Program Review: Sociology Degree Program

Program Outcomes

  1. List the program outcomes for the degree in Sociology. Map the courses that contribute to each outcome. Indicate university outcome (if any) that each program outcome supports.

Sociology Program Outcomes, University Outcomes, & Courses

  1. Describe major sociological concepts, trends, and theories. (Know about sociology)
  2. Associated University Outcomes: Skilled Professionals & Creative and Critical Thinkers
  3. Contributing Courses: Soc 111, Soc 300, Soc 340, Soc 360, Soc 370, Soc 383, Soc 400, Soc 411, Soc 450, Soc 451, Soc 462
  1. Locate, organize, and evaluate sociological information. (Know how to explore social issues)
  2. Associated University Outcomes: Lifelong learners & Creative and Critical Thinkers
  3. Contributing Courses: Soc 230, Soc 300, Soc 340, Soc 370, Soc 400, Soc 420, Soc 440, Soc 450, Soc 451, Soc 495, Soc 498
  1. Explain the social world from different sociological perspectives. (Be able to think and communicate like a sociologist)
  2. Associated University Outcomes: Effective Communicators & Engaged Citizens
  3. Contributing Courses: Soc 300, Soc 311, Soc 323, Soc 360, Soc 370, Soc 440, Soc 450, Soc 462, Soc 498
  1. Conduct evidence-based analysis using appropriate methodology and statistics. (Do sociology)
  2. Associated University Outcomes: Skilled Professionals & Lifelong Learners
  3. Contributing Courses: Soc 340, Soc 400, Soc 495
  4. Apply sociological knowledge in addressing social issues and making ethical decisions. (Use sociology in positive ways)
  5. Associated University Outcomes: Engaged Citizens & Disciple Leaders
  6. Contributing Courses: Soc 300, Soc 311, Soc 323, Soc 330, Soc 340, Soc 360, Soc 370, Soc 383, Soc 440, Soc 450, Soc 451, Soc 462, Soc 495, Soc 498

Sociology Department Outcomes and Associated Course Assessments

  1. Describe major sociological concepts, trends, and theories. (Know about sociology)

Course Assessment / Course Objective / Course
Sociology Applied / Use the vocabulary of sociologists. / SOC 111, Introduction to Sociology
Theory Section / Explain social phenomena using sociological theory. / SOC 300, Sociological Theory
  1. Locate, organize, and evaluate sociological information. (Know how to explore social issues)

Course Assessment / Course Objective / Course
Annotated Bibliography / Critically analyze contemporary social science research. / SOC 230, Sociological Explorations
Introduction Section / Evaluate existing literature on sociological topics. / SOC 300, Sociological Theory
  1. Explain the social world from different sociological perspectives. (Be able to think and communicate like a sociologist)

Course Assessment / Course Objective / Course
Theory Section / Explain social phenomena using sociological theory. / SOC 300, Sociological Theory
Fauxligumentary / Explain religious motivations and actions using sociological theory. / SOC 360, Sociology of Religion
  1. Conduct evidence-based analysis using appropriate methodology and statistics. (Do sociology)

Course Assessment / Course Objective / Course
Survey & Qualitative Projects / Comprehend social research methods, including challenges and implications. / SOC 340, Research Methods
Senior Thesis / Demonstrate how to conduct sociological research in a comprehensive research paper. / SOC 400, Sociological Analysis
  1. Apply sociological knowledge in addressing social issues and making ethical decisions. (Use sociology in positive ways)

Course Assessment / Course Objective / Course
Exams / Explain/predict U.S. trends in intimate relationships and family life. / SOC 311, Sociology of Family
Book Reviews / Gain better understanding of a selected ethnic group. / SOC 323, Race and Ethnicity
Crime mapping, Drugs & Policy assignment / Determine policy implications for crime prevention. / SOC 330, Criminology
Exploring Sociology of Health / Apply sociological theory to issues of health and illness, food and nutrition, sports, and death. / SOC 462, Sociology of Health
Exam / Analyze the ideological and practical justification offered for the existence of social stratification. / SOC 370, Social Stratification
Religion Today / Evaluate current religious issues from a sociological perspective. / SOC 360, Sociology of Religion

Assessment Plan

1. Describe the assessment plan for measuring how well the program outcomes are being achieved. Does the assessment plan include appropriate direct and indirect measures of learning? Are key assessments the same among all modes of delivery?

