Course Overview

Welcome to Sociology 130, Family and Society. If this is your first time taking an online course, you will probably find, as most students do, that the biggest challenge is managing your time on the course. Because there is no class to show up for at a given time, it is often easy to let the material go until the very end. Unfortunately, that is not the best way to experience the class. My recommendation would be to treat the course as if you were in a regular class, doing your readings and activities according to the course schedule below. You and I are restricted to taking and completing the course within the regular campus semester schedule set by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Therefore, try to manage your time within those restrictions.

I would also warn you that it may be tempting to use other people's old tests, assignments, and answers to exams. However, that is considered cheating by me and the faculty in general at UNC. You must do your own work. There have been several instances of copying from exams, especially among roommates, sorority sisters, fraternity brothers, and other groups; these people have been confronted and penalized. As a professor, that has been the most negative aspect of offering this course online. However, the positives far outweigh that negative, in that the material can be offered to a wider range of students, including working students, nontraditional students, and others, who, for whatever reasons, cannot attend campus regularly during the day.

The course is divided into seven sections, and the Web page for each section contains:

• objectives for that section
• required readings from a novel or supplemental academic material (sometimes online)
• section notes--the equivalent of lecture notes
• review questions to help you focus on the main points of the material in that section
• study aids for the sections that have novels assigned, to help you understand the reading
• a discussion forum topic for you to discuss in the discussion forum
• enlighteners--optional self-growth activities included in most of the sections, designed to make you more conscious of some of the topics we've covered
• suggested readings for those of you interested in finding out more about specific topics
• a reminder to make an entry in your journal
• a bibliography link where you can look up the references for the works I have cited in the course.

Most of the books assigned are available in paperback, and most of them are widely available in public and college libraries.

I believe that living family life is a journey and a process, but one that we too often attempt to lead with limited knowledge of where we're going or where others have been. Our view of "family" is often so much a part of our everyday lives that we don't even recognize it as a social institution with significant influence on us.  For that reason, in this course I hope to present you with an overview of what professionals know about married and family life at the personal and institutional (or societal) level.  Given that information, I hope you become conscious and aware of what family is, how it impacts individuals, and how it is, itself, impacted by the wider society, nation, and world in which we live.

As you will read in one of your assigned articles for the first section, many social scientists have attempted in recent years to admit their own subjectivity and personality in the study of family and similar issues. I agree strongly with these researchers who question whether a "value-free" social science is possible. It is for that reason that I inform my students of my own background, so that you know my biases and limitations. I do not expect all of you to agree with my presentation of the material in family studies, but I do want you to understand that I am aware of the biases and limitations in my own work and in my selection of the material you read and study for my course.

My goal in presenting the material offered in the course is to help you decide for yourself, based on your own background, interests, and beliefs as they intersect with informed results from family studies, what course you choose in voting for, participating in, or advocating for family policies in the future.

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Required Texts

Rather than requiring you to order one large, expensive textbook, I have assigned several short novels, academic books, and online readings to supplement the section notes for the course.  The books you will need are:

• Coontz, Stephanie.  The Way We Really Are (1998)
• Edelman, Marian Wright. The Measure of Our Success (1993)
• Edgerton, Clyde. Raney, (1985)
• Ehrenreich, Barbara.  Nickled and Dimed (2001)
• Munsch, Robert. The Paper Bag Princess (1988)
• Rubin, Lillian.  Worlds of Pain (1992)
• Stacey, Judith.  In the Name of the Family (1997)
• Tannen, Deborah. You Just Don't Understand (1990)
• Tyler, Anne. Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant (1982)
• Waite, Linda, and Maggie Gallagher.  The Case for Marriage (2000)

You can order these texts from Friday Center Books & Gifts at the Friday Center in person, online, or by using the book order form. These books also should be available in college or public community libraries.  Look for the Munsch book in the children's section. 

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Course Requirements

Academic Books and Articles

In this course, you will be required to read a number of academic articles and books that report research findings. The following suggestions will help you analyze these more rigorous write-ups of family studies.

1. Always read the title and abstract at the front of an academic article. The title will almost always give you an idea of the theoretical argument or research variables that are being investigated. The abstract is a short summary of the article and its major findings. The introduction of most books serves the same purpose as the abstract in an article. In Worlds of Pain by Rubin, for example, her introduction lays out her research plan and what she found.
   
