Soc 327 Syllabi and Class Materials
RACE & ETHNIC RELATIONS

INTERSESSION 2010 Online Course: November 29 to December 17

Course activities placed at CSUB's Blackboard 9 testing site at:
 
https://bb.csub.edu/webapps/login/


Instructor: Dr. Gonzalo Santos
 
Phone: (661) 654-2191
 
Email button

santos_class@csub.edu

Teaching Assistance: Ms. Eva Rafik

TA email

evarafik@yahoo.com

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Textbooks:
 
Here are the two books students will need to purchase as a "bundle:"
          (Do NOT get an earlier edition of this book, as the tests will not match!)
 The ISBN for this two-book "bundle" is: 9781412980982 . The price for the "bundle" should be about $75.00 plus shipping online, or about $85.00 at your campus bookstore.
 
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Course Contents

This course is designed to provide students capable of operating as independent learners in an online-only environment with a broad, yet solid, introduction to the field of race & ethnic relations in the United States. The historical and contemporary experiences of various ethnic and panethnic groups in the United States -- the so-called European Americans, Native Americans, African Americans, Latinos/Hispanics, and Asian Americans -- are sociologically analyzed in the Healey textbook. Various sociological concepts are introduced and defined to explain the origins and history of the interactions between these groups, from colonial times to the present. In short, we attempt to learn and understand -- mediated by sociological theory -- the history and dynamics of modern peoplehoods in the United States. The Healey book does so with various degrees of success, which is fine: there has been and currently is no consensus for anything resembling a universal theory of modern peoplehood; there is not even agreement over the nature and historical record of racial and ethnic relations in specific countries, such as the United States -- much less on the history of peoplehood in all its forms, everywhere in the modern world-system. So the field is still, and will remain so for the foreseeable future, one of the most contested terrains of social science, public policy, and political discourse in most countries. But the Healey textbook, the main foundation of this online course, is an excellent way to introduce, in some depth, the broad historical sociology of race and ethnicity in one such country, the United States.

The emphasis of this course will then be placed on how race, ethnicity, & nationhood were and are socially (re)constructed in the U.S., and how these categories relate to various social structural processes such as free and forced prior and present migrations, colonial incorporation and modern imperialism, class stratification and social struggle, the role of the state, the patterns of sociocultural dynamics in peoplehood, and the role of gender relations. We seek to elucidate the contexts in which the modern social categories of peoplehood originated and how they have evolved, how they were affected by -- and in turn affected  -- the broader political, economic, and cultural processes of U.S. history.

Contemporary issues in race, ethnicity, gender, and class are explored in a broader international field through thirteen chapters in the second book, the CQ Researcher anthology. Students will be asked to assess critically these readings, applying the conceptual framework developed in the Healey textbook and other sociological knowledge the students may already possess.

NOTE: The course's learning objectives, as far as they are addressed in the main (Healey) textbook, may be found by clicking the link to the "Healey Chapter Outlines and Learning Objectives" folder in the course's Blackboard account.

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Course Structure

Self-learning, Pacing, and Assigned Activities Deadlines:

This three-week online course is designed for the mature, independent learner that has the time and ability to compress a ten-week course into three weeks; one already well acquainted with and capable of using with ease the internet, email, CSUB's Blackboard 9, and who already possess - or has easy access to - a good computer well connected to all of these things. It presupposes the enrolled student is willing and able to trade the time it would have otherwise spent in the classroom doing instead extensive reading, testing, and writing activities on their own. Students should plan for and reserve on their calendars at least three to four hours a day for this course during the three weeks it will last. Students who enrolled early are encouraged to begin as soon as possible to move ahead of time even before the course is officially open on Nov. 29 (Blackboard will allow you to do this). The course is entirely web based and requires no physical attendance to any meeting, class or testing room. Each student is allowed to work at his or her own pace, pretty much on his or her own, but there is a serious deadline for all tests and reading assessments to have been completed: Friday midnight, December 17.


Testing and Writing Activities Using CSUB's Blackboard 9:

All testing and writing activities will be performed in CSUB's online testing system, Blackboard 9, located at CSUB's web portal and at:

https://bb.csub.edu/webapps/login/

For those students who need to be introduced to this system, please go to:

http://www.csub.edu/els/bb9/

I. Testing Based on the Healey Textbook:

The Healey book contains 11 chapters, of which we will cover the first 10 chapters, all of which you need to be tested out by Friday midnight, Dec. 17. For each chapter, students must take at least one multiple-choice test of twenty questions on the web. To access and take a given chapter test, go the course's Blackboard account and click on the "Healey Chapter Tests" folder, then click the link to that chapter test.
EXTRA: If you wish to improve a possible low chapter test score, you may take a second chapter test, so long as you do so before the assigned chapter deadline. The final chapter score recorded in those cases will be the average of the two test scores.

