History 1200 Online:

Western Civilization II: Age of Revolution through
World War II

Summer 2007 Online: June 11, 2007 - August 5, 2007
CRN 40930

Instructor: Dr. Jennifer E. Forster
Office: B-2043
Phone: (440) 525-7199
E-mail: jforster@lakelandcc.edu
Office Hours: By Appointment

Course Description

A survey of the history of Western Civilization from 1648 to 1945, with special attention to the relationship between the west and the rest of the world.

Required Reading

Required Textbook: Sherman and Salisbury, The West in the World, 2nd edition
Also Required: Assigned readings on website discussion boards

Assignments

Assignments include a syllabus quiz and “meet and greet” board, participation in the class discussion boards, review quizzes, and three exams (essay and identification).

Material in the course is divided into three sections. The first section (chapters 13-15) introduces the student to the society and culture of early modern Europe and the profound changes wrought by the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, and the political upheavals of the 17th and 18th centuries, excluding the French Revolution. The second section (chapters 16-19) considers the impact of the French and Industrial Revolutions, including the rise of mass politics, the influence of ideologies, and the changes wrought by new technologies. The third section (chapters 20-23) focuses on the expansion of European power and the relationship between imperialism, revolution, and the two World Wars.

In each section, students will read weekly assigned chapters. They will also be required to post to weekly discussion boards, exclusive of the first and eight weeks. Each section concludes with a review quiz taken online and an exam taken on-campus in the testing center. If you require a proctor, please contact the instructor during the first week of class. Due dates are on the schedule included in this syllabus and on the website.

1. Syllabus Quiz and “Meet and Greet” discussion board

Students must take this quiz the first week of the course or receive a zero. You must get all of the answers right to obtain full credit. On the other hand, you can re-take the quiz as many times as necessary during the first week of the course to receive full credit.

The syllabus quiz is under the “Assignments” link.

Submission of the quiz constitutes acknowledgement on the part of the student that he or she has read and understands the syllabus.

Please post to the “Meet and Greet” board during the first week in order to introduce yourself to your instructor and your peers.

2. Review Quizzes

Students will take a quiz over material for each exam. Due dates are listed below and on the course website. The quizzes consist of twenty-five questions. Each quiz is worth twenty-five points. The quiz is not timed, but it must be taken the first time you attempt to take it. Do not start the quiz unless you are fully prepared to take it. You may only take the quiz once. The review quizzes are taken online. Late quizzes are not accepted. The review quizzes test your general knowledge of the material in each section.

3. Discussion Boards

The discussion boards begin the second week of the course and provide a substitute for the interaction of a face-to-face classroom. There is no discussion board for the eighth week of class.

A good part of your final grade depends on your performance on the discussion boards. Please be certain that you understand this as you go through the course. It is impossible to do well in this online class without full and proper attention to the discussion boards.

You must post three times per week, beginning the second week of class and concluding the seventh week of class. Use proper grammar and spelling. Remember: your posts are dated! Your posts must follow a set structure:

Your posts must follow a set structure:

1. One of your posts must be a response to one of the questions posed by the instructor. These questions will be posted as prompts on the board and as threads in the board. Please post your response in the proper thread. You will notice a number next to each of my questions. This is the “cap” of permitted responses. For example, one question may have a (5) after it. This means that only five responses are permitted to this question. If five people have answered the question before you, then the cap has been reached and you must answer another question.

Another point to note is that the questions I ask you may contain a link to primary source material. For these questions, be sure that you have read and thought about material in the textbook before reading the primary source.

Your response must be substantial (think along the lines of four or five sentences), and it must be original (that is, it must not be a cut-and-paste job or a rehashed version of an encyclopedia article or other work, including your text). This initial post must be submitted by the Tuesday of each week.

Sources other than your textbook and/or a specifically assigned reading on the discussion board may not be used unless you have permission from the instructor. This includes Wikipedia. If you quote from your textbook, explain why your quote is important, use quotation marks, and cite the page number(s).

2. Your second post must be a reply to another student’s post. Your reply must be to a post on a subject different from the one that you posted on. This, too, must be a thoughtful and substantial. This post is due by the Thursday of each week. For your second and third posts, you can make references to outside sources other than Wikipedia. Just be sure to cite your sources – the URL of the website, for instance – and to put any material directly taken from the source in quotation marks.

3. Your third post must be a reply to a reply. Again, think along the lines of several sentences. “I agree” or “Good answer” statements are not enough to earn full credit and will not be counted towards your grade. This post is due by the Saturday of each week.

A new board will appear on Sunday morning, and the process will begin again.

Posts to the board devoted to general questions about the course do not count towards your discussion board grade.

Each post is worth up to ten points, for a possible total of thirty points per board.

4. Exams

Students will take three exams during the semester. The dates are listed in the schedule included in this syllabus. The exams consist of identifications and two essay questions. The essay questions are based on your textbook readings and discussion boards. The exams are neither open book nor open note. However, you may handwrite notes on ONE standard 3” x 5” ruled index card and bring that SINGLE card into the exam. This single index card is the only study aid you may bring with you into the exam.

Each exam covers several chapters of reading and material on the discussion boards. Admittedly, this is a great deal of information. You can handle it by keeping up with your reading, participating in discussions, and making good use of the study aids found under the “Course Documents” link. Indeed, study guides for all three exams are posted on the website.

The exams are taken in the Testing Center at Lakeland Community College. In other words, you must come to Lakeland to take these exams.

