Students in Gender Classes: What do we need to know to serve them best?

I have been teaching PSY of Gender (PSY 235) online for many years and typically receive excellent reviews for the class from students. This (Spring 15) semester, I am offering Introduction to Women's Studies (WST 100) online for the first time. While developing the class I was uncertain of several particularly difficult content elements because of the level of the course and my assumption that many of my students come from disciplines far more diverse than the the social science backgrounds of my PSY 235 students. I have included an assessment to compare characteristics of students in both classes in order to select content carefully considerate of the backgrounds and desires of WST vs. PSY students. Both classes will also take my traditional satisfaction and success survey which in conjunction with the other data, should provide more information about if and how to modify WST classes for the specific population of students who choose them.