Sample Course: HIS 124: United States History

In a U.S. History course designed according to Multi-Modal practice, the classroom is a place for small-group discussion surrounding primary sources and special topics. In a traditional face-to-face format, the course is designed for up to 36 students, and the regular schedule is a single class period each week, Thursday nights at 6:00 - 8:45 PM.

As an MMC course, HIS124 could be entirely remote, and most of the course is similar to a traditional online course. But the instructor makes the most of classroom time for real-time student-student interaction and active learning. The course roster is divided into three cohorts of up to twelve students each, meeting at different times throughout the class night.

Even if no COVID-19 social distancing provisions were necessary, a history professor might opt for this format to create discussion spaces with strong student interaction. With only ten or twelve students in a discussion consistently moderated by the professor, students cannot sit back and let a few extroverts do the discussing.

Course Content

A reading assignment from a traditional textbook, which students purchase in either paper or e-text format.
Text or Video primary source assignments, ranging from diary entries to speeches.
Some weeks feature an interactive lesson on particular topics instead of textbook or other reading assignments.

Online Activities

A short reading "quiz" that's really a small worksheet to promote reading comprehension, or
An activity worksheet employing online tools.
Some weeks feature a reflective writing assignment. Students can choose to complete five of seven of these.

This short orientation screencast video would introduce students to the class. Ideally, the course would be open in D2L by August 24th, and students could watch this video at any time in the week before, or throughout the course.

Classroom Activities

Each week, student cohorts meet in the classroom for 45 minutes apiece. Cohort A arrives at 6:00 PM, Cohort B at 7:00 PM, and Cohort C at 8:00 PM. In each 45 minute session, 10-12 students and the instructor discuss the weekly reading or watching assignments.

If a COVID-19 surge compels the course to shift exclusively online, the entire class joins the asynchronous discussions already in place for students not participating in classroom meetings. These may be single discussion topics where all students can participate together, or discussion topics divided by cohort (using D2L's groups toolset) to preserve the cohort structure in student - student interactions.

Course Documents

You can find a sample syllabus for this course here.

Here are discussion instructions.

Classroom Discussions: Two Examples

Advertising Gender

Sources

Chapters four and five in Tim Wu's Attention Merchants.
Ruth Schwartz Cowan's article "Less Work for Mother?"
Students choose two items from Old Print Advertisements at the Hartman Center, Duke University Library

Class Discussion Prompt

for F2F instruction.

To prepare for Thursday night's class, read the assigned pieces by Wu and Cowan. Then go to the Hartman Center's advertising archive, and find two items that were printed prior to 1950. You might choose to find one or two advertisements that you feel reinforce traditional roles of women as homemakers, sex objects, low-wage or temporary workers, and subordinate to men. On the other hand, you might find an advertisement that suggests otherwise, trying to sell something by showing a woman or women in less traditional roles, or somehow breaking social boundaries or taboos. Post the links to these items in the D2L Discussion Topic called "Advertising Gender." In class, we discuss Cowan and Wu's perspectives on advertising's relationship to consumerism, and then collectively interpret our chosen primary source advertisements.

Alternative Asynchronous Discussion Prompt

for the entire class online, or multiple quarantined students.

For Thursday at 6:00 PM: Find and post in the discussion topic two items in the Hartman Center's advertising archive,that were printed prior to 1950. You might choose to find one or two advertisements that you feel reinforce traditional roles of women as homemakers, sex objects, low-wage or temporary workers, and subordinate to men. On the other hand, you might find an advertisement that suggests otherwise, trying to sell something by showing a woman or women in less traditional roles, or somehow breaking social boundaries or taboos.

For one clip, in around four sentences, describe how it relates to Wu's description of the professional advertising practices emerging in the 1920s, or Cowan's discussion of household technologies. For the other, simply post the clip without any commentary.

For Sunday at 6:00 PM: Comment on the second clip posted by someone else. Compare it to Wu, Cowan, or even Eric Foner's textbook, (Give Me Liberty.)

Alternative Writing Assignment

for a single quarantined or absent student.

Find two items in the Hartman Center's advertising archive,that were printed prior to 1950, that illustrate different aspects of Wu's or Cowan's discussion of advertising, gender roles in the early twentieth century, and consumerism. You might choose to find one or two advertisements that you feel reinforce traditional roles of women as homemakers, sex objects, low-wage or temporary workers, and subordinate to men. On the other hand, you might find an advertisement that suggests otherwise, trying to sell something by showing a woman or women in less traditional roles, or somehow breaking social boundaries or taboos.

For each item, in around 400 words, describe how it relates to Wu's description of the professional advertising practices emerging in the 1920s, or Cowan's discussion of household technologies.

World War II: Diverse Experiences

Sources

Students choose two passages (nurses' accounts from World War II) from Diane Fessler's No Time for Fear.
The World War II: Diverse Experiences interactive lesson.
Chapter 7 from Alan Berube's Coming Out Under Fire.

Class Discussion Prompt

for F2F instruction.

Read (and watch) the above sources. In World War II, women, racial minorities, and gay and lesbian Americans who chose to serve in the armed forces faced barriers and conditions within the services not faced by white, heterosexual or cis-gendered men. Consider how their conditions paralleled one another, or in important ways, contrasted with one another. As preparation for the discussion, choose and be ready to discuss two individual accounts by nurses in Fessler's book.

Alternative Asynchronous Discussion Prompt

for the entire class online, or multiple quarantined students

For Thursday at 6:00 PM: Pick two accounts from Diane Fessler's No Time for Fear, and describe how they relate to the experiences of gay servicepersons as described by Alan Berube. In what ways do your chosen accounts seem to parallel Berube's account? In what ways may the lives of (heterosexual) nurses have been different than those of gay troops, generally?

For Sunday at 6:00 PM: Respond to another student's post, and provide a further comparison of one of their chosen accounts, and either Berube or the experiences of African-American and Asian-American troops as described in the online interactive lesson.

Alternative Writing Assignment

for a single quarantined or absent student.

1. Describe three ways in which the lives and situations of gay troops during World War II, as described by Alan Berube, as similar to experiences described by nurses, African-American, or Asian American accounts.

2. The Army’s official, by-the-book policy was that gay and lesbian people could not serve within the Armed Forces. This mirrored widespread prejudice against non-heterosexual peoples in civil society. But during World War II many gay and lesbian Americans were able to serve in the Army and Navy, even if for some, their sexual orientation wasn’t exactly a secret among their fellow troops. How does Berube explain this difference between official policy, and reality in the wartime military?

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