About This Course
This class is a hybrid online and classroom course. It is not entirely virtual: it meets physically, in time and space every few weeks on Tuesday nights. Most of the course material is on-line, supplemented by an optional textbook. Assignments are submitted via e-mail. Most class discussion is done asynchronously via a web-based discussion forum on CCD's Blackboard. Except for the format and medium, the course is rather traditional, covering the history of the West from ancient Greece through the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period.
Students read and discuss the materials from the online reading, they do short papers, they give short presentations and they receive college credit (auditing is also permitted).
Medium: All resources are delivered via the Internet. I used to rely on a physical textbook, but the range of materials are now rich enough that it is possible to rely solely on virtual materials. Web-based discussion on Blackboard handles class discussions, and the students can use e-mail to speak directly with me or with each other. A Web site holds a collection of lectures, extensively re-worked for hypermedia format. The Web also holds other resources, such as assigned readings from original sources, collections of pictures, questions and topics for class discussion, and a library of links to other net-based resources.
Format: Students check the Web site when starting a new study unit. They read the lectures and assigned readings, and check the discussion questions. They might reply to some message, or they might have new comments or questions to offer. By the third week of class, the dialog here should be pretty much continual. There are no tests so discussion and short assignments constitute the basis for your grade.
How does the workload compare? To do well you must work harder than you would in some other classes but not too much. That's the general consensus of students over many semesters. Time is constrained as much material is covered in an abbreviated schedule.
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Dr
Paul Roebuck |