SOCL 526: Writing in the Social Sciences

Welcome to SOCL 526:  Writing in the Social Sciences.  If you have taken an on-line course before, you know that usually the “class discussion” part of the course is often handled through the discussion board on Blackboard.  For this course, I thought we would experiment with using a blog to handle the course discussion.  The first step is having each of you set up your own blog.  In fact, the first assignment in the class is having you set up the blog.  You will find those instructions under “Assignments” in Blackboard, as well as under the assignment tab here on the blog.  After you set up your blog, send me the link to it so I can post it on this page. 

There is a learning curve with any new technology, so it may take you a little bit to figure out the blog. However, the Instructional Design Librarian, Tatiana Pashkova-Balkenhol, will be able to assist you with questions and technical problems.  If the blog technology becomes too frustrating or stressful for you, please let me know. I thought the blog space would facilitate discussion easier than the Discussion Board on Blackboard. However, if the blog interferes with the learning process and your enjoyment of the on-line course experience, we will abandon it and use the Discussion Board. 

Any time you want to post your blog responses to the blog assignments, be sure to scroll down below the “post” space and type “socl” (not in quotation marks) in the “Tags” space, then click on Add.  All of your posts need to have the “socl” tag on them for them to be fed to my blog. 

Once your blog is set up and you’ve sent me the link, send your opening post (found under the first assignment) and we can get to know each other.  If you have a photo of yourself, please upload it to your blog. 

The first two days of the course are going to be devoted to getting everyone set up on the blog.  Be sure you have ordered the e-textbook and be sure to read the first reading assignment. 

So let’s get started and see how this works!