Development of “Archie Bunker’s Neighborhood” Activity

for Online Version of FCSPM 235 – Introduction to Residential Property Management

Carla Earhart, Department of Family & Consumer Sciences, , 765-285-3707

FCSPM 235 Intro to RPM is the introductory course for students in Residential Property Management. It also attracts students from a variety of other majors who take the course as an elective. For 10 years it has been offered on-campus in both fall and spring semesters. More recently it has also been available as an online course, currently as a 10-week course offered through the Independent Learning Program (ILP).The online and on-campus versions of the course cover the basics of the day-to-day operations of an apartment community, but would benefit anyone interested in housing issues.

A major component of both course delivery methods is coverage of the federal Fair Housing law, which restricts housing discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, familial status, disability, and national origin.Additionally, students in both the on-campus and the online course participate in an out-of-class diversity experience where they must get out of their comfort zone and interact with individuals who are different from themselves. Destinations for this assignment have included the SPECTRUM Drag Show, the Korean worship service at First Presbyterian Church, shopping in ethnic neighborhoods, etc.

One of the best diversity-related educational opportunities provided in the on-campus version of the course is when the Diversity Team from the BSU Counseling Center presents the “Archie Bunker’s Neighborhood” activity to the class.Students are divided into groups (such as Latino, Gay/Lesbian, Black, and Caucasian), given various resources, and told to build a community for their group.However, there are stereotypes built into the scenarios, resulting in the Caucasian group being given unlimited resources and no restrictions, whereas the other groups have few resources and many restrictions. For example, the Black neighborhood can build only government housing, jails and liquor stores; the Latino group can build only Mexican restaurants, and the Gay/Lesbian group can build only AIDS clinics, upscale condos, and fancy restaurants.

It has been a major disappointment that the online students do not have the opportunity to participate in the Archie Bunker’s Neighborhood activity. If accepted into the Diversity Associates Program, the project I would develop would be an online version of this activity. At a minimum I would arrange to videotape the Counseling Center Diversity Team conducting the activity in the traditional classroom. Ideally, I could take the project beyond the “observation” level and create something that would allow the online students to actually “participate” in the Archie Bunker’s Neighborhood activity.

I am a major proponent of Ball State’s online teaching efforts, have already demonstrated my creativity through the development of three online courses, and want to be a leader in this area. For me personally, creating this virtual diversity activity would help me reinforce that you can do anything online that you can do in a traditional classroom. The Diversity Associates Program would give me the incentive and support to move forward in creating this online diversity project that I have been considering for several years. For my department/program, this diversity project would allow us to submit FCSPM 235 as a WISER course under the new UCC 21 plan, specifically as an “R” course – Respect for diversity among peoples and cultures.The on-campus version of the course currently fits the requirements, but without the added diversity activity in the online version the course will not likely be approved as a UCC 21 WISER course.

Following completion of the project, I plan to disseminate the results in the following ways:

  • As a presentation at conferences of the National Apartment Association and the Housing Education and Research Association, organizations supportive of education in residential property management
  • As a digital artifactpublished online through MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resources for Learning and Online Teaching), a peer-reviewed repository for online educational methods.

Thank you for considering this proposal. I look forward to hearing from the selection committee in the near future.