Our Social World- Vantage Learning Platform

Introduction to Sociology

FAVORITE SAGE VANTAGE FEATURES

• Enables Easy, 3-Step Course Creation. Our simple interface enables you to create your course in minutes so you can focus on content. Just enter your course information, select your assignments and grading preferences, and review your settings.  
• Drives Student Engagement. An evidence-based learning design integrates text content with frequent multimedia activities and learning assessments to facilitate better student preparation, engagement, and learning retention.  
  • A student dashboard offers easy access to text content and visually tracks progress on assignments and assessments.  
    Study tools, including flashcards and note-taking, highlighting, and definition look-up capabilities, give students all they need for class preparation and course success. 
  • Assignable Knowledge Checks (with helpful hints) provide formative assessments after each major section of text content to reinforce retention of key concepts. 
  • Critical Thinking Checks and Chapter Quizzes provide summative assessments at the end of each chapter to measure progress and long-term retention.   
  • Assignable multimedia activities with assessment—including video—build critical thinking and data literacy  while consistently engaging students in an interactive application of text content. Focused feedback on correct and incorrect answers eliminates any guesswork in the learning journey. 
• Ensures Student Accountability. Auto-graded assignments feed your gradebook while instructor reports complement your ability to track student activity, assignment completion, and learning objective mastery. These real-time analytics provide quick insights into individual and class performance for tailoring course instruction to help you address the needs of struggling students.  
• Delivers First-day-of-class Access and Flexibility. With our 2-week grace period access, all students can use Vantage on the very first day of class. The flexibility to use Vantage on mobile, desktop, or tablet devices means your dynamic Vantage content will consistently be available to learners any time they need it.   
• Offers Best-in-class Technical Support and Training. Our personalized support for instructors, students, and LMS administrators facilitates an easy transition to Vantage and the quality service you’ve come to expect from SAGE.   
  • Customizable Learning Management System (LMS) Integration. Our approach to integration empowers you to drive students to the content you want them to see in your LMS immediately following Single Sign On (SSO). In addition, automatic grade sync and full gradebook integration options can bolster timesaving, streamlined access to all your course content.  
  • Dedicated Technical Support. We are proud to offer robust technical assistance from our team of SAGE educational technology experts based in New York. Instructors and students can access extended weekday and weekend support via phone, email, and online communication. 
  • Live and Self-Service Training. Synchronous training sessions are available to every Vantage adopter and complement our full suite of self-service “how-to” tools. Guided walk-throughs of basic and advanced Vantage features and live Q & A discussions empower you to personalize your course design and determine how Vantage can best support your teaching goals.    

KEY FEATURES OF OUR SOCIAL WORLD: INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY, EIGHTH EDITION

NEW TO THIS EDITION

• A thoroughly revised Chapter 15, brings Urban Sociology and Population under the umbrella of Environmental Sociology and adds a new section on climate change.
• Revised the Engaging Sociology features, provide students with opportunities for data analysis.
• Updated Contributing to Our Social World: What Can We Do? features provide new recommendations for how students can get involved.
• New and updated figures and maps.
• New topics include, the influence of COVID-19 on socialization and numerous social institutions, the impact of the pervasiveness of social media and technology on the socialization of children, race- and class-based bias in policing and criminal justice, expanded discussion of transgender and nonbinary identities and asexuality, and updated trends in marriage in the U.S., among others.

• Chapters open with the “Our Social World” model, a full-page diagram that shows how the key concepts and issues in that chapter fit into the book’s micro-to-macro framework.
• Sociologists in Action boxes profile “public” sociologists who are making a difference, illustrating the practical side of sociology.
• Contributing to Our Social World sections at the end of each chapter highlights volunteer opportunities for sociology students at the local, institutional, and national/global level.
• The text describes a range of research strategies and illustrates concrete examples of the method being used, encouraging critical thinking and helping students develop a more sophisticated epistemology.
• Think About It questions, relevant to everyday life and posed at the outset of each chapter, encourage students to be curious, active, and reflective readers.
• Opening vignettes help students connect to the chapters’ content through personalized stories.
• Thinking Sociologically questions ask students to apply material to some aspect of their lives or the social world, and can be the basis for productive discussions with classmates, friends, and family.
• Engaging Sociology features provide opportunities for students to analyze research data, apply what they’ve learned to new situations, or reflect on their personal experiences and those of others.