GENERAL ORIENTATION
TO HISTORY 221 ONLINE
This general orientation is to provide all students with
an overview of the class before the class begins. Welcome to the world
of online learning. This is not your typical survey of early United
States history classes. First, it is
an online format that allows you as a student to do the work anytime,
anyplace as long as you have internet connections. Second, it is a
topical history of early America
which takes a series of topics and covers them within the time frame of
early American history. So you will not merely we walking through a
series of names and dates and facts as you walk through American
history.
You have the e-book text and e book reader by me Jerry Baydo, A
TOPICAL HISTORY OF EARLY AMERICA
and EARLY
AMERICA EXAMINED: A READER. These books are available at
the Lynn
University bookstore. On the text CD
is an audio power point presentation, text, and reading material with
links to internet sites; on the reader CD are a series of original
essays. On the inside covers is a serial number; you go to the NSS
Press website at http://www.nsspress.com
and register the CD to the go to the website and there you find text,
updated links for readings, more power point presentations, and the Oregon
Trail webquest.
This class has two parts. Part one is worth 45% of your grade and
this is discussion board work. There are series of topics on the
discussion board and you will create six answers for these topics. You
will have a choice of questions to answer and for each question you
choose there is a three part question that you have to answer. The
first part of the question is answered by using the internet links in
the readings area, the second part is answered by lecture, text, and
power point presentations, the third part is an opinion part. You need
to answer the question and then have a responses or responses to my
comments and to other students.
The second part of the class consists of the assignments: 1. Oregon
Trail group project assignment. The class will be divided
into three groups and each group will have an assigned task from this webquest which is found on the NSS Press website
and in the Assignments section. Each group will produce a six page
single spaced document, 2. Take home midterm and final assignments are
found in the assignment area. You can answer each question by using the
essays in the reader CD and writing 2-3 paragraph answers, 3. Film
Review: In the assignments area there is a list of Hollywood
films. Pick one, rent one, summarize the film and evaluate it in terms
of class material in a four page paper.
Grading: Discussion Board: 45%; Assignments: 55%
with the breakdown as: a. Group Project 15%, b. Take home assignments
15% each and c. Film Review 10%.
OVERVIEW OF
BLACKBOARD AREAS:
You start the class with this general
orientation lecture in the Course Information section and bulletin
board area.. Go through the Course Information
section to get a good grasp of the class. Faculty Information shows me
near San Diego Bay
and clearly indicates that I will be teaching this class from the San
Diego area.
Course Documents contains objectives for each topic, a lecture
for each topic, readings with links for each
topic, and highlights and questions dealing with the readings.
Assignments area gives you an overview of the assignments along with
the assignments themselves. My office hours will be in the Virtual
Classroom if you have any questions you need to be answered, but you
can e-mail me anytime and any other students in the class from this
system. If you wish you can do your own individual page that can be
accessed from the roster. All assignments will be submitted to the
Digital Drop Box. Make sure you use Word or Word Perfect for these
assignments.
Grade Reports: I will e-mail you weekly grade
reports, I will be grading all answers on the discussion board there
with my responses, and I will e-mail you with assignment grades after
assignments are corrected.
Hope you
enjoy a topical history of early America
in this online format. Good luck in the class.