Other Instructions on Taking Healey Chapter Tests at CSUB's Blackboard:

If you need help: Contact the Student Technology Help Desk for Blackboard-related question in the library at (661) 654-2315; or, for computer-related questions, contact the Student Help Desk at (661) 654-2307. Or simply go to the E-Learning Services at the lower level of the campus library, accessible through the East entrance door (by the pond) during regular office hours. No help available on weekends, so do not leave the work for then.

Be prepared!  The maximum duration for each chapter test is 60 minutes. Although the test will not shut down if you go overt the 1-hour limit, points will be discounted if you do. So make sure you have prepared well and choose well a time & place to take each test without distractions or delays of any kind; on the other hand, don't rush! Take time to read carefully each question before you answer it. You may take the test with the book open, but do it exclusively on your own, please. Never plan to take a test in two or more sittings, for this will trigger a penalty; plan always to take each test in a single session (the computer also sometimes freezes when trying to reconnect to incomplete tests, or opens a whole new test instead).

Save your answers every time. Try not to jump around changing your answers, but if you change your mind on a specific answer, don't forget to save it again! And don't forget to "send" your chapter test to grade when you are done (many students forget this last step and their scores are not computed).

Security precaution: If you are using a public computer always quit both the Blackboard site and the browser after you are done with testing  -- otherwise, someone may access your own Blackboard account and "try out" some tests! This is because your access codes stay active until you quit the browser. And remember, never share your testing access codes with anyone!

Cheating Warning: Students are hereby formally forewarned that anybody caught cheating on the tests will automatically fail the course. Blackboard has a monitoring capability that automatically "flags" for instructors a variety of potential cheating cases and situations  -- including comparing student answers, times of testing, etc. 

II. Reading Assessments Based on the CQ Researcher Anthology:

The CQ Researcher anthology contains 15 chapters, of which we will assign 10 chapters: chapters 1 through 7, and 13, 14, 15. For each chapter assigned in the CQ Researcher anthology, students will be asked to do a CQ Researcher Reading Assessment in Blackboard. To submit a given CQ Researcher chapter reading assessment, go the course's Blackboard account and click on the "CQ Researcher Reading Assessments" folder, then click the link to that chapter. The deadline for all CQ Researcher Reading Assessment is Friday midnight, Dec. 17.

Your reading assessments should be full critical thinking essays evaluating, assessing, and analyzing the reading, of length no less than the equivalent of two (2) regular pages long - double-spaced - in Word -- and no more than three (3) such pages. Do not be merely descriptive or summarizing. You should be able to identify and select the most salient, important issues raised by the article, point out the author's arguments, viewpoints, and conclusions, and assess all of them critically, in light of what you have learned elsewhere in the social sciences, the Healey textbook, or your own thought processes and life experiences. End the reading assessment with what you think would be an excellent, pertinent question or two for follow-up research or ideal class discussion. You will be graded for breath & depth of the assessment, the analytical relevance of the issues you address, the quality of your critical thinking, the actual accuracy in your statements, and the clarity and fluency of your writing.
IMPORTANT NOTE: PLEASE DO NOT attach any Word (or other text) files to your submissions; instead use the Blackboard editor. It is recommended that you actually compose your response off the web, in Word, and when you are done writing and editing it, simply copy and paste it into the Blackboard editor, without attaching the Word file -- though, by all means, you should save your Word file in case something goes wrong and you have to do it again.

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Other Course-Related Materials Found in the Course's Blackboard Account:

These instructional materials are placed in the course's Blackboard account for the benefit of the students, though there is no activity associated with them for this online version of the course:

Plagiarism:

To prevent students from wittingly or unwittingly engaging in plagiarism, Dr. Santos strongly recommends students to carefully read and abide by the document CSUB Classifications of Plagiarism found at: http://www.csub.edu/tlc/options/resources/turn_it_in_help_page.shtml

Anyone found guilty of engaging in plagiarism will automatically fail the course and be reported to the Office of Student Discipline and Judicial Affairs for further disciplinary action.

Grading:

The ten Healey Chapter Tests are worth 70 percent of the final grade. The ten assigned CQ Researcher Reading Assessments are worth the remaining 30 percent of the final grade. This adds up to 100 points. The final letter grade will be assigned, on a scale of 0 to 100 points as follows:
 

94-100 = A 87-89 = B+ 77-79 = C+ 65-69 = D
90-93 = A- 84-86 = B 74-76 = C < 65 = F

80-83 = B- 70-73 = C


Email Communication with Dr. Santos & Ms. Eva Rafik:

Students may communicate with Dr. Santos and Ms. Eva Rafik via email to the class email address above. Ms. Rafik may also be reached directly and privately at her own email address above. Both email addresses are also posted at the Blackboard course site. Please be advised, though, that email communication has to be very brief and to the point. Always sign off with your FULL NAME, do not assume we know who you are!

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