Women, Culture, and Social Policy

SYD 4813 Women, Culture, and Social Policy (Class E-mail) Dr. Elizabeth Mustaine

Course Format

This course will be divided into 15 units, corresponding to the 15 weeks of the course. Each unit will have an on-line and in-class component. Most units will also have a reading assignment from one or both of your textbooks. Each unit is outlined in a corresponding course module. Please see the course modules section of the course pages for a discussion of each unit/topic/module. Each unit starts in the classroom and ends on-line. As such, each Tuesday in the classroom we will start discussing a new topic. After class that week, we will continue then finish discussing that topic on-line. Some weeks there will be additional discussions going on, or additional work being posted. You are expected to participate in all discussion boards. Each week's discussion and assignments are outlined in the corresponding Module (e.g., week 1 is outlined in Module 1).

The On-line component of the course:

For the on-line portion of the course you will be asked to complete each unit module. These modules will entail doing the assigned reading from one or both of your textbooks. They may also include any of the following:

doing some extra readings.
completing an on-line exercise.
participating in a chat group.
seeking out certain information on the web.
writing papers and posting them to a discussion board.
composing your thoughts about readings or web sites and posting to a discussion board.

In order to assess your mastery of the information and critical thinking, each module will be followed by a request to post your thoughts, evaluations, and the information you gathered to an on-line Discussion group.

You may opt to not post about the readings for 2 topics only. Some of the modules cover more than one topic. As such, while there are 15 modules, there are 17 topics that will require your discussion and participation. Thirteen of the 15 modules have a component that informs you about your assigned readings and a request to post your thoughts to the relevant Discussion group. Six of the modules cover 2 topics, or have a reading assignment as well as a web research assignment. You must read and post your thoughts for 15 out of the 17 topics. This only applies to the assigned reading component of the module. This does not apply to the other components of the modules. You must complete all other elements of the modules for this class. You are still responsible for learning the material in the assigned reading for the two weeks you do not discuss on-line. For a discussion of the specific topics and how they relate to your grade in this class, please see the "course requirements" section of the course pages.

In addition, throughout the course, there will be web research assignments. You will be asked to seek out certain information, or you will be asked to go to a particular web site and see what is there. You will be asked to evaluate these websites based on such characteristics as bias, accuracy, breadth, depth, and currency.

The In-class component of the course:

For the in-class portion of the course you will be asked to come to class and participate in the discussion. Discussions will center around the "real world" application of the concepts, patterns, and consequences of policy that you will have been reading about on-line and in your text. In order to successfully engage in the classroom discussion, you will need to have completed the readings for that week's scheduled topic.