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What’s up with having two kinds of quizzes?

If we met together in a regular “seated” class, I would give you some background about the time period using a lecture. Instead of attending a lecture, you will learn the background knowledge from a history textbook called A People and a Nation (ebook found in D2L > Materials > Content.) After you’ve read the assigned chapter (note: we’re not reading all the chapters and we’re not necessarily reading them in order!) you should go into D2L Quizzes and take the “Textbook quiz.”

History classes also contain what are known as “primary documents,” which are documents from the time period we are studying. These documents allow us to “play historian” for the semester and debate and argue about what we think about the documents. I think these documents are “the fun part” of studying history. These assigned documents are listed in the green column and will form the basis for our weekly discussions and the “Discussion Quizzes.”

Why go to all the trouble to have two different quizzes?

My primary motivation is to help *you* be successful in the course. This way you have two different weekly deadlines so you can space out your work at your own pace. Dividing up the material between “Textbook” and “Everything Else” seemed to make the most sense. I felt like having one big “monster quiz” per week would be stressful and require students to keep track of too much information at once.

Textbook Quizzes	Discussion Quizzes
Open from Monday at NOON to the following Monday at NOON.	Open Tuesday at NOON to the following Tuesday at NOON.
Open book/open note	Open book/open note
10 questions	Number of questions will vary from week to week but is usually 8-14 questions.
Multiple-Choice	Short answer. Writing a short paragraph with examples from the readings makes for a strong answer.
Questions will vary from student to student. They will be randomized.	All students will take the same quiz. You must work individually.
No time limit. Read the chapter first so you have a sense of the topics covered. You should be able to answer some questions without double-checking; for others you might have to refer back to the chapter. You can have multiple D2L windows open at the same time if you want to check what the textbook says.	There will be a time limit, so plan ahead. Make sure you’ve completed the reading and have taken notes on paper and/or used the highlighting feature provided by Vitalshelf ebooks.
Lowest score will be dropped.	Lowest score will be dropped.
Can use one of your “free tickets” to have a missed quiz reopened.	Can use one of your “free tickets” to have a missed quiz reopened.
Look to the Yellow Column on the Class Schedule webpage. The only material tested will be the People and a Nation textbook.	Look at the Green Column on the Class Schedule webpage. There are a variety of materials that will be tested.