GERO 201: INTRO TO GERONTOLOGY Fall 2012 Online South Dakota State University, College of Education and Human Sciences, Counseling and Human Development Welcome to GERO 201 Instructor: Renee Oscarson, Ph.D. Office: Wagner 403 Office Hours: by appointment E-mail: After the course has begun, please contact me through D2L. To obtain information about the gerontology minor, you may contact me via Renee.Oscarson@sdstate.edu. Catalog course description: Introduction and overview of the field of gerontology. Interdisciplinary focus on aging process, community resources, diversity, health care and caregiving, retirement, death and bereavement, public policy and professional issues. Required course for gerontology minors. Additional course description: This course provides an introduction to the field of gerontology and thus sets the foundation for SDSU courses in the gerontology minor. The overall goal of Introduction to Gerontology is to provide students a foundation of the processes of and issues related to aging. INSIDE THIS ISSUE Course Description Instructor Contact Info Description & Prerequisites 1 Course Requirements Text and other readings D2L Attendance 1 Academic Honesty 2 Broad Goals of GERO 201 2 GERO 201 Course Objectives & Assessment 3 Evaluation Procedures 4 Additional Information 5 Grading 5 Description of instructional methods: Online presentations, discussion, case studies, internetbased activities, small group activities, videos, interview and experiential activities. COURSE PREREQUISITES Previous courses: None Please Read This: Course Requirements REQUIRED TEXT: Quadagno, J. (2011). Aging and the life course: An Introduction to Social Gerontology (5th ed). Boston: McGraw-Hill. SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS: Course Materials on D2L, websites as assigned. "ATTENDANCE" POLICY: You will need to log in to the course at least three times per week in order to participate in the course discussions, check mail, read materials, and submit assignments. This course is NOT self-paced. The new content module for each week will be available Monday 8:00 am, Central Time (During weeks with Monday holidays, new material will open on Tuesday). Most weeks you need to begin the discussion by Tuesday or Wednesday so that others can respond to you. You frequently will need to do some reading prior to discussion posting.
Page 2 Academic Honesty In written papers and other class projects, it is unethical and unprofessional to present work done by others in a manner that indicates that the material is your original ideas or work. Cheating, assisting others, or plagiarizing on tests, quizzes, problems, research papers, or other assignments will result in written notification to the student involved, the academic advisor, the department that offers the course, the appropriate College or Administrative Dean, and parent/guardian (when student is dependent for financial aid purposes). Plagiarizing is submitting uncited materials as your own work, when it was produced by others. Examples include uncited work from journals, books, work of others, or electronic sources (e.g., Internet, CDs, video and audio, graphics). The penalty for academic dishonesty may be one or more of the following, at the discretion of the instructor, and based on the seriousness of the Turnitin is designed to help you develop your writing skills and to prevent plagiarism. It is integrated with D2L. situation: 1. A grade of zero on the test, quiz, homework, problem, or other assignment for the student(s) involved. 2. A grade of F for the course. 3. Referral of the matter to the Student Conduct Committee or the Graduate School for disciplinary action. Students have the right to appeal an academic dishonesty charge. Procedures for this process are available in Department offices and the Dean s office. If repeated offenses occur in either a specific class or in 2 more different classes, the matter will be automatically referred to the Student Conduct Committee. Broad Goals of GERO 201 Because this is an overview course, GERO 201 is designed to help you meets goals that provide a foundation for understanding older adults. The goals are that you: 1. Learn fundamental principles, generalizations, or theories about aging. You will go beyond memorization to think about facts, terms and principles as related to the circumstances of older adults. "This is not meant to imply that the learning or memorization of facts is unimportant. A strong factual basis is essential to the mastery of principles and theories and other "higher level" intellectual skills; students cannot learn to think unless they have something to think about." (IDEA Center, August 2002). Thus, another goal is that you: 2. Gain factual knowledge related to gerontology. To obtain maximum benefit from your knowledge, it is important that you apply what you learn to situations in which you live and work. Thus another general goal is to: 3. Learn to apply course materials to solve problems, make decisions, and perform tasks that are part of course assignments. questions and projects are provided so that you apply course materials to "real-life" situations.
Page 3 GERO 201 Course Objectives Course Objective (CO) CO 1 Challenge common myths about aging and explain impacts of ageism on society. Assessment (See Evaluation) Quiz CO 2 CO 3 CO 4 CO 5 CO 6 CO 7 CO 8 CO 9 CO 10 Identify biological changes that occur with aging. Describe factors that promote good mental health in older adults. Identify stresses and benefits associated with family caregiving. Describe social programs developed to meet needs of older adults in the U.S. and examine current & future fit of those programs. Apply the lifecourse concepts of age, period & cohort to examples of aging. Recognize the impacts of various cultural meanings of aging and diverse cultural norms on needs of older adults. Articulate personal values related to "dying well." Discuss grief reactions among older adults and their loved ones. Describe age-related changes in perceptual and cognitive skills and how behavioral choices may promote or inhibit optimal aging. Describe characteristics of successful work and retirement and identify steps that might be taken to prepare for retirement., Quiz Population Pyramids, Martha, Quiz,, Quiz Dying well paper Dying well paper, CO 11 Create (or review) population pyramids for Population Pyramids regional counties and describe the impact of different population patterns on local services such as schools, health care, businesses, and politics. CO 12 Apply knowledge about aging and improve communication skills with older adults by conducting an interview of someone over 60 years of age and reflecting on the interview. *Many of these course objectives are themes that occur throughout the course. The respective course objectives are assessed most extensively during the weeks listed above.
