GE 141: History of World Civilizations from 1500 to the Present

Transcription

1 GE 141: History of World Civilizations from 1500 to the Present This syllabus will cover the following topics: Overview and Objectives Required Materials Plan of Study Course Requirements and Evaluation Academic Policies Lessons OVERVIEW AND OBJECTIVES This course covers world civilization from 1500 to the present, surveying the political, economic, social, and intellectual history of European, American, African, and Asian societies. Particular attention will be devoted to the growth of nationalism, the age of revolution, achievements in science and art, the effects of European colonialism on the indigenous peoples of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, and the causes and results of the First World War, Second World War, the Cold War, and post Cold War. Upon successful completion of this course, you can expect to gain the following knowledge and skills in four areas: 1. Writing and Critical Thinking. You will be able to: demonstrate logical organization, coherent thinking, and precision in writing reaction papers based on primary documents covering history from 1500 CE to the present employ critical thinking skills in addressing global issues and historical problems revolving around

2 the study of world civilization from 1500 CE to the present. 2. Social and Behavioral Sciences. You will be able to: apply concepts, theories, or general patterns to particular historical situations or specific historical questions. 3. Diversity and Global Awareness. You will be able to: develop sensitivity and openness to other cultures, peoples, and societies. 4. Content Knowledge. You will be able to: interpret and assess the interconnectedness and divergence of peoples and their cultures across space and time in world history and the historical processes such as migration, commerce and trade, conquest, and cultural diffusion analyze the causation of events and concepts of continuity and change in relation to major turning points in world history demonstrate geographical literacy and an ability to place major events and individuals in a proper chronological order evaluate primary and secondary sources in order to understand varying historical interpretations and craft your own interpretations. This course is divided into twelve lessons. Each lesson contains required reading in the texts and written work to be completed and submitted for evaluation. REQUIRED MATERIALS See the course description for current information about required texts. PLAN OF STUDY Most of the lessons will require you to read a chapter of the textbook and several original documents from the course reader. The order in which you complete the different reading tasks will depend on your learning style. Some students may read my lesson notes before reading the books, while others may find reading the book material first is more beneficial. The lessons offer web links, which are optional, but I strongly encourage you to read (or view, in the case of video) and explore these resources. The textbook and lessons will provide the historical narrative. It is important that you read both, as they are designed to complement each other. For instance, the textbook gives more attention to the Communist revolutions in Russia and China, while the lessons spend more time on the various empires of world history since 1500 CE. Our reader, The Razor s Edge, will empower you with the raw materials of history primary source documents. These documents were written or created in the period under study: the philosophical tracts of Communist thinkers Karl Marx and V.I. Lenin and firsthand accounts of the slave trade or the Holocaust, for instance. Using these documents, you will do the work of an historian by interpreting the past independently rather than relying on what an author or historian tells you about it. As you complete brief writing assignments and longer reaction papers, you will practice articulating a thesis statement, or argument, and justifying it with historical evidence. The lessons are organized with subheadings and important terms. Since the written work of the course will require you to explain the past in your own words, I advise you to take notes on the lessons and the textbook

3 readings. What are the main points of the lesson or chapter? Define the important terms. It is much easier to process terms and concepts while you are reading. Coming back later, before the final exam, will make learning so much more difficult and will probably require you to re read the texts in whole or in part. COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND EVALUATION In this course, you will be evaluated through brief writing assignments, longer reaction papers (2), and a final examination. You will also submit a pre test. These assignments will be weighed as follows: Assignment Value Lesson Pre test 5 percent before Lesson 1 Brief writing assignments 5 percent each x 10 = 50 percent Lessons 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 12 Reaction papers 15 percent each x 2 = 30 percent Lessons 3 and 11 Final examination 15 percent after Lesson 12 Pre Test You will complete the pre test before beginning work on Lesson 1. You will get credit for submitting the pre test, but I will not grade it. Writing Assignments After each lesson (with the exceptions of Lessons 3 and 11), you will be asked to answer a question or questions in your journal (which will be in the form of a history blog). Respond to the question by applying your historical knowledge from the textbook readings and lessons to interpret the past. Unless specifically indicated, your response to each prompt should be a paragraph or two. You should use these postings as an opportunity to practice crafting a thesis statement, or argument, and using specific evidence from the readings to prove that argument. For more detail advice on crafting a thesis statement, see the first chapter in your course reader, The Razor s Edge. Your journal will be in the form of a blog, and instructions for setting up your (free) blog are in Lesson 1. In Lesson 10, your assignment will be a film review. You will choose a film from those recommended in the lesson text, obtain a copy and watch it (you may rent, borrow, or buy), and post your response to my questions in your blog. If circumstances do not allow you to obtain or view one of the films, contact me as soon as possible so that we can arrange an alternate assignment. Reaction Papers After Lessons 3 and 11, you will write reaction papers. In each reaction paper, you will practice crafting a thesis, or argument, and proving it with historical evidence from our sources in The Razor s Edge. Each essay prompt requires you to interpret multiple sources from The Razor s Edge and from materials I have placed on electronic reserve. You may also use your textbook for background information. No other sources may be used. Each reaction paper should be in the form of an essay. The essay should be two three pages ( words). You are required to use a five paragraph essay structure: The introduction paragraph tells the reader what your essay is about, provides an overview of the topic