   
2. Recognize the "order" of academic articles. Usually the write-up of the articles is organized in the following manner:

   Introduction
   Literature review
   Data and methods
   Results or findings
   Discussion.

3. Don't worry about technical language, especially of the statistical sort, right now. You won't understand much of the more sophisticated statistical analysis unless you have a lot of background in that area. But it is not necessary to understand all the statistics to get an idea of what the author or authors were doing. Go to the "Results" and "Discussion" sections to get an overview of what was found and how the findings are being explained.
   
   
4. Finally, as you read the article, keep in mind or jot down the answers to questions such as the following:
   • What is the title of the article? Who is its author(s)? Where was it published (citation)?
   • What is the issue being researched?
   • What is the independent variable or "cause"?
   • What is the dependent variable or "effect"?
   • What theoretical perspective, if any, would you say the author is using?
   • What sample was used? How many? How were they chosen?
   • What were the major findings? Were major hypotheses supported or rejected?
   • What do you think of the quality of the article?
   • What might you have done differently if you were writing the article?

Journal Write-up

You will be required to keep a journal as part of the course. At the end of the course you will summarize what you have learned from your journal entries and submit your summary to be graded.

The entries themselves do not have to be formal and well written; you can just jot them down as you're doing an assignment. These entries should consist of experiences you've had that are similar to course discussions, or of thoughts you have as you read the course material. For example, on the section dealing with divorce, if you have experienced divorce personally, or your parents have, you could note similarities and differences between your experience and those mentioned in the section discussion.

I recommend that you keep up your journal entries as you go along and keep the journal entries in one place, such as in a special legal pad or notebook. I do not want you to turn in your actual journal entries. I only want you to write a final summary of what you learned from the entries.

The following is what I will look for in grading your journal write-up:

1. Is there evidence to show that journal entries were made regularly and as the course progressed, rather than all at the end of the course?
2. How much does the write-up relate to course material? I do not want you to simply quote from the text. Instead, you should incorporate personal insight and experience with relevant readings.
3. Is your journal write-up logical and appropriate, from a sociological perspective? For instance, if you tell me that there has never been a divorce in your family and therefore you don't think there's a problem with divorce in our society, I will not think you have learned much in the course.
4. Is the write-up grammatically correct? Are words spelled correctly? Proofread your own paper or get a friend to do so. It is difficult to read papers for quality when there are numerous run-on sentences, misspelled words, and paragraphs that seem entirely out of context.
5. Is there creativity and/or originality?
6. The journal write-up should be approximately four to five pages using 12-point font.

Review Questions

At the end of most of the sections, you will find a review of the material that we have covered. Specifically, this review is in the form of questions about the material. Use these reviews as a study guide. The exams will come primarily from these reviews. If you are stumped on a question, you may ask classmates, either over the discussion forum or in person if you have that access, or you may ask me. Contrary to previous times that I have taught this course, this semester you are NOT required to turn in the review questions for grading.

Discussion Forum

You will have a different topics to discuss with your classmates in the discussion forum for a total of seven forums. The forums are the equivalent of what I would use as applied exercises in a regular classroom. It gives you an opportunity to observe your fellow students' reactions to the course material, and to interact with them online. For instructions on how to access the discussion forum, see Course Mechanics.

Exams

There will be three exams during the semester. All of the exams are to be taken alone, with no help from other students, books, notes, or the Internet. Your exams will be a combination of multiple-choice and short-answer questions, for the most part. You will be tested on particular sections of the course material for each exam, but none of the exams is cumulative, except in the sense of knowing terminology and very general concepts.

You will access the exams via a link in the "Exams" section of Blackboard (see instructions for accessing Blackboard) at the time indicated in the course schedule. The exam link will be activated for twenty-four hours to allow people who work various hours to have access to it, but you are limited to a two-and-a-half-hour period to take the exam.

Grading

Your final grade will be calculated as follows:

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Study Suggestions

Having taught for many years and having taken distance education courses myself, here are a few suggestions that may help you finish on a set schedule.

