Sociology 101: Statistics for Sociologists

First Day, Accessibility, Equity-Minded

Reflection on Instructional Change:

For this FLC, I reflected upon and redesigned my course orientation module and my welcome/introduction module for my Sociology 101: Statistics for Sociologists course My focus for both modules was to create accessible videos (with accurate closed captioning). Soc 101 is a required upper division course for Sociology majors and it is capped at 25 students. It has a lecture and lab component. Most students in the course are in senior standing.

I chose this course because it is required course for Sociology majors and is often a bottleneck course for students. The course is usually taught in-person, in large part because of the required lab component and level of difficulty of the content. However, due to the transition to online modality since the start of the pandemic, I have been prioritizing on making the online course more accessible for students and to humanize the online learning space.

I created "about your instructor" and lecture videos for the Course Orientation and Introduction/Welcome modules, respectively.
Upon reflecting on the priority needs of my students and what I took away from our FLC, I decided to create an accessible video of me introducing myself to students and accessible lecture videos for the first learning module. Before this change, my "About Your Instructor" page had only text description of my biography and my lecture videos were not accessible (did not have closed captioning).
Steps I took to make the change:
- Create presentation slides using Google slides
- Used Zoom to present and record slides
- Uploaded Zoom recordings to MediaSite and requested closed captioning

I assessed the impact of my redesign on student learning and/or experience based on the following:

Number of video views
Student survey data
Student success in the course or on standardized exams
Student testimonials (only with their consent/permission)

My redesign makes my course materials more accessible and in more flexible format (e.g., videos), allowing students to access the learning materials at their convenience and enabling the course to be offered in asynchronous modality.

Including accessible videos in the first two modules of my course reduced cognitive load for students who are already taking a challenging course that they must take in order to graduate with a Sociology degree. The accessibility of my lectures via videos allowed students to access our course materials at their convenience and to be able to watch them multiple times, as needed. Moreover, my accessible videos humanized the online learning environment, motivating students to connect with our online course materials and with me as their instructor.This is particularly important when starting a new course.

Our FLC has been instrumental in supporting and motivating these changes that I've made in my course.

Evidence of Instructional Change

Screenshot of welcome message to students

screenshot of orientation video

Welcome message to students in written and video formats

Meet and greet discussion during week 1

ACUE microcredential completion badge

ACUE microcredential and module completion badges

Practice and Reflect on: Leading the First Day of Class

Course Syllabus

Faculty Bio

	Thien-Huong Ninh is a lecturer in Sociology. She earned her doctorate in Sociology from the University

This work was supported by:

National Science Foundation Hispanic Serving Institution Project STEM Zone DUE 1832335

CSU Office of the Chancellor Academic Affairs grant for Faculty Professional Development

US Department of Education Hispanic Serving Institution Project STEM4Equity P031C210012

*Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or the US Department of Education.

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