Page 4 EVALUATION PROCEDURES Assessments 1. Required readings should be read during the week for which they are listed (See tentative schedule). In other words, be prepared for the quizzes, assignments, and discussions postings. 2. Regular ten-point quizzes will be given to encourage students to remain current with course readings. The quizzes are open book, with 10 minutes allowed per quiz. There are a total of 17 quizzes (one on the syllabus and 16 on the text chapters). Quizzes are due by 11:55pm on Sunday (Please do NOT call me at midnight on Sunday!). Late quizzes will not be accepted. Students needing to reschedule a quiz must make arrangements ahead of time and must write a justification for rescheduling which will be submitted to the DEPARTMENT HEAD for approval. Just in case there are a few errors in quiz questions, your lowest quiz score (not including the syllabus quiz) will be dropped. (This will prevent the need to adjust quiz points; however, I would appreciate knowing about errors you might notice in review or quiz questions). In order to assist you in becoming familiar with the material, you will be able to take each quiz twice. The first attempt is for review, and the LAST attempt will be scored. NOTE: The questions may vary from the first to second attempt. IF YOU ARE SATISFIED WITH YOUR SCORE ON YOUR FIRST ATTEMPT, you may wish to have that as your last attempt. Because the quizzes demonstrate your overall knowledge of the material, the LAST score is the recorded score. (In other words, if you take the first attempt seriously and get a high score, you may get a higher score by stopping after the first attempt.) 3. postings: Each week, discussion questions will be posted. Most weeks, you will post initial comments by Wednesday at 11:55 pm and then later in the week will respond to postings of your classmates. Unless specified otherwise, final discussion postings are due by 11:55p.m. on Sunday. postings cannot be "made up" after deadlines because they involve group interaction; therefore, late discussion postings will not be accepted. I will assign individual discussion scores based on the criteria in the Participation Grading Rubric (general version posted under course Content: Introductory Materials). Read the rubric carefully. Five weeks of discussions will be selected for grading. Each week the discussion is worth up to 15 points. The total of the discussion scores is a substantial portion of your final grade. 4. Additional assignments are as follows (instructions are provided in Course Content Modules and in the Dropbox areas of D2L). ü Population Pyramids, and the Needs of a Population Summary: Compare population pyramids and describe differences in needs for services based on population structures. Course Objectives Addressed: 5, 11 ü Interview with an Older Adult Summary: Conduct an interview of an older adult and write a paper applying course concepts to the life of the individual interviewed. Course Objectives Addressed: 2, 3, 6,12 ü Martha (individual and group assignments) ü Summary: Identify services using online program. Refine service recommendations, acting as a multi-disciplinary team. Course Objective Addressed: 5 ü Dying Well Summary: Brief Paper Course Objectives Addressed: 8 You may log in and complete or post assignments from the time they are first introduced in class until the due date / time. Ten points will be deducted from the score for each day the assignment is late.
Page 5 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Posting Grades & Communication with Instructor: Grades will be posted in the "Grades" section of the course (accessed on gold toolbar). Quiz scores will be posted immediately. You may expect discussion scores to be posted within a week of the end of the discussion. Grades for longer, written assignments will be posted within 2 weeks of the due date. I will respond to your emails within 24 hours M-F and within 48 hours on the weekend. If I will be away from the office for more than 2 days without computer access, I will notify you ahead of time. Please let me know if you will be unavailable, too. Professionalism: This course is designed to enhance your professional skills. Please remember that you are accountable to others in the class and in the groups to which you are assigned. In an online course, following "Netiquette" guidelines is an important part of professionalism. "Netiquette" is a shortened version of Network Etiquette. You may find it helpful to read the "Core Rules of Netiquette." For this class, you are expected to: (1) Think before you send an email or post on the discussion board. Remember that messages may be misinterpreted without nonverbal behavior we have in face-to-face conversation. (2) Because you are developing professional skills, you are expected to use correct grammar and spelling. (3) Stick to the topics of the discussions. If you have additional comments, concerns or questions of relevance to your classmates, feel free to post under the "questions for instructor" topic. More specific guidelines for the discussion are provided in the grading rubric. GRADING Type of Activity Total Points Possible Quizzes: 15 @ 10 points; 1 at 5 points 155 s: 5 @ 15 points 75 Additional Assignments: Population Pyramids 40 Interview & Paper 50 Martha - individual 10 Martha - group 15 Dying well 20 TOTAL 365 Freedom in learning: Students are responsible for learning the content of any course of study in which they are enrolled. Under Board of Regents and University policy, student academic performance shall be evaluated solely on an academic basis and students should be free to take reasoned exception to the data or views offered in any course of study. Students who believe that an academic evaluation is unrelated to academic standards but is related instead to judgment of their personal opinion or conduct should first contact the instructor of the course. If the student remains unsatisfied, the student may contact the department head and/or dean of the college that offers the class to initiate a review of the evaluation. ADA Statement: Students who would like to discuss the need for reasonable accommodations in this class can contact the instructor or the Disability Services Office. Timely notification is important.