Track Changes

Track Changes

Updates & Corrections to ASE
A Sociology Experiment is continually growing and expanding. This page provides detailed descriptions of any updates to the ASE website, chapter text, and other materials.
  • Content Changes
  • Web Changes

    • Corrected typo in Karl Marx subsection of Introduction chapter, no change in pagination
      • The previous version mistakenly dated The Communist Manifesto as being written in 1948.
      • Corrected version: “And for good reason: in 1848, he wrote a pamphlet titled “The Communist Manifesto” that laid out an argument that industrialization had revolutionized the economy but led to deep inequalities that would, inevitably, cause a communist revolution.”
    • Updated caption of Minneapolis police officer image in What is sociology? section of Introduction chapter.
      • This is the source’s original caption, rather than one written by the chapter author, which described the image with much less detail or context. While the corrected caption may be dissonant with the example in the text surrounding it, we felt it was best to preserve the original description and intention of this image. A more thorough review of this section by the editors is pending.
      • Updated caption: “A Minneapolis Police officer re-loading his “less lethal” weapon outside the 3rd Precinct where protesters are gathered on the 2nd day of protests following the death of George Floyd. (Source: Chad Davis Photography; CC BY 2.0)”

    • This edition features a fresh redesign of the book, new written content, and updated figures to ensure that your students have access to the most relevant and engaging materials.
      • Individual chapters of the Second Edition will be phased out at the end of the summer.
    • The new edition is also available for bookstores, inclusive access programs, and other bulk purchases via VitalSource, under the ISBN 9798987326725.
    • This edition does not include auxiliary Study Guide webpages. Instead, each chapter’s Key Questions, Key Terms, and Key Points have been included within the chapter text in shaded boxes. This is the same content that we provided in our Second Edition’s study guides, except for the Key Figures and Self-Assessment sections, which we decided to omit and possibly rework for a later edition.
    • Please note that ASE has transitioned to an entirely digital platform. Our chapters are only accessible via the Bookshelf e-reader, which you can open from our Chapters page.

    • We are thrilled to launch the Third Edition of A Sociology Experiment! This edition features a fresh redesign of the book, new written content, and updated figures to ensure that your students have access to the most relevant and engaging materials.
      • This edition is available now for verified instructors to review and consider adopting for upcoming courses– just log in and visit the Chapters page. It will be available for students to purchase beginning this summer, as both individually-sold chapters and as a collection of all chapters.
      • The new edition is also available for bookstores, inclusive access programs, and other bulk purchases via VitalSource, under the ISBN 9798987326725.
    • This edition does not include auxiliary Study Guide webpages. Instead, each chapter’s Key Questions, Key Terms, and Key Points have been included within the chapter text in shaded boxes. This is the same content that we provided in our Second Edition’s study guides, except for the Key Figures and Self-Assessment sections, which we decided to omit and possibly rework for a later edition.
    • Please note that ASE has transitioned to an entirely digital platform. Our chapters are only accessible via the Bookshelf e-reader, which you can open from our Chapters page.

    • Students will now see a clearer error message when they do not select their instructor from the auto-populating drop-down list. The option to enter their instructor’s name manually is now larger and more legible.
    • Students will now receive a welcome email confirming their account has been created successfully, along with brief instructions for how to use our site. This automated email had been mistakenly disabled for longer than we intended.

    • Registration/landing page has been redesigned to be clearer and more intuitive. Each registration form has been changed to ask for only the most relevant information about each user.
      • All users are now asked to confirm their email address and password to minimize errors.
      • A CAPTCHA has been added to prevent spam/bot registrations without shutting out legitimate users.
    • Added Teaching Assistant registration option and site role. Users who register as Teaching Assistants will have the same access to materials as Instructors. We created this separate role to (1) tailor our communications and (2) verify instructors more efficiently.
      • Users can freely change their account from Instructor to Teaching Assistant and vice versa from their account dashboard.
    • Established a 90-Day Sampling Period for all instructors, including teaching assistants.
      • Instructors will lose access to our materials after 90 days if they do not provide more information about their course on the My Courses page. This period begins when an instructor is verified. Adding a course to your profile will extend sampling access indefinitely, even after the 90 days have already ended.
      • We have introduced this measure to better distinguish registered instructors who are assigning and teaching ASE from those who are still browsing what we have to offer. We are also using the data provided in My Courses to verify TAs more efficiently, and to get a sense of which chapters are more or less popular. We are not selling or sharing this data with anyone outside of our organization.
    • Updated the account dashboard menu for instructors, including teaching assistants. We eliminated extraneous WordPress defaults and updated our web copy so that this section of our site makes more sense.

    • We have removed the ability to purchase individual chapters of our Second Edition.
      • The Collection version containing all Second Edition chapters will remain available for purchase.
      • Students who have purchased individual chapters of the Second Edition will still be able to access what they’ve bought along with all their notes and highlighting.
    • Revamped our Chapters menu for students– logged in students will now see Available and Purchased Chapters pages in the main menu. The main Chapters page now displays two options redirecting them to either page.
      • The Available page lists all products currently available for purchase. The Purchased page lists all chapters or collections the student has purchased, along with “Read Now” links to quickly open the reader. We hope this makes our site easier to navigate for students throughout the semester.