1. Set aside a specific time, if at all possible, to work on your course. Treat it as if you were taking the course on a campus and had to be in class at a certain time for a certain length of time.
2. Look over the review questions for a section first, before you read the section notes and readings. The questions will give you an idea of the issues on which you need to focus, and it will alert you to certain terms and labels you need to know.
3. Read the academic articles assigned for the course with an eye to analysis and evaluation rather than with an eye to entertainment or pleasure.
4. Read the assigned novels with a sociological perspective. I have provided a study aid for each novel in the section that has questions about the novel.

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Honor Code

All work in SOCI 130 falls under UNC's Honor Code. If you have any questions about usage of sources, please contact me.  Reading and using returned, graded assignments of students who have taken the course earlier is the same thing as cheating in class.

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Course Mechanics

Blackboard

Some of your class components (discussion forums, exams, and announcements) are accessed through a software package called Blackboard, and you will need to login to Blackboard using a unique identifier known as your UNC Onyen (Only name you'll ever need) and Onyen password.

There is a link to the Blackboard site in the gray navigation bar at the top of every page in this course. Click on that link, and then use your Onyen to log in to Blackboard. Click on the "SOCI 130" link, and you will see navigation buttons on the left side of the screen labeled Announcements, Discussion Forum, Exams, and so on.

If you experience problems accessing Blackboard, this is what you should do:  

• If you do not already have a UNC Onyen, go to the Onyen Web site and follow the instructions for creating an Onyen.
• If you have an Onyen but have forgotten it (or the password), go to the Onyen Web site.
• If you have your Onyen but can't log in to Blackboard, contact Janice Durham at the Friday Center.
• If you can log in to Blackboard but can't find this course listed, contact Janice Durham at the Friday Center.
• If you can't locate an exam or discussion forum in Blackboard, contact the Instructional Designer.
• If you have other technical problems while using Blackboard, contact Blackboard Help (use the Help button in Blackboard, or call 919-962-HELP).

Library Services and E-reserves

Students enrolled in Carolina Courses Online can access online library resources from the UNC Library System by linking to Library Services for Distance Education Students. This site includes information on using general online reference works as well as accessing e-reserves.

If you are using an off-campus computer, you will need to enter your UNC Onyen to access the readings that are available through the library's e-reserve system. The UNC library staff is available to assist any students who have difficulties accessing online library resources. If you encounter difficulties, please report your problem by visiting this Web page for reporting a problem and the Proxy Server Team will respond.

Using E-mail

You will receive e-mail messages regarding the course at your UNC e-mail address. Off-campus users can access their UNC e-mail account using Webmail. You can have your UNC e-mail forwarded to a different e-mail address by clicking "Forward e-mail" at the Onyen Web site.

If you use a filter on your e-mail account, you are responsible for ensuring that it does not prevent you from receiving messages from me, the course listserv, or Friday Center staff. Hotmail users should be aware that Hotmail will block messages sent from within Blackboard because Blackboard uses "blind carbon copy" to protect privacy. We recommend that you use your UNC Onyen e-mail account rather than Hotmail for this course.

Submitting Assignments

It is extremely important for you to save copies of any work you send to me via e-mail. If I don't receive your work, you must have a duplicate copy, indicating the date sent, to prove that you submitted the assignment on time. It is your responsibility to maintain copies of your sent e-mails, as there is no way to guarantee that any e-mail message will be delivered.

Please check your e-mail software to see how it manages sent and saved messages. Some software automatically deletes messages one month after they have been sent; others only save messages if they are filed in folders; others save messages received but not those sent. You may need to send yourself a copy of your e-mailed assignment at the same time you send it to me, or you may need to print a copy of the e-mail message and any attachments to keep in your paper files. No matter how your system works, make sure you know how to save a copy of all work that you submit to me and that you save the copy for several months beyond the end of the course.

Other Questions

If you have questions regarding

• the content of the course and your progress, contact me. There is a link to my e-mail address at the top of every lesson page. Please include "SOCI 130 CCO" and your name in the subject line of your e-mail.
• problems with this Web site, including bad links, contact the Instructional Designer at the Friday Center
• enrollment, Onyen, credits, withdrawal, and so on, contact the Student Services staff at the Friday Center for Continuing Education (phone 919-962-1134 or 800-862-5669).

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Course Schedule

This is the syllabus. Click on the highlighted section number below to see the full assignment.

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Section 1