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History 5:
World History from 1750
Instructor: James Seaman / Spring 2016Email: / Online course
Instructor webpage: / Dates: 1/19/2016 – 3/20/2016
Class webpage: / Ticket:17050
Course Description
History 5 is a survey of major themes and events in world history from 1750 to the present. Emphasis will be placed on the Atlantic slave trade and slavery in the Americas, late 18th- and early 19th-century political revolutions, the Industrial Revolution, imperialism and colonialism, and 20th-century nationalist movements and revolutions. This course is transferable to the UC/CSU.
Course Structure and Requirements
This is an online course. In lieu of traditional classroom activities, you will be spending the majority of your time listening to recorded lectures, reviewing PowerPoint presentations, reading from your textbook and reader, watching videos, and participating in our discussion forums. In the forums you will be analyzing weekly discussion questions which will integrate the information from the recorded lectures, presentations, textbook, reader, and videos. If you are unfamiliar with Saddleback College’s Blackboard content management system, please consult the Saddleback College Blackboard Online Support Center at If you have general technical support needs, please consult I am a history instructor; I don’t have training in technical support and am therefore unable to troubleshoot any technical problems.
Formal evaluation will be determined as follows:
Participation:40 pts (20%)
Weekly Quizzes:70 pts (35%)
Paper: 40 pts (20%)
Final Exam:50 pts (25%)
Total: 200 pts
- Participation: Most weeks(all except Weeks 8 and 9) there will be two discussion questions found in the “Discussion Forums” link in the main menu of our course Blackboard site. Students are required to respond to both discussion questions by Friday night at 11:59 pm (these are “initial responses”). Each initial response must be at least 150 of your own words, and must directly address each component of the discussion question. Students are also required to respond at least twice a weekto your fellow students’ initial responses by Sunday (1 post in each of the 2 discussions, these are “participation posts”). Each participation post must be at least 100 of your own words in length, and must directly engage your fellow students’ initial response. Simply saying “I agree” is not engaging. Additionally, your response must help move the conversation forward by perhaps adding additional information, elaborating upon a point, asking thoughtful questions, or even respectfully disagreeing with the original post. To be perfectly clear, you are required to submit 4 posts a week: 2 initial responses and 2 participation responses.
- Weekly Quizzes: Every week (except for Weeks 1 and 9) there will be a quiz which will cover content from the audio lectures, presentations, readings (both textbook and reader), and videos of that week. You can take the quiz any time during the week, but it must be completed by Sunday night at 11:59pm. You get one chance to take the quiz, and each quiz is timed, so be sure to read the quiz instructions carefully before starting the timer. Technical difficulties are not sufficient excuses to retake an exam.I have carefully and intentionally calculated the time necessary to take each quiz, so please don’t ask for an extension.
- Paper: The paper will be an exercise in primary source evaluation. It is not a research paper, and the use of any sources outside of the ones explicitly assigned in our specific course’s Milestone online reader will result in an F for the assignment. A detailed “Paper Topic Handout” will be posted in the “Course Materials” link of the main menu early in the class. It will include the prompt, as well as various instructions, tips, and information pertaining to where, when and how to submit the paper online.
- Final Exam: The two-part final exam (Week 9) will be similar to the weekly quizzes, only cumulative and longer (2 hrs).
Late Policy
No late work will be accepted. All discussion posts, quizzes, and papers will be time stamped upon submission. This timestamp will be the only factor used in determining whether or not an assignment, quiz or paper was submitted on time. There are no exceptions to this rule. Since you have plenty of time to submit your posts and papers, and to take your quizzes and exams, there is no excuse for turning work in late. Plan ahead and turn your work in early in to avoid any unforeseen problems that may arise during the week. Saddleback College’s Pacific time will be the only time I recognize.
Participation
Participation is 20% of your course grade, so it is in your best interest to be active and do well in the “Discussion Forums” from the very first week in class. If you do not post in any forum during Week 1 nor contact me and explain your lack of an online presence, you may be dropped from the course to make room for other students. If you want to drop the course, you must do so yourself, and not rely upon my doing so for you.
Plagiarism
In short, using someone else’s words and passing them off as your own by not properly quoting and citing them is plagiarism. This is a serious academic violation, and one that is all too common in online classes. If you find yourself copying and pasting anything from a book or a webpage, you are doing something wrong. This course requires you to think critically, to read and discuss historical topics using your own analysis. If you choose to support your ideas with someone else’s, you must put those words in quotes and properly cite where you received that information. Please note that should I discover someone is copying and pasting their responses in the discussion forums on in their paper, I will file an academic dishonesty report with the Dean’s office which could lead to your expulsion from the institution. Please carefully read Saddleback College’s “Code of Conduct” at
Course Goals and Student Learning Outcomes
By the end of the semester:
- Students will have learned about some of the basic movements, events, and people in early-modern and modern world history.
- Students will have learned about the various types of historical inquiry, focusing on the differences between political, economic, social, gender, and cultural history.
- Students will have learned how to evaluate primary sources in history.
- Students will have learned to study history objectively, by setting aside their own political, religious, or social beliefs in the pursuit of historical understanding.
- Student will have learned some basic political and physical geography.
Accommodations for Students with Disabilities
This course meets the requirements set forth in the accessibility checklist and universal design grid provided by Special Services. The Web pages, video presentations, textbooks and class materials used in this course are accessible to students with disabilities.