Student performance on the assessments identified above are collected by the respective course instructor and sent to the Department Chair. Data is updated each year on Sharepoint in the form of an excel spreadsheet. This spreadsheet provides the percentage of students who have achieved the following levels of performance on each assessment: Distinguished ( 90%), Proficient (80-89%), Developing (70-79%), and Unsatisfactory (69%). Both direct and indirect measures are utilized in the assessment process with the majority of the assessments being direct measures which are reported using percentages on the excel spreadsheet. For Anthropology (Anth 101) and Social Problems (Soc 112) key assessments are identical across the different modes of delivery. For Introduction to Sociology, the outcomes are the same and many of the assessments are similar. One instructor uses exams in his introductory course and in the online version while others do not. However, similar assessments called “Exploring Sociology” assignments are used across sections to assess the program objectives.

Assessment Data

  1. Summarize the assessment data that your plan has generated over the past two years. Where appropriate, is the data being reported using the Distinguished, Proficient, Developing, and Unsatisfactory levels? Has your most recent year of data been uploaded to the outcomes and assessments Sharepoint site?

Overall analysis of all course assessments of all program objectives

Across all program objectives, utilizing statistics from designated course assessments that are specifically tied to all program objectives, we have found the following: 1) In 2013, 53% performed at the Distinguished level, 23% were Proficient, 15% Developing, and 9% Unsatisfactory. 2) In 2014, 53 % of our students performed at the Distinguished level, 25% were Proficient, 12% Developing, and 10% Unsatisfactory. When comparing 2013 to 2014, students appeared to perform at very similar levels with the majority of students performing at the Proficient level or higher. Data for Winter and Spring Semester 2014 is available on Sharepoint.

Detailed analysis of specific course assessments of specific program objectives

  1. Describe major sociological concepts, trends, and theories. (Know about sociology)

Distinguished / Proficient / Developing / Unsatisfactory / Sum
Program Outcome 1.1 Sociology Applied, SOC 111 / 2013- 66%
2014- 64% / 2013- 18%
2014 -19% / 2013 - 7%
2014 - 8% / 2013 - 9%
2014 - 9% / 100%
Program Outcome 1.2 Theory Section, SOC 300 / 2013- 21%
2014- 29% / 2013 - 30%
2014- 27% / 2013- 30%
2014- 30% / 2013- 18%
2014- 14% / 100%
  1. Locate, organize, and evaluate sociological information. (Know how to explore social issues)

Distinguished / Proficient / Developing / Unsatisfactory / Sum
Program Outcome 2.1 Annotated Bibliography, SOC 230 / 2013- 29%
2014- 9% / 2013- 34%
2014- 67% / 2013- 22%
2014- 10% / 2013- 15%
2014- 14% / 100%
Program Outcome 2.2 Introduction Section, SOC 300 / 2013- 21%
2014- 27% / 2013- 38%
2014- 35% / 2013- 24%
2014- 26% / 2013- 18%
2014- 12% / 100%
  1. Explain the social world from different sociological perspectives. (Be able to think and communicate like a sociologist)

Distinguished / Proficient / Developing / Unsatisfactory / Sum
Program Outcome 3.1 Theory Section, SOC 300 / 2013- 21%
2014- 29% / 2013- 30%
2014- 27% / 2013- 30%
2014- 30% / 2013- 18%
2014- 14% / 100%
Program Outcome 3.2 Fauxligumentary, SOC 360 / 2013- 18%
2014- 62% / 2013- 9%
2014- 8% / 2013- 67%
2014- 28% / 2013- 6%
2014- 2% / 100%
  1. Conduct evidence-based analysis using appropriate methodology and statistics. (Do sociology)

Distinguished / Proficient / Developing / Unsatisfactory / Sum
Program Outcome 4.1 Survey & Qualitative Projects, SOC 340 / 2013- 82% (survey)
2013- 89% (qual.)
2014- 76% (survey)
2014- 61%
(qual.) / 2013- 0 (survey)
2013- 11% (qual.)
2014- 17% (survey)
2014- 37%
(qual.) / 2013- 18% (survey)
2013- 0 (qual.)
2014- 7% (survey)
2014- 0 (qual.) / 2013- 0 (survey)
2013- 0 (qual.)
2013- 0 (survey)
2014- 2% (qual) / 100%
Program Outcome 4.2 Senior Thesis, SOC 400 / 2013- 48%
2014- no data / 2013- 39%
2014- no data / 2013- 13%
2014- no data / 2013- 0
2014- no data / 100%
  1. Apply sociological knowledge in addressing social issues and making ethical decisions. (Use sociology in positive ways)

