Course Syllabus

Fall 2025 | PSY-2130-VO01 - Death & Dying

Online Class

Online courses take place 100% online via Canvas, without required in-person or Zoom meetings.

Faculty

Mary Ann Boyd
View Faculty Credentials

Hiring Coordinator for this course: Kate Hughes

General Education Requirements

Social Science

Note

Many degree programs have specific general education recommendations. In order to avoid taking unnecessary classes, please consult with additional resources like your program evaluation, your academic program catalog year page, and your academic advisor.

Courses may only be used to meet one General Education Requirement.

Course Description

This course examines the nature of our society's attitudes toward death. Special attention is given to the ways in which society, families, medical, economic and religious institutions respond to death. Psychological aspects of impending death and the grieving process are emphasized.

Essential Objectives

1. Identify changes in society's present perspectives on death, dying, and life after death as represented by language, media, and the arts.
2. Compare and contrast the beliefs, rituals, and practices surrounding death expressed by a variety of cultures, religions, and periods in history.
3. Explore the various ways we learn about death and distinguish between how death and loss affects us across the lifespan.
4. Explain and demonstrate the coping patterns used in facing death, including the psychological stages of dealing with life-threatening illness as identified by Dr. Kübler-Ross.
5. Identify ways to recognize and intervene with a person who may be considering suicide and to help family and friends cope with this type of loss.
6. Describe the effects upon survivors and witnesses of environmental encounters with death such as accidents, violence, natural disasters, and war.
7. Analyze the ways in which the health care system helps and hinders patients and their families to be able to deal with death and the process of dying.
8. Describe legal and ethical conflicts surrounding death created by modern medicine and technology.
9. Discuss reports of near death experiences and how they have influenced ideas about life after death.
10. Explore and express their own personal thoughts and beliefs on dying a "good death" and the impact on life and living.

Required Technology

More information on general computer and internet recommendations is available on the CCV computer recommendations Support page.

Please see CCV's Digital Equity Statement (pg. 45) to learn more about CCV's commitment to supporting all students access the technology they need to successfully finish their courses.

Required Textbooks and Resources

*** This is a low cost ($50 or less) textbook or resource class. ***

This course uses one or more textbooks/books/simulations.

Fall 2025 textbook details will be available on 2025-05-19. On that date a link will be available below that will take you to eCampus, CCV's bookstore. The information provided there will be specific to this class. Please see this page for more information regarding the purchase of textbooks/books.

PSY-2130-VO01 Link to Textbooks for this course in eCampus.

The last day to use a Financial Aid Advance to purchase textbooks/books is the 3rd Tuesday of the semester. See your financial aid counselor at your academic center if you have any questions.

Methods

Hello, My name is Mary Ann Boyd, LICSW, and I will be your instructor this semester for "Death and Dying": PSY-2131-VO01. Hello and welcome to the course, and I'll begin bysaying that I am confident that itwill be quite a journey for most of you. You may bea student enrolled in the Funeral Director program, or in any of the helping majors/professions...or perhaps just curious about this course. In any of those cases,I truly believe you will be happy to be here. Frankly, death is a topic which is not discussed in our society...in fact, it is almost considered "taboo" or "morbid" to do so. We avoid the topic, we brush over it, we make up words for it like "gone away", "sleeping", "past away" or "gone to a better place", however illness, grief, death, loss are all part of the experience of living. Please look at some of the topics we will be exploring together by reviewing the syllabus and the course itself. Without a doubt, you WILL find some of the topics as being quite serious, and yes, even sad...however, as odd as it may sound, we have a great deal of fun here as well. In fact, many of my students have found this course to be quite liberating, validating, and perspective changing... finally having the opportunity to face, discuss, and exchange ideas, the human aspects of death and dying. There will be two required textbooks', both in paperback and quite inexpensive. In fact, used books can be obtained for less than $10 each. -Final Journeys, Maggie Callahan, -On Grief and Grieving, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, M.D. In addition to the texts, I have embedded a number of short articles, Ted talks, interviews and audio presentations. You will find that you are never stuck reading, reading, and more reading, as I purposely vary the course resources quite a bit. As you know, this entire course will take place online, and though we will never be in the same place at the same time...we WILL truly get to know each other as we learn about one of the most sensitive topics together...that which entails many of the topics and concepts related to the end of life. So...here we go!

