HIST 204 – new online procedures, beginning Week 9

To: Students in History 204

From: Professor Martha Carlin (carlin@uwm.edu) and William Edmundson, Graduate Teaching Assistant (wge@uwm.edu)

As you know, all UWM classes will be taught online for the remainder of this semester. This memo will describe how History 204 will proceed from now on.

I have revised the online syllabus to conform with the changes noted in this memo.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to email us! We will do our best to help.

 

HISTORY 204 (HIGH MIDDLE AGES):

HOW WE WILL COMPLETE THE SEMESTER ONLINE

  1. Most elements of the course will remain unchanged, including:
  • The assigned readings (as set forth in the online syllabus)
  • The twice-weekly lectures (on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 9:30 AM)
  • The weekly lecture outlines (I will post these on my course webpage as usual, and I will continue to use them in the lectures)
  • The research paper (still due on 31 March; full instructions at end of online syllabus)
  • Your final grade will still be based on attendance and participation (25%), midterm exam (25%), research paper (25%), and final exam (25%)
  1. Some elements of the course will change:
  • All lectures will be given online, via Collaborate Ultra. These will be “live” lectures, held at our usual class times. You will be able to ask questions during the lectures orally or via typed messages. William will be assisting me in fielding questions.I will record these lectures and make the recordings available via Canvas. I have already recorded and posted via Canvas a 45-minute lecture completing the material from Week 8. Please watch this pre-recorded lecture (see below for instructions).
    • To participate in “live” lectures:
    • Before logging in, ALWAYS re-start computer. Use ONLY Chrome as browser.
    • Shortly BEFORE 9:30 AM, enter the course Canvas page
    • Click on Collaborate Ultra in the left sidebar
    • Select the session (e.g., “Week 9 – Tuesday lecture”) and click on “Join session”
    • Follow the prompts to complete your audio and video checks
    • Click on the lavender tab (lower right) to open the Chat sidebar
    • Class will begin at 9:30 AM. To ask a question during class, EITHER type the question in the chat box and press “Return”, OR click on the “Raised Hand” icon and wait for us to call on you. When we call on you, UNMUTE your microphone to speak, then Mute it again ASAP.
    • To view recorded lectures:
    • Enter the course Canvas page and click on “Assignments” in the left sidebar. You will find all recordings on the Assignments page. Click on the desired recording’s hotlink to view it.
  • You will submit your research paper via Canvas rather than on paper.
  • The final exam will change from an in-person exam to a take-home exam. It will be due, in Canvas, on the last day of classes (Thursday, 7 May 2020). See below for full instructions for writing and submitting your final exam.
  1. This additional change in the course can help you to improve your final grade:
  • From now on, attendance during the “live” online lectures will be OPTIONAL. We will use the records of your attendance in Weeks 1-8 and of your six required Homework Assignments to calculate the 25% of your final grade that is based on your attendance and participation. However, to enrich your understanding of the course material, and to enhance your ability to do well on the final exam, we strongly recommend that you continue to attend the lectures.
  • We will continue to take records of attendance during the “live” lectures, and IF YOU ATTEND EVERY “LIVE” ONLINE LECTURE DURING WEEKS 10-14, THIS WILL ERASE ANY UNEXCUSED ABSENCES AND ANY MISSING HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS FROM WEEKS 1-8.
  1. There will be two practice lectures next week (Week 9): please attend them “live” if you can:
  • I will give the two lectures for Week 9 next week (the second week of the extended Spring Break), on their original dates of Tuesday, 24 March and Thursday, 26 March. These are meant to enable us to practice using Collaborate Ultra as a class. Attendance is NOT required, but I hope that everyone who can attend will do so, so that we can all become adept at using Collaborate Ultra before our class formally resumes on 31 March. These two practice classes will start, as usual, at 9:30 AM.
  1. Final Examination instructions:

For your final exam for History 204, imagine that you have just taught this course. Then, write a suitable final examination representing the course material covered in Weeks 7-14 (that is, since the midterm exam). You must supply both the questions AND the correct answers.

A suitable final examination will:

  • Include 20 to 25 questions, with each question assigned a point value;
  • Have 100 total points;
  • Take about two hours to complete;
  • Uniformly cover the course content from weeks 7 through 14;
  • Be based on
    • Content from Professor Carlin’s lectures (both in-person and online);
    • Readings from Judith Bennett’s Medieval Europe: A Short History, and the Gieses’ Life in a Medieval City;
    • The assigned primary source documents.

For each question, you must provide an appropriate and correct answer:

In other words, if you design a short-answer exam (like the midterm), you must write the kind of short answers that would result in a grade of “A”; if you design some other kind of final exam, you must provide full, “A”-quality answers.

Your final exam (both questions and answers) should not exceed five single-spaced pages, or about 2500 words. The exam questions and answers must be entirely your own work.

The deadline for submitting your final exam, via Canvas, is THURSDAY, 7 MAY 2020, at 11:59 PM.