IMPORTANT: If you are an out-of-county student, you will need to make arrangements for a proctor. Please send me an e-mail or call me as soon as possible so that I can explain the protocol required. The proctor must be associated with a local library, school, or similar facility.

FYI: Testing center staff are instructed to confiscate notecards that violate the rules described above.

Testing Center Hours:

Monday and Tuesday 8:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m.
Wednesday and Thursday 8:00 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.
Friday 8:00 a.m. until 12:00 noon
Saturday 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m.
Bring a picture ID with you to the testing center.

Please note: All exams other than the third exam must be taken by the Saturday, 2:00p.m., of the week in which they are due! The third exam is due Friday, by noon, of the eighth week of class.

Makeup Exams are given at the discretion of the instructor and, if permitted, only to students who can provide documentation. Makeup exams will always be in given in a format chosen by the instructor.

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NOTE ON PLAGLIARISM

Plagiarism is a serious offense. If you borrow or copy material from the Internet, the textbook or any other source, you will be caught and charges will be filed against you. Please do your own work. These rules are applicable to short assignments, discussion boards, and exams. If you are unfamiliar or confused by the concept or definition of plagiarism, please consult pps. 124-127 of the student handbook or the professor. There is a link on the website to an online version of the student handbook.

Grading

To determine your letter grade, divide the points you have earned by the points possible and compare the resulting percentage to the scale below:

Scale:
A (100-90) B (89-80) C (79-70) D (69-60) F (59- 0)

Communication in the course

• General questions about course content should be posted on the board dedicated to that topic on the site.
  
• Personal questions about grades or similar matters should be directed to me by e-mail or by phone.
  
• Your e-mail messages to me must follow a certain format. In the subject heading, please write your name, your class, and a brief description of the contents of your e-mail. Your subject heading should look something like this:
  
       Re: Joe Student – HIST 1100 - First Exam Questions
  
  If you do not follow this format, then I will not read your e-mail. I will consider it spam and delete it.
  
• Please remember that your instructor is not available around the clock. I try to answer e-mails within 24-48 hours, usually sooner than that. Voicemail messages may take longer to return, especially if they are left over the weekend. E-mail is always a faster way to get in touch with me.
  
• Technical questions should be directed ASAP to the Helpdesk. You may contact them in one of the following ways:

Lakeland Help Desk: (440) 525-7570
helpdesk@lakelandcc.edu

Remember: Technical problems are not an excuse for late or missing work. Proper time management is a necessary skill in this course. You can login to the site on any computer in any location.

General Information

A student in an online course must be prepared to act independently and to encounter technical glitches of all kinds. Prepare yourself by doing all of the following things.

• A week in this course, exclusive of the first and eighth weeks, is understood to begin on Sunday and end on Saturday. Be aware of this when planning your studies, exam-taking, etc
  
• Quizzes and exams may be taken early. Please let the instructor know if you plan on taking the on-campus exams early.
  
• Late assignments are penalized one letter grade for each day they are late. All days count.
  
• Keep your syllabus somewhere safe.
  
• Mark due dates on a calendar that you regularly consult.
  
• Print items of exceptional importance from the website and keep them in a specially marked folder. In doing so, you are protecting yourself from Murphy's Laws of online courses: access to the Internet can be notoriously slow regardless of means of access, servers can and will go down, and the like.
  
• Back up every written work you compose in this class, either on hard-drive or disk. Computers break down, viruses show up out of nowhere, and e-mails sometimes get lost in virtual space. Make sure you have extra copies of everything you write.
  
• Familiarize yourself with the website and be prepared to think outside of the box.
  
• Do not put an assignment off to the last moment.
  
• Students are expected to be courteous and respectful to all members of the class and the instructor. This is particularly true of the discussion board, as no rude remarks, intentional outbursts, insulting language, innuendoes, or intimidation will be tolerated and may result in the deletion of your post. Any personal problems are to be communicated to the instructor via private e-mail, and together we will solve the problem. The Discussion Board is only for class assignments, not public or personal commentary.
  

Course Schedule

WEEK ONE 6/11/07 - 6/16/07

READ: Chapter 13
POST: "Meet and Greet"
TAKE: Syllabus Quiz

WEEK TWO 6/17/07 - 6/23/07

READ: Chapters 14 and 15
POST: Discussion Board
TAKE: Review Quiz (13, 14, 15)

WEEK THREE 6/24/07 - 6/30/07

READ: Chapter 16 and 7
POST: Discussion Board
TAKE: First Exam (Chapters 13, 14, 15) by 6/30/07, 2:00p.m.

WEEK FOUR 7/01/07 - 7/07/07

READ: Chapters 18 and 19
POST: Discussion Board
TAKE: Review Quiz (16, 17, 18, 19)

WEEK FIVE 7/08/07 - 7/14/07

READ: Chapter 20
POST: Discussion Board
TAKE: Second Exam (Chapters 16, 17, 18, 19) by 7/14/07, 2:00p.m.

WEEK SIX 7/15/07 - 7/21/07

READ: Chapters 21 and 22
POST: Discussion Board

WEEK SEVEN 7/22/07 - 7/28/07

READ: Chapter 23
POST: Discussion Board
TAKE: Review Quiz (Chpaters 20, 21, 22, 23)

WEEK EIGHT 7/29/07 - 8/05/07

NOTE: Third Exam (Chapters 20, 21, 22, 23) due 8/03/07

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