4 and your use of evidence, and concludes with a one sentence thesis statement that concisely and coherently responds to the essay prompt. The three body paragraphs do the heavy lifting of the essay. Each paragraph should focus on a particular topic, idea, or theme. A topic sentence at the beginning of the paragraph should tell the reader what the paragraph is about and relate to your thesis statement. You should use specific examples and evidence to make your case. The conclusion paragraph should restate your essay s argument and evidence. While it should mirror the introduction, it should avoid using the same language as the introduction. The thesis statement is an argument about the primary source documents that summarizes in one sentence your response to the essay prompt. It should be persuasive and interpretive. It represents your educated guess about the past. One should be able to contest it with an opposing argument or an alternative interpretation of the evidence. Use sources (primary source documents for example, an eyewitness account of an historical event) to explain and justify your response. You may also use your textbook in order to help you understand the back story of the documents. Do not use Wikipedia or any other online source to write your essay. Use two or three quotes from the sources to help explain your argument. Don t use too many quotes! Quotes should be used when you cannot effectively paraphrase the language of the document. When possible, paraphrase the documents translate them into your own words. It demonstrates that you understand them! Be sure to cite the source of your paraphrasing. These requirements are not designed to stifle your creativity. Most new writers find such parameters useful for crafting an academic essay. I am not interested in imposing a particular writing style on you. I am interested in helping you learn to write effectively and coherently. You may wish to acquire a writing manual to help you along in this process. Composition students at ECSU use The Norton Field Guide to Writing (ISBN ). I strongly encourage you to craft an essay outline before you begin writing. Use 1" margins all around and 11 or 12 point Times New Roman type. Double space your essay. Identify your sources with parenthetical citations, such as (Bowman, 67). Follow the instructions in each writing assignment for submitting your file. Final Examination You will take a final exam after completing all lessons. It will consist of multiple choice questions, short answer questions, and a short essay. You must pass this exam in order to receive credit for the course. The final exam must be scheduled and supervised. See Scheduling Your Final Exam for information and links to forms. It is extremely important for you to save copies of any s you send to me. If I don't receive it, you must have a copy of the with any attached file, indicating the date sent, to prove that you submitted it. It is your responsibility to maintain copies of your sent s, as there is no way to guarantee that any message will be delivered. Please check your software to see how it manages sent and saved messages. Some software automatically deletes messages one month after they have been sent; others only save messages if they are filed in folders; others save messages received but not those sent. You may need to

5 send yourself a copy of your ed assignment at the same time you send it to me, or you may need to print a copy of the message and any attachments to keep in your paper files. No matter how your system works, make sure you know how to save a copy of all work that you submit and that you save the copy for several months beyond the end of the course. ACADEMIC POLICIES By enrolling as a student in this course, you agree to abide by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill policies related to the acceptable use of online resources. Please consult the Acceptable Use Policy on topics such as copyright, net etiquette, and privacy protection. As part of this course, you may be asked to participate in online discussions or other online activities that may include personal information about you or other students in the course. Please be respectful of the rights and protection of other participants under the UNC Chapel Hill Information Security Policies when participating in online classes. When using online resources offered by organizations not affiliated with UNC Chapel Hill, such as Google or YouTube, please note that the terms and conditions of these companies and not the University s Terms and Conditions apply. These third parties may offer different degrees of privacy protection and access rights to online content. You should be well aware of this when posting content to sites not managed by UNC Chapel Hill. When links to sites outside of the unc.edu domain are inserted in class discussions, please be mindful that clicking on sites not affiliated with UNC Chapel Hill may pose a risk for your computer due to the possible presence of malware on such sites. Honor Code As a Self paced Courses Online student, you are bound by the Honor Code: It shall be the responsibility of every student to obey and support the enforcement of the Honor Code, which prohibits lying, cheating, or stealing when these actions involve academic processes or University students or academic personnel acting in an official capacity. The examples and definitions given below are intended to clarify the standards by which academic honesty and academically honorable conduct are to be judged. The following list is merely illustrative and is not intended to be exhaustive. Plagiarism. Plagiarism is presenting another person s work as one s own. It includes paraphrasing or summarizing the works of another person without acknowledgement, including submitting another student s work as one s own. Cheating. This involves giving or receiving unauthorized assistance before, during, or after an examination. Unauthorized collaboration. Submission for academic credit of a work, product, or a part thereof, represented as being one s own effort, that has been developed in substantial collaboration with or with assistance from another person or source. Falsification. It is a violation to misrepresent material or fabricate information in an academic exercise or assignment. Multiple submissions. It is a violation to submit substantial portions of the same work for credit more than

6 once without the explicit consent of the instructor to whom the material is submitted for additional credit. Students who violate these policies will receive a grade of F (0) on the assignment. After this first warning, students who commit additional acts of academic dishonesty will receive a grade of F for the course and will be referred for disciplinary action. An especially serious violation is plagiarism. To make sure you understand how to avoid plagiarism, please view the Plagiarism Tutorial from UNC Libraries. LESSONS The course schedule is up to you. You can complete the course in as few as twelve weeks or take as long as nine months. The important thing is to get a good start, then maintain your momentum. Begin by clicking the link for Lesson 1 in the left hand column. Module 1: Making the World Lesson 1 Lesson 2 Lesson 3 Contact, Commerce, and Colonization Prosperity and Transformation in Asia The Atlantic Slave Trade Module 2: Revolutions! Lesson 4 Lesson 5 Lesson 6 Lesson 7 Enlightenment and the World Revolutions in the Atlantic World Capitalism and Slavery The Industrial Revolution Module 3: Nations and Empires Lesson 8 Lesson 9 Lesson 10 Peasants, Workers, and Women Nations and Empires A Great and Global War Module 4: The Twentieth Century and Beyond Lesson 11 Lesson 12 Final Exam Liberal Democracy Under Siege Postwar, 1945 to the Present See Scheduling Your Final Exam for information and links to forms. Please fill out a brief online course evaluation. We want to know if this course met your needs and expectations. The University of North Carolina Send comments and questions to fridaycenter@unc.edu.