be written. The written language has many advantages: more opportunity for reasoned thought, more ability to go in-depth, and more time to think through an issue before posting a comment.

However, written communication also has certain disadvantages, such a lack of the face-to-face signaling that occurs through body language, intonation, pausing, facial expressions, and gestures. As a result, please be aware of the possibility of miscommunication and compose your comments in a positive, supportive, and constructive manner.

Academic Honesty

One facet of respect is intellectual honesty and integrity. Integrity of one’s own work is essential for an academic community. The University expects that both faculty and students will honor this principle and in so doing protect the validity of University intellectual work. For students, this means that all academic work will be done by the individual to whom it is assigned, without unauthorized aid of any kind. Refer here for more information on this.

Unfortunately, cheating is often especially problematic in online classes. Because of this, we ask that you use your photo as your avatar, and that your videos be recorded with you facing the camera.

Disability Services

If you need support or assistance because of a disability, you may be eligible for accommodations or services through the Disability Service Center at UC Irvine. Please contact the DSC directly at (949) 824-7494 or TDD (949) 824-6272. You can also visit the DSC’s website: http://www.disability.uci.edu/. The DSC will work with your instructor to make any necessary accommodations. Please note that it is your responsibility to initiate this process with the DSC.

Assignments

Video Blog

For this assignment, you will make a short video (2-3 minutes, in a video blog format) discussing the material assigned for that week. You are also welcome to draw on material from previous weeks and outside sources but should be clear and explain thoroughly when you draw on resources from outside of class. My suggestion would be to include outside material as a response to your blog (yes, you can respond and comment on your own blog!), as this will allow you to go into more detail and explain the new material more fully without having to worry about the time limitation of the video blog.

Your video blog will be uploaded and viewed by your groupmates and other classmates. Everybody will be in charge of making a video about one core concept (weeks 2-5) and one key axis (weeks 6-9).

Reflections and Ratings of Video Blogs

You will also view videos made by your groupmates and other classmates, and comment on these videos.

Final project

Required: For the final project, you will create an ePortfolio that includes a brief summary statement about inequality, as well as the two videos that you made.

Class participation

Offer Your Opinion

The above is just the beginning of the conversation, and I encourage you will continue the conversations and discussions among your classmate and friends.  The goal of the course is to create a forum in which you can talk and think deeply about the ideas we cover.

For example:

  • Do two of the video blogs you watched disagree about something? Weigh in with your opinion!
  • Or maybe there is a question that came up in your group’s discussion that you were curious to share with classmates and get other opinions on. Please share your thoughts!

Discussions and Meetings

Each week your group will have an hour discussion section online to meet with your TA to go over any questions that came up in the readings. In order to get the most out of this time, I recommend that you set up meetings with your groupmates beforehand to compare notes, answer each other’s questions, and compile a list of questions for your TA. In addition, your TA and I will hold townhall style online office hour discussions that you can attend.

 

Expectations for non-discussion leaders

In weeks when you are not a discussion leader, you will be asked to read or watch the relevant material before discussion and come to discussion with questions and thoughts on the material you encountered. The first item in each week’s list is often a video, website, or newspaper article. This item is followed by two sociological articles. Your peers will be in charge of facilitating discussion, so it is important that you do the reading before your discussion section.

This discussion from these individual sections culminates in a class-wide panel discussion in which half of the group leaders from that week will discuss the readings with the Professor. You will have opportunities to weigh in by sending your TA questions you have for them to raise.

Following the panel discussion you will watch the video made by your group discussion leader(s) that week, as well as videos from other groups (so that you watch three videos in all). After watching each of these videos you will write a paragraph (or two) commenting on their video. These are meant to engage with the ideas presented, respond to questions raised or points made in their video, and provide the presenter with feedback on their ideas and the content of their video blog.

Expectations for Group Discussion Leaders

As a discussion leader for the week, you are will be in charge of helping to lead the discussion of this week’s readings/videos and keep the conversation going in your group.

In addition to the reading that all students do that week, there is an additional item for you to read. This article is often times more advanced research, more challenging to understand, more technical, or raises an additional dimension that might complicate or introduce an additional wrinkle into the topic. You (along with any other discussion leaders in your discussion that week) will be responsible for summarizing this piece for the others in your group. While we expect you to read the material thoroughly each week, this is particularly important in the weeks when you are a discussion leader.

In addition to summarizing this article and facilitating discussion you will also make a short video blog (2-3 minutes) on the material for this week. You can see sample presentations on two different sets of readings on the course website. The videos should highlight the main points from each of the readings, synthesizing them, and reflecting on potential contradictions, themes, questions raised and the like. The goal is to pull the material together to provide a mini-lecture that reflects your perspective on the readings, and not simply to delineate all the points made in the article. The video blog format is a wide-ranging and flexible format, but I would encourage you to focus on the ideas and content, and to try to have a conversational tone (and not to simply read off a script).

In weeks where you make a video, you will also facilitate the conversation among commenters on your video blog.

Some possible discussion prompts for the web meeting with your group:

Ask people to talk about how they thought the concepts in the sociology articles related to the first piece in the reading list (which is often a video, newspaper article, etc).

Ask people to talk about how they saw the sociology articles fitting together.

Ask people to share which of the articles they found most compelling, and explain why.

Ask people to share whether they learned anything surprising or disturbing, and why it was surprising and disturbing.

Ask people to report on the readings that inspired or intrigued them and explain why.

Ask people to share questions that they had about the readings (either about specific findings or broader ideas). 

Grading

You will be graded on:

  • Your two video blogs (25% each)
  • Your reflections and the feedback that you give on others’ video blogs (15%)
  • The remaining 35% of your grade will come from your ePortfolio (25%) and your participation in discussion section and the Thursday evening whole class discussion (10%).
  • Extra credit is given for class participation.

Late Assignments

A note about late assignments: Given that other students are depending on you to complete the video blog in time so that they can comment on it, it is very important that it be done on time. As such, late assignments will be penalized by one third of the total points per day late (i.e. on time assignments can earn a maximum of 25 points, one day late can earn a maximum of 16 points, and two days late can earn a maximum of 8 points).

What to do if you have questions

If you have technical questions or problems with Canvas, please contact eee@uci.edu or (949) 824-7347. This class is a pliot, and we are using Canvas, which is being piloted by UCI. This means that it is important for people at UCI to know what kinds of problems you are having so they can make Canvas work better for UCI students in the future.

If you have issues with computer hardware/software setup (that are not related to Canvas), please contact the OIT Help Desk at (949) 824-2222 or oit@uci.edu. Walk-in support is located in 115 Aldrich Hall (Monday through Friday 9 am to 6 pm) and Administrative Module B, Physical Sciences Quad (Monday through Friday 8 am to 5 pm).

If you have other questions about the class, you should first check the syllabus. If this doesn't answer your question you should ask the other students in your group. If this doesn't work you should ask you TA (who will ask you if you checked the syllabus and asked other students in your group). If this doesn't work you should ask your professor (who will ask you if you checked with your TA).

Course Summary:

Date Details Due