Required Readings
1. Textbook:
Bentley and Ziegler, Traditions & Encounters: A Global Perspective on the Past (6th ed., vol. II) (ISBN: 978-0-07-750491-5)
I strongly suggest you do not use an edition of the textbook other than the one listed above. I will, in part, be testing out of readings from the book above, and if you have different editions, the page numbers listed on the syllabus for your weekly readings will not correspond to your book. However, should you feel that you can make the proper adjustments, using the 5th edition of the Bentley/Ziegler text should be fine.
2. Primary Sources Reader:
MilestoneDocuments.com, James Seaman, History 5 (17050) subscription.
Milestone Documents Instructions:
a. Purchase a Milestone Documents access card at the bookstore, or proceed directly to the website below to purchase access using a credit card.
b. Go to
Make sure to use this exact URL, or else your account will not be tied to the Course and your reading assignments will not display on your My Courses tab.
c. Follow the instructions to select this course and create your account.
d. All assignments and instructor alerts are visible on your My Courses tab.
e. Note: You must be logged in to use the site.
Getting a Milestone Documents subscription is a class requirement. Please understand that I will receive a list of all subscribers in this class as well as reports showing your activity on the site, so I will know if you don't have one. Please inform the Milestone Documents staff immediately (email: ) if you have any trouble accessing the site.)
Schedule
Week / Topic / Readings1
(1/18) / A. Africa and the Atlantic Slave Trade
B. The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment / A. Text: 549-552; 560-582
Reader: Unit I
B. Text: 526-532; 635-639; 654-656
Reader: Unit II
Assignments:
1. Listen to and watch the Week 1 lectures, presentations,and videos that correspond to the topics above.
2. Participate in Discussion Forums. (5 pts)
3. No Quiz in Week 1.
2
(1/25) / A. The American and French Revolutions
B. The Industrial Revolution in Europe / A. Text: 635-647
Reader: UnitIII
B. Text: 667-690
Reader: Unit IV
Assignments:
1. Listen to and watch the Week 2 lectures, presentations, and videos that correspond to the topics above.
2. Participate in Discussion Forums. (5 pts)
3. Take Week 2 Quiz. (10 pts)
Week / Topic / Readings
3
(2/1) / A. The Triumph of Nationalism in Europe, 1815-1914
B. Africa, the Middle East, and Western Imperialism, 1800-1914 / A. Text: 653; 656-664
Reader: Unit V
B. Text: 722-727; 748-753; 757-760; 840-845
Reader: Unit VI
Assignments:
1. Listen to and watch the Week 3 lectures, presentations, and videos that correspond to the topics above.
2. Participate in Discussion Forums. (5 pts)
3. Take Week 3 Quiz. (10 pts)
4
(2/8) / A. Asia in the Era of Western Imperialism, 1800-1914
B. Revolution and Nation-Building in Latin America / A. Text: 732-744; 753-757
Reader: Unit VII
B. Text:647-652
Reader: Unit VIII
Assignments:
1. Listen to and watch the Week 4 lectures, presentations, and videos that correspond to the topics above.
2. Participate in Discussion Forums. (5 pts)
3. Take Week 4 Quiz. (10pts)
5
(2/15) / A. World War I
B. The Age of Anxiety / A. Text: 778-807
Reader: Unit IX
B. Text: 811-821
Reader: Unit X
Assignments:
1. Listen to and watch the Week 5 lectures, presentations, and videos that correspond to the topics above.
2. Participate in Discussion Forums. (5 pts)
3. Take Week 5 Quiz. (10 pts)
Week / Topic / Readings
6
(2/22) / A. Nationalism in Asia, 1914-1939
B. World War II / A. Text: 802-804; 834-840; 856-858; 892-894
Reader: Unit XI
B. Text: 856; 858-875
Reader: Unit XII
Assignments:
1. Listen to and watch the Week 6 lectures, presentations, and videos that correspond to the topics above.
2. Participate in Discussion Forums. (5 pts)
3. Take Week 6 Quiz. (10 pts)
7
(2/29) / A. Global Recovery and Division / A. Text: 875-878; 882-883; 912-916
Reader: Unit XIII
Assignments:
1. Listen to and watch the Week 7 lecture, presentation, and videos that correspond to the topics above.
2. Participate in Discussion Forums. (5 pts)
3. Take Week 7 Quiz. (10 pts)
4. Paper due in the Week 7 “View/Complete” link by the Sunday of Week 7 (see Paper Topic document in our Course Materials link for details). (40 pts)
8
(3/7) / A. Postwar China and India / A. Text: 889-890; 900-903
Reader: Unit XIV
Assignments:
1. Listen to and watch the Week 8 lecture, presentation, and videos that correspond to the topics above.
2. Participate in Discussion Forums.(2.5 pts)
3. Take Week 8 Quiz. (10 pts)
9
(3/14,
last week of class) / A. Postwar Latin America / A. Text: 847-852; 879-882; 906-908
Reader: Unit XV
Assignments:
1. Listen to and watch the Week 9 lecture, presentation, and videos that correspond to the topics above.
2. Participate in Discussion Forum. (2.5 pts)
3. Take Final Exam Part 1. (25 pts)
4. Take Final Exam Part 2. (25 pts)