Sociology BA (Hons)

Teaching

You are taught through a combination of;

• Lectures that give an introduction and overview of topics studied as part of the content of each module.
• Seminars, often featuring small group work and/or round table discussion of published and/or audio-visual materials. These support, extend and develop your knowledge of the topics introduced by lecture.
• Workshops focusing on preparation for a range of different types of assignment. These develop your understanding and competence for assignment work.
• Tutorials are one-to-one work with module tutors, usually focusing on assignment preparation or assignment feedback.
• Assessed and non-assessed, individual and/or group classroom presentations. These help you to the build the skills and confidence for presenting ideas and information in a supportive public environment.

In addition, meetings with personal academic tutors are scheduled on at least 4 occasions in the first year and three occasions in each of the other years of a course.

You have an opportunity to gain and reflect upon a work-placement in your second year as part of a Work Project Module, supervised by the module tutor.

Contact time

If you are a full-time student, you study four modules at a time, with about three hours in class per week for each of them. In addition, you work outside the class, perhaps with fellow students, on interesting problems which will be discussed in the next week’s class. While you do this, you can if you wish consult a tutor for advice either in person or, if you prefer, by email.

In your final year, instead of one of the modules, you work on a dissertation covering a subject of interest to you, and your regularly meet a tutor for advice and guidance on this.

Independent self-study

In addition to the time in class, for each module you do around 7 hours of individual or small group self-study, always with a tutor to help and guide you if you need that. After the modules are finished, at assessment time you work on assignments, and if you are a full-time student you will need to devote about forty hours per week to that.

While you are doing self-study and working on assignments, you have available some excellent learning facilities. These include the world-famous Hive with its attractive environment and superb library resources, well-chosen books and extensive on-line reading-material. For each module, the tutors will also have set up a set of on-line web pages with the resources needed to guide you through the module.

Computers and instant printing facilities are readily available, including a main facility which has access 24 hours a day, and there are coffee bars and other places to work in too. Wi-fi is of course available through the university.

Teaching staff

The Worcester Sociology staff know how to make the subject interesting and students find them friendly and approachable. The team includes Simon Hardy, Lesley Spiers, Linda Price, Luke Devine, Jenny Lewin-Jones, Chris Faulkner and Mike Webb: you can see examples of some of their staff profiles below.

All have a teaching qualification or are Fellows of the Higher Education Academy.

Assessment

The course provides opportunities to test understanding and learning informally through the completion of practice or 'formative' assignments. Formative Assessment methods include class presentations, completion of assignment plans or drafts, tutorials, workshop discussions and exercises.

Summative Assessment

Each module has one or more 'summative' assessments that are graded and count towards the overall module grade. Assessment methods include a range of coursework assessments such as essays, reports, presentations and a final year independent studies project.

The precise assessment requirements for an individual student in an academic year will vary according to the mandatory and optional modules taken, but a typical formal summative assessment pattern for each year of the course is:

• Year 1: Book Reviews; short essays; reflective autobiography; group presentation.
• Year 2: Written portfolio; shorts essays; long essays; book reviews; oral presentations; research proposals; work place project reports.
• Year 3: Independent Research Project; long essays; written portfolio; poster presentations; literature review; oral presentation.

Feedback

You will receive feedback on practice assessments and on formal assessments undertaken by coursework. Feedback is intended to support learning and you are encouraged to discuss it with personal academic tutors and module tutors as appropriate.

We aim to provide you with feedback on formal course work assessments within 20 working days of hand-in.

Programme specification

For comprehensive details on the aims and intended learning outcomes of the course, and the means by which these are achieved through learning, teaching and assessment, please download the latest programme specification document.