Distinguished / Proficient / Developing / Unsatisfactory / Sum
Program Outcome 5.1 Final Exam, SOC 311 / 2013- 35%
2014- 42% / 2013- 46%
2014- 18% / 2013- 16%
2014- 27% / 2013- 3%
2014- 13% / 100%
Program Outcome 5.2 Book reviews, SOC 323 / 2013-99%
2014- 98% / 2013- 1%
2014- 0 / 2013- 0
2014- 1% / 2013- 0
2014- 1% / 100%
Program Outcome 5.3 Exploring Sociology of Health, SOC 462 / 2013- 58%
2014- 85% / 2013- 21%
2014- 0 / 2013- 16%
2014- 10% / 2013- 5%
2014- 5% / 100%
Program Outcome 5.4 Exam, SOC 370 / 2013- 30%
2014- 36% / 2013- 32%
2014- 54% / 2013- 38%
2014- 3% / 2013- 0
2014- 7% / 100%
Program Outcome 5.5 Religion Today, SOC 360 / 2013- 67%
2014- 64% / 2013- 33%
2014- 30% / 2013- 0
2014- 5% / 2013- 0
2014- 1% / 100%

Analysis and Improvement Plan

  1. How do you analyze and make decisions based on your assessment data? Who participates in that process? Summarize conclusions that have been drawn from your analysis of the assessment data. Describe changes that have been made to the program (based on the assessment data) and any corresponding evidence of improvement. Describe plans for improving one (or more) of the program outcomes. Do any of your improvement plans involve changes in curriculum that will need to be considered in the coming year?

We have determined three main areas that we would like to address this year. First, we need to standardize our outcomes across all sections of a course. We have two courses, SOC 111 and SOC 112 that have multiple sections across multiple modes of delivery. We have standardized the outcomes for Soc 111 but not Soc 112. Without standardized outcomes our data and analysis only applies to each section and not to the overall course. Soc 112 needs standard outcomes across delivery modes.

Second, now that we have completed the assessment plan and have begun collecting data, we need to build a process of data evaluation that results in clearly identified successes and recommended changes needed moving forward. This could easily be done in a yearly department evaluation meeting where we, as a department, evaluate the data together and identify recommended changes moving forward. This meeting would be held at the beginning of the calendar year following the gathering of the previous years assessment data.

Third, we have a strong program that benefits students in many ways as can be seen in this program review. Our program outcomes and assessments are largely successful in encouraging students to develop lifelong skills that will assist them in their vocational endeavors and church service upon graduation. We need to be innovative in the ways that we service students across campus and off-campus. We are currently working on proposing an Interdisciplinary Studies Degree in Criminology that would involve a partnership with Arizona State University. This degree, if approved, would better serve students interested in this field by offering a stronger focus Criminology. Students selecting this degree option would be required to take the Sociology Concentration within which they would take many of the fundamental courses that meet our program outcomes. I can also see this degree being of interest to many students off-campus and in other countries as vocations related to criminology are in demand. In association with this degree proposal, we are moving forward with the development of more online course offerings in our department beginning with courses with large on-campus enrollments. The goal of offering this new degree and new online offerings is to allow a greater number of students to experience the strong program we currently offer in an innovative, convenient and affordable manner.

Course-Level Outcomes

1. Are course-level outcomes clearly articulated for each course in your department? Where are course-level outcomes available for students and faculty to review? Do course-level outcomes appear in all syllabi? Has your department reviewed course-level outcomes in the last three years?

All of the Sociology program’s course-level outcomes are clearly articulated and are available for students to review in the syllabi provided by each faculty member. They are also included with the “course details” the Registrar’s Office provides to students when they register for classes. The Sociology department has only reviewed course-level outcomes for a few courses that are taught by more than one faculty such as Introduction to Sociology (Soc 111) and Social Problems (Soc 112). Course outcomes for other courses within the department have not been reviewed. However, this is something that we will do in the near future as we continue to improve the program review process.

Benchmarks

  1. How does your program compare to any peer programs or to national standards (i.e., accreditation standards, Major Field Tests, Professional Organizations, etc.) in your discipline?

At the present time, the American Sociological Association does not perform any accreditation services for sociology departments nationally. Sociology departments fall under a broader regional accreditation that is university-wide (e.g. Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities) as is a common tradition in other liberal arts and social science fields.

