The course consists of eight sections or course units: 

Conquest, Colonization, Revolution, Republic, Slavery, Reform, Regions, & Civil War.

Blackboard discussion will be organized around these topics as are the suggested primary and secondary sources which I provide.

The textbook provides a kind of grand narrative of US History. We rely heavily on the textbook in this course, so comprehending the reading is important. To help you in your reading, I provide reading questions that cover the chapters.  

Use the reading questions as a study guide for the midterm and final as most of the questions on the test will be taken from your reading questions.

In addition to narratives about the past, history involves analysis. Why was America colonized? What caused democracy to emerge? What was the effect of religious beliefs on shaping the new nation? What factors demonstrate the role of women? and so forth. Blackboard discussion should focus largely on analytic questions. However, doing history involves answering analytic questions for yourself, so you will get some practice in writing analysis papers.

There will be a short examination at the halfway point and again at the end. They will focus primarily on the readings however they will include what is covered in discussion and any additional assignments. You must take the exams. They are designed to track the effectiveness of the course. If you have test anxiety, do not worry, the exams count for very few points and you can do poorly on the exams and still do well in the course.

Identification, narrative, and discussion posts should be submitted directly to blackboard. Analysis papers should be sent directly to me as email or an email message with an attachment (I accept only Word, HTML, RTF or plain text formats). Be certain you receive an email acknowledgement receipt from me.

Be sure you include your name on all your work in order to receive credit.

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The details on each of these types of assignments are below:

Discussion

Discussion is at the core of any online course. You must participate in the weekly online discussion. You will receive a weekly grade. Here is information on how I grade discussions. Here is a guide for discussions. Obviously you cannot makeup missed discussions but I will try to let you know how you are doing early in the course and make suggestions if your discussion participation needs improving.

Identification

You identify something by saying who, what, where, when, and why. If it's a person, the who is a bit redundant, but it might be relevant to state their full name or something. The "what" means saying the person was a merchant or a reformer or whatever. Their main role on the historical stage. "Where" is where the person lived, where the battle was fought. Give what detail you can. Thus, you can say the Battle of the Plains of Abraham took place in Canada, or you can say it took place on a  fairly level field adjoining the upper part of the city of Quebec, Canada - whatever you can find. "When" means when they lived. For rulers, it's sufficient to give when they ruled--you don't always need exact birth and death dates. If it's a battle, give the year, e.g. 1759.

The "why" concerns historical significance. The Battle of Plains of Abraham was important because it decided the last of the French and Indian Wars and led to British supremacy in Canada. You could say more. This is the really important part of the answer, yet it is often completely left out by students. The Identification assignment usually comes in around 100 words. You can often state the who, what, where and when portions in a single sentence. For example: The Battle of Plains of Abraham was fought in 1759 between the English under Gen. James Wolfe and French under Gen. Louis Montcalm at a site near Quebec. Then, all you would need is a sentence or two on the significance. Some answers are easier to compact than others. There is no length limit but strive for both completeness and brevity. 

Go beyond the book in your search for explanations. You must rephrase in your own words. Do not just cut and paste from other sources. Think about it. Make it your own. Rephrase it. Post it and cite your sources.

Narrative

Here you just tell the story of an event, a career, a development. The key with the narrative assignment is clarity. Your narrative should tell a story and have a clear beginning, middle and end. It needs to stay on topic and not wander off on side issues or get distracted by giving too much background. Just narrate the events. This assignment will take more words. The length will be determined by the topic, but typically will run to 200 words. Try to go beyond the book in your search for narrative information. You must rephrase in your own words. Do not just cut and paste from other sources. Cite your sources.

Timeline

Our book is organized both temporally and topically and does not always follow a strict linear progression. There are large amounts of primary and secondary  information in a broad survey course of this kind that can get confusing. 

To help you keep track of what was going on when, create a timeline of significant events (significant to you) of some portion of US history through reconstruction.

Content is up to you. Choose people, events and places that interest you.  I have had students trace their family history in the pre Civil War time period, technological inventions, changes in nursing, roles of women, warfare, reform movements. literary and artistic movements. Anything prior to 1865 is okay.

Format is up to you. A simple linear progression on paper is fine. Some students create web pages or power point presentations. Some create scrolls or mock up newspaper account.

Be creative and have fun. These will be presented in class so you will also get a chance to do public presentation.

Analysis

This is your basic history essay or short paper. The key to this assignment is in the name: analysis. Your paper will probably contain some identification and some narrative and maybe even a definition or two, but if you don't do any analysis of the event or person or development, then you aren't really doing this assignment. 

All of the basic paper-writing rules apply here: have a clear thesis statement, include in your paper only those facts that go toward supporting your thesis (unless your paper is specifically addressing differing points of view). You must include a bibliography of sources you consulted or referenced. There is not enough room here to teach you about how to write a term paper, even a short one.

Your analysis paper should be no less that 750 words and preferably no more than about 1250 words. The lower limit is inflexible and you will be graded down if you go below it. The upper limit is a strong suggestion. This upper limit is to encourage you to be thorough but brief. It sets a limit on how much effort I expect you to expend on this project. It helps you define the scope of the activity. It teaches you to edit your papers for content.

go here for help in writing analytic papers

go here for help figuring out what analytic means

Other sources

Guide to writing a good essay

How to reference sources

Midterm and Final Examinations.

 I have not always given tests but lately some students have not been doing the reading or keeping up in classroom discussion so I am going back to having a midterm and final. Questions will be taken from the book chapters, reading reaction questions, online secondary and primary essays, and your posts to the discussion board.  It is important to read everything and keep up. The midterm exam will cover conquest, colonization and the revolution. The final examination will cover the republic, slavery, regionalism, reform and the civil war.

Reading/reaction questions

The textbook covers a great deal of information. Given the accelerated format for this course, I want to help focus your attention in your reading. To assist you, I will provide you with a list of questions from the reading each week. As a further aide, the questions will sequentially follow the flow of the text. These questions will generally be short answer. 

The reading reaction questions are a fair amount of work if you write out complete answers for each question, but they give you a good outline of the readings. The majority of the questions on the midterm and final will be based directly on the reading reaction. 

You do not need to turn in your answers to these questions. They will not be graded.

Submitting Assignments

Your analytic paper is due, by email, on the last day of the semester however I recommend turning it in earlier. I accept HTML, MS Word, RTF and TXT formats. Make sure that you receive an acknowledgement that the email was received. Points are awarded for turning the paper in on time and the quality of the paper itself.

There will be one midterm and may be one final - see the course schedule. You will be given instructions about the formats for these exams.

Post identifications/narratives and discussion points to the blackboard forums. I want you to read one another's posts - both the assignments and the discussion. Points will be awarded if you respond to what others are posting. You will loose discussion points if you do not respond to what others (including the instructor) post.

For assignment posts please format the subject with your last name, assignment type and week number, e.g. roebuck-narrative-week 4. Failure to label your posts this way will cost you points.

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See grading information

At the end of the course, 

Submit a self assessment. Tell me how you think you did in the course, how hard you worked and what grade you would give yourself. This is worth 10 points.

And submit a course assessment  by email. This is worth 10 points