Teaching Methods:

A weekly discussion forum assignment related to textbook content and/or other course resources which will require the submission of an original post, as well as three responses to classmates' posts.

*Weekly lectures, reading assignments as well various videos and other postings related to the weekly topic.

*Short Essays

*5 Study Guide assignments related to course content.

*A final Oral Presentation on a topic of interest.

*Final Exam derived from Study Guide material.

Evaluation Criteria

The criteria from which I be grading your Essays, Journals and Study Guides will be as follows:

Quality of Information
Information clearly relates to the topic, all questions are fully answered, well organized and written with no grammar or mechanical errors.

Quality of Effort
All topics are addressed and examples are provided as requested.

Organization
Information is very well organized with well constructed paragraphs.

Grammar
Information is well written without grammatical errors.

Writing Mechanics
Sentences are well structured with appropriate word usage.

Grading Criteria for Discussion Forums will be as follows:

Knowledge
Comprehensive, in-depth and wide-ranging orignial post submitted by Sunday, 11:59 pm

Writing skills
Solid sentence mechanics, structure and organization

Class Contribution and Participation
Provides significant and meaningful feedback to at least three students.

Grading Criteria

CCV Letter Grades as outlined in the Evaluation System Policy are assigned according to the following chart:

	High	Low
A+	100	98
A	Less than 98	93
A-	Less than 93	90
B+	Less than 90	88
B	Less than 88	83
B-	Less than 83	80
C+	Less than 80	78
C	Less than 78	73
C-	Less than 73	70
D+	Less than 70	68
D	Less than 68	63
D-	Less than 63	60
F	Less than 60
P	100	60
NP	Less than 60	0

Weekly Schedule

Attendance Policy

Regular attendance and participation in classes are essential for success in and are completion requirements for courses at CCV. A student's failure to meet attendance requirements as specified in course descriptions will normally result in a non-satisfactory grade.

• In general, missing more than 20% of a course due to absences, lateness or early departures may jeopardize a student's ability to earn a satisfactory final grade.
• Attending an on-ground or synchronous course means a student appeared in the live classroom for at least a meaningful portion of a given class meeting. Attending an online course means a student posted a discussion forum response, completed a quiz or attempted some other academically required activity. Simply viewing a course item or module does not count as attendance.
• Meeting the minimum attendance requirement for a course does not mean a student has satisfied the academic requirements for participation, which require students to go above and beyond simply attending a portion of the class. Faculty members will individually determine what constitutes participation in each course they teach and explain in their course descriptions how participation factors into a student's final grade.

Participation Expectations

*Class participation is very important to maximize your online learning experience and keep in mind that the expectation of study time for a three-credit course is minimally 8/9 hours per week.

*In order to truly succeed in this course, please pace yourself accordingly and be aware that I monitor online engagement of my students each week. My expectation is that you log into the course AT LEAST three times per week.

Please be aware that the use of generative AI is not allowed in this course, with the exception of spellcheck, grammar check and similar tools. Due to the sentitive nature of this course, it rests in the value of students engaging in a subjective/experiencial learning process without relying on AI-generated content. Students will develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills independently, owning their learning journey from start to finish. If you use these tools, your actions would be considered academically dishonest and a violation of CCV's Academic Integrity Policy.

Missing & Late Work Policy

While I understand that we all are adults and lead busy lives...I do expect that you complete and submit ALL assignments as they are due in order to receive full credit.

In the case of a "true emergency" or illness, and are perhaps needing an extra day or two, please prearrange this with me. Failure to do so will result in a 10 point reduction...per day.

In addition, as requested, I will require that you respond to at least three classmates in your weekly discussions. Failure to do so will result in a 20 point deduction.

These policies are set in place out of fairness to your classmates...as well as to me as the recipient of your submissions.

Thank You.

Accessibility Services for Students with Disabilities:

1. Provide disability documentation to the Accessibility Coordinator at your academic center. https://ccv.edu/discover-resources/students-with-disabilities/
2. Request an appointment to meet with accessibility coordinator to discuss your request and create an accommodation plan.
3. Once created, students will share the accommodation plan with faculty. Please note, faculty cannot make disability accommodations outside of this process.

Academic Integrity

Apply Now for this semester.