The American Sociological Association does make recommendations and encourages discipline standards to institutions granting sociology degrees in terms of the most effective training and coursework to be presented in the discipline. For example, nearly all departments required sociological theory, research methods, and statistics courses in their undergraduate programs. More programs, however, require methods and theory than statistics. Our department requires sociological theory, research methods, and statistics.

Percentage of Undergraduate Programs With Theory, Methods and Statistics Course Requirements, Academic Year 2000/01 and Academic Year 2006/07

A bit fewer than half of all sociology departments nationally offer concentrations within sociology. At the present time, our department offers a criminology cluster.

Percentage of Departments Offering Concentrations, Academic Year 2000/01 and Academic Year 2006/07

Significant Differences in the Reasons For Majoring in Sociology by Race and Ethnicity (2005)*

Source: ASA Research and Development Department. The Future of Sociology: Minorities, Programs, and Jobs.

*Percent responding “Very Important;” weighted.

The above graph shows the fluctuations in the number of Bachelors, Masters and Doctorate degrees awarded between 1966 and 2012 nationally. Across degree levels, there was a period of high growth in the number of sociology degrees awarded between the late 1960s and early 1970s and againin the late 1980s. Bachelors degrees experienced the most dramatic fluctuations. In contrast, Masters degrees and PhDs warded during this period have remained fairly steady. Despite fluctuations,the number of sociologists receiving degrees has grown substantially since 1966. The demand for sociology degrees peaked in 1976. Today, the demand for sociology degrees is beginning to approach the 1970s levels.

Note:CalculationsofdegreesawardedarebasedontheHigher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS) and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics. Data for PhDs awarded between 2008 and 2012 are derived from the National Science Foundation's Survey of Earned Doctorates for those years. (See Source)
Source:National Center for Education Statistics. 2012. The Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS) and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). Washington, DC: Department of Education. Retrieved: February 15, 2014 (
* Data for PhDs awarded between 2008 and 2012: National Science Foundation. 2013. Survey of Earned Doctorates, 2008 - 2012. Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation. Retrieved: February 15, 2014 (

  1. What conclusions you have drawn from this benchmarking analysis?

We feel our department offers the coursework recommended by the ASA and goes above and beyond insuring our students are well-trained in the discipline of sociological research. Our students have strong preparation for employment and graduate study. At present, our department serves approximately 1,078 majors with 6 full-time faculty during the academic year. By contrast, BYU-Provo has approximately 230 majors and 17 full-time faculty. BYU-Hawaii does not have a sociology department. About 18% of our majors are minority students (compared to 13% across the university population).

The strength of our program includes our Senior Thesis Project which requires students to complete original research, theory, methodology, and statistical analysis on a sociological topic of their choice culminating into a 25-page research manuscript. Students are required to take SOC 111 or 112 (Intro to Sociology or Social Problems), SOC 230 Sociological Explorations, SOC 300 Sociological Theory, SOC 340 Research Methods, FDMATH 221C Intro to Social Science Statistics, and SOC 400 Sociological Analysis in order to complete the Senior Thesis program requirement for graduation. Students are also required to complete an internship or a Senior Thesis capstone experience (SOC 495) to complete the requirements for graduation as well.

At BYU-Provo, internships are optional, but strongly encouraged, and research coursework is also required, however students do not take the sequenced courses above and do not create a research manuscript upon completion.

Peer programs have similar requirements to our program. Most sociology departments require research training (theory, methods, statistics), coursework in diversity/inequality, coursework in institutions, as well as other electives in family, religion, race/ethnicity, law, crime, health/aging, gender, social class, and the life course.

According to US News and World Report rankings for Regional Colleges in the West, our peer institutions include: Carroll College (Helena, MT), Texas Lutheran University (Seguin, TX), Oklahoma Wesleyan University (Bartlesville, OK), Corban University (Salem, OR), Rocky Mountain College (Billings, MT), Northwest University, (Kirkland, WA), Nevada State College (Henderson, NV), and Brigham Young University-Hawaii (Laie, HI). We are ranked #11 amongst regional colleges in the west.

  1. Does your Department have an outside Advisory Council? If so, what insights have you gained from this Council?

No, the department does not have an official outside advisory council, however, the department attempts to follow best practices and recommendations as identified by the American Sociological Association.

Student Placement

1. Who seeks employment after graduation?

Only 13% of all sociology alumni have never worked since graduating from BYU-Idaho, and 70% of all sociology alumni are currently employed. Of those who are employed, 20% are working two or more jobs. Two-thirds (67%) of those who are employed are working at least 40 hours a week (combined in all employment settings).