Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

This course provides an overview and introduction to the structure and dynamics of organizations, communities, and society as well as the nature of individuals and groups.  We will examine human systems, including individual, group, family, organizational, community and societal systems.

You will notice that your textbook is focused on undergraduate social work practice - don't panic - this is intentional.  Social workers are human service practitioners, and you are training to become a human service practitioner.  As an interdisciplinary field, human service professionals use concepts, theories, methods, and approaches from a variety of disciplines, including social work.  If the term "social worker" distracts you, just replace the term in your mind with "human service worker."  Either way, it's the same thing - a profession dedicated to helping others.

There is a tremendous amount of information in your textbook and at times it may feel overwhelming, but please don't worry. Take the reading and course activities step-by-step.  At the end of the term, you will have enough information for a foundational understanding of how and why people make decisions within the context of their respective social environments.

Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:

• Recognize how family structures and roles change in human systems.
• Examine major theories of human behavior in the social environment.
• Identify the organizational structures of families and communities, including the capacities, limitations, and resiliency of human systems.

HUS121 is an online course with weekly cooperative discussions and weekly quizzes as well as three major assignments. This course requires students access the course-space 2-3 times weekly with at least one visit/week between Monday and Thursday.