Syllabus Teresa Frizell HIST 103 4 weeks

History 103 – Winter 2017-2018

COURSE INSTRUCTOR: TERESA FRIZELL

OFFICE HOURS: As this is an online course, I do not have set office hours. Please email me to set up a time to talk via Google Hangouts or phone.

REQUIRED E-TEXTBOOK: Nancy Hewitt and Stephen Lawson, Exploring American Histories E-Textbook with Launchpad. Macmillan, 2017. Find out how to buy access to the book here.  

Course format:

This is an online, winter break course. We will treat every day the same, including weekends and holidays. I will endeavor to respond to posts under the "Ask Teresa" discussion board and via email within 12 hours. I deduct 10% of the total points for an assignment each day it is late. This includes weekends and holidays.

This is an accelerated online course. You will be getting a semester’s worth of credit in four weeks. In order to earn this credit, you need to do a semester’s worth of work in four weeks. That adds up to about 30 hours per week of work for this course. 

Course Description

This course looks at the changes the United States has undergone throughout the 20^th century. We will focus particularly on the role of the federal government at home and abroad, the major geographic shifts that occurred throughout the 20^th century, and the struggle for civil rights and full economic participation by various peoples. By the end of the course you will have a good sense of the arc of the 20^th century. You will have practiced thinking and writing like a historian, particularly for the purpose of explaining the present and shaping the future. 

Course Goals   

  My goal is to help you understand how and why the present was constructed as it is. From there, you can move forward to shape the future as you want it.

Guiding Questions and Learning Objectives

Describe the actions that American governments (local, state, and federal) took to limit, expand, or protect the rights of people in the United States and abroad. Who was affected, how, and why?

Describe the major geographic shifts that occurred during this time, including internal migrations, immigration, and wars. How did bodies move and where did they move to?

Describe the major social, economic, and political movements of the time. Who was attempting to enact change, and what change did they want? Who opposed change, and why?

Skills Questions

How can you use historical thinking to help understand, explain, and shape your world?

How does what you’ve learned in this course help explain the United States today? How can you use what you’ve learned in this course to help shape the world in the way you want it?

 

Assignments and due dates
In this course you will learn the history of the United States beginning in about 1900 and going up to 2001. There are four modules. Each module contains:

• E-textbook chapter reading assignments: These are due on Wednesdays and Saturdays by 8:00 am
• Learning curve assignments: These are assigned for SOME of the chapters and are due the same day the chapter is due.
• Discussion posts: These are also due on Wednesday and Saturdays by 8:00 am. You will have two discussion posts for Module 1, 2, and 3, and only one discussion post for Module 4.
• Map and timeline quizzes: Each model has a map or timeline quiz.
• End of module assignment: Due the Sunday after modules 1, 2, 3 at 8:00 am
• Final exam: Due January 12 at 11:59 pm.

Identity and Safe Spaces

United States history is rife with debates over people’s identities. Beginning in 1619 what would eventually become the American colonies began passing laws in order to construct the identities of men and women, Europeans, Africans, and indigenous people, adults and children, and more. Law, policy, and practice, including violence, enforce what is and is not acceptable behavior based on identity. Part of what we will learn in this 20th century United States History course is how those attempts at distinctions continued, were enforced, were challenged, or collapsed in the 20th century.
The Community College of Philadelphia, and I as a teacher, are committed to promoting diversity and equity and protecting students from harassment and hate. Therefore, you may not express hatred, including but not limited to sexism, racism, ableism, or xenophobia on class discussion boards. If your goal in learning history is to shape a world in which certain groups or certain people are not safe, don’t have access to full economic opportunity, or even don’t exist, you will need to keep that goal to yourself. We are not interested in hearing it and I will not tolerate statements that threaten or intimidate your classmates.
If you do make such expressions you will receive one warning and opportunity to remove the comment within four hours of my sending the warning. Failure to remove the comment within four hours, or posting a second hateful comment will result in expulsion from the course.

Academic Integrity Policy

Even one violation of academic integrity results in your automatic failure of the course. There are no exceptions. Take this policy very seriously. Ignorance and carelessness are not acceptable excuses.
You first assignment will be a module and quiz on avoiding plagiarism. Please do not cut and paste other people's words into your assignments and pretend they are yours. You will fail this course if you do.
Instead, use one of these two citation methods:

Direct citation.
Put a direct quote from the document in quotation marks, and put the name of the document or textbook in parenthesis after the quote.
Example:
"Those who would administer wisely must, indeed, be wise..." (Carnegie, Gospel of Wealth)
When citing the textbook, include the printed page in the citation. The printed page is listed in the little blue box at the top right corner of your screen on each e-book page.
"From 1910 to 1930, the population of the United States increased by 33.5 percent." (Hewitt and Lawson, p. 513).

Indirect citation
Paraphrase the document and put the name of the document or textbook in parenthesis after the quote.
Examples:
Carnegie argued that indiscriminate charity was actually contributing to poverty (Gospel of Wealth).

 According to Hewitt and Watson, the West grew in population faster than the rest of the country (p. 513).

Grading

Discussion Participation—25 %—Discussion participation in online discussion and activities is an important part of the learning experience and requires regular and engaged attendance.

The bi-weekly Canvas discussion assignments require you to comment on readings and engage in thoughtful discussions about the course materials. In order to receive credit please follow these directions:
1. You must post at least twice, by the due date. 
2. At least one post must be in response to somebody else’s post.
3. Your posts must be at least 150 words.
4. You must cite at least one source in each post post using parenthetical (also called APA) citations. 
5. You must cite a different source in each of your two posts. 
6. Discussions close two days after the due date and may not be made up.

Discussions are graded credit/no credit. 

Plagiarism Quiz—5%—An introduction to avoiding plagiarism and citing correctly, this online course and quiz must be completed by the end of the first week of the term. Details and links are on Canvas in Module 1. A late plagiarism quiz is penalized 10% per day (including weekends and holidays) for up to three days. It will not be accepted after the third day and the student will fail the class.

Learning Curve-25%-These are guided reading activities found on the MacMillan LaunchPad site. You get access to Launchpad with the purchase of your e-textbook. Only certain chapters have Learning Curve assigned. You will need to go the Launchpad site to read your text and to do the Learning Curve Assignments.

End-of-Module Assignments-15%-At the end of Modules 1, 2, and 3, you will choose one of the course guiding questions to answer about the module. This assignment should be at least 450 words.

Map and Timeline Quizzes-10%: You will be assigned two map quizzes and two timeline quizzes.

Final Exam:-20%-An essay exam in which you answer the three guiding questions for the course, using evidence from the course.

Questions

Students often have two types of questions. The first type of question is about the course, its requirements, or the material. For this type of question, the first place the student should go for the answer is the course syllabus, the course schedule, or the assignment. If still in doubt or the question is not answered in any of those places, post the question on Canvas. In the Course Information and Questions module you will find the “Course Questions” discussion board. Use it to post questions (and answers, if you have them) about the course, assignments, readings, and course materials.

Please post all these types of questions on the discussion board. If you have a question about something course related, you can be certain someone else does as well so you will be helping them. Also, I subscribe to this discussion board and receive notifications anytime a new question is posted. I will usually reply more quickly to a question posted here rather than one sent to my email account.

The second type of question students typically have is about their performance in the course (i.e., their grade) and how to improve it. These questions are best answered in online office hours. Email me for an appointment and include a short description of what you would like to talk about. We will schedule a phone or video call to discuss.