Welcome!

Monday, June 2, 2025

Welcome to Minnesota History! This letter is intended to introduce you to the course, and to hopefully answer any and all of your questions. All course information can be found at my "home page" at ARCC -- so bookmark this page now: Linda Janke's Home Page. Be sure to click on the links for our class, which are on the right side of my website.

The first question some of you may have is: what, exactly, is an on-line course? My brief answer to that question is that an on-line course is an opportunity for you to learn about Minnesota History outside of the traditional classroom. In a sense, you will teach yourself Minnesota History through reading the textbook and other assignments, participating in class discussions, and writing papers about virtual or in-real-life field trips.

The key word in that last sentence is: reading. Be prepared to do A LOT of reading during this course. Hundreds of pages per week. There are two reasons for this:

1. History courses typically involve numerous reading assignments. A historian's job is to read the sources, read background information, and then analyze the material. You will be doing the work of a historian this summer.

2. Since we will not meet in a traditional setting for lectures, you will compensate for that by completing reading assignments. If this were a traditional "seated" course, we would spend around eight hours per week in the classroom, and most college study skills centers advise students to plan on spending two to three hours per credit per week doing "homework," which for our class translates to 6 to 9 hours per week. Remember this course is only ten weeks long, so it will "cram" a semester's worth of reading into that time. But you will earn three college credits at the end of it! Adding that up means you should budget at least 14 hours per week for this course, which does not include the time it will take to write the two papers. Think of this course as a part-time job. Be sure your schedule will allow you sufficient time to focus on this class.

After you have familiarized yourself with the course assignments and requirements, you should consider whether 1) an on-line course is for you and 2) whether you can succeed in this history course given the workload, assignments, and deadlines. Just because you might have taken other on-line courses before does not mean that this course will be similar. Each on-line course is as different as each regular "seated" class is from another class

Also, I recognize that most, if not all, of my on-line students are juggling classes, jobs, and family responsibilities. I understand that we all have busy lives. However, while on-line courses are more flexible than traditional "seated" classes, they are not infinitely flexible. I encourage you to set aside enough time to complete the reading and tasks on D2L -- I am sure this will help you be successful in this class! If something comes up that prevents you from meeting those deadlines, be in touch with me as soon as you can. Given how unpredictable life can be, I want to work with you to help you succeed, and I know that events might arise that will make it challenging to focus on your schoolwork. You will have two "free tickets" to use to make up a missed quiz deadline -- more about that later.

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Here's a link to some wonderful strategies for how to be a successful on-line student. I think following these simple tips would greatly enhance your chance for success in this course. I will also ask you and your classmates if you have tips to share.

Let's move on to an introduction to this Minnesota History course, in nine steps:

	Are you familiar with D2L?	If yes, great! If not, visit Minnesota State's D2L Brightspace Help Desk and ARCC's IT Page. Note that ARCC offers free loaner laptops to students -- so keep that in mind if you need a computer or if your computer develops problems during the semester. Do not attempt an on-line class using only your phone!
	Read the course syllabus	Make a plan to acquire all the needed materials for the course, including the books, which are available in the bookstore or can be purchased from on-line retailers for a very low cost. Or even found on the shelf of your local library for free! Most of the books will also be available electronically for free; more information will be provided on D2L -- you'll want to note that some copies will be shared with your classmates. Please note my policy regarding class "attendance and inactivity." You can also see my FAQ page for more information.
	Review the course schedule.	Be sure to note that course deadlines are at NOON on Tuesdays for all assigned work, except for Paper #2 which due on a Friday, the last day of class. An important tip: Print out the readings! Printing the readings will help with note-taking and comprehension. Plus you can refer to them during the Quiz. There’s free printing on campus! Click here for some note-taking tips
	Complete the introductory activities	There are a variety of introductory activities (short syllabus quiz, short survey, intro activity on D2L) that will need to be completed during week 1. See the announcement and checklist on D2L for more information.
	Learn about the two papers -- will you try to go on a field trip in person? Do you need to schedule that ASAP?	Click here to learn about the two assigned papers. There are three possible choices. You'll be able to choose if you'd like to help with the Mapping Prejudice project, visit a historic location IRL (in real life) and/or work on a paper about a "virtual field trip." You can mix and match! Make sure to put the dates of these two papers into your calendar so you can clear out the time to work on them. You can complete all three for extra credit!
	Begin the work for this week.	Consult the course schedule for the assigned readings. Feel free to join the discussion as soon as you’ve gotten some reading completed. Also stop by the Class Cafe if you'd like to earn some extra credit points.
	Take note of all course deadlines.	Click here. A tip: enter them into a calendar or planner. Remember to write NOON. Missing or misunderstanding deadlines is not an excuse to miss work.
	Keep in touch!	You can reach me through your individual discussion forum "Contact Linda" on D2L, which is the best way to reach me. I am happy to arrange a phone conversation or a zoom meeting. I do not expect you to "go it alone" this summer! I am here to help you succeed.

As we go along this semester, please keep me informed about any technical or computer problems that are likely to impact the entire class. (i.e. if a link is broken, if D2L is down for a long period of time, etc.) I have checked all of the links at the beginning of the semester but things could change throughout the course, and since I have already printed the readings I might not be aware of any broken links. Thank you!

Again, welcome to the class, and I look forward to meeting you in our discussion area